Billboard Radio Monitor
December 2, 2005
Country Hicks Or Digitally Dope?

BYLINE: Phyllis Stark

SECTION: CURRENT ISSUE; COUNTRY

LENGTH: 1284 words

Where do country music and radio fit into the high-tech, digital world?

Conventional wisdom holds that country music fans are slow adopters of technology, not active in the digital realm and perhaps even technologically challenged.

But are they?

Surprisingly, the answer may be yes.

When Billboard Radio Monitor asked broadcasters how country fans view or use such things as Internet streaming stations, high-definition side channels, downloading music and file sharing, the results were mixed. But many of the broadcasters polled say their "soccer mom" audience just does not have time to care about such things.

Beyond the anecdotal, there is some hard evidence to support this.

In Edison Media Research's 2005 study "Internet & Multimedia," the findings indicate that "country radio format P1s are less tech-savvy than the rest of the population . . . in just about everything except for digital TV subscriptions," according to Edison VP Jason Hollins, who thinks the digital TV factor may "have something to do with living in more rural areas."

"Overall Internet usage, PC ownership, broadband usage, Internet radio listening, Internet video viewing, iPod/MP3 player ownership [and] satellite radio interest all index somewhat to significantly lower than the overall population," Hollins says.

Mark Lindow, PD of Keymarket Communications WOGI (Froggy 98) Pittsburgh, has found this to be very true of his audience.

When he is on the air and at live events, Lindow says he frequently asks callers about their digital music habits. What he has found is that "they either don't know how to download or don't want to be bothered and prefer having the CD."

"I particularly remember talking to a listener who called me asking about a newer song Froggy was playing," Lindow recalls. "It was the lead single from a forthcoming CD, due out in a month or two. She loved the song [and] wanted to buy it now. So I suggested downloading from iTunes [so] she could have it in a few minutes, and for only 99 cents. The reaction was a clear: 'No, I'll wait for the CD to come out.' "

A few months ago, Lindow tried another experiment.

"Out of curiosity, I had the Froggy airstaff ask callers -- no matter what they were calling in about -- if they downloaded music," he says. "Among all those callers they talked to, it was unanimous. No one was downloading.

"My opinion, based on the listeners I've talked with, is that most of the listeners are not downloading songs, and are buying CDs," Lindow says.

He expresses surprise that "more people aren't using services like iTunes, as it's cheap and relatively easy to do. Certainly every day more and more people are getting comfortable with and learning how to download songs and burn them to CD. So this is all changing as we speak."

Susquehanna Radio senior VP/GM Dan Halyburton thinks there is a perfectly good reason why country listeners may not be as up to speed on technology as listeners of other formats.

"The thing about country formats is that they have always been so family-oriented," he says. "So many of our listeners have children and really busy lives. That's what always slowed our adoption rates down. It's not like we have an audience that isn't educated or lacks money. They have other priorities in their lives, and some of the newer technologies, especially in the audio realm, weren't the first on their lists."

Halyburton says that is especially true when listeners have to choose between "an MP3 player or new tennis shoes for everyone."

And Halyburton thinks another factor may be in play. Country radio listeners, he theorizes, are more satisfied by what they are getting from the radio than fans of some other formats.

"Country radio has and continues to do a very good job of mirroring the musical tastes of its audience," he says. "It's been such an inclusive format, so if you are a country fan you are not really being left out" and having to find music through other methods. "It's not a format that broke down into tight little genres," he says of country. "It's always been kind of nicely homogenized.

'With all that going on it's not surprising that folks say, 'Why do I need all this other stuff?' "

But even Halyburton's home base station, KPLX (the Wolf) Dallas, has plenty of people listening to its streaming audio. In fact, he says the Wolf has his company's second-largest streaming audience after KFOG San Francisco.

At the Wolf, he says, the jocks give away iPods on the air and "talk about streaming and send people to the Web . . . The Wolf does huge [streaming] hours, so there is no lack of usage of that."

'BUCOLIC HICKS AND HAYSEEDS'

Not everyone agrees that the country audience is behind the curve when it comes to technology.

"It's 2005, we are not the bucolic hicks and hayseeds that some think," consultant Keith Hill says. "Country folks do use computers, have e-mail addresses and are buying iPods and HDTV."

"If our Web hits are any indication, country listeners are very tech-savvy," says Sam Thompson, OM for Premiere Radio Networks' syndicated show "After MidNite With Blair Garner."

"We're not only getting tons of hits on our Web site, but we're getting tons of listeners sampling new music on our site every week," Thompson says. "We've also had great experiences with posting exclusive audio, such as interviews, on our site. If the content is compelling, listeners/consumers will respond to it."

Hill was among those who recently helped launch Capitol Broadcasting's WCMC (Genuine Country) Raleigh, N.C., which provided him with some information about just how Web-savvy country listeners may be.

"We launched with our signal not completely optimized," he says. "In less than 90 days we will double our antenna height. Until then we have made streaming audio available via the Web. We have had hundreds of e-mails saying they are tuning us in on the Web in outlying areas and in buildings where radio signals are impeded."

Jaye Albright of Albright & O'Malley Country Consulting says, "Streaming is becoming more and more important, even for upper-demo listeners who you might think would not be listening to a country radio stream."

She cites an example from a Canadian client station. "PD Willie Cole at CKRM Regina [Saskatchewan] reports that during the [Canadian Broadcasting Corp.] strike earlier this fall that numbers of people listening to 620ckrm.com for the hockey and CFL games has been huge. Now, as a result of that new cume discovering that CKRM streams, they are seeing streaming stats during the workday for this AM country station at impressive average-quarter-hour levels."

As for iPods and podcasting, Albright says they have "added fresh buzz to the arena of downloading. In recent research in several client markets, we're seeing more than one in five country radio listeners reporting that their home has at least one iPod. One in four reports they want one for Christmas."

CATCHING UP QUICKLY

So, even if country fans are still a bit behind the curve when it comes to adoption of new technologies, Hill and Edison VP of music and programming Sean Ross think they will likely catch up soon enough.

"The country audience is not what it was five years ago when country listeners were less tech-savvy than, say, rock listeners," Ross says. "Even if country stations aren't targeting 18- to 24-year-olds any more than they were in 1992, there are more of them listening because of the available product. So even if the existing audience didn't develop more interest in the digital music world, chances are that listeners who are already tech-savvy are finding the format."

Hill adds, "It's too early to tell completely, but country listeners are likely to have similar behaviors to all other formats, given time."****