We’ve all read it or heard it by now – the CJJR-FM interview where Zac Brown called Luke Bryan’s current single, “the worst song I’ve ever heard” and that some songs on country radio make him “ashamed to even be in the same genre.” Well, at least we know where he stands. And of course he’s

“Before and after” pictures can sometimes be startling. Especially when something that was iconic has changed dramatically, is no longer present or when something new “suddenly” appears. Because we’re paying attention to our formats on a daily basis and appropriately navigating our stations through changes, good programmers aren’t generally subject to before-and-after-shock. Even so, side-by-sides

Albright & O’Malley’s just-released second quarter gold sort included four collaborations among the top 25 testers (the Zac Brown Band/Jimmy Buffet “Knee Deep” was the top tester this quarter).  Others in the top 25 were Zac Brown Band/Alan Jackson, “Walking Away,” Blake Shelton/Trace Adkins, “Hillbilly Bone,” and Brad Paisley/Carrie Underwood, “Remind Me.”  Jason Aldean/Kelly Clarkson,

Tastes, opinions and alternatives are anything but static. So if you haven’t had a conversation with your listeners recently, you should.  Here are three fertile and actionable talking points for your next listener panel or focus group: Music Satisfaction.  “Playing the best music” is always a top reason for picking one country station over another. How

With “Alpha Boomer” now one of Arbitron’s standard Tapscan demos, I revisited Albright & O’Malley’s Roadmap 2011 (our annual online perceptual of 10,000+ country listeners) to see how the appeal of the various Music Clusters broke out across 25-54 and the 55-64 leading edge Alpha Boomer demo. The bars below represent the percent of ‘Like