CRB’s RJ Curtis Shares Insights Into Country Radio’s Strengths And Current Challenges

Curtis

COUNTRY RADIO BROADCASTERS Executive Dir. RJ CURTIS shared his insights into the current strengths and challenges of the Country radio format during a FEBRUARY 17th webinar. The session, titled “What We Can Learn From AMERICA’s #1 Music Format,” was co-hosted by BENZTOWN CEO ANDREAS SANNEMANN and P1 MEDIA GROUP Partner KEN BENSON.

The panelists discussed the format’s sharp decline in yearly average PPM shares since 2014, particularly last year, quoting NIELSEN VP/Audience Insights JON MILLER having called 2021 “the worst year for Country we’ve ever seen in PPM.” Explaining the “perfect storm of challenges” Country radio faces now, CURTIS said, “There’s a lot going on,” citing a sharp increase in streaming levels since the onset of the pandemic, and more people working from home, changing both their commuting habits and listening patterns. He said the latter has gone from being “an alternative” to something that is now “behavioral” with people “locked in on a new way of … consuming their music.”

CURTIS also said there’s some consensus among Country radio programmers that “we might be in a low music cycle right now,” even with consistent hitmakers. He cited the lack of both “a seismic, unexpected, game changing artist” to have altered the format in recent years (think past game changers GARTH BROOKS, SHANIA TWAIN, DIXIE CHICKS and FLORIDA GEORGIA LINE) as well as the lack of “a significant musical movement that shakes up the entire genre and catapults it into the mainstream,” as past movements like URBAN COWBOY, neo-traditional, the Class of ’89 and Bro Country have done. Both things have historically drawn new, younger cumes to the format, and driven mainstream interest in Country.

Additionally, CURTIS said, COVID-19 “brought the live music industry overall to a complete halt” and “robbed Country radio of its greatest tool for connecting fans and artists.”

He also shared that radio’s current business model of smaller staffs at the local level, centralized programming and more voice tracking has “neutralized Country radio’s best quality, which is mobilizing itself into the local community, being present, being visible and making itself able to execute charitable efforts in their towns.” All of these factors, he added, have “challenged Country radio’s ability to be the best version of itself right now.”

Radio, he said, is not the discovery vehicle for music that it once was, but sometimes still thinks that it is. On the other hand, he said radio — and particularly Country radio — “is the greatest finisher for a hit song,” noting that power rotation across the board “creates critical mass” for a single that impacts touring, merchandise sales, TV bookings, and creates other brand partnership opportunities for the artist that allows their overall business to grow.

CURTIS also spoke about the close relationships between Country artists and programmers, recalling that he once got a call on CHRISTMAS morning from DAN + SHAY’s DAN SMYERS. “We are so blessed to have those artists who will do that on their own,” he said. At the same time, he added, it “can be a double edged sword,” because sometimes radio programmers can be so focused on maintaining those relationships that it can “get in the way of doing what actually should be done” in terms of making difficult choices on records that may not be working.

Responding to a question about Country music’s lack of diversity, CURTIS said, “I believe we can do a lot better on both the female airplay, and artists of color and life choices. We can do better at being more open to that. I do think we’re doing a lot better with establishing and developing female talent. We still have a lot more work to do … Labels are doing a much better job at finding, signing and developing some terrific young female talent, and you’re seeing some more success at radio and DSPs.

“It’s a long tail, though,” he continued. “A lot of people outside of the music business who saw that lack of female presence on radio and called us on it want to snap their fingers” and see change. “But these things take a long time. They’re probably taking too much time, let’s be clear about that.” But, he added, “I think radio is trying and working harder at that.”

In terms of artists of color and the LGBTQ community, CURTIS said, “As a rule programmers, at the end of the day, just want to play hit songs … They’re agnostic about that. Radio programmers are desperate for hit songs … But it’s also true that Country radio, which does not sign or record artists, I don’t feel like they’ve been given many choices to consider for airplay in this area. I’m not saying there haven’t been talented artists of color, but they haven’t been sent to or introduced to radio for consideration. I think of the music is there, radio is like, ‘Bring it on.’

“I hope we see more openness to diversity,” he added. “We definitely need it, and it’s about time.”

In one final observation about the format, CURTIS said of the Country music industry, “We are the greatest problem solvers and collaborators of anyone in radio … I also think that Country, for many years now, has been one of the most self-aware formats … I don’t that there’s any other format that spends so much time angsting over itself. Its really quite amazing. But we have a lot of challenges.”

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