Country Is Awesome!

There is no doubt about it.  Country is back!  One need only look at the Spring 2005 Arbitron rating results to see just how strong the format is.  It’s showing strength in markets where it was weak, dominant numbers in markets where it was already strong and some extraordinary numbers in markets where one would think Country is not going to “work.”

It looks to me as if Country music’s growth has come at the expense of Adult Contemporary.  Look at the ratings and you can see it.  The sharing/cume duplication shows that Country is taking listeners away from AC. 

Why is this a surprise to us?  If you haven’t listened to a Country radio station for a while, then shame on you.  Tune one in and give it two hours and you’ll see it’s a format with energy, excitement, fresh new music, lots of great high profile image artists and adult lyrics for adult women.  The imaging these days is female friendly.  They talk on Country stations about listening “at-work.”  Many Country stations have built big, fun and entertaining morning shows.  Most Country radio stations I hear are good and in no way represent the stereotypes that may have existed in the past. 

Talk about excitement.  Look at the artists that Country has available to play.  Tim McGraw, Keith Urban, Kenny Chesney, Rascal Flatts, Gretchen Wilson, Martina McBride, Toby Keith, Big & Rich, a re-imaged Faith Hill and more.  Oh, by the way . . . many AC’s have played (or are playing) songs by these artists . . . even as we speak.  Country radio still plays traditional sounding artists, like Brad Paisley, George Strait as well as Reba and Willie.  What I hear, more than anything else is AC-like music, with AC-like lyrics.  As the heading on this article states “Country Is Awesome!”

The challenge for us in Adult Contemporary is coming to grips with something that I’ve been writing about for a while.  We have allowed our format to become old, stodgy, boring and (for lack of a better format descriptor) “Soft Oldies.”  We have no exclusive artists.  We have a lack of imaging because of the fact that there is no current artist that clearly defines AC. We are no longer a fresh format.  As a result of this lack of freshness, people can turn us on Monday and listen for a while, go away to another format and not come back till Friday and never feel as if they’ve missed anything. 

The music, as imaged, screams 70s & 80s.  And while this is all good for many markets, (especially where they are in a cluster with other more active stations,) it puts this format in the position of one day becoming “the music-of-someone else’s life.”  These concerns haunted me for some time.  This is nothing new, and those of you that know me well will remember that I’ve talked about our need to Reinvent Radio for some time now. 

Country isn’t going to go away anytime soon.  It will ebb and flow as it has in the past, but what’s likely to happen is that we will see more adult women move in the direction of that format and fewer of them sticking with Adult Contemporary.  This is mainly because there is nothing new and fresh to make them want to come back.  It’s up to us to make it exciting again!