Taylor Swift’s new album Red hits stores on Monday, October 22 and on release day she will be in New York City for a live Q&A session as part of SiriusXM’s “Town Hall Series.”

“SiriusXM’s Town Hall with Taylor Swift” will air live on The Highway, channel 59, Monday, October 22 at 2 pm/ET. The intimate gathering will be hosted in front of listeners by SiriusXM’s Al Skop, and Swift will answer questions from the audience. The special will also feature songs from Red. Other “Town Hall” specials have featured Bruce Springsteen, Tom Petty, Coldplay, Ronnie Dunn, and more.

“There are few artists today who have reached such a large audience around the world and across multiple genres. Taylor Swift has a personality that her fans love and some lucky few are now getting the chance to share the same room with her and ask her questions,” said Scott Greenstein, President and Chief Content Officer, SiriusXM.

Fans will have a chance to attend Swift’s “Town Hall.” Details will be available Monday, Oct. 8 by visiting www.siriusxm.com/thehighway.

Recently George Strait announced that is next tour is his final tour. Country music, country radio and country music fans are worse for this news. George says he is not retiring from the scene, just that he is done with touring. So maybe it is just the concert-going fans who are going to be disappointed.

Hopefully we’ll get a new CD every year filled with more number one songs.

I have to wonder if George appearing at the UMG Ryman Auditorium show during Country Radio Seminar was a tipoff, and was this his way of saying goodbye to his programmer fans? If it was, thank you George.

George Strait is arguably the most important artist ever on country radio. He has been on country radio for over 30 years. George usually had three or even four singles a year on the chart, and 59 number one records.

Fifty-nine different times a country radio disc jockey got to say, “Here’s a new number one from King George.”

I have only one story about George and it goes back to 1981. George was a newbie and Erv Woolsey was working hard to get him recognized. I was the host of a show called “Cook’s Country News.”  It was a little interview show and we did 14 of them a week. I was always looking for artists to interview and we were able to track down just about everyone.

I was attending the Country Radio Seminar and I kept getting poked by Erv to interview a relatively new act. I remember sitting in my hotel room at Opryland talking to a soft spoken guy who still was not getting radio airplay. Or much of it. He was a rancher trying to live out a dream. I certainly didn’t see it.

Darn. I wish I had gotten him to autograph something.

There are a lot of people though who can take pride in being part of his team. They should be applauded. Many people will write about George’s career and you’ll get the numbers, the ups and the downs in those articles. I would rather go underneath.

We should start with the aforementioned Erv Woolsey. He has become very successful through his relationship with George but Erv was THE driving force early on and without his efforts I don’t believe that I would be writing this column today about George Strait.

Second on that list has to be Dean Dillon. Dean was an RCA act when I first met him in about 1980. I loved his relaxed approach to his singing career. Maybe a little too relaxed, which is why it didn’t last long. But doggone it he a great writer. Dean just kept writing George Strait hits.

I don’t know what year George and Tony Brown hooked up in the studio but he has been there for a long time and has been a huge driver of Strait music. Tony was also an executive at George’s record label years ago. Even more career influence in that manner.

Bruce Hinton was a significant force at MCA records in those days. As were Shelia Shipley (now Biddy) and Scott Borchetta.

I can’t possibly name all of the regional promotion people over the years that worked Strait music or the thousands of disc jockeys who played his music but they all played a role.

After all, you can’t build a career like George Strait’s all by yourself.

(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of MusicRow)

The 2013 Country Radio Hall of Fame inductees in both Radio and On-Air categories were announced today (10/3) by the CRS Board of Directors.

Gaylon Christie will be inducted in the Radio category, and Dr. Don Carpenter, Crook & Chase, Eddie Edwards, and Bill “Dex” Poindexter are the On-Air inductees. The Country Radio Hall of Fame class of 2013 will be officially inducted at a dinner ceremony on Tuesday, Feb. 26, 2013 at 6 pm at the Nashville Convention Center. The event serves as an unofficial kickoff for CRS, which will be held Feb. 27-March 1.

Lorianne Crook and Charlie Chase have spent over 25 years working together on national radio, and can now be heard on more than 225 stations across the US. Gaylon Christe has worked in Country Radio for 50-plus years, including serving as station manager, exec. manager and owner of a station serving the area around Fort Hood, TX. Don Carpenter has been with Detroit’s WYCD over 20 years, including hosting his “Dr. Don Morning Show.” Eddie Edwards has been a DJ with WNOE in New Orleans for over 20 years, and has also been on-air in Nashville and Los Angeles. Bill Poindexter joined Chattanooga’s WUSY in 1994 and currently co-hosts “The Dex & Mo Show.”

“Induction into the Country Radio Hall of Fame signifies a lifetime of excellence and achievement, and this year’s class of inductees personifies those qualities at the highest level,” said CRS Hall of Fame Committee Chairman Charlie Morgan.

CRS 2013 Early Bird Registration is still available for $399 through Oct. 31. Click here to sign up.

Why do females struggle to find chart success in our format? Particularly when the No. 1 seller is Taylor Swift. Carrie Underwood has had 15 No. 1 records and sold millions of CDs. Miranda Lambert is a legitimate chart performer and CD seller but it really doesn’t go much deeper.

I looked at Mediabase information for 2012 and Miranda was the most played female, coming in at No. 16 with “Over You.” Carrie’s “Good Girl” came in at No. 24 and “Ours” by Taylor was No. 26. Newcomer Jana Kramer was at No. 29 with “Why Ya Wanna.”

That is only four females in the top 30 most played songs in the first 9 months of 2012.

When you look at the five finalists for the CMA Female Vocalist of the Year award, some would say they had to step a little outside of the format to round out the category.

The ACM has to move in and out of New Female vocalist of the year because most years there are not enough candidates that qualify.

Look at AC Music on the radio.

Thirteen of the top 30 played songs in that format are by female artists. To be fair, those 13 songs are done by only seven different women.

In CHR, 12 of the top 30 songs are by females. Again, a limited number of different women/girls, but 9 different females are in the top 30.

What is the difference between Country and the other contemporary formats? Well, as I mentioned above, one thing is that these other formats are not averse to playing two or even three songs by a female superstar at the same time in the current category.

The list I do for McVay/Cook AC clients has two songs by Adele in current this week and just as easily could have two Kelly Clarkson songs and two by Katy Perry. Seven of the 13 currents this week are females.

I understand that over the nine months the gender trend might be compromised so I took a look at just this past week. Nothing different. Not another name shows up in the top 30.

It’s not like the format is lacking female voices. There is a long list of great singers that are on and off of the radio but there isn’t the kind of consistency in the way country radio works for male performers. It seems like their success is driven by an individual song.

Male performers apparently have a “slot” sewn up for them on the chart. When one of their songs peaks you have their follow-up serviced and moved right in.

Male acts like Luke Bryan, Brantley Gilbert and Jason Aldean have not been off the charts for more than two weeks at time this year while performers like Sara Evans and Martina McBride have chart achievement and then seem to wait for the girl slot to some open again.

I love all the acts in the last paragraph and I am glad for their triumphs. I have written here how excited I am about the music in the format today but I cannot understand how our contemporary format is so different than the others on the radio.

Even Urban/Hip Hop, often with lyrics and an attitude that can be characterized as misogynist, has five females in the top 30.

There does seem to be a very long list of new females coming onto the chart in the last month or so. So far the songs have not become top 20 or top 10 songs. Based on history these ladies are going to have a hard time reaching those milestones.

Jana Kramer has broken through, and may even reach the top spot, but WB has been working that song since February and KKGO played it last December. The song has played more than 1200 times on KILT and more than 1000 times on KFRG.

Fortunately Ms. Kramer has another source of income. But she is great for the format, as is any new female that can get through the testosterone of country radio today.

(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of MusicRow.)

Zac Brown’s label, Southern Ground Artists (SGA), has hired in-house radio promotions executives Neda Tobin (Southeast) and Paul Williams (Northeast). They join the existing staff, which includes Mara Sidweber (West Coast, Southwest) and Chuck Swaney (Midwest, Southwest), and will work out of SGA’s new Music Row offices in Nashville. Jeff Solima, a long-standing member of Zac Brown Band’s radio team, will continue to consult for Zac Brown Band.

The team will principally focus on radio for Zac Brown Band, building on the momentum that has earned the band nine consecutive No. 1 radio singles. The radio team will also work with Southern Ground Artists’ Blackberry Smoke and Sonia Leigh.

Neda Tobin (Southeast) most recently worked for Tim McGraw and Faith Hill out of the Red Light Management office. Prior to Red Light, she spent eight years working the Southwest region for Lyric Street. Contact: neda@southerngroundartists.com, 214-417-7448.

Paul Williams (Northeast) relocated to Nashville seven years ago to work in radio marketing for Sony. The move to SGA reunites him with Sidweber, a former colleague from his time as Program Director at KPLX/Dallas. Contact: paul@southerngroundartists.com, 615-715-7884.

Mara Sidweber (West Coast, Southwest) has represented Zac Brown Band at radio since its first single, and first No. 1, “Chicken Fried” in June 2008. Contact: mara@southerngroundartists.com, 469-231-6302.

Chuck Swaney (Midwest, Southwest) was also a part of initial Bigger Picture/ZBB crew, before spending the past two and a half years at EMI and returning to the ZBB team in July. Contact: chuck@southerngroundartists.com, 248-202-4116.