January 26, 2015, Issue 432 Country’s 18-34s: Bailing Already? In 2014, Country radio’s record summer was immediately followed by a record decline, particularly among younger demos. Big deal or not? Nielsen VP/Programming Business Partner Jon Miller shared his thoughts with Country Aircheck. “One of the benefits of PPM is that you can see really quickly how tastes and habits are changing,” Miller says. “What jumps out is that the format hit this really great peak in the summer and then six months later the declines were notice- able. I don’t know if six months is enough to say that the format is in trouble or the sky’s falling, because it’s not. But it’s an interesting trend that after several years of sustained growth you can’t ignore.” Here are the numbers. Overall, yearly Coun- try radio share grew consecutively from 2011 to 2014, finishing the latter with an 8.1 (P6+), Jon Miller 9.7 (P18-34) and 7.9 (P25-54). All-time peaks Cookin’ With Brad: Arista’s Brad Paisley (c) at WKIS/Miami’s for each demo came in June of 2014 with an Chili Cookoff. Pictured are (back, l-r) Country Aircheck’s 8.6 (P6+), 10.6 (P18-34) and 8.4 (P25-54). A record six consecutive Lon Helton, Curb’s Annie Sandor, the station’s Tim Conlon, months of overall decline followed, resulting in the greatest summer Ken Boesen, Kenny Walker and Rob Morris; (middle l-r) the to year-end drop in the PPM era. The decline is especially noticeable station’s Andrew Keppler and Darlene Evans, Paisley, Cathy in the younger end of the audience (see tables page 8). White and the station’s Joe Bell and Carole Bowen; (front, l-r) So which formats grew as Country declined? “I looked mainly the station’s Ted Cyrus, U-Turn Laverne and Justin Menendez. among 18-34 because it’s been pretty consistent the last couple of years and because this year the declines there were largest,” Miller says. “Men 18-34 dropped 18% from the middle of the year to De- Quick Draw Show Planning cember and that’s pretty sharp. The two formats that grew were Sports Radio stations host concerts all the time, and with a year or and Urban Contemporary. While none of us would say Country’s No. more of planning and a budget in place, those concerts usually 1 competitor is Urban, you can’t ignore that it had a great year. It was turn out pretty great. So imagine putting on huge. All the buzz has been about the new Classic Hip-Hop format a major concert in fewer than four months. and there are Country audience members that are into both. Sports That’s what iHeartMedia/Lexington OM Mi- also makes some sense. So some of it is seasonal and some of it is the chael Jordan faced when stepping into the marketplace changing. I’m not going to sit here and say that’s where PD chair for the retiring WAMZ/Louisville PD/ the whole Male Country audience has gone, but it’s interesting to note afternoon personality Coyote Calhoun. that those are the only two places that grew.” (Read more from Miller Calhoun revealed his end-of-the-year on the rise of Classic Hip-Hop and the record growth of Urban retirement last July (CAT 7/15). While Jordan wasn’t officially named to replace him until Contemporary here.) (continued on page 5) Michael Jordan ©2015 Country Aircheck™ — All rights reserved. Sign up free at www.countryaircheck.com. Send news to [email protected] January 26 , 2015 Page 3 three months later (BN 10/16), he started working on the Dec. 3 Coyote Acoustic Concert in August. Considering the caliber of PAGE THREE PIC talent, the size of the audience – 17,000 fans – and the quality of the show, Country Aircheck caught up with Jordan to find out how he pulled it all off. First, there was the matter of booking talent. By the time the show was announced in November (BN 11/13), Luke Bryan, Toby Keith, Little Big Town, Jake Owen, Chris Young, Montgomery Gen- try, Craig Morgan, John Michael Montgomery, Kristian Bush, Eric Paslay and Maddie & Tae were confirmed. “There were only a few managers and labels involved really early on,” Jordan says. “Once we started getting some of the key artists locked in, then we started to branch out more, bring more people into the loop.” Jordan says Keith and Bryan were the first to jump in, but it took a while. “It was a lot of hurry up and wait. But in the end it all pulled together.” He adds that as each artist confirmed, he’d update the timeline so they’d know exactly how long the show was going to be. “Frankly, we thought the show Best KASE Scenario: Then-KASE/Austin PD Brad might have gone a little bit too long but there were so many great Hansen shares the studio with Career artist Tammy artists onstage, we were ok with that,” he says. Graham in 1996. Send your own vintage pics to Choosing the venue was the next step, and Jordan says that [email protected]. was easy – the KFC Yum Center was the perfect place. “It’s the cream of the crop,” he says. “We believed the level and number of “We couldn’t have done it without our partners in Nashville,” artists we had required a building of that size.” says Jordan. “There were so many people who stepped up and For production, Jordan hired Lexington-based Joseph Lloyd, made phone calls and took a chance.” Jordan adds that the who also happens to be Jason Aldean’s production manager. honoree being who he was helped with that. “I don’t think I would Lloyd brought in a crew from Nashville, many of whom also have been able to pull it off if it wasn’t to honor a guy who’s been work for Aldean. “We wanted it to be professional, we wanted it at WAMZ and in the business for 35 years. I don’t think it would to be very smooth and we wanted to make sure that the artists have been that easy.” got everything they needed to put on a great performance,” says Jordan says the Coyote Acoustic Concert will now be an annu- Jordan. “It’s a challenge playing an acoustic show for 17,000 al – albeit smaller – event. “And now I’ve got more time to plan for people. With the LED screens and the production we put in place I it,” he says. think everybody was really happy.” Reach Jordan here. – Jess Wright While the artists donated their time in honor of Coyote and the show’s beneficiary, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, paying for a venue and high-quality production with little notice Chart Chat doesn’t come easy on most radio station budgets. “There were Congrats to Eric Church, Royce Risser, sponsorships involved, and that covered the costs of the building Jimmy Rector, Katie Dean and the entire and production and video,” Jordan says. “We also knew that with EMI Nashville promotion staff on scoring the lineup we had there was a good chance of us getting to the this week’s No. 1 with “Talladega.” The song break-even point.” is the second chart-topper from The Outsiders, Even with only three weeks of promotion, they did more than joining “Give Me Back My Hometown.” break even. The initial plan was to sell 10,000 seats but those Kudos are also extended to Jack Purcell were gone eight minutes after tickets went on sale. Within 44 min- and the Big Machine crew on landing 66 adds utes, another 7,000 were sold, the venue was full, and the concert for Tim McGraw’s “Diamond Rings And Old Eric Church raised more than $245,000 for St. Jude. Barstools,” topping this week’s board. ©2015 Country Aircheck™ — All rights reserved. Sign up free at www.countryaircheck.com. Send news to [email protected] January 26 , 2015 Page 5 OFF THE RECORD: LOGAN MIZE Arista’s Logan Mize puts an industry spin on the artist interview: Growing up in Clearwater, KS I listened to KFDI and KZSN in Wichita. I started playing piano around age seven and I was always too shy to sing. At 15 I got a guitar and started teaching myself chords. Then I went to my first Kenny Chesney concert. That’s when I knew this is Church, Higher: EMI/Nashville’s Eric Church (c) celebrates what I wanted to do. “Talladega” hitting No. 1 with (l-r) the label’s Jimmy Rector, Logan Mize Graham Brothers’ Paul Yates, KMLE/Phoenix’s Andrea My previous radio tour was on Burtscher, Tim Richards and Chris Matthews, Dena Jackson my own about two or three years ago for and KIIM/Tucson’s Buzz Jackson, Tammy Geofferies and my independent record. I did it in my ‘89 Chevy station wagon KNIX/Phoenix’s Steve Geofferies and EMI’s Ron Bradley. named Glenn. It didn’t have air conditioning then and the trip went through Alabama and Arkansas in late July. I’d pull up to these radio stations and walk in covered in sweat, so I learned Artist News to keep a stack of shirts in the back seat. People thought I was Toby Keith has been added as the fourth headliner for the crazy. You see [artists] sitting in Nashville waiting for their turn 24th Annual Country Jam June 18-21 in Mack, CO.