seeking an unbiased opinion about country music radio

[Michael Wilkins]

Donna,

Last month's Friday night (July 12th) sold-out Jason Aldean concert set a new single-concert attendance record for the concerts at Fenway. WKLB has again (two years in a row iirc) taken the CMA Major Market Radio Station of the Year award. Part of it is marketing (seems like there's some kind of country music awards show on the major networks every third month or so, as an example), part of it is the cross-format appeal (after all, this is not your father's country music), and part of it is (perhaps) a growing sense of "patriotism" among certain demographics.

I have a friend who is Sony's New England country A&R guy... I can put you in touch with him, if you'd like, he probably has a better inkling of what's been going on.

Mike


> Date: Wed, 7 Aug 2013 14:45:57 -0400
> From: dlh@donnahalper.com
> To: boston-radio-interest@lists.BostonRadio.org
> Subject: seeking an unbiased opinion about country music radio
> 
> I am cross-posting this to several lists, to get a number of opinions. 
> As many of you know, a country radio station just reached #1 in the 
> Boston ratings.  Historically, the country format did absolutely nothing 
> here, and many stations that tried the format died. I consulted the 
> first successful country station, circa 1993-1994 (WCLB-- today WKLB) 
> but it too struggled to gain anything more than a niche audience.  So, 
> what has changed in the past decade or so-- is it how country is rated 
> by PPM, have audiences for country expanded, or something else? What is 
> going on that would take country to #1 in Boston?  (Note:  I am in no 
> way questioning the power of country music. It's not my music of choice, 
> but as a consultant, I grew to appreciate some of the artists and I 
> really was impressed by the loyalty of the fans.)