September 14, 2020, Issue 722 Country Rides Out The Cume Storm While a cursory glance at Country Aircheck’s August 2020 PPM Scoreboard (here, pg. 14) shows a drop in overall cume – down 1.37% (359,800) compared to the previous month and 21.66% year-over-year – a review of Country and all-format cume data shows a slight rebound occurring from the earlier pandemic- laden months of 2020. Rewind and revisit an in-depth analysis of the early coronavirus cume crater in the May 26 Country Aircheck Weekly, then read on for a look at how the format has performed in recent months. Wave On Wave: Taking a wide-angle look at cume numbers for all formats in PPM rated markets, including HD and streaming stations where monitored, radio listening as a whole was off 31.34% from Nov. ’19-Aug. ’20 – 477,823,000 to 328,063,200. Country’s fall-off was notably less severe, dropping 20.03% Sweet Streams (Are Made of This): Columbia’s Tenille Townes and from Nov. ’19-Aug. ’20 – 33,758,800 to 26,996,900. Breaking BMLGR’s Riley Green were surprised with their ACM New Male down the all-format cume numbers into AM/FM terrestrial, Artist and New Female Artist trophies Saturday (9/12) during The HD and streaming silos, terrestrial-only decreases match the Opry Livestream. Watch here. Pictured (l-r) are the Opry’s Dan aggregated totals, showing a 31.33% decrease from Nov. Rogers, Warner/WMN’s Ashley McBryde, Townes, Green, Opry ’19-Aug. ’20 – 470,600,700 to 323,167,200. Taking a look at member Mark Wills and the ACM’s Damon Whiteside. HD-only cume numbers, the dip was less severe than terrestrial, showing a 26.65% decline from Nov. ’19-Aug. ’20 – 5,063,400 to Updating The Interview: Tim Roberts 3,713,800 – while the segment showing the largest cume erosion When he spoke with Country Aircheck for The Interview (in is streaming, which saw a 42.96% decrease from Nov. ’19-Aug. the September print issue here), Entercom Format Captain & VP/ ’20 down to 1,231,400 from 2,158,900. The long-term trend for Country Tim Roberts was in early planning for a format-wide streaming cume is far more telling than earlier views, where results restructuring (Breaking News 9/10) and didn’t from March to April showed a 2.8% increase, up from 1,683,100 broach the subject. With his programming to 1,729,800. team announced earlier today (9/14), Roberts Moving into 2020, radio listening as a whole was off 25.14% offers this supplement to The Interview. January-August (438,224,200 to 328,063,200). During the CA: How did this reimagining of same period, Country formats only experienced a 12.43% Entercom Country unfold, and was it in dip, 30,828,200-26,996,900 compared to all other formats, response to audience changes brought which cumulatively dropped 26.10% from 407,396,000 to on by the pandemic? 301,066,300. A high-level look at all-format totals in terrestrial, TR: No, it’s not at all related to the pandemic. HD and streaming cume numbers show 25.10%, 25.62% and We thought it was time for a really different Tim Roberts 31.29% declines, respectively, from January to August. Of note way of looking at the business and how it’s is an increase in cume for terrestrial (15.24%) and HD (8.35%) changing. People are consuming media differently and we wanted to (continued on page 5) adapt to what listeners want. This was all targeted to the listener. ©2020 Country Aircheck™ — All rights reserved. Sign up free at www.countryaircheck.com. Send news to [email protected] September 14, 2020 Page 3 The process was extremely collaborative, as well as complex, if you have the adaptability, there is opportunity. and involved a lot of people from the tech side to programming. Despite tough decisions and a lot of change, it sounds We pulled in different brand managers and other people along the like you’re still bullish on Country radio and country music. way including, of course, the senior leadership team – President/ I’m extremely positive about this business. Our artists are Programming Pat Paxton and EVP/Programming Jeff Sottolano. creating great music fans are excited to hear. And that means What was the listener-focused vision you all came up with? there’s tons of opportunity. It’s really about upgrading talent on every level for a better Read more from Roberts in The Interview here. –Chuck Aly listener experience. Katie Neal in middays will have more artist interaction, offer more fun things to listen to and lots of snackable content for listeners, clients and country fans. It’s just a better way Chart Chat to deliver content and lets us do things we’ve never done before. Congratulations to Luke Combs, Shane For instance, today we have Luke Bryan on every one of our radio Allen, Lauren Thomas and the Columbia stations. That wasn’t possible before. promotion team on landing at No. 1 with Breaking it out, it looks like each station will have local “Lovin’ On You.” The song is the fourth single mornings and afternoons, with national middays and from Combs’ second studio album, What nights with Rob & Holly. Is two live-and-local and two You See Is What You Get. Songwriters are national airshifts the model? Thomas Archer, Ray Fulcher, James Each brand is evaluated differently. I don’t want to make a McNair and Combs. Luke Combs global statement on that. We know the drive time experience is And kudos to Matthew Hargis and very important and understand the value of being live and local in the BMLGR crew on notching 88 adds for Florida Georgia mornings. Afternoon shows will vary by market based on its own Line’s “Long Live,” landing atop this week’s board for a second needs. In a lot of cases that will be local, and in some there will consecutive week. be other great talents hosting from elsewhere. This isn’t meant to be one-size-fits-all, and we’ve kept the local brands in mind with local music, content and imaging across the platform. The way News & Notes we approached this with our team, it was really important to pay Sonia Leigh’s “Jack Is Back” won the Country category of the attention to the needs of the market. Country music in Houston is 2020 Unsigned Only Music Competition, while Buck Twenty different than New York. took home second place for “All I Can Do.” Eight country artists Your team is built around three regions, with a VP and received honorable mentions; full list here. a manager – can you lay out which stations are in each? John Berry and wife Robin’s new podcast, Faith, Family & Not sure I want to get that granular. As for the team, these are Friends, will debut Friday (9/18) here. people with a good understanding of the format, how to execute ... and it’s really an expansion of resources in bringing these centers The Week’s Top Stories of excellence to our individual brands The best people are getting Full coverage at countryaircheck.com. expanded roles and, in some cases, being promoted to handle more • The 2020 Fantasy Label Draft kicked off and the September print responsibility because they’re very good at what they do. There’s a issue was previewed in last week’s (9/8) Country Aircheck Weekly. lot of opportunity for strong, talented people in this company. And, I • Country Aircheck checked in with radio affected by the West have to say, a positive opportunity for a lot of air talent, as well. Coast wildfires. (CAT 9/11) Still a difficult task when it comes to people departing, • Entercom restructured its Country format, resulting in though... layoffs. (CAT 9/10) I have to defer on questions about personnel, but I will say that • WKLB/Boston’s Dawn Santolucito was elevated to APD/ as this business changes, radio means different things. There is Marketing Dir., and Jim Clerkin added MD duties. (CAT 9/9) more opportunity than before, just a different kind. The digital • Sun Broadcast Group Pres./Founder Jason Bailey is division at Radio.com didn’t exist at one time. Podcasting is another departing; Warren Friedland is taking on Pres. role. (CAT 9/8) platform where strong personalities can be recognized and • Chronicle: Bill Pursell, Dave Holmes. monetized. Every time we turn around there’s something new and, ©2020 Country Aircheck™ — All rights reserved. Sign up free at www.countryaircheck.com. Send news to [email protected] 120 September 14, 2020 Page 5 120 105 Urban Formats AC Formats 105 Urban Formats Select Aggregate Format News/TAC Formatsalk/Sports Formats 100 92 93 Cume88 Comparisons (in millions) RNews/Tock Formatsalk/Sports Formats 100 92 93 87 News/Talk/Sports Formats 87 88 TRopock 40 Formats News/Talk/Sports Formats 75 Top 40 80 Urban Formats 75 Rock Formats 80 66 ClassicUrban FormatsFormats 62 63 Rock Formats 66 59 59 60 58 CountryClassic Formats Formats 63 56 56 62 56 5560 58 52 59 59 52 RhythmCountry Formats 60 50 49 Rhythm Formats 47 45 56 55 4456 56 5247 46 43 43 43 46 5247 Rhythm Formats 60 45 43 50 45 49 46 Rhythm Formats 47 45 43 42 44 38 41 43 43 47 43 43 40 43 46 47 46 45 43 38 45 39 46 43 42 36 41 43 43 37 35 38 40 40 33 34 33 34 38 39 29 31 30 Classic Formats 32 31 36 37 35 29 25 26 29 29 28 40 33 34 33 34 29 31 30 Classic Formats 32 31 25 26 27 27 29 31 31 25 26 2729 29 28 27 28 23 2426 26 27 2627 26 25 31 31 25 27 Top 40 24 23 24 21 23 27 20 2128 23 24 26 26 26 25 19 19 19 Top 40 24 23 24 21 23 20 21 16 14 19 19 19 16 14 AC Formats 0 AC Formats 0 19-Nov 19-Dec 19-Hol 20-Jan 20-Feb 20-Mar 20-Apr 20-May 20-Jun 20-Jul 20-Aug 19-Nov 19-Dec 19-Hol 20-Jan 20-Feb 20-Mar 20-Apr 20-May 20-Jun 20-Jul 20-Aug Country Formats Country Rides Out The Cume Storm has maintained the greatest consistency in audience levels and has Country Formats (continued from page 1) shown the highest amount of audience retention.