Country radio programmers hear criticism at seminar
March 15, 1999
By The Associated Press
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) -- Listeners are deserting country music radio
stations because they're bored with the music being played, according to
two teams of researchers who spoke at a convention of radio industry
workers.
More than 2,300 of the nation's 10,000 radio stations play country music,
making it the most popular format in the United States. But ratings have
dropped about 25 percent over the past two years.
Researchers speaking Friday at the annual Country Radio Seminar said
listeners are tired of hearing songs that are indistinguishable from one
another, and they think programmers should be less loyal to established
artists.
"What's the expression? Beat a dead horse -- it still ain't going to run.
That's what they do," said one man surveyed by Denver-based researchers
Roger Wimmer and Matt Hudson.
Another member of the focus group said he "couldn't tell Bryan White from
Wade Hayes if they walked through that door." White and Hayes are young
country music singers.
Wimmer and Hudson showed video clips of anonymous interviews of focus
groups conducted in Kansas City. Edison Media Research of Somerset, N.J.,
released statistics from a study of 611 country music fans in six
metropolitan areas.
"I find country's obsession with artists questionable at times," said
Larry Rosin of Edison.
He said 48 percent of the fans Edison surveyed thought their local
station would play records by a superstar act, even if the music wasn't
good.
Rosin said pop radio stations were far less loyal to established artists
than their country counterparts. He used Alanis Morissette as an example.
After songs from the pop singer's "Jagged Little Pill" album were
successful, "radio yawned collectively" at her follow-up album, he said.
Rosin said the message given was that if Morissette's music wasn't up to
snuff, her name wouldn't be enough to get it played.
Country fans miss the outlaw movement of the 1970s when unique artists
like Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson were popular, the researchers
said.
