COUNTRY BOILS OVER AT R&R CONVENTION Radio and Records Top Country radio and label professionals debated a number of hot topics during the Friday afternoon Country Boiler Room session at R&R Convention 2005 in Cleveland. The session's focus was on issues including the development of new radio talent, the limitations of research and radio's attentiveness to SoundScan numbers. The Jack format's impact on Country stations was also discussed. "The secret sauce of that station isn't so much playing 1,200 songs, it's what the stations sounds like between the songs," said consultant Joel Raab. "It's the writing."
Clear Channel executive Alan Sledge, WGAR/Cleveland's Meg Stevens, KMPS/Seattle's Becky Brenner, Lyric Street's Kevin Herring, and Sony/Nashville's Larry Pareigis also took part in the panel, which was moderated by R&R's Lon Helton. Pareigis noted that even with 1,200 songs, Jack can eventually get repetitive, turning the "oh, wow" factor into "oh, no." Speaking later about strain in the radio-label relationship, he said, "The problem children are never the ones up on the panel or in attendance at these functions. And we all know who they are."
Speaking to the more explosive change seen in Country's early '90s boom in comparison to its most recent surge, Raab pointed out that radio stopped playing almost everything that pre-dated the late 1980s. "We don't need to throw the baby out with the bathwater this time, so it hasn't opened up as much as it did in 1989," he said. Brenner lamented the artificial pressure labels put on stations to maintain momentum for singles. "I wish the charts would go away. We're getting screwed on both ends. Labels complain because we don't add a song early, then we run through it and take it off and they complain because we're keeping them from going to No. 1. It's all so ridiculous because it's not driven by what the listeners want."
The panel, sponsored by Columbia, was preceded by a performance by newcomer Brice Long, who stuck around afterward to take in the proceedings. Queried by Helton as the session drew to a close, Long said with a smile, "This is scaring the hell out of me." |