Country Radio Broadcasters, Inc. is reporting a 3.5 percent year-to-year increase in attendance for CRS 2010 which closed on Friday (2/26).

This year’s CRS 2010 total attendance was 2,181, with 1,576 full registrants (attendees, exhibitors, panelists and sponsors) and 605 participant registrants. Participant registrants represent attendees that register for individual events or single day passes, but not the full three-day seminar. Last year’s CRS 2009 total attendance was 2,106.

“We are extremely pleased that CRS 2010 not only met our expectations, but exceeded them this year in many ways,” says CRB interim Executive Director Bill Mayne. “The attendance, sponsorship, participation, and enthusiasm were especially heartening. The level of artist talent was stellar, and the radio agenda panels were thought provoking and relevant. We were encouraged to see the Country Radio industry really get behind this year’s seminar, and our attendance figures show that. Every participant had the opportunity to walk away with valuable resources, relationships and ideas, and we look forward to continuing to improve the CRS experience as we move forward with this event for many more years to come.”

Several changes to the CRS agenda committee and CRB board of directors have been announced, including the creation of an additional CRS Co-Vice Chair position.

The newly elected CRB board officers and CRS agenda committee members are as follows:

CRB President: Mike Culotta (WQYK, Tampa, Fla.)
CRB Vice President: R.J. Curtis (Arista Nashville, Nashville, Tenn.)
CRB Secretary: Carole Bowen (WKIS, Miami, Fla.)
CRB Treasurer: Jeff Walker (The AristoMedia Group, Nashville, Tenn.)
CRS 2011 Agenda Chair: John Paul (Dial Global, Denver, Colo.)
CRS 2011 Co-Vice Chair: Clint Marsh (Talking Stick Communications, Warsaw, Ind.)
CRB 2011 Co-Vice Chair: Annie Sandor (Curb Records, Nashville, Tenn.)

“We feel it’s important to emphasize the sales side of Country radio at CRS 2011, so we have added another Vice Chair position to our agenda committee,” says Agenda Chair John Paul. “With the addition of Clint Marsh, we now have a Vice Chair who comes from the General Manager side of things, while the other Vice Chair, Annie Sandor, comes from the label/promotion side. With my experience in programming, we have nearly every angle of our business covered as we begin planning CRS 2011.”

The newly elected CRB board members are Jim Asker (All Access, Nashville, Tenn.) and Charlie Morgan (Emmis Communications, Indianapolis, Ind.). Both will serve three-year terms on the CRB board, along with re-elected members Becky Brenner, Joel Burke, Mike Dungan, Renee Leymon, Mike McVay, Joel Raab and John Zarling.

Continuing their terms on the CRB board are: Tom Baldrica, Carole Bowen, Natalie Conner, John Crenshaw, Mike Culotta, R.J. Curtis, David Haley, Clay Hunnicutt, Keith Kaufman, Scott Lindy, Bill Macky, Michael Osterhout, Royce Risser, Denise Roberts, Tim Roberts, John Shomby, Jeff Walker and Rusty Walker.

CRS 2011 will be held March 2-4, 2011, at the Nashville Convention Center in Nashville, Tenn. Visit www.CRB.org for more information.

By Rob Simbeck
[Nashville Scene] Just over a year ago, Gretchen Wilson looked into the abyss. Her third album, One of the Boys, had tanked, its singles stalling at 32, 35, and 53 in Billboard. The label team that had guided her 2004 debut CD Here for the Party to quintuple platinum sales had largely been swept away in the wake of a corporate merger. She had asked in mid-2008 to be released from her Columbia Records contract, but Joe Galante, chairman of parent company Sony Music Nashville, had declined, saying he wanted to launch one more album. Singles from that project had also gone nowhere and its release was in limbo.

Even when things went right they went wrong. After the label placed her “Work Hard, Play Harder,” in a promotional spot for Saving Grace, the Black Crowes sued, alleging she and co-writers John Rich and Vicky McGehee had ripped off the verse melody from their “Jealous Again.” And Wilson’s sprawling 300-acre Lebanon, Tenn., estate and the 30 people who made up her band, crew and staff, once symbols of just how far she’d come, were rapidly draining her resources.

“The lowest moment I’ve had,” she says, “came in January of last year when I had to take 12 of my employees off of salary. I hadn’t had a hit song in three years. The economy the way it is, the money going down, down, down, I just couldn’t afford them anymore, and I realized, ‘Wow. It’s all fading away here. What are the chances I’m going to be sitting here next January letting the rest of them go and closing up?’ I had to face that that was a possibility. And I had never been so broken up as I was when I had to have that meeting with them, because I just didn’t want to fail them.”

The pain and uncertainty would last for six more months.

“I saw her at a gig in Cincinnati on the Fourth of July,” says Wilson’s publicist, Craig Campbell, who was part of her original Columbia Records team, “and it was the most down I had ever heard her. She was frustrated. She thought she had turned in a good album and she was bummed about everything.”

“I don’t remember a regional rep from the label present at a concert for the last two years,” she says. “I had regionals there with other new artists but they weren’t there for me. That’s a stab. That hurts.”

Read more…

The music at Country Radio Seminar is abundant.

Taylor Swift “and friends” capped the festivities on Tuesday (2/23) with a Music City Jam at the Convention Center. The “friends” turned out to be Gloriana and Julianne Hough. Taylor was presented with a plaque for 10 million units sold.

On Wednesday (2/24), UMG brought out almost its entire roster (minus Shania and Strait) to the Ryman. As “ringmaster” Royce Risser explained, everybody got one song, performed acoustically. Jamey Johnson drew a standing ovation for his “That’s Why I Write Songs, as did Vince Gill with a moving “Bread and Water.” Among the newcomers, both Randy Montana and Mallary Hope won over fans. Ryan Bingham sang his Oscar-nominated “The Weary Kind” from the acclaimed film Crazy Heart.

The 18 performers also included Lee Ann Womack, Easton Corbin, David Nail (singing powerfully), Ashton Shepherd, The Randy Rogers Band, Sugarland, Gary Allan, Josh Turner, Billy Covington, the aforementioned Julianne Hough, Laura Bell Bundy, Josh Kelley and Coldwater Jane.

That night (2/24), Rascal Flatts saluted country radio with a party celebrating the group’s 10th anniversary. The most emotional moment was bringing Marty Raybon on stage for “Church on the Cumberland Road.” It was a lovely, heart-tugging gesture. Several stations were recognized for supporting Rascal Flatts. It turns out that KBEQ in Kansas City was the first to play “Prayin’ for Daylight,” the band’s debut single. Meanwhile, Lady Antebellum was entertaining a packed house at the Hard Rock (2/24).

The CMA research study was unveiled Thursday morning (2/25). Country music buying is down 28%. The number of country fans is slightly down, but the ones we have are listening to radio longer and want the playlists to be less repetitive (hello!).

The CRS exhibit hall is now an exhibit hallway, outside the Renaissance Ballrooms. There can’t be more than a couple dozen booths up there, so it looks pretty sad.

Working the Convention Center (2/25) were Jack Ingram, Lynn Anderson, The Harters, Veronica Ballestrini, Burns & Poe, Adam Fisher, The Jane Dear Girls and Gwen Sebastian. Sharon Eaves had Bryan White in tow. He has a new CD titled Dustbowl Dreams and in April will be showcasing at Birdland in Manhattan along with Gary Burr and Victoria Shaw.

Clay Underwood has news, too. He has signed a song publishing deal with Mike Hollandsworth and Full Circle Music. The new duo Mollie & Jackie is putting out a single to benefit the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. Titled “You Can’t Say Love Enough,” it features a bunch of celebrity guest vocalists, including Larry Gatlin, Dolly Parton, Wayne Newton, Bill Anderson, Steve Wariner, Mark Collie, Cowboy Troy, Heidi Newfield and Heartland.

Thursday’s Sony luncheon (2/25) was turkey and dressing with all the trimmings. Skip Bishop hosted. Danny Gokey sang splendidly on the rocking, soaring “My Best Days Are Ahead of Me.” Just before he competed on American Idol, Danny’s wife died. It turns out that so did the wife of his single’s co-writer, Kent Blazy. So this song has special meaning. “I’m excited about life again,” explained Danny, dedicating “I Will Not Say Goodbye” to his late spouse.

Brooks & Dunn announced that the finale concert of their Last Rodeo tour will be in Nashville on August 10 and that its proceeds will go to the Country Music Hall of Fame & Museum. The organization’s Kyle Young lauded them as “good citizens.” The duo answered audience questions and told highly amusing anecdotes about The Rolling Stones, souvenir photos and a grease-spewing smoke machine.

After they exited, Alan Jackson walked out unannounced, saying, “How y’all doin?’” He asked for the house lights to be turned up so that he could see everybody. “These are hard for me, these luncheon things,” he drawled, recalling when he played for the Ramada Inn Sunday brunch crowd for four hours for $25. “I just thought about that. Today, I don’t even get $25.”

His relaxed yet moving set included “Here in the Real World,” “Good Time,” “Little Bitty,” “Remember When” and “Livin’ on Love.” After performing “Mercury Blues,” he told the crowd that a then-unknown Keith Urban was in its video, playing guitar. He introduced a new tune titled “God Bless the Working Man” and asked the audience for requests. “It’s Five O’Clock Somewhere” and “Song for the Life” ensued. During “Chattahoochie,” he tossed guitar picks to the delighted crowd. He dedicated his finale, “The Way I Am,” to Merle Haggard.

“I want to say, seriously, I know how lucky I am,” said the eternally humble superstar.