Part of the reason that we stopped having panels on the radio/record label relationship was because it usually ended up in the same dead end. Somebody from radio would declare that radio was in the business of listener retention, not breaking records. Even in the communications business, our businesses could not communicate.
There were a few flashes of that old contentiousness on a Feb. 19 panel at Country Radio Seminar called “Why Can’t We Be Friends: The Label, Radio, and Streaming Relationship.” The first half of that title has probably been used for similar panels at some point since the band War’s hit of that name in 1975. The second half reflects the wariness of Country PDs to streaming data, a topic at CRS for a decade now.
This year at CRS, there are five panels suggesting that Country radio needs to both pay more attention to streaming, as well as shatter the chart paradigm that moves some songs glacially to No. 1 but speeds them through a revolving door when they get there. One of those panels, set for this Friday is called “F*#@ the Format.”
Last week in my pre-CRS coverage, “Does Country Still Need to Flush the Format?” I suggested that much of the change has already taken place. In a few months’ time, Country radio has embraced songs that emerge from streaming such as Zach Top’s “I Never Lie,” Riley Green’s “Worst Way,” or Ella Langley & Green’s “You Look Like You Love Me,” and labels have followed suit, even when an existing chart priority is upstaged.
On the first day of CRS, there was a morning panel on the breaking of “You Look Like You Love Me.” During that session, artist manager Daniel Miller thanked Green’s label, Nashville Harbor, for their willingness to let the duet overshadow a priority single.
Later that day, though, at the “Friends” panel, Cumulus VP/Country Travis Daily urged close scrutiny of streaming numbers, saying that just because a song is top 5 streaming still doesn’t make it necessarily viable for Country. Labels have made it clear that they look to streaming to set promotional priorities now. Daily replied that he was glad that labels now “throw s**t against the wall” at streaming first, rather than radio.
Daily also assailed the rotating door of “fake No. 1s” at Country radio and their quick disappearance thereafter, which he termed responsible for “why the format continues to decline, even at what seems like a good time for Country radio, at least by the standards of other current based formats.
The flip side of the Langley/Green story is Cole Swindell’s “Forever to Me,” now a top 10 single at 39 weeks on the chart. That song had initial acceptance from both streaming and radio. Eventually, streaming cooled, and the song settled into a long mid-chart stretch, made worse by the end of the streaming story. Eventually, both Daly and Kristen Williams, Warner Music Nashville’s SVP/radio, noted that the song had eventually been re-energized by strong callout research. Daly also added that he now regards Swindell as a “real No. 1” candidate.
CRS 2025 kicked off with a panel called “Teamwork Makes the Dreamwork: Capitalizing in the Country Moment in Streaming,” which promised to delve into outside artists making Country albums as well as the greater interest of coastal labels in signing Country artists or setting up shop in Nashville. That panel didn’t take audience questions and the one that I really wanted answered “what from the current Nashville way of doing business” never came up.
In the late ‘10s, Country was beset by AC-flavored “boyfriend country”—songs that had a lot of the same lyrical clichés as the “bro country” that came before, but without the same energy or excitement. After Morgan Wallen re-set the paradigm by having multiple streaming-driven hits at once, the slowly developing passive hits rankled a lot less.
That’s why I like the combination of active and passive titles at Country radio. When there are fast-breaking reaction records like Langley & Green or Koe Wetzel & Jessie Murph’s “High Road,” it’s nice to see that a “Forever to Me” still exists as balance, that radio can still develop hits, and that callout can identify songs listeners care about that would otherwise get lost.
The precautionary tale is Top 40. There are fewer records in play. Radio departments are shrinking. Songs linger indefinitely. Late spring’s “Espresso”-fueled excitement lasted only a few months without a wave of equally interesting titles in the wings. Few hits are identified by a slower-than-ever callout, but one that did, the David Guetta/Ava Max/Alphaville remake of “Forever Young” has peaked at No. 10.
I want Country radio to find the most possible hits from streaming. I don’t want them to hand the decision-making process over entirely to streaming. Daily complained about “TikTok Country,” and I can attest that “TikTok Pop” finds some songs that are great radio records. (Lola Young’s “Messy”) and some that are merely daunting.
A lot of the discussion about Country’s reluctance to acknowledge streaming has been about one artist, Zach Bryan. Two years into his stardom, Bryan still lives between Country and Top 40, fully accepted at neither (but hardly dependent on either.) In Thursday morning’s “What is Mainstream Country” panel, much of the discussion was about Bryan and Tyler Childers.
That said, you hear Bryan’s influence on other Country hits these days. You also see Country’s most streaming conscious PDs more willing to draft artists from the format fringe who might or might not have ended up there through more traditional routes. Spotify’s Rachel Whitney assured panelists at the “Mainstream Country” panel that any song that made it to the Hot Country playlist worked with her core Country listeners. She also noted that the playlist had remained successful with an increased female artist component.
There are a growing number of Country PDs who are aggressive about identifying streaming stories. After last week’s story, a reader asked why I hadn’t said more about the role of Country PDs using their ears to find potential hits. Daily assures me it still happens. (Mike Moore, PD of Cumulus’ WKHX Atlanta, is one still known for going off the menu.) But I’d like to hear about that more, too.
Ironically, Amazon head of Country Music Michelle Tigard Kammerer praised her “talented curators who use their gut,” and who have lots of data to quickly know when they are right. I’ve been coming to CRS since the discussion was about PDs like the late Dene Hallam who upset label plans by, say, playing Alan Jackson’s “Chattahoochee” before the label was ready. I want radio to intelligently embrace streaming and augment it with all the tools at their disposal.
More from CRS to come in days ahead. Check this page for updates.
WHN would have never become a successful Country station in New York City without local call out research. When I became Program Director of WHN FIFTY YEARS AGO. the imperative was audience. acquisition, not retention. Information on record fit and popularity from call out allowed WHN to break records without inordinate risk and thus to expand County music and the audience for Country radio in the New York market.
Zach Bryan has also had success on Americana and AAA radio formats as well.