Radio Is Essential To Building a Fan Base

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University of Ottawa adjunct professor Jada Watson’s study was picked up widely by the national press. Reporting on the study CBS News reported female artists are “gasping for airtime” on country radio. In the CBS report Lindsay Ell blamed the problem on the record labels. CBS also reported that getting airplay on radio is essential to building a fan base.

The CBS News story cites research from Coleman Insights and CMT that states 7 out of every 10 country music fans want to hear more female artists but that radio stations only reward them with female artists 10% of the time.

Watson wrote an opinion piece on her study that was published by NBC News. She wrote that the disappearance of women from main channels of dissemination — radio, streaming, tours, festivals — and near invisibility on the charts leads many to falsely assume that only a handful of women are participating in the genre or that women are not producing high-quality music. “This is insulting and false. And it’s time for a change. It’s time for women to have access to the same opportunities as male artists. It’s time to increase the 10 percent throughout the day and across all facets of the industry so that women can be heard and seen by country music fans.”

Back in January Julie Stevens, PD at Empire Broadcasting’s KRTY-FM in San Jose spoke to Radio Ink abou this issue. “Frankly, I’m tired of it. The truth is, we don’t get as many female songs as male songs and I’ll bet if you looked at the percentage of female acts that get played verses male acts that get played, you would see that the percentages are pretty close. No one wants to talk about that.”

At the Country Radio Seminar this week, MCA Nashville SVP of Promotion Katie Dean will moderate a panel on the subject. The panel will include Beasley Boston PD David Corey and CMG’s Johnny Chiang.

Radio Ink will be handing out its annual Best County PD awards (sponsored by SONY Music Nashville) during CRS at Bob Kingsley’s Acoustic Alley, Thursday night, February 20th.

3 COMMENTS

  1. “The truth is, we don’t get as many female songs as male songs and I’ll bet if you looked at the percentage of female acts that get played verses male acts that get played, you would see that the percentages are pretty close.”

    Why in the world doesn’t someone look at that???? Why set up the radio industry to get flogged?

    • They get more male songs because the labels have signed more male artists. Take a look at the rosters. Each label has two or three females, while they have ten men. And it’s not just a country problem. Take a look at other genres. It’s a bigger problem in rock.

      Interesting that this study says radio is essential to building a fan base. That’s not what the RIAA says. They put out studies that say the opposite.

  2. The CBS News story cites research from Coleman Insights and CMT that states 7 out of every 10 country music fans want to hear more female artists but that radio stations only reward them with female artists 10% of the time.

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