Country music has always done well when adding multimedia exposure to the mix. Television has always been a big deal, as our audience is comfortable with supporting music from their living rooms.

Go back to the old days when Johnny Cash, Glen Campbell and Hee Haw brought the personalities into our lives. I was a kid during this programming and country music was not on my radar during those days but my family watched these shows because they were bigger than the music itself.

Austin City Limits has been on TV since the mid 70s and it continues to introduce “slightly different” musical acts to PBS viewers. Some would say the viewers of PBS are “slightly different” too so that is a perfect fit.

Movies have had impact on country music and country music radio in the past too. The obvious one is Urban Cowboy. That drove a huge surge to country music radio because the programmers were smart enough to take advantage of all of the hype.

At the same time you have to remember the great music that was on that soundtrack. Mickey Gilley and Johnny Lee were the biggest winners from the movie. The album also included Bob Seger, Joe Walsh, Kenny Rogers, The Charlie Daniels Band, the Eagles and more. The millions of people who saw this movie came out of the theater convinced that this country music was pretty good. The movie did about $47M.

No one was cooler than John Travolta in 1980. Debra Winger was pretty hot too. Gilley’s, in Pasadena Texas, looked like a great place to hang out and everyone wanted to ride that mechanical bull. Or at least watch others ride it.

It was a cultural shift. To be cool you had to emulate the cultural icons for the day. Travolta was a leading one and he was into country music (at least in the movie). Ergo, I will get involved in country music and I too will be cool.

Urban Cowboy was the 13^th highest grossing film of 1980 but not even the highest country music-themed movie of the year. Nine to Five grossed over $100M, Coal Miner’s daughter did $67M and Smokey and the Bandit 2 did $66M. But Urban Cowboy had the most impact on country music appeal that year.

A few weeks ago ABC aired the CMA Music Fest television special, “Country’s Night to Rock.” The show did respectable numbers against the first national exposure for Peyton Manning in orange and blue, the new NBC-TV hot show Revolution and baseball fans that were caught up in four pennant races. In a couple of weeks the CMA Awards show will put all of our stars on TV again for three hours.

TV has been very good to country music for many years now. American Idol is good for country music. Carrie Underwood, Kellie Pickler, Josh Gracin, Bucky Covington and Scotty McCreery to name just a few.

Blake Shelton has made country music cool on The Voice.

And now one of the TV break-out hits this year is Nashville. I watch a lot of TV. I like comedies and police shows. I am not a big fan of soaps but I was interested in watching Nashville for the obvious reasons. Add to this that it was so positively reviewed.

The cast is attractive. The show is like Dallas and Falcon Crest in the key of C.

If you live, work or visit Nashville regularly the draw is seeing landmarks where you’ve had a beer or two. If you have never been to Nashville you a drawn to the story lines that are bigger than the music.

If you work in the radio and country music business you know that putting the music and personalities in front of America in movies and on TV is good for business.

Whether you’re a fan of soaps or not, your air staff needs to be talking about Nashville and including listeners in the story lines. I am not sure that the program will bring back mechanical bulls but it could bring back a degree of “coolness” for the format and that is also good business.

CRS is now accepting applications for its inaugural Rusty Walker Scholarship program, created in honor of Country Radio Hall of Fame member Rusty Walker who passed away in May 2012.

The scholarship will provide an all-expense paid trip and attendance to CRS 2013, Feb. 27-March 1, 2013. Included are airfare, hotel expenses, and one ticket to the Country Radio Hall of Fame Dinner. Three scholarships will be awarded.

Interested applicants must fill out an online application and write a paragraph explaining why he/she deserves to be considered. Eligible applicants must be employed full-time at a radio station and a first time CRS attendee.

Applications can be submitted through Friday, Nov. 16 at countryradioseminar.com. Winners will be announced Monday, Dec. 3.

In other CRS news, the deadline for CRS Digital Liners is Oct. 31, the same day the $399 Early Bird registration rate ends. Direct radio inquiries to kristen@crb.org and artist inquiries to chasity@crb.org.

Is radio losing the mantle as the number one source for music introduction to the country fan? In a word, no. In a full sentence, maybe just a little bit.

Part of this may be because radio programmers have become increasingly conservative in their approach to what music they play and how they instruct their air staff to approach the music. The increasing use of voice tracking has also impacted some artists’ growth.

There is music that has generated downloads way past their radio play and chart successes. My friend Tom Roland at Billboard pointed out earlier this week that Florida-Georgia Line’s “Cruise” has collected 450,000 digital downloads with only recent broadcast radio play.

I do know that FGL played a ton of live shows this spring and summer. I doubt that they got out in front of a half a million fans but they worked very hard to press the flesh and that helped for sure. Let’s also say that the song is catchy enough and we are still very much a song-driven format for everyone but the top 10 acts.

A recent CMA study confirmed that broadcast radio is still the big driver and no one wants to chance success without AM or FM.

Mr. Roland also referenced Colt Ford and Lionel Ritchie as examples of huge sales performances without much radio play. In fact Mr. Ritchie is the number one selling “country” CD so far this year.

Both of these cases come with caveats as big as the Grand Canyon.

Colt Ford is the new Hank Jr. I ripped into his new CD when it arrived in the mail. It is one of those “turn it up and lower your car windows” so your neighbors know that you’re cooler than Google Earth.

People south of the Mason-Dixon Line wake up every day wondering when the next Colt Ford CD is going to drop.

Lionel Ritchie got a turbo boost from the Academy of Country Music with a 2 hour TV special crowning Mr. Ritchie the king of crossover country. That didn’t hurt. Additionally, the Ritchie/Twain duet got some Adult Contemporary radio play.

I mentioned above that programmers are conservative. Without question this is true but I wonder if this is a chicken/egg deal. I thought that the Colt Ford/Jake Owens record had legs. I encouraged the stations that I work with to try it out at night and see if there was interest in the song for more high profile play. The CD sold nicely but those were apparently the fans. Plus broadcast radio could not play a few of the songs. This is was where I rolled my windows up so my neighbors would not come to other conclusions.

Should programmers swallow hard and schedule Colt and Lionel based on the significant sales or are they legitimate in saying, “yeah there is a lot of interest in these acts, but they are not radio (my) listeners.” Who gets hurt the most there?

I also mentioned that the preponderance of voice tracking hurts new acts. You would have to understand the distance an announcer has from the music when voice tracking.

As a slight aside here, while I am writing this note, I am listening to “Kiss Me Like That” by Toby Keith. I have to stop writing so that I can sing along. I LOVE that song. When I was on the air I would dance around the studio (an ugly sight) and sing at the top of my lungs (a painful experience for all involved) and that exuberance would come across on the air.

If I was voice tracking, that energy would not make it through the speakers. First, too many announcers think of voice tracking as a chore but I loved being on the air. Loved it more than anything I have ever done for money. Voice tracking is something that you do after your air shift or instead of coming in on the weekend. The thought and passion does not come through. I agree that some jocks are better than others but I contend the best is doing 80% of doing it live.

When you come across a group or song like FGL too many stations are not giving it the enthusiasm needed to make the listener stop and notice.

Losing the authority of being the source of music discovery to the listener would be disasterous for radio. Many music stations have already lost the information authority. Don’t give up the territory by being too conservative or dispassionate.

(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of MusicRow. Stay tuned for a future article about Florida Georgia Line’s early success with small market radio)

Jason Aldean congratulates "CMT's Country Countdown USA" host Lon Helton.

Jason Aldean and Brad Paisley surprised radio professionals this week with news of their CMA Broadcast Award wins. Paisley called all Station and Broadcast Personality of the Year winners in the Small, Medium, Large, and Major Market categories.

Aldean notifed National Broadcast Personality of the Year winner Lon Helton during a visit to a taping of Helton’s popular “CMT’s Country Countdown USA.”

The CMA Broadcast Personality of the Year and CMA Radio Station of the Year recipients will be recognized during The 46th Annual CMA Awards, hosted by Paisley and Carrie Underwood Thurs., Nov. 1 at Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena, airing live on ABC.

The announcement of the CMA Broadcast Award winners is the pinnacle of what CMA has deemed the Year of Country Radio. As a cornerstone of the campaign, CMA granted complimentary membership to every Country radio station in the U.S. as well as complimentary individual memberships to the general manager and program director at each station.

2012 CMA Broadcast Personality of the Year Winners
National – Lon Helton, “CMT’s Country Countdown USA with Lon Helton” (Dial Global)
Major Market – Donna Valentine and Mike Mussman, “K102 Wakeup Crew” KEEY, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minn.
Large Market – Randy Carroll and Jamie Martin,“KJ and Friends” KAJA, San Antonio, Texas
Medium Market – Tom O’Brien, Roger Todd, and Melissa Moran, “The 97 Country Breakfast Club” WPCV, Lakeland-Winter Haven, Fla.
Small Market – Bill Poindexter and Melissa Turner, “Dex and Mo Show” WUSY, Chattanooga, Tenn.

2012 CMA Radio Station of the Year Winners
Major Market – WKLB, Boston, Mass.
Large Market – WUBE, Cincinnati, Ohio.
Medium Market – WIVK, Knoxville, Tenn.
Small Market – WUSY, Chattanooga, Tenn.