January 4, 2009
The State of Country Radio 2009
By Ed Salamon
Executive Director
Country Radio Broadcasters, Inc.
Nashville, TN






Like most of American business, Country radio's year ahead hangs on the hope for economic recovery.

Radio depends on advertising for its income. Since advertising is discretionary, it is among the first expenses cut by businesses in tough times.  Radio revenues, as tracked by the Radio Advertising Bureau, have declined for 19 consecutive months. It hasn't helped that several major radio advertiser categories including Automotive, Retail and Financial Service, have been among the sectors hardest hit by the recession. Country has suffered somewhat less than other radio formats because it has a higher percentage of stations in small and mid-sized markets, which have not been affected as much as those in larger markets.

The number of radio listeners has grown from 232 million to 234 million over the course of the past year, according to the RADAR 99 study released by Arbitron in December, but Country may not be getting its fair share .

News/Talk has now replaced Country as America's dominant radio format. Country has slipped to second place. There are now 2027 Country radio stations (down from 2049 last December) and there are 2056 News/Talk Stations (up from 2025 last December) according to InsideRadio.com. The rise of the spoken word format may be attributed to the Presidential Election and the economy, which has provided material for the format. The economy may have also affected programming decisions to go with Talk, because Talk's most successful personalities are national and often less expensive for a station to broadcast than locally originated music programming. Fewer Country radio stations result in less exposure for Country recordings, songs and artists.  However, Country radio still  remains the dominant music format, since more stations broadcast Country than any other category of music. As a result of the large number of stations playing Country music, six of the top ten most played artists on American radio last year were Country artists, according to Neilsen Broadcast Data Systems.

As the Country music industry largely depends on radio for exposure, so radio depends on it for music programming. Prospects for the Country music industry in 2009 are mixed. Country’s bright spots include Taylor Swift, who was 2008's best selling music artist in all genres, and a number of artists who have achieved Pop and Rock success are choosing to be part of Country music. They include Darius Rucker (formerly of Hootie and The Blowfish), Jewel, Kid Rock and The Eagles. On the other hand, new acts such as Lady Antebellum, James Otto, Kellie Pickler, Chuck Wicks and the Zac Brown Band broke through in the past year and will be part of the New Faces Show at The Country Radio Seminar. Despite that infusion of talent, Country sales were down 24% this year, according to SoundScan, We can expect the challenge of the Record industry to monetize internet and other non-physical music sales to continue in the coming year. More of the record companies investing in artists' careers have been seeking to profit from artists' revenue streams beyond their recordings, such as concert merchandising and endorsements (called "360 deals"). The concert business indeed has increased in the past year and is one of the bright spots in the recession. Two Country acts, Kenny Chesney and Rascal Flatts are among the top ten touring artists, according to Billboard. Songwriters and publishers are also doing better than ever, according to figures released this year from the performing rights societies.  In 2008 both ASCAP and BMI reported record earnings, with increases of 10% and 7.2 %, respectively, and should continue in positive territory in the new year.

The Country Radio Seminar (March 4-6 in Nashville) will address the challenges of the Country industry in 2009  with more than three dozen presentations, including Keynote Speaker marketing guru Seth Godin and the reveal of a study conducted by Edison Media Research of Country listeners. The CRS New Faces of Country Music show will present five acts who will continue to impact the industry in the next year, and labels will unveil new acts and recordings during what has become "market week" for the Country music industry.

Country radio continues to serve listeners and advertisers in these tough times and will rebound when the economy recovers.