The Beaches are a significant part of Canada’s healthy Alternative and Active radio formats. I’ve been a fan for the last 5-6 years, so I listened to their new single, “Blame Brett,” right away, but didn’t come back to it. Last night, however, in preparation for Thursday’s trip to Canadian Music Week, I was listening to tape of Alternative CKHY (Surge 105) Halifax. This time, I played “Blame Brett” three times in a row, something I do maybe once a year. Then I watched the video. Hearing it on the air was definitely different.
For years, Jukebox Jury was one of the most popular panels at CMW. With record people (and sometimes audience members) pitching brand-new songs to a dais of radio program and music directors, JBJ always drew other programmers, but it was meant to give the artists and managers who comprise many of CMW’s attendees a sense of what radio was looking for.
I’m excited that Jukebox Jury is returning this year, part of the agenda for both CMW and its new radio industry partner, Radiodays North America. I last moderated JBJ in 2017. The last one was held in 2018. In those five years, what radio is looking for has changed radically. In the mid- ’10s, I remember reading an article about BBC Radio 1’s music meeting and the then-radical amount of time that went into discussing metrics, particularly bands’ social-media followings. The metrics are different now, but they’re front and center in most discussions about what is a hit now. In person, it will be interesting to see how much weight programmers give the song vs. the story that surrounds it.
What artists are looking for has almost certainly changed, too, although radio’s gatekeeper status was already loosening in 2017, and it didn’t stop artists from hopefully looking to JBJ for industry attention. (Around that time, there was already an indie film, Hearts Beat Loud, in which an excited artist responds to hearing his duo’s song on a Spotify playlist in the same way the Wonders did to hearing “That Thing You Do” on the radio.) What radio has to offer artists in 2023 is one of the answers that I hope will emerge at Jukebox Jury. I also put it to friends and Ross on Radio readers on social media.
Not surprisingly, one of the consensus answers was radio’s ability to offer critical mass. By and large, that’s the function that radio and labels seem to agree on — radio as the finisher. That’s not all I want for radio, but I agree that if radio no longer can no longer propel a record into what’s left of the uniculture on its own, there’s not much chance of streaming doing the same without radio.
Interestingly, some readers also viewed radio’s consolidated decision-making process — the thing most attacked by artists and labels 15 years ago — as a positive now: Being able to get on one radio station was now a gateway to national exposure.
The most surprising answer for me came from a number of readers who cited radio’s power of on-air music advocacy and, in particular, artist interviews. “Local personalities are trusted by their listeners more so than national personalities,” says WBLI Long Island, N.Y., morning host Syke. “You want your music to be given a chance by the audience? The local jock that audience trusts is going to get the job done.”
Radio offers the ability “to hear a jock tell a story about you and your song with passion and excitement [and] tens of thousands of people hearing your song at the same time. There is nothing that can compare. Nothing,” says Cumulus Allentown, Pa., OM Jerry Padden.
“The best way for fans to get to know [acts] as people and artists is to talk with radio … How much would you really know about your favorite artist if a DJ hadn’t interviewed them on air?” asks WRKR Kalamazoo, Mich., morning co-host Meatball.
It’s been more than 40 years since the advent of music video meant that artists no longer had to introduce themselves to the audience one market at a time. Now, the constant label pressure on artists to create social-media moments for their music would seem to mean that acts are more accessible than ever. But many respondents believe see radio as the difference between being lost or ephemeral in the streaming world and a larger, handpicked audience more likely to connect with an act.
At a time when more broadcasters are again understanding the power of personality and companionship, it makes sense that the artist interview would emerge as well. It remains a major part of Country, which, as noted elsewhere this week, does better than most formats these days in terms of having new stars and an emerging body of music, even if many are bolstered by streaming.
In general, I haven’t heard a lot of artist interviews lately. The most recent one I came across was new R&B artist Coco Jones with Mina Say What on SiriusXM’s Hip-Hop/R&B channel The Heat. I now realize that interview took place in late March (although there’s certainly a chance that it was being repeated). But the interview was effective. I’d been aware of Jones’s “ICU” for months. This was the first time I knew anything else about her.
Jukebox Jury brings together Bell Media’s Lisa Grossi, Corus Toronto’s Rick Lee, CHBM (Boom 97.3) Toronto MD Wayne Webster, and Evanov Halifax’s Jeremy Slattery with Warner Music’s Donald Robins, DMD’s Gareth Jones, rpmPromotion’s India Coran, and Universal Music’s Ryan Shepard. The panel, sponsored by music delivery platform Yangaroo, takes place at 1:45 p.m. on June 9.
Over the last eight weeks, I’ve written about a lot of the likely panel highlights in my Road to RDNA series. Those articles include:
- Radio’s Future in the Car, an issue certainly at flashpoint in recent weeks;
- An interview with ARN’s Duncan Campbell, whose employees include Australian radio superstars Kyle & Jackie O, and his “Secrets of a 15-Share Morning Show”;
- Navigating PPM: What We’ve Learned;
- Radio: Can You Handle the Truth, and an interview with panelist Valerie Geller
The full RDNA schedule can be found here. I hope to see you in Toronto.
