Issue 375 Programmers on Music Tools Ask Five Programmers About the Best Tools for Making Music Decisions and You Might Get Five Different Answers
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December 9, 2013, Issue 375 Programmers On Music Tools Ask five programmers about the best tools for making music decisions and you might get five different answers. But that may be a good thing if the belief is that diversity in metrics and processes makes for a richer musical ecosystem. Country Aircheck surveyed a handful of OMs, PDs, APDs and MDs in markets of different sizes to better understand what’s behind their calls on adds and category changes: KEGA/Salt Lake City PD Jon Watkins (Market 29): Sometimes there is just too much information! We have Mscore, callout, charts, online research, online sales, concerts being sold out − every song seems to be a hit with the right data. But first and foremost, you better like the song. Then the With A Broken Ying: WNOE/New Orleans’ Don Gosselin (center small group in your music meetings better left) and friends split up a hip-hop duo at last night’s (12/8) like the song. After [the add], we watch Saints-Panthers game in New Orleans. Pictured (l-r) are the Mscores to make sure that after a few weeks Ying Yang Twins’ D-Roc, Columbia’s Tyler Farr and rep Brooke we haven’t made a bad decision. It’s also Meris, former San Francisco Giants first baseman and Big Easy native Will Clark, and YYT’s Kaine. Jon Watkins important to be aware of where your songs are on the competitor’s station so you don’t become too unfamiliar. I like monitoring a few similar stations to Radio Pro Gets Creative see what moves they’ve made, too. We’ll be aggressive and move The typical path for a Country radio a song up when we have a combination of passion from the staff vet transitioning to Nashville starts in radio and positive test scores. promotion ... and stays there. But Major WXCY/Wilmington OM/PD Brad Austin (78): I pick Bob Music’s newly named Dir./A&R Tina the brain of my consultant Keith Hill and weigh local research, Crawford has taken a different route since national chart movement and pop culture exposure. (Is the artist leaving her native Michigan. doing the anthem somewhere, or appearing “I heard a band on the radio and I just Tina Crawford on American Idol, Dancing With The Stars, loved them,” she says of her start, explaining etc?) I also look at sales figures in Philly and that she eventually started calling radio stations on the band’s Baltimore, which we contribute to, and we behalf. “They were like, ‘You know there are people who do this, do local online research; no callout. We get right?’ I had no idea. Getting into the music business seemed like a great sample for our market, though – something other people do.” typically 250-350 Persons 12+. Moving to Nashville in hopes of being one of those other I also watch markets I know intimately people, Crawford met WBCT/Grand Rapids ‘s Doug Montgomery like Milwaukee, Madison, Harrisburg and and eventually went back to Michigan to work there. “I helped York, PA, Grand Rapids and Baltimore. I know Brad Austin Doug and MD Dave Taft with contests, tickets and shows, but I what moves the needle there. loved sitting-in on music meetings,” she says. “We’d listen, look at (continued on page 5) ©2013 Country Aircheck™ — All rights reserved. Sign up free at www.countryaircheck.com. Send news to [email protected] December 9, 2013 Page 3 the charts, compare notes and usually be sent home with singles PAGE THREE PIC to listen to. A lot of times I’d be the deciding vote on what we moved up because I was in the demo.” Connections facilitated by Montgomery, CMA radio remotes and the station’s Midwest Broken Bow rep Jon Loba led to her first label gig. “I got a job at Broken Bow as Coord./Promotion and, during those five years, also worked part of the Midwest.” Transitioning to other areas soon followed. “At WBCT, I took pictures of all the people the morning show talked to and uploaded them to the website, which was a pretty big deal back then,” she says with a nod to the creative work she ended up doing for BBR. With the March 2012 addition of Red Bow, Crawford was named Dir./Creative Services for the three-label group. But a different kind of creative involvement was her goal. “Broken Bow was so small and everyone wore so many hats, I just sort of added the A&R and artist development into rotation,” Cinci-land Delight: Alabama frontman Randy Owen and she says. “That felt right because my favorite thing in radio was the RCA crew visit WUBE/Cincinnati. Pictured (l-r) are the music meetings, talking about the songs and meeting the WUBE’s Grover Collins, RCA’s Keith Gale and Mike Wilson, artists. Doug and Dave had helped me learn to trust my gut and WUBE PD Tim Closson, Owen, RCA’s Butch Waugh and focus on what made a particular song speak to me, and when I Mike Sirls. Have your own delightful photos of industry got to sit in on meetings with Larry Shell, our A&R guy, that just history? Send them to [email protected]. confirmed it for me. “My office at BBR was right next to [Magic Mustang Sr. Dir./ Average Joes/BackRoad’s Lenny Cooper has signed with Creative] Juli Griffith, so I knew all the songwriters and they knew Bobby Roberts Company for booking representation. me. When she left for another venture, it made sense for me to Tim Montana and the Shrednecks have signed with add the publishing hat, too. I handled that for two years at the Tenacity Management. same time I was doing A&R and artist development.” Warner/Chappell Music has signed a worldwide co- Being hands-on with the music was always her greatest publishing agreement with singer/songwriter Brandon Lay. attraction, and now she’s fulfilled that goal. “With Major Bob, I’m Clay Walker’s fourth annual Band Against MS Chords of strictly focused on songwriters and songs,” she says. “I set up co- Hope benefit concert raised more than $12,000 for the MS Center at writes, find new opportunities for our songwriters, get them in with Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville to aid in MS research artists, create the brand and pitching songs. I liked promotion and and awareness. Craig Campbell and Greg Bates also performed. I really loved the experience of doing it, but I knew ultimately it Through Christmas, LMG’s Tracy Lawrence will give fans wasn’t what I wanted to do. I wanted to be more involved with the free downloads of two albums, All Wrapped Up In Christmas and beginning of the process.” The Rock. More here. Radio, however, is never far. “The way I started, it laid the foundation for what I do today,” Crawford says. “I’ve tried to put everything through that radio filter from songs and how real Chart Chat listeners respond to them, to artists themselves and how they are Congrats to Parmalee, perceived by radio execs and listeners.” –Jess Wright Carson James, Chris Loss, Heather Propper and the entire Stoney Creek News & Notes promotion staff on scoring this Alpha’s KUPL/Portland helped raise more than $6,000 week’s No. 1 with the band’s for the family of fallen Oregon City reserve police officerRobert “Carolina.” The song is their Libke with a Dec. 4 benefit concert. first chart-topper. Parmalee ©2013 Country Aircheck™ — All rights reserved. Sign up free at www.countryaircheck.com. Send news to [email protected] December 9, 2013 Page 5 The Week’s Top Stories OFF THE RECORD: KIRA ISABELLA Full coverage at countryaircheck.com. • Garth Brooks will launch a world tour in 2014. (12/9) Hit Shop’s Kira Isabella puts an • Taylor Swift, Kacey Musgraves lead the 2014 Grammy industry spin on the artist interview: nominations. (12/9) I grew up listening to CKBY/Ottawa, • Former Clear Channel executive and programmer Bruce my hometown station. Logan named VP Programming/OM for CBS Radio/Houston’s The first time I heard myself on the six-station cluster, which includes Country KILT. (12/4) • Clear Channel’s WNOE/New Orleans and WYNK/Baton radio I was stuck in traffic with a couple Rouge added Premiere’s The Bobby Bones Show in mornings. of friends. We had the window cracked Kira Isabella and heard a familiar song coming from another car so we immediately changed Programmers On Music Tools the station to Country 101.1 and they were playing “Love Me (continued from page 1) Like That.” We all screamed, sang along and I had a couple of happy tears. Without knowing the market, it’s hard to mine usable data from someone else’s testing. If you don’t have the barometer I’ll never forget the time I won Female Artist Of The Year to interpret the data, how can you figure out the “why” behind at the Canadian Country Music Association Awards. It was movement in test scores? But at the end of the day it comes down incredible, especially because my mom got to be there. to my gut feeling. I want to invest in artists, not just songs. I have My most interesting road companions are my band. I to feel the music and I want to see that the seriously lucked out with some extremely talented guys who artist has long term potential. happen to share my silly sense of humor.