Which panels do programmers want to see at Country Radio Seminar in Nashville this week? Judging from the sessions that have already been added to attendees’ schedules, according to the CRS app, the clear leader is the Ella Langley interview with JoDee Messina. The No. 2, 5 and 7 panels are the “Cycle of a Song” panels on Josh Ross’s “Single Again,” Chase Matthew’s “Darlin’,” and Koe Wetzel & Jessie Murph’s “High Road.”
Of those three songs, only “High Road” took the fast(er) path that comes with an early streaming story, reaching No. 1 about six months after that streaming had compelled its release over another planned track. Both “Single Again” and “Darlin’” took well over a year from their earliest airplay (or U.S. airplay, in Ross’s case).
Taking the slow road to No. 1 is already on the docket for “The Disruptors” panel scheduled for Thursday at 10 a.m. That panel, based on the stats, is the third-most-anticipated. Two of its PDs, WKDF Nashville’s Travis Daily and KYGO Denver’s Brian Michel, have made a point of not being ruled by national chart numbers. Last year, Daily was a critic of “fake No. 1s,” and the rise in airplay during “push week” that gives those songs their shot at the top in turn, only to disappear and become “terminal currents” afterwards.
WKDF and KYGO were profiled in last week’s Ross on Radio. In that column, I suggested that the issue was not just slow-breaking callout-driven hits, but that the road to push week often means running the callout gantlet sequentially at multiple groups — Summit first, iHeart last, with Audacy and Cumulus in between. That some songs take a year to kick in isn’t a reflection on their subtlety as much as when they’re heard enough for listeners to get to like them.
Recently, I had another realization. As part of a recent interview with Coleman Insights on what callout can and cannot tell us in 2026, I’ve been able to see the company’s Integr8 national numbers. As is the case in every format at the moment, callout is even slower than the charts. The real eye-opener has been this: Often it seems to be the concerted “push week” airplay that finally propels a song to start really testing well.
- Hardy’s “Favorite Country Song” went to No. 1 on January 31. It cracked Coleman’s top 10 in the callout cycle released February 2.
- Morgan Wallen’s “20 Cigarettes” went to No. 1 on February 28. In the wave released this week, it makes a notable move from the bottom third to No. 14. (Part of the ranker issue is that other Wallen titles — “I Got Better” and “I Ain’t Comin’ Back” – remain near the top.)
- Its push week hasn’t come yet, but Thomas Rhett & Jordan Davis’s “Ain’t a Bad Life” is also kicking in this week, going top 5, just ahead of chart week 25. Rhett’s “After the Bars Are Closed” remains top 5.
Wallen and Rhett in particular are artists who usually get Country radio’s fast-track treatment, six months to the top instead of 11-13, something that seems to have only further slowed things down for non-superstar acts. The only exception has been Langley’s “Choosin’ Texas,” which came to radio with a Wallen-level streaming story and cracked the top 10 (but thus far not top 5) in early February. There are also some developing titles that are already mid-pack for Coleman after just 10-12 weeks.
This column has repeatedly made the point that the balance between callout-driven “radio records” and songs broken by streaming has been part of Country’s relative health, particularly compared to Top 40, now seeing disastrous results after several years of labels choosing to pursue mostly songs with an existing streaming story. The glacial chart climb is a problem. The revolving door at No. 1 is a problem. “Don’t pursue songs that don’t stream” is not the answer.
So now I’m thinking that maybe we don’t need one push week, we need two. Or we need it to come earlier. What if the moment when all of Country radio united behind a song it believed in took place around week No. 20? That would allow “moment of truth” decisions on whether to keep pursuing a song to take place around weeks 22-24. It would still represent a considerable commitment to songs on behalf of both labels and radio.
Part of what keeps the chart paradigm in its current form is that deciding to cut bait on records sooner requires the label in question to stand down and accept only having a No. 5 or No. 10 song instead of a No. 1. If the effort that goes into maximizing spins was happening sooner, I like to think there would ultimately be more hits instead of fewer. Having a No. 1 song improves an artist’s touring prospects; so does having two hits a year instead of one.
Suggesting two “push weeks,” or an earlier one, is likely as provocative to some label people as the idea of two charts, something else the industry has always fought. Because I’m not intimately involved in the weekly chart process, this suggestion could certainly be dismissed as an outsider’s naïveté. I’m hoping you’ll receive it instead as the 3,000-foot perspective of a multi-format observer and lifelong student and fan of Country radio. If it’s not the thing that gives us more hits with less gridlock, I’m hoping it will propel the discussion this week of what that might look like.
