November 23, 2020, Issue 732
CMA’s Deaton On Ratings, Radio, More
54th CMA Awards Exec. Producer Robert Deaton goes deep with Country Aircheck on this year’s show. CA: Our radio readers can empathize, but what can you tell us about how those in your world view the record low ratings for this and similar shows? RD: First of all, I personally want to thank Country radio for their support of me and our show. Reading their feedback (CAW 11/16) was awesome. If there was a criticism or wish for things to be done differently, it was a fair assessment. You tend to stay in your own silo in this business, and I didn’t know many people Robert Deaton at Country radio before getting involved with St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital chairing their talent relations committee. I’ve made so many friends – programmers at stations across the country – and really gained perspective on the love they have for this genre and the diligence and work they put into it. As far as ratings, when you’re putting together the show, you know you’re going to be down. The Billboard awards lost 55% of its audience. The Tonys were down. The Emmys had an all-time low last year and were down another 25-30% this year. ACMs were down. To think that we were going to escape that ... I put it out of my mind, because I’ve got to put together a great show whether five million or 20 million people are watching. The other thing we have to remember is these performances go on forever. There are already a million YouTube views of Dan + Shay and Justin Bieber. The younger demos are finding the performances they want to see. The pandemic has also upended how people watch, and I don’t think I realized how much I took for granted the in-house audience. I wanted to put together a beautiful show and do the best I could to represent country music, but it’s still not the spectacle it is when you’ve got 20,000 people in the arena. The question is, when the pandemic is under control, percentage of the TV audience will come back? How do you get them back? (continued on page 9)
You Used To Call Me On My Shell Phone: Dack Janiels/Broken Bow’s Chase Rice (l) with WKRO/Daytona Beach’s DJ Tremble at the Oceanfront Bandshell (inset).
Mountain Road Rides On
Launched in August with a small promotion team (CAT 8/28), Mountain Road Records is doubling down on Rayne Johnson after seeing atypical independent success with his single “Front Seat.” Country Aircheck spoke with President Mark Liggett and Dir./ National Promotion Maurisa Pasick about entering the label fray and what comes next. For industry vet Liggett, the attraction to country started where it typically does. “I’ve been in the record business for 30-plus years, Rayne mostly in Pop and Hot AC,” he says. “I was Johnson around when songs were a bigger deal. Even
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