October 9, 2017, Issue 571
Duke Hamilton’s Fire Inside
Country Radio Hall of Famer Duke Hamilton is about to celebrate a huge milestone at Hubbard WUBE/Cincinnati. And while he still has fire in his belly and a passion for radio after 47 years on the air, another fire recently disrupted his life. Here’s more on that ordeal and his incredible radio longevity on the eve of his 40th anniversary at B105. CA: You and your wife Barb lost your home and most of its contents to a fire last year (CAT 1/21/16). Where are you in coming back from that? DH: The station started a GoFundMe page that raised close to $15,000 and that was a big help. There was a lot of feedback from the record community, too. It was a humbling time for me. They say God works in mysterious ways, and a neighbor has a house in his famiDuke Hamilton ly just a quarter mile down the road from our farm. His renters moved out two days before the fire, our church cleaned and painted and we moved in there for about 16 months. It was handy to be that close. We could go over and feed what animals we have left. As for the house, we gutted it – took everything down to the rafters. We kept the same basic floor plan, but did away with the porch and enlarged our bedroom. We changed around a few other little things and have been back in since Memorial Day. What about the animals? For a number of years my wife and I had done mobile petting zoos – going to churches, grand openings and backyard birthday parties with goats, llamas and miniature horses. At one point we even had a camel to take to churches for live nativity scenes during the holidays. As we got older it was a lot of work and we started to downsize. The fire cut off all water and electric to our barn, so then we really had no choice. We still have a few goats and miniature horses, but that’s about it. Your radio story begins where? I started out in Bowling Green, MO. (continued on page 8)
Traveller: Mercury’s Chris Stapleton after playing A Prairie Home Companion in St. Paul Saturday (10/7), followed by a sold-out show at the Xcel Energy Center. Pictured (I-r) are KMNB/Minneapolis’ Lauren MacLeash, Country Radio Hall of Famer Mick Anselmo, Maria Anselmo, Kelly Phelan, Stapleton, KEEY’s Kia Becht, KMNB’s Lucas Phelan, Kia’s friend Denise, Mercury’s Charlie Dean, KEEY’s Levi Jesson and Jesson’s husband Dustin Schimmelpfenning.
Streaming Up The Chart
The following piece by Country Aircheck alum and Stone Door Media Lab founder Jeff Green is updated from his recent presentation on airplay-streaming correlation at the NAB Radio Show in Austin. That work is an extension of his report first presented at CRS 2017 (CAW 4/10). See the full NAB presentation here; reach Green here. Jeff Green If a new single is getting a few million on-demand streams nationally a week, is it a hit? And is streaming activity predictive of a hit single? To find out, the Stone Door Media Lab studied streaming activity on Country
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