CRS Panel: How To Get Get More Women On Country Radio

“2020 needs to be the year of the female artist” at country radio declared David Corey, country brand manager for the Beasley Media Group and program director at WKLB Boston at the launch of the Country Radio Seminar panel All the Singles, Ladies: Breaking Female Artists on Thursday (Feb. 20) in Nashville.

Billboard reports the programmers on the panel, moderated by Katie Dean, MCA Nashville’s senior VP of promotion, were focused on solutions at radio as opposed to rehashing past stats the reflect how dismal the situation is for women country artists.

Among their suggestions:

• Play more new artists in general— male and female, suggested Nate Deaton, general manager, KRTY San Jose. “I don’t think it’s a female artist problem, its a new artist problem,” Deaton said. “There’s a tremendous lack of new artist airplay for both genres. We’re trying on our catalog and not breaking new artists at radio.” 
• Stop relying so much on research—or at least make the research playing field level. “Did you really give the song a chance” before soliciting caller research, asks Johnny Chiang, director of operations for Cox Media Group, which includes Houston’s KKBQ. “You need to give it 500-600 spins at least to get a real take.” Corey agreed, noting that songs by female artists often test poorly in caller research because they have not received as many spins as their male counterparts or because they languish in overnights.
• Ditch the idea that listeners don’t want to hear women—whether as artists or as air personalities. Chiang’s on-air staff at KKBQ is led by all females, but he admits he had to fight to make that happen. “I put the question in our strategic study: ‘Would you listen to four female DJs in a day?’ And the response we got back was ‘Are you nuts? Why are you even asking that question?’”
• Nashville labels need to sign more female artists. “It’s critical for labels to sign more female artists, Corey said. “If there’s any chance that the radio groups” will commit to playing more women, “we need labels to sign more.”  The combined current country rosters for BBR Music Group, Big Machine Label Group, Sony Nashville, Universal Music Group Nashville and Warner Music Nashville tally 134 acts, according to their websites. Of that amount, 38 —or 28.3 percent— are female solo acts or groups that include females.