Keith Hill, defender of the status quo at country radio

9 years ago Liv Carter Comments Off on Keith Hill, defender of the status quo at country radio

In the weekly Country Aircheck update, country radio consultant Keith Hill outlined, with cold indifference to the actual music, how radio stations can improve their numbers. And by numbers, he actually means profit.

Hill gave some tips about optimizing libraries and codes, and oh yeah, he also said this:

If you want to make ratings in Country radio, take females out.

And the internet outrage machine cranked into overdrive.

Hill didn’t say whether he personally thinks that’s good or bad, he’s just stating what he’s seeing in the numbers right now. Apparently, in many markets, if you don’t want listeners to switch radio stations, you better not play too many female artists. That ought not to be true, but as we learned from Hume, you can’t get an “ought” from an “is.”

As Hill explains:

The reason is mainstream Country radio generates more quarter hours from female listeners at the rate of 70 to 75%, and women like male artists. I’m basing that not only on music tests from over the years, but more than 300 client radio stations. The expectation is we’re principally a male
format with a smaller female component. I’ve got about 40 music databases in front of me and the percentage of females in the one with the most is 19%.

Don’t be fooled. Terrestrial corporate country radio is a platform for advertising, and the songs are there to get you to listen to the ads. If the research can spot a pattern in what makes people turn away, the playlists will be adjusted.

But then Hill tried to explain it with a metaphor, and ooh boy…

Trust me, I play great female records and we’ve got some right now; they’re just not the lettuce in our salad. The lettuce is Luke Bryan and Blake Shelton, Keith Urban and artists like that. The tomatoes of our salad are the females.

stephen-colbert-well-said

I know what he means, that those male superstars are the boring same-old, and the female artists are the bright sparks, but damn is that a clumsy way to say it.

The problem really, is how it got to be this way.

“So, tell me, why did those “lettuce” guys become superstars?”

“Well, people heard their songs on the ra…… Oh.”

Country radio insists that it is still the #1 way in which music fans discover new music (which, by the way, isn’t true) so why don’t they feel it is also their responsibility to give more new music a chance to be heard?

How can more of your audience connect to new music, if you’re going to base your decision on whether or not to play it purely on the research numbers? Don’t they see that their methodology leads to an increasingly small circle of approved music?

Last year, I played a game while listening to WSIX in Nashville: how many songs can I get through before I hear Luke Bryan? I did this for over 2 months, and the highest number I ever got to was…three. After that, I had enough, and I haven’t listened to that station since.

Sure, radio stations are a business and they need to pay attention to the numbers. But they are also alienating an increasingly large section of their audience. Businesses tend to be able to do that to their customer base for only so long, before it comes back to bite them.

Hopefully, country radio will figure out a way to both look after their numbers, and actually still play the role of champion of new music which they claim for themselves.

For now, I’m gonna go eat a salad. With lots of tomatoes.

 

Liv Carter

Liv Carter

Liv is a career coach for creatives, and the people who work with them.
She holds several certificates from Berklee College of Music, and a certificate in Positive Psychology from UC Berkeley.
Her main influences are coffee, cats, and Alexander Hamilton.
Liv Carter

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