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Bill Mayne
January 28, 2014
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Bill Mayne will be in the eye of the hurricane that is the Country Radio Seminar, which is set to take place Feb. 19th-21st in (where else?) Nashville. As Exec. Director of the Country Radio Broadcasters, Mayne sees the convention as a great way to bring together the interests of Country radio, Country labels and, of course, the people whose lives revolve around Country music. Here's his take on the state of Country radio and on what to expect at the CRS in a few weeks.
When you assumed the Executive Director position in late 2009, the national economic climate was uncertain and the format was two years away from its current resurgence. Was CRS ever in danger?
Yes, we actually were. It was at a point where we were not far from being in real trouble, so we had to make an assessment of what our mission was ... why were we here? We asked the biggest question of all: Was what were we doing relevant? What we found out is that as a legacy -- and this will be our 45th year -- some of the baggage that a legacy carries is that of complacency, the notion that "if it ain't broke, don't fix it." That's when you don't realize what's really broken. So we changed a bunch of things and focused on innovation and most important, being relevant to our constituents. We put together a great team of people for the staff, assembled a great board with great minds, and developed a new strategy
The one good thing about the timing of me coming on as Executive Director was that I came on at a time when the board realized it was in trouble, so there was much less reticence to change. The hardest time to convince people to change is when it appears that everything is wonderful. When you understand you're in trouble, you see the need to make some significant changes. So it was easier for me to pitch them on changing. The great news is that we developed a vision and plan where everyone was on board. There was a total consensus; we all believed in it -- that's what you have to do with a nonprofit organization like us, or any company, for that matter. You've got to get a buy-in from all the stakeholders to make it work.
Back then, you lowered registration rates to encourage attendance. With the format raiding high and the economy on better footing, has the CRS changed its stance on that at all?
The main thing we did at that time -- and we're holding true to it right now - is that we completely flip-flopped our business model. Back in the day, registrant fees supplied the bulk of CRS' financial resources; we filled in the cracks with sponsorships. What I saw happen in the world then -- and continue to see it today -- is that companies won't pay for their people to go to educational conferences like they used to. Fortunately, people loved CRS product so much that they were willing to dig into their pockets to come; people used their own vacation time to come to CRS.
I felt what we needed to do was get more people here at a lower price point, then make up the difference in sponsorship. We flipped the business model; we have the lowest registration rate today than we've had in decades, which is made up by corporate sponsorship. Every sports franchise, major artist tour and TV product is driven by corporate sponsorship; why should the CRS be any different? So we're going to continue to keep our rates affordable.
One thing CRS has done is change the board structure to include more diverse board members. What impact has that made and what are your thoughts of how the board will evolve?
We'll continue to evolve. CRS always intended to be a meeting of radio and music industries in a symbiotic relationship. For a number of years, it was a radio confab that had the music industry participating, mostly on the financial side. Now we realize, going forward, that it needs to be a 50/50 proposition. We should all be stakeholders and march in the same direction -- not only in board composition, but in the content of what we do in terms of education and sessions. We're going to focus on things to help improve the business of the music industry and the radio industry. It's time to quit throwing rocks at one another. Let's give companies the tools to increase revenue, market share and ratings ... and help individuals move up in their careers. That's why the board composition is made up of leaders in both communities.
CRS was out in front of the transition to PPM measurement and in recent years has devoted entire tracts of seminar to the digital aspect of radio. What are the next, emerging issues radio will face and what can CRS provide attendees that will help their business?
That's exactly what we talk about in our staff and agenda meetings. We start by going out and finding issues that are relevant to our registrants, and we build our content from there. This year, you'll see a very focused agenda on the future of the business. We're going to delve into utilizing branded content. We live in era where technology seems to be advancing on a daily basis, and using that in your branding is one lesson that has been learned by both artists and radio. We have a focused forum that's all about the focus on branded content. Whether people hear it over the air, on a podcast or a smartphone - maybe in a couple years they'll see content in a Google contact lens - the distribution method is not the issue; branded content in radio and music is.
Are there issues facing your members that are unique to Country radio? If so, what are they?
First off, as an industry service organization, our constituents in the Country world are very unique, be they artists or Country radio. There's a close affinity between Country radio and the music industry, between radio and its listeners and between fans and the artists. One of the things our research has clearly focused on this year is millennials ... the special relationship these listeners have with Country radio and the artists they play. The challenge for us is to stay in tune with them as we develop branded content for them. We have to figure out what they want and how to better serve them
If you had to pick one or two panels that most excite you about CRS 2014, what would they be?
That's a very tough question. The standard answer would be all of them, but personally, I'm excited about the Edison Research presentation on millennials and the 12-24 boom. I've seen this happen to Country radio before. We always get this wave of popularity, and then it rolls away from us. This time the wave is lasting longer. We want to ascertain why that is and learn how 12-24-year-olds use media, so we can learn how to hold on to them longer.
Another one we're doing is on "Muscle Shoals Magic and Music." There has been a great documentary done on the music produced out of there, especially in the '60s and '70s, so we're bringing together music icons such as Rick Hall, Jimmie Johnson and Spooner Oldham, as well as singer/songwriter Mac MacAnally, whose music is very reverent towards them.
Certain hot-button topics have come to the fore in the past year, such as the growing "pop-ificiation" of Country music and consolidation in the form of growing syndication and how that impacts local radio. How do you see such concerns addressed at the CRS?
That's a market-by market issue. I laugh whenever someone talks about the "pop-ification" of Country music. Once again, history repeats itself. We just talked about the youth format trend. We saw a similar wave in the '90s with the Garth boom; we also saw it with Waylon and Willie and Outlaw Country in the '70s. Pop-ification is something that comes up almost every 10 years.
The great thing about Country is that we've never completely fragmented ourselves. In the almost 40 years I've watched this format, there has been a running argument on whether Country radio should narrowcast with "Young Country" and "Classic Country," but we haven't really done that. It has remained a broad-based adult format; that's what makes it work so well. Being able to play both young and old bathes everyone in Country all together. If we completely fragment, we'll do to Country what they did to Jazz -- niche itself to irrelevance. I don't say that to disparage the music, because it's great music. We just have to learn the lesson of jazz when it fragmented into traditional, fusion, smooth jazz, etc.
One hot-button topic we've been hearing about recently concerns the lack of hit records by female artists beyond the big 3 of Taylor, Carrie and Miranda. Do you share that concern - and if so, could that be a by-product of a scarcity of female A&R execs at the labels and female programmers and MDs at radio?
Although I'd love to see more women in these roles, I personally don't believe that is why it seems to be so tough to break new female artists. I would speculate it has more to do with the skewing of programming to appeal to female listeners; that's why I believe we have so many successful male artists. This is not a new phenomenon, by the way.
There are also several great females singers on the horizon, if you watch the award shows ... Kacey Musgraves is doing pretty damn well this year.
With terrestrial radio just one of many ways to expose music now, how have you convinced label partners to keep participating - and not only with new artists, but the superstars, too?
I don't think I had to convince them of anything; they know -- and studies continue to show -- that radio is still very relevant to fans. As we'll see in this millennial study, they still love and use radio.
The change that I do see happening is radio realizing how it should best brand its content, about what happens, live and local, in markets. Radio always has been about immediacy and companionship, being able to touch people in local communities. Those lessons need to be revisited.
CRS has done a yeoman's job in bringing its up-and-coming talent to the forefront. Have you considered doing more for the "elder statesmen" of the genre, who by and large have been left behind as current Country radio evolves?
I don't think anyone's been left behind. I think people leave themselves behind, but yes we certainly honor and respect our heritage artists. We brought the Grand Ole Opry to the CRS last year - and they're returning again this year. To my knowledge, other than the Ryman, this is the only time the Grand Ole Opry pulls up stakes and goes to a different location. It has been a great fit. It was a home run last year; we're looking forward to having the same success this year.
It seems clear that CRS isn't going anywhere - but with Nashville's new Music City Center and the Omni Hotel recently opening, would CRS contemplate going anywhere in downtown Nashville, or elsewhere?
Absolutely, we have done diligence since they started building the new facilities. Our current situation accommodates us the best at this time, but if at any particular time in the future, we feel it would be better to go elsewhere, we'll take it elsewhere, wherever that may be. That's a board decision, but I can tell you this board is very well informed and is willing to do whatever's best to make CRS successful.
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