Brittany Hodak, writing in Forbes, says yes and she’s pointing the finger directly at radio programmers. In a long and well-researched essay, Hodak shows that there were only seven women (nine songs) on the Billboard Country Airplay Top 30 chart so far in 2016 and 60% of the charts are already accounted for. She outlines the reasons why she believes this is happening.
Hodak says radio gatekeepers are making it exceedingly difficult for female artists to succeed. “Especially when you compare country radio to pop, where female artists have a much more equitable share of airplay. It’s a problem not only because radio remains a top driver for album sales, but also because songwriters are incented to write and hold their ‘best’ songs for male artists, since statistically up to 90% of a chart will be male-driven. Both of these realities help perpetuate the existing inequity while making it less of a financial risk, statistically speaking, for labels to take bets with new male artists.”
According to Hodak the research some of radio’s older country programmers are citing could be the problem. “While some old-school radio programmers continue to unapologetically cite arguments like, ‘call-out research says women prefer male artists’ (although the same argument is never made for pop radio, with its comparable number of female listeners), some newer programmers and personalities have been vocal about trying to turn the tide.”
Hodak cites iHeart’s Bobby Bones as being one of those who wants to fix the gender problem. “Bones has been widely credited with helping kickstart Cam’s career and has been an early adopter of other female artists in the format, frequently inviting them to appear on his syndicated radio show.”
Read the entire Forbes article HERE
Picture courtesy wwwmirandalambert.com
Do you think radio has a gender problem? Please leave your thoughts below.
