Industry Ink

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A caricature of Sarah Darling was added to the wall at The Palm recently. Photo: Alan Mayor

• The Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum’s educational programs are now available to schools across the U.S. via distance learning interactive video technology. The museum hosted its first distance learning program on Oct. 12, offering its Is It a Fiddle or a Violin? program to students in Lake Arthur, La., and Camden, NY. Also, country singer Christy “Cee Cee” McDonald participated in a webcast for 7th & 8th graders in Readfield, Me. The video communication equipment was provided by Cisco TelePresence. Ali Tonn serves as the museum’s director of education and public programming. Teachers wishing to participate can click here.

• Billboard is partnering with marketing agency ‘stache media to debut a country music mini-magazine. The fan publication includes a 20-track CD and will be available exclusively at Target Dec. 27 for $4.99. Two different covers feature Zac Brown Band and Jason Aldean.

The Academy of Country Music hosted a stage at the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo in Las Vegas earlier this month. Pictured (L-R): MaryAnne Beaman, Las Vegas Events; artist JT Hodges; and ACM’s Michelle Goble. Photo: Getty Images/ACM

• Immerse, the Gospel Music Association’s Music Training Experience, will hold its fourth annual session July 23-25 at Rocketown in Nashville. Those who register before Dec. 31, 2011 will be allowed to vote in the 43rd Annual GMA Dove Awards. The $199 early-bird rate lasts until March 31, 2012. Earlier this year, Jackie Patillo took over as Executive Director of the GMA.

• The Billy Block Show and his Locals Only show are moving from WKDF to WSIX/97.9 beginning Jan. 1, 2012, reports Radio-Info.com. It will air Sunday nights from 5-7 p.m. Sarah Darling and Trailer Choir’s Big Vinny and Butter are on the line-up for New Years Day.

• American Voices, in partnership with the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, is accepting applications for the American Music Abroad 2012-2013 touring season. All genres are invited to apply for this international exchange program. Application deadline is Jan. 16, 2012 at 5pm PST. Details at www.americanvoices.org/ama.

Herring Exits Skyville

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Skyville Records President Kevin Herring has exited his position with the label, which he joined in January 2011.

His career includes over 20 years experience in radio and promotion, with tenures at Mercury Records and over a decade with the Walt Disney Company’s Lyric Street Records. His work has been integral in the breakout success of some of country’s biggest names, including Rascal Flatts, Shania Twain, and Toby Keith.

Lost Highway Projects Top Year-End Americana Chart

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Hayes Carll (R) performs with Buddy Miller (L) at the 2011 Americana Awards and Honors show.

The Americana Music Association has released its Top 100 Albums of the Year, based on albums reported to the Americana Airplay Chart between Nov. 16, 2010 and Nov. 14, 2011.

UMG’s Lost Highway lands the top two spots on the list with Hayes Carll’s KMAG YOYO hitting No. 1, and Lucinda Williams’ Blessed at No. 2. Rounder also picked up two of the Top 10, thanks to Alison Krauss & Union Station’s Paper Airplane and Gregg Allman’s Low Country Blues, as did New West Records albums I’ll Never Get Out Of This World Alive by Steve Earle and Dirty Jeans and Mudslide Hymns by John Hiatt. The Top 10 are listed below, and the full list can be seen at americanamusic.org by clicking on the Top 100 albums link.

Top 10:

1. Hayes Carll, KMAG YOYO / Lost Highway
2. Lucinda Williams, Blessed / Lost Highway
3. Steve Earle, I’ll Never Get Out of This World Alive / New West
4. Alison Krauss & Union Station, Paper Airplane / Rounder
5. Emmylou Harris, Hard Bargain / Nonesuch
6. Gregg Allman, Low Country Blues / Rounder
7. Jason Isbell and The 400 Unit, Here We Rest / Lightning Rod
8. John Hiatt, Dirty Jeans and Mudslide Hymns / New West
9. Decemberists, The King Is Dead / Capitol
10. Band of Heathens, Top Hat Crown & The Clapmaster’s Son / BOH Records

CountryBreakout No. 1 Song

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Here’s the thing about time: it’s only moving one direction. So no matter what Doc Brown and Marty McFly would have you believe, there is no backtracking. No undoing what’s been done, and no re-living life’s wonderful and perfect moments. Is it any wonder we hold on with everything we’ve got?

Luke Bryan can relate. Much like his Capitol labelmates Lady Antebellum and their recent carpe-ing diem hit “We Owned The Night”, Bryan’s “I Don’t Want This Night To End” is about one of those perfect nights: fighting daylight with an exciting companion by burning some gas and blaring the radio. Appropriately, the single becomes the CountryBreakout Chart’s No. 1 song in the final chart of 2011, as we prepare to bid the year goodbye and start a new chapter.

Understandably, Bryan might want to hang on to 2011 a little longer. In addition to “I Don’t Want This Night To End,” his single “Country Girl (Shake It For Me)” became a huge radio hit and clarion call for inebriated peoples to follow its titular instructions. Additionally, his Tailgates & Tanlines Tour with Lee Brice, Josh Thompson, and Matt Mason was one of CMT On Tour’s most successful outings to date. Bryan also served as a special CMA Awards red carpet correspondent for The Ellen DeGeneres Show. Starting in 2012, he’ll join up with Jason Aldean on the young superstar’s massive My Kinda Party Tour.

See, Luke? Even though one good night might be ending, another could very well be on the way. Happy New Year!

Weekly Chart Report (12/16/11)

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Anna Sophia Benken

LIFENOTE
Congratulations to Quarterback Records VP Promotion Tony Benken and Morris Management’s Tiffany Swinea Benken on the birth of daughter Anna Sophia Benken. She was born on Dec. 15 at 6:32 PM and joins big sister Ava in the growing Benken clan.

SPIN ZONE
Kudos to Luke Bryan, Capitol Records, and their promotion teams on scoring a No. 1 single with “I Don’t Want This Night to End” in the final CountryBreakout Chart of 2011. Capitol also earns a humongous debut with Lady Antebellum’s “Dancin’ Away With My Heart,” which vaults onto the chart at No. 36.

Quarterback Records recording artist Sherry Lynn recently stopped by WDNB/ Thunder 102 in Liberty, NY to visit PD Paul Ciliberto and drop off a load of toys for the station's Toys for Tots toy drive. Sherry Lynn has released "The Breakin Up Song" and is on a radio tour in the northeast to promote it.

Kudos also to our high-charting indies: Eric Lee Beddingfield‘s “Great Depression” at No. 19, DJ Miller’s “Between Sundays” at No. 25, Darren Warren’s “Cowboy Up And Party Down” at No. 26, and Badhorse’s “It’s All Good” at No. 28. Moving quickly toward the top of the chart are Taylor Swift’s “Ours” at No. 23 and Tim McGraw’s “Better Than I Used To Be” at No. 35.

That’ll do it for us this year. Stay tuned for all kinds of exciting CountryBreakout action in 2012. Have a wonderful holiday and a happy new year!

Frozen Playlists: KBCN, KFTX, KREK, KTWI, KYEZ, WKTT

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Holiday Airplay
Toby Keith & Sammy Hagar/Santa’s Going South/SDU
Tim McGraw/Christmas All Over The World/Red Light
Big & Rich/Blue Christmas/WMN
Joe Nicols/Old Toy Trains/Show Dog-Universal
Uncle Kracker/My Hometown (Christmas Version)/Atlantic/BPG
Joey + Rory/Remember Me/Let It Snow/Vanguard/Sugar Hill
Lisa Matassa/The Chrismas Song/It Is What It Is Records/Nine North
Craig Campbell/I’ll Be Home For Christmas
Andy Gibson/The Christmas Song/R&J Records
Rachel Holder/Christmas Eve/Curb
Lucy Angel/Mr. Santa/GForce
Little Big Town/Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas/Capitol
Jessica Ridley feat. Chris Cline/The Spirit Of Christmas/Nine North/Turnpike
Jesse & Noah/I Want Texas For Christmas

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New On The Chart—Debuting This Week
Artist/song/label — chart pos.
Lady Antebellum/Dancin’ Away With My Heart/Capitol — 36
Oak Ridge Boys/What’cha Gonna Do/Cracker Barrel — 70
Tyler Farr/Hot Mess/BNA — 73
Ronnie Dunn/Let The Cowboy Rock/Arista — 74
Shawna Russell/Waitin’ On Sunrise/Way Out West Records — 75
Miranda Lambert/Over You/RCA — 76

Greatest Spin Increase
Artist/song/label — spin+
Lady Antebellum/Dancin’ Away With My Heart/Capitol — 655
Taylor Swift/Ours/Big Machine — 422
Tim McGraw/Better Than I Used To Be/Curb — 318
Brantley Gilbert/You Don’t Know Her Like I Do/Valory — 283
George Strait/Love’s Gonna Make It Alright/MCA — 240

Most Added
Artist/song/label — New Adds
Lady Antebellum/Dancin’ Away With My Heart/Capitol — 44
Brantley Gilbert/You Don’t Know Her Like I Do/Valory — 21
Ronnie Dunn/Let The Cowboy Rock/Arista — 20
Miranda Lambert/Over You/RCA 20
Tim McGraw/Better Than I Used To Be/Curb — 18
Taylor Swift/Ours/Big Machine — 17
Blake Shelton/Drink On It/WMN/Warner Bros. — 11
Tyler Farr/Hot Mess/BNA — 11

On Deck—Soon To Be Charting
Artist/song/label — spins
Rachel Holder/Christmas Eve/Curb — 199
The Farm/Home Sweet Home/All In/Elektra/New Revolution — 191
Sawyer Brown/Travelin’ Band — 186
Jesse Keith Whitley/Saving Amy/Octabrook Music — 180
Jackie Arredondo/Rockin’ the Trailer/Gold Voice — 176

Big Ride Entertainment's Marlee Scott recently visited the staff of WJVC 96.1/Long Island, N.Y. to promote her new single “Trainwreck.” Marlee just wrapped shooting a video with director Roman White for the song earlier this month. Her Christmas single, “Someday At Christmas” is at radio now. (L-R) Phathead (WJVC PD/MD), Marlee, Glenn Noblit (InstiGator Entertainment)

RCA Promotes Easler

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Josh Easler

Josh Easler has been promoted to the post of Director, National Promotion for RCA Nashville. Based in Nashville, he begins his new role immediately and reports directly to Keith Gale, Vice President, National Promotion for RCA Nashville.

Gale comments, “Josh has been in our system for six years and contributed greatly to RCA’s successes. His passion for our artists and their music is limitless. He has earned this new challenge, and I’m excited to be working with him in his new role for the RCA Records label.”

On the promotion, Easler remarked, “I am humbled and honored to be trusted with such a tremendous responsibility. The group of artists, their managers, and the staff at RCA and Sony Nashville are incredible people. I can’t wait to get started in this new role”

Most recently, Easler was Manager, Regional Promotion for RCA. Prior to joining the RCA family in the summer of 2006, Josh spent seven years with WKLB Boston.

A native of rural Maine, Josh moved to Boston in 1996, where he attended Curry College to study radio broadcasting.

Charlie Cook On Air: Radio ≠ Pandora

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I have written a couple of times about radio going the way of Pandora. I do not think this is healthy for either the individual radio stations or for the artists in our format.

A couple of things happened this month that strengthen my feelings about making sure that radio stays active, engaged and entertaining beyond the music.

First, radio’s new cheerleader (Clear Channel CEO) Bob Pittman continued his rah rah for radio and repeated his contention that Pandora (add Spotify and the other on-line music shovelers) is really a music shuffler. His speech at the Radio Ink conference in New York was a continuation of his road show from earlier this year and most prominently in Chicago at the NAB meeting.

AM and FM radio is a combination of many elements that provides not just music, but also companionship, information, and promotional opportunities for clients and artists.  Not leveraging all that a well-programmed radio station has to offer is leaving opportunity behind at every turn.

Secondly, at the Arbitron seminar in Baltimore, Coleman Insights, Media Monitors, and Arbitron presented a comprehensive study proving that commercials on the radio are NOT the tune out terrors program directors have feared and warned of for all these years.

The study looked at 18 million commercial breaks, 62 million minutes of commercials and 866 stations for a year to compare audience levels at the beginning of a commercial break and again at the end. That is a lot of analysis. The bottom line, 1-3 minute commercial breaks deliver levels at the end, practically the same as at the beginning of the break. Even breaks as long as three minute lose only four percent of the lead-in audience.

Not only does this fly in the face of what we have long believed, but also seems to be different to how we watch TV. The fast forward/skip button on my Tivo is worn down to nothing.

Let me ask you if a well-crafted and well-executed 30 second informational bit about an artist, or a 30 second comment by Luke Bryan about his new CD is anywhere as onerous as a commercial from “Big Bubba Johnson’s used cars on the corner of 1st and Main”?

If listeners are willing to stay through a 3 minute spot set, are they likely to stay through something that deals with the reason they chose this specific station? This is why I object to stripping the station of content and making it a music box.

Even longer commercial breaks, 3-6 minutes, retained 90 percent of lead-in audience.  This does not mean that 9 out of 10 people listening at the beginning of the spot set are still there at the end. It means that at the end of the spot break there was an audience equal to 90 percent of the audience at the start of the set. This could be listeners who came into the station during the spot break and stayed until the end, making up for the listeners who did leave at some point.

Many of us think of radio usage as being only in the car where the search for another station is just a flick away but in fact, much of the listening is done in other environments where there is no button to push.

Some programmers may program only to the button pushers and fail to consider the listener who comes to their station for the entire entertainment experience that includes the personality, information and yes, even commercials.

I believe Mr. Pittman is correct in describing radio as something different than a music stream like Pandora. Without question Pandora has a place. It is going to be successful for a long time. Even after cell phone companies begin to tighten the amount of data we’re allowed.

I love the warning I get when I call up Pandora on my cell phone: “This product will use a large amount of data and you are responsible for all data charges.”

Not as dire as “cigarettes will cause cancer” but the only warning we should include on terrestrial radio is that “you might hear a song that was driven up the charts by a first class promotion team but is really is a piece of crap and shouldn’t really be played this many times a day.”

Skip Bishop Exits Sony

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MusicRow has confirmed the exit of Sony Music Nashville Sr. VP Promotion Skip Bishop from the label group. Bishop joined the label in 2005 as VP National Promotion for Arista Nashville, and in 2009 he was named Sr. VP Promotion for the entire label group consisting of Arista, RCA, and Columbia/BNA.

Prior to joining Sony he served as President and CEO of his own Bishop Bait & Tackle, a large independent marketing and promotion firm. Bishop’s career also includes time as Sr. VP MCA Los Angeles and Sr. VP Pop Promotion for RCA in New York.

No further details regarding Bishop’s plans or his replacement at Sony are available at this time.

For Sony Music Nashville promotion inquiries, please contact lesly.tyson@sonymusic.com (Arista Nashville), keith.gale@sonymusic.com (RCA), or norbert.nix@sonymusic.com (Columbia/BNA).

Kingsley To Be Honored At Country Radio Hall of Fame Ceremony

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Bob Kingsley

Radio veteran and syndicated countdown host Bob Kingsley will be honored with the President’s Award at the Country Radio Hall of Fame Awards and Dinner Feb. 21. The event takes place at 6 pm in the Nashville Convention Center Ballroom and leads into Country Radio Seminar 2012, Feb. 22-24.

The President’s Award is presented to “an individual who has made a significant contribution to the marketing, production, growth, and development of the Country Radio Seminar and the multiple services that Country Radio Seminar provides to the country radio and music communities.”

“Without the hard work and innovation of Bob Kingsley, Country radio today would be very different,” says CRS President Mike Culotta. “Bob Kingsley has been an avid supporter of Country radio, and he has been the most consistent advocate of Country Radio Seminar throughout its history. We are excited to present Bob with this year’s CRS President’s Award.”

Additionally the ceremony will honor 2012 Country Radio Hall of Fame inductees Beverlee Brannigan, Moby, Ron Rogers, Eddie Stubbs, Rusty Walker and Bill Whyte.

• • • • •

The CRS staff recently took a break from planning the 2012 Country Radio Seminar to celebrate the holiday season with its annual industry party.

(L-R): Kristen England, Creative Services Director; Sheree Latham, CRS Agenda Coordinator; Bill Mayne, Executive Director; Cheri L. Martin, Brand Marketing & Strategic Partnerships; Leah James, New Media; Chasity Crouch, Business Manager; Kristen McRary, Event Support Director; Michelle Tigard Kammerer, Brand Marketing & Strategic Partnerships; Heather Martin, Event Operations.

Singled Out (12/12/11)

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Curb Records and Tim McGraw might be parting ways, but the label still has his last album in the can. “Better Than I Used To Be” is the first single from McGraw’s long-awaited Emotional Traffic album, due out January 17, 2012. Meanwhile, McGraw has a holiday song out called “Christmas All Over The World” and plans to release another, new single after the start of the year. He’ll also join Kenny Chesney for the stadium-conquering Brothers of the Sun Tour starting in June. Tickets are selling out rapidly, so act quickly.

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Then there’s Lady Antebellum’s “Dancin’ Away With My Heart,” which is going for immediate airplay. The third single from the group’s third album Own The Night (Capitol Records Nashville), “Dancin’” was written by group members Charles Kelley, Hillary Scott, and Dave Haywood with their “Need You Now” co-writer Josh Kear. Own The Night also recently earned a Grammy nomination for Best Country Album for the upcoming February honors. Keep an eye out for them as they are scheduled to appear on Good Morning America Wed., Dec. 14 and Live! With Kelly on Thurs., Dec. 15.

 

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Arista Nashville will start the year off with amps turned to 11, thanks to the January release and add date of Ronnie Dunn’s “Let The Cowboy Rock.” A barroom stomper that walks the fertile land between ZZ Top and Lynyrd Skynyrd, “Let The Cowboy Rock” is the third single from Dunn’s self-titled first solo album. Dunn co-wrote the song with white-hot Georgia songwriter Dallas Davidson, who can be found on the current print edition of MusicRow. (Shameless plug time: get a copy here).

• • • •

Mercury Nashville’s Canaan Smith is a new face on the scene, and the label is releasing his debut single “We Got Us” for airplay beginning in January. The song was co-written by Smith with Tommy Lee James and Stephen Barker Liles, and he’s currently working with producers Brett Beavers and Luke Wooten.