Country Radio Stations Wrestle With Format Refinements Amid Chorus Of Criticism
By Claude Hall
Are Olivia Newton-John (right) and John Denver country? That question is controversial in country radio today. RCA photo
Amidst some cries- mostly from the depths of Nashville- that country radio ain’t country anymore, the nation’s radio stations in general have plowed along their tuxedo’d way with artists such as Olivia Newton-John and John Denver mixed in with Loretta Lynn and Conway Twitty duos and solos.
Perhaps the “invasion.” if you can call it that, of some pop-oriented artists into the country domain is only fair play. For years, Nashville acts and those of Bakersfield, Calif., have been invading the pop charts and you can trace this back to Red Foley, Al Dexter, Lefty Frizzell, Marty Robbins, Sonny James, Eddy Arnold, and countless others. Slim Whitman, too, along with Jimmy Wakely, Ferlin Huskey and so on and so on.
Country music radio stations have changed in the past few months. WVOJ in Jacksonville, Fla., is calling itself a “contemporary country music station.” Once, it billed itself as a “modern country music station,” but modern is simply outdated today at some stations - especially with the Mex-Tex flavor of Johnny Rodriguez and Freddie Fender on hand and progressive country acts like Jerry Jeff Walker, Waylon Jennings, Linda Ronstadt, and the sometimes stuff of the rock groups on the scene today.
The country radio field is changing so much, that you even have some fledgling progressive country formats trying to exchange saddles and boots (not really, but figuratively) for wings and things. Notably, KAFM in Dallas, KOKE-FM in San Antonio, and KGBS-FM (at night) in Los Angeles with the Jimmy Rabbitt show.
KGBS-AM calls itself “Gentle Country.” Down in San Diego, KSON-FM is into a “New Breed” kind of country music that accents softer country tunes and some of the funkier artists such as Willie Nelson and Waylon Jennings.
A trend that has some people worried is the tendency toward a short playlist at some stations-WMAQ in Chicago and WVOJ in Jacksonville, Fla. WMAQ is striv ing for a mass audience. So is WVOJ where program director John Harmon operates with a playlist of 45 current records. This compares with many country music stations today, and the case that existed in the past for nearly all country stations, of a playlist about 70-80 records long. Sometimes, even higher.
Bill Ward, general manager of KLAC in Los Angeles, says, “we judge any record in a questionable area like an Olivia Newton-John-and for a while John Denver was in this area - on the individual performance. Some Willie Nelson material - the stuff he did on Atlantic-we wouldn’t go near. But we also started his ‘Blue Eyes Crying In The Rain.’ I’m not backing up and saying we’re a country station and won’t play the borderline records. Still….
WVOJ in Jacksonville is probably one of the top-billing stations in the city, believes John Harmon… and Dan McKinnon with KSON in San Diego is doing fantastic: “in fact, last month was the best we’ve had in billings since 1946,” McKinnon says.
WVOJ’s program director-John Harmon-is today concerned with the growing importance in the Jacksonville market with FM radio. Eventually, he feels “it’s go. ing to be a long row to hoe for any and all AM stations.” FM has recently made significant ratings gains in the city, he says. and “all AM stations are running scared, especially the AM rock music stations.”
Jay Hoffer, vice president of programming at KRAK in Sacramento, Calif., says that he plays the Olivia Newton-John type of record. “But I want to qualify that. I don’t play everything by her. A couple of her records I didn’t think were country records. Yet, we’re playing “Something Better To Do’ and we’re also playing John Denver, of course.”
The World Of Country Music, Billboard