In Like A Lion….

Spring is here in Music City… Winter never was! Just ask Carrie Underwood, who is missing a chimney.

Many music business folks live in Northern Williamson County, south of downtown Nashville.  The tornado sirens whined Wednesday morning for much of the area of middle Tennessee.
This time is was not a drill or radar … only tornado. The National Weather Service now confirms a total of five tornadoes. Carrie Underwood says she was asleep when she heard the hail falling and the sirens going off.  Soon her chimney was in her driveway! The Lexus dealer at the mall had showroom windows blown out. Plenty of damages to landscape and homes and boats at Percy Priest Lake.

So Spring is here … got into a discussion this week about some of the research put out at Winter CRS. Specifically concerning social media. Those who avoid social media interactions are just … silly, stubborn … maybe even stupid!  Simple as that.

It is completely in the DNA of everyone under 30 and plenty of other older age groups.  Facebook for sure … Instagram and Twitter ... Pinterest is huge among some and Snapchat the youngest skewing user demo.

Snapchat took a lot of work to get familiar with and wildly popular with teens. Good app but just not easy to get to know.  BUT my 13-year-old granddaughter has no trouble flying with it, so that’s key.

Social media and the mobile device are IT. They are like hands and fingers to so many below-30-year-olds for sure. Radio and television better redouble its efforts in this area. The future is mobile BUT why can’t anyone get the radio chip turned on the cellphone? Not done for Dems or Reps … odd.

What I don’t understand totally … the obsession of attracting teenagers to the Country format. Taylor Swift brought in school kids and before that Shania. That’s great. But letting that be the main focus seems crazy. And it often feels like that’s where the future is.

So much has changed in Country in my short life … Country music that is celebrated in movies and Hall of Fames appealed to adults. Kids were never in the equation.

Now for the record companies, of course, young people buy/rent music. Older people not so much. For Country radio to follow the labels into a rabbit hole has not been completely a good thing.

There is a need for two distinct Country formats … Bro/New Country and Classic Country. Mixing Bro and George Strait/Alan Jackson doesn’t seem to work well. In markets where the distinct different stations exist, the older audience returns and in big numbers. The old Country music-playing station hard is hard to complete against, if all things are equal.

You saw in the research where it was very important to have personalities. You sure wouldn’t know that in some markets. Jukebox stations without even the time and temperature … just commercials and music … Programmers need to get on the same page. Ignore or embrace, but logic dictates if a free stream and free radio compete. Why do you listen to the one playing  20-plus minutes of commercials an hour?

You listen because they are giving you a service you can’t get from a computer playback machine. News, information benchmarks and weather!  Duh.

Seen Luke Bryan’s official Madame Tussaud’s wax museum figure … It’s amazingly real looking … the Madame opens in Opry Mills in a few weeks…

Luke’s career is still very hot … Sold out Madison Square Garden, and Tonight Show this week. Sixth single from Platinum album. Co-hosting ACMs … Things are going very well…
If anyone is getting more attention than Luke, it’s Keith Urban.

Keith in town this week with a #1 party, on the Oscars front row and red carpet with wife Nicole. Getting a special award from the Grammy people, too. He is on a great run.

Blake was around this week as well. He is such a big TV star now. Very, very famous. His songs all go to #1 … his 23rd most recently.

Still haven’t figured out the no-award nomination thing, but he is good company. You don’t have to look far for big names in the same spot.

Is Kiddie Country coming or going ? It is here to stay ... the pop-ification of Country music. Sat radio has many Country choices. For one station trying to be all things to all Country people … that is quite the juggling contest, isn’t it?