Last week, Liveline celebrated its fifth anniversary with an extensive look back at the show’s history, top throwback requests and biggest hits. We also talked about the vital power of being live and interactive, how we’ve grown in the past six months, and signing our 40th affiliate (followed by #41 this week).
This month Liveline debuted six nights a week live on our first Canadian affiliate, CFLY (98.3 Fly FM) Kingston, Ontario. Since the announcement, we’ve had dozens of people asking how a Canadian affiliate navigates the rules which require stations to play at least 35% Canadian music. PD Sara Johnston and GM Rob Mise have been extremely generous in upping their Canadian airplay in other dayparts so that Liveline wouldn’t have to change a thing. They also insert two CanCon songs during the show in one of their spot breaks every hour. There are also Cancon titles from The Weeknd, Drake, and other artists that listeners request anyway. Our commitment to playing the hits for all our affiliates hasn’t had to change at all.
New Music This Week
Morgan Wallen, Tate McRae – “What I Want”: Without a doubt, this is the biggest release of the past two months. A collaboration that caused lots of controversy but also stirred up a lot of hype among their fanbase, and pop music fans in general. Morgan’s album “I’m The Problem” has 37 tracks, all of which occupied the Spotify charts upon release. It’s now been 12 days and we’ve had time to find out which ones the fans really love, as many of the other tracks have fallen or not resonated. “What I Want” has been Spotify’s #1 every day since itits’s release and is showing all the signs of being a summer smash. Within a week, it showed up in our Liveline Top 20 Requests and is already #22 in Top 40 airplay. Although not as uptempo as last summer’s “I Had Some Help” with Post Malone (which is still in and out of the Liveline and Spotify Top 20), this new single is a sure sign that country music’s place on Pop radio has far from faded, providing the important diversity of styles which the format needs.
Jessie Murph – “Blue Strips”: From Huntsville Ala., this emerging 20-year-old superstar has one of the most unique voices right now. It’s her highest-charting song ever at #15 on the Billboard Hot 100. The lyrics are about getting revenge on a former partner who mistreated her, by flaunting her wealth and success. This includes buying a mansion in Malibu, visiting a strip club where she is throwing $100 bills at one dancer and $1 bills at another whom she implies her ex cheated on her with. It’s fun, it’s sassy and an anthem for any woman going through a breakup or just feeling rebellious as summer approaches! Currently #24 on Spotify in America, #18 on Top 40 airplay and #17 on Liveline last week! It’ll be interesting to see what Country radio does with it, given Murph’s history at that format, as well as Country’s own issues with not always acknowledging streaming hits.
Buried Treasures of the Week
JVKE – “golden hour”: A song extremely under-appreciated by radio three years ago. It was always massive on Liveline and even reached #1 for a few weeks. JVKE had no interest in being part of a big record label, and with the lack of high-pressure hype is likely the reason for the song’s plateau on Top 40. But as we’ve learned in recent years, labels are now putting very little into artist development. They sign artists with an existing large number of followers, streams, and good social media, but don’t necessarily do much for them after. “golden hour” was a Top 5 song on Spotify and remained in the Top 20 for months. It’s extremely romantic, beautifully written and produced (by him) and had all the potential to be a multi-format #1 song. It reached #10 on Billboard and Top 40, #13 on Hot AC and #18 on AC. It’s still an ultra-familiar song that we continue to get requests for and have always considered one of the staple “Liveline songs”.
Fleetwood Mac – “Dreams”: The oldest song ever featured in this section but wait! Remember when a man drinking Cran-Raspberry juice while skateboarding and lip syncing to this song on Tik Tok brought it back in 2020? https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTjQJKt7b/ The original video now has 14.5 million likes and 96 million views. A handful of Top 40 stations actually brought it back as a Power and even without full panel airplay it got to #29 on the airplay charts. It was a strange time during the pandemic when TikTok was rapidly impacting the charts and what radio played. Now almost five years later, the song continues to be a Gen Z favorite. This week, it’s #20 on Spotify in America where it’s currently the oldest song in the Top 100, also having been on the chart for 1,602 days straight. It was released in 1977 and peaked at #1 that year and #12 in 2020. We still get requests for it. Easily one of the biggest and most widely known songs in history.
What do you think of the new mgk? Is it cheesy or is it the Summer bop we need right now? I think it’s very safe sounding but catchy and it’s been a long time since we’ve had a pop/punk song. It’s totally a radio record. Plus it’s ripe for a TikTok dance craze. Also I think Ariana Grande “Supernatural” could finally have its time to shine. Streams are growing because of the smile challenge on TikTok and it’s the best song on the album. I’m keeping an eye on this one.
I think safe-but-catchy is a really good assessment. “My Ex’s Best Friend” was a great record for the format–particularly stations like K92, WIXX, WKRZ, etc. I’m only sorry that MGK didn’t give us something like this twice a year in between. (“Lonely Road” got some traction for stations I watch, but didn’t really solve anything, because we already had so many Country hybrids.) Plus, Top 40 doesn’t have an attitude about him like Alternative does.
We might be looking at a situation in the next few years where the modern AC boom takes place regardless of alternative or AAA. I don’t know yet if Alex Warren or somber are strong enough to cross to recurrent, but a good pot punk record would definitely shake things up, which we all agree is desperately needed. CHR needs good songs, but hot AC desperately needs new feeders.