The thing that has been most multiply noted about Dolly Parton in the last 48 hours is how unified people have been in their grief — no small thing in these fraught times. I know that not every Facebook friend of mine has posted a tribute, but it certainly feels that way.
There have also been lots of discussions about the way radio responded, which has come down to two questions. How quickly were stations able to break the news in a voice-tracked age? How willing were stations to acknowledge an artist who transcends format but was played regularly only at Classic Country and some Soft ACs?
I’ve seen a wide range of responses to both. There are country stations such as WIVK Knoxville, Tenn., and WPCV Lakeland, Fla., that reimaged around Parton. There are complaints online about Country stations that didn’t respond fast enough or play enough of Parton’s music when they did, but WRNS New Bern, N.C., was first to play “Jolene,” followed by KFKF Kansas City playing nine Parton songs in a row shortly thereafter.
Likewise, there are stations ranging from AC WLTW (Lite FM) New York to Heritage Rock WMMR Philadelphia and Classic Rock KLOS Los Angeles that broke format for Parton. Some Triple-A stations, such as KCRW Los Angeles, played Parton already. Top 40 KMVQ (99.7 Now) San Francisco pm driver St. John did a tribute; I’d also heard him play Parton as a feature on a Pitbull song a few years ago. (This is a tiny sampling of station activity and no omissions are intentional.)
The outpouring confirms that Dolly has long been an artist who fit everywhere, except radio. Two years ago, I wrote an article about the unicorn that is “Jolene” titled “The Biggest Classic Hit That Radio Won’t Play.” As a music researcher, I’d seen the strength of that song for any station willing to test it. “Jolene” technically belonged in no format except Classic Country, but its appeal was far beyond that for an audience that largely wasn’t even born or listening to radio at the time. That was still hard for many programmers to accept, including those fighting for the “New Country” franchise.
Radio should never need an artist’s passing as a mandate, but they clearly have one now. For Classic Hits and AC, “Islands in the Stream,” “9 to 5,” and, yes, “Jolene” are going to stay front-and-center with listeners for a while. (Country stations could also play “Why’d You Come In Here Looking Like That” now.) Also, listeners are off on their own voyages of discovery that is taking them beyond the big hits. “‘Just Because I’m a Woman’ is a really good song,” said my wife upon coming across a No. 17 Country hit from 1968.
Here’s the original story. The hook in 2024 was Beyoncé’s cover, now a distant memory. But I hope it’s still an interesting contemplation on how radio usually sets the agenda for what songs are remembered, even in the TikTok age, and how spectacular the exceptions are. If anything, the contentions are borne out by our feelings this week. They also take on an extra dimension when the biggest song in recent memory, “Choosin’ Texas,” so clearly draws on the late ’70s/early ’80s, when Parton’s multi-format radio presence was greatest.
Even before Beyoncé’s remake, Dolly Parton’s “Jolene” was clearly embedded in popular culture for a lot of listeners. It was propelled there by a series of remakes (White Stripes, Miley Cyrus, and almost anybody who did a duets project with Parton), interpolations (Cyrus again with “Nothing Breaks Like a Heart”), and Parton’s own rising star over the last decade.
In other parts of the world, “Jolene” has always been in Classic Hits/AC libraries. Five years ago, in my music-researcher capacity, I began encouraging stations to consider it. Some were unwilling to test a 45-year-old Country hit that hadn’t crossed over at the time (except in Des Moines). Even when it came back strong, some PDs remained skeptical. For a brief time, I harped so predictably on “Jolene” that I imagined some of the Classic Hits PDs at the other end of the phone taking a drink every time I brought it up. Besides, Classic Hits was doing great back then. I mostly backed off.
But as I write this, Beyoncé’s “Jolene” is No. 1 in the iTunes store. It is the third-most-played new song from Cowboy Carter at CHR, although the Cyrus collaboration “II Most Wanted” and Post Malone duet “Levii’s Jeans” are the leaders. It has received 361 spins after six days and nine adds at Country. The rewritten lyrics are one of many heated Cowboy Carter-related topics online, although any attempt at controversy is grasping, since Parton has clearly endorsed the song and would have had to approve any changes of that magnitude.
So shouldn’t Classic Hits and other gold-based stations be playing “Jolene”? According to Mediabase, Parton’s version received a total of 98 spins this week, 66 of them from Country stations. (All but two of those were from non-reporters, meaning they were either gold-based or Classic Country stations.) There were 15 spins at Adult Hits, mostly from syndicated Jack-FM affiliates. The only Classic Hits station with significant rotation was WISM Eau Claire, Wis.
In Canada, there’s a little more acceptance. There were 170 spins on the song last week, with 142 coming from Country radio (and 56 of those from reporters). Canada’s Soft AC “Breeze” stations have been playing the song since their launch in 2018. There are other spins at Classic Hits and AC as well.
For some of the PDs I spoke to five years ago, it was hard to think of “Jolene” as anything other than Classic Country. But a lot of its current fans don’t really have any such fixed perceptions. It came to them through the remakes (Mediabase has 65 in their library) or through American Idol. They don’t have any memories of it as a radio record of any sort. A few years ago, I wrote that radio still seems to set the agenda for Classic Hits, even when it comes to streaming, but “Jolene” was already an exception at the time.
Being Classic Country isn’t necessarily a negative for younger listeners. Those Country stations that have expanded their library after years of narrowly focusing on “New Country” often report that the greatest excitement is often from young listeners. But there are many listeners who just don’t file “Jolene” anywhere. Wedding DJ and regular commenter Michael Bills often gets requests from couples who don’t ask for other Country (and who don’t seem to care that it’s barely more topically appropriate than “I Will Always Love You” or “Every Breath You Take”). When I asked Facebook friends about the song’s place in pop culture, readers were effusive about the song’s relatability or its intro. Nobody said much about how they knew it.
Beyond that, consider how no listener who remembers any hit song from 1974 is in the Classic Hits target demo. For that matter, not that many of the listeners who remember a seemingly timeless hit like “Summer of ’69” as a current are still in the demo. Some older songs may have been learned as gold titles when today’s 35-54’s began listening to radio. Others, like “Tiny Dancer,” took on currency later. That 53-year-old song doesn’t sound like much like anything else on Classic Hits, except “Rocket Man.”
Finally, if it’s really hard to get Dolly out of the Classic Country pile mentally, remember that she had six years as a recurring presence at Top 40 and AC radio. Having three big hits (and numerous other mid-charters) in that period means Parton had more of a pop footprint than Kansas, Cutting Crew, Mr. Mister, the Outfield, or Modern English, and she certainly has more currency than any of those current Classic Hits mainstays.
Classic Hits wasn’t getting hurt by what it didn’t play 3-4 years ago. It’s a little less consistently successful now. Trying to swap the ’70s for the ’90s isn’t working for every station. Some Classic Rock stations, unconflicted about still playing the ’70s, are starting to pull ahead, in part because younger listeners aren’t hung up about older songs. In that regard, an older song that works better with younger demos should be especially valuable.
There were great comments on the original story. You can see them here. You might also enjoy this story about her late ’10s SiriusXM channel that also summarized Parton’s musical history.
