CRS Week: Good Time To Listen To The Bobby Bones Show

Bobby Bones

Of the expected 2,500 attendees, you can be sure many radio managers and other personalities attending this week’s Country Radio Seminar in Nashville will be checking out The New Bobby Bones Show.

The show started Feb. 18 on WSIX and this week added some 35 stations to its line-up.

The folks at WSIX-FM 97.9 FM spared little expense last week in welcoming to town a rising star in the world of country music. He was feted with a lunch and news conference at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, where guests including Jake Owen, Joe Nichols and Jana Kramer stopped by to wish him well.

The Nashville Tennessean reports in a feature story that WSIX hopes the new morning show will send a message to young country fans that the Clear Channel station gets them. That it is just as cool, young and fresh as they are.

Michael Bryan

“We’re targeting the show to the 20- and 30-somethings, which hasn’t been done in the country format,” WSIX Program Director Michael Bryan said. “If you look at the artists, what we’re doing is a reflection of what’s popular. We have to do this if we’re going to raise a new generation of country listeners.”

Whether that strategy is a sound one will be the center of a discussion this week at the Country Radio Seminar. “Younger Country — Is 18-34 the new 25-54?” is one of several sessions scheduled during the four-day event.

Executives in the radio world are split on the best way forward. Some, such as Bryan, say catering to a younger crowd is the way to stay not just current, but also viable. But others worry that putting too much focus on one group could come at the expense of others and the genre as a whole.

Jaye Albright

Jaye Albright, who has advised country radio stations for 25 years, says radio programmers should take a cue from census data, which indicate that today’s 16- to 33-year-olds, estimated at about 78 million people, as a group are not only larger than the generation immediately preceding them, but also larger than the leading edge of baby boomers.

“You don’t even have to target younger. It’s just that America is becoming younger because of this generational cohort,” said Albright, who co-owns the consulting firm Albright and O’Malley. “I don’t think the average country station has to do anything to attract the younger generation. All you have to do is play the latest hits by the latest stars.”

Stations will probably, however, need to do things to reflect the values and social norms of that group, Albright said.

Country is the No. 1 radio format, according to “Radio Today,” a report released by Arbitron last year. Country radio grew 0.8 percent in 2011, the largest increase of any format, according to the report. Already, country radio captures the largest share of listeners over four categories spanning the ages 18 to 54, according to the report. Country stations were favored over those playing Top 40 and adult contemporary music.

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