June 7, 2010 Issue 195 Who’s Got The Biggest Cume Of All? Country programmers and sales staffs have been absolutely giddy in recent years as they’ve watched cumes for most Country radio stations double once Arbitron’s PPM becomes currency in a market and replaces the diary. (We’ll fight over TSL’s plunge from diary to PPM another time.) Prior to PPM’s arrival, no Country outlet had ever cracked the one million listener barrier. Only a handful of stations exceeded 500,000 cumers. Now this format boasts four or five stations at one million plus on a regular basis, with another handful posting audience levels in excess of 900,000. The exuberance is, of course, tempered by the fact that all of the other format cumes have ballooned as well. Proving that size does indeed matter, the top 23 cuming stations in America are in either New York or Los Angeles. The You Belong With Me: WKLB/Boston’s Ginny Rogers (l) and daughter top five cuming stations are: Lauren bookend Taylor Swift in the vibe room backstage Saturday (6/5). 1. WLTW/New York, AC, 5,859,400 2. WKTU/New York, Rhythmic AC, 4,900,200 Swift Closes Fearless Tour Taylor Swift wrapped her international Fearless Tour Saturday 3. WHTZ/New York, Top 40, 4.740,800 night (6/5) at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, MA, and WKLB/Boston 4. WCBS/New York, Classic Hits, 4,134,400 MD Ginny Rogers was in the sellout crowd of nearly 57,000. She has 5. KIIS/Los Angeles, Top 40, 4,040,100 a unique perspective on the 15-month, 110-date tour. “I saw the first To provide some perspective on Country’s lot in the PPM show in Evansville, IN,” she says. “So I saw the very first show and the cume world, ARB’s April PPM shows that Country has only four very last. stations among the nation’s Top 100 cuming outlets. KPLX/ “The Evansville venue, of course, was really small, and Gillette is Dallas is the Country cume leader with 1,239,800 listeners and huge. Seeing it at the stadium, everything was super-sized. And it’s not ranks No. 70 among all radio stations in PPM markets. (continued on page 6) just the stage – she added a couple extra songs, too. In fact, she made ©2010 Country Aircheck™ — All rights reserved. Sign up free at www.countryaircheck.com. Send news to [email protected] June 7, 2010 Country Aircheck Weekly Page 2 a point of telling the crowd that she’d never played ‘Jump Then MY TUNES : MUSIC THA T SHAPED MY LIFE Fall’ on the tour, saving it for the right moment and that this was the perfect night.” WUBL/Atlanta APD/MD Lance Houston discusses his most important songs, artists When discussing sellout country shows in Foxboro, the mind or concerts: reflexively turns to Kenny Chesney. “Both have a way of connecting 1. Tim McGraw/Live Like You Were Dying: with a stadium audience like no other artists I’ve seen,” Rogers says. My partner Brad and I heard this for the first “Taylor really took the time to let the crowd cheer and scream when time on (then AM) KHCM when we were they wanted. Out in the crowd she took her time shaking as many hands visiting Honolulu. A pretty cool memory. 2. Alabama/My Home’s In Alabama: I can as possible. Little things like stopping to shake a little girl’s hand and still remember driving up to June Jam every taking a bracelet from her wrist to give to the kid were really sweet to Lance Houston year from Tuscaloosa and dealing with the see. I’ve never seen Gillette light up like that. It was very different from traffic, heat and crazy people. The highlight a Chesney show.” of it all was seeing those guys sing this song. 3. George Strait/The Fireman: I met a new friend during In fact, Rogers says she’s never quite seen an environment like freshman English in college. He was my first real friend that I Saturday’s. “For as many times been in that stadium, it was strange to hadn’t known also in high school, and this was his absolute have a very calm, well-behaved crowd,” she admits. “It was all ages, favorite song. He would often call when I was doing weekend though certainly dominated by teenagers and young girls. There wasn’t overnights to request it, and I would play it for him. Times sure as much drinking as you normally see and the vendors were walking were a lot simpler back then! around with cotton candy, peanuts and popcorn instead of beer. It just 4. Alison Krauss/When You Say Nothing At All: This is the first country song I listened to in its entirety. My parents hated struck me that this is a really cool family event; definitely different with country music, so I was never exposed to it. Someone played all the glow sticks waving around.” me this song and I remember thinking, “If that’s country music, I Backstage, Rogers says Taylor was typically thoughtful. “The vibe could get into that!” room had to be one of the biggest meet-and-greets of the tour. She stood 5. Shania Twain/Any Man Of Mine: This was the very first up on one of the chairs to thank radio and everyone who helped along country cassette single that I ever bought. I remember it just being on a continuous loop in my car for about a month. the way, but she was a little unsteady so she asked my nine-year-old • A highly regarded song or album you’ve never heard: I’ve niece to hold her hand and help her balance. That was a nice moment.” never listened to a full album that wasn’t country. Swift, who wore a No. 13 Patriots jersey as the show drew to a close, • An album you played or listened to incessantly: Shania wasn’t quite ready to say goodbye to her road family. “After the show, Twain’s Come On Over. I think they went with eight or nine singles usually they all fly out and go to next place,” Rogers says. “But they on that one, but they probably could have released every one. • One obscure or non-country song everyone should listen to were all so sad they decided to take the tour buses and drive all the way right now: Van Zant’s “That Scares Me.” Radio missed the boat on back to Nashville to have an extra day together.” that one. Big time. BamaJam Draws Crowd, If Not Radio one thing that surprised me was there weren’t WDXB/Birmingham, AL OM/PD a lot of radio stations there covering it,” he Tom Hanrahan was on the grounds says. “You had Kenny Chesney, Zac Brown of the third annual BamaJam Music & Band, Hank, Jr., Dierks Bentley, Jamey Arts Festival over the weekend, and Johnson and Miranda Lambert, among says the only thing missing was radio. others, but there were only a couple of Dothan, “It’s always a great lineup, but the AL stations and us. I would have thought more Tom Hanrahan ©2010 Country Aircheck™ — All rights reserved. Sign up free at www.countryaircheck.com. Send news to [email protected] June 7, 2010 Country Aircheck Weekly Page 3 people would be there trying to get interviews and interact with TUBE CHECK the artists. The labels were certainly very accommodating.” Tuesday 6/8 - Rascal Flatts, Ellen DeGeneres Show (syndicated). Hanrahan is hardly complaining, however, as he says the festival has benefited from it’s association with consultant and Wednesday 6/9 - Various Artists, CMT Music Awards Red Carpet 2010; live music veteran Tony Conway. “This was an almost flawless Various Artists, 2010 CMT Music Awards. event backstage,” Hanrahan says. “BamaJam is only in its third year, and they’ve made considerable improvement from last year Thursday 6/10 - Bo Bice, Emeril Lagasse Show (syndicated). as far as coordination. It’s one of the best run festivals I’ve seen Friday 6/11 - Rascal Flatts, Today (NBC). in a long time. I hope the show will continue to grow, but I’m not sure how much bigger they can really get with the lineup.” Saturday 6/12 - Tim McGraw, Conversations From The Road (re-air) (GAC). Being one of the few stations on hand did have its benefits. “I found out that Zac Brown is expecting his fourth daughter, Sunday 6/13 - Trace Adkins, Soundstage (re-air) (GAC). which will give him four kids under four years of age,” he says. As for performances that jumped out at him, Hanrahan singles out two: “Chris Young did a stellar version of ‘Rainy Night In Georgia.’ And Danny Gokey covered both a Travis Tritt Radio News song and ‘Life Is A Highway.’ He’s definitely an entertainer.” • RadioStar’s four-station Champaign-Urbana, IL cluster, And overall? “From an entertainment standpoint it lived up to including Country WLFH, has been sold for a reported $1 everything they promoted it to be.” million to S.J. Broadcasting, led by local businessman Clint Atkins, a real estate developer and chairman of hobby retailer/ supplier Hobbico. WLFH, which has been Country since Jimmy Wayne Update: Missing Out Spring ‘08, is a Class A at 1.9 kw; it scored a 1.6 in the Fall ‘09 As thousands of country fans take over Nashville for the Arbitron.