CRS '23 Daily Buzz (3/13)

DAILYBUZZ

Thought You Should Know

Welcome to the 54th Country Radio Seminar and the 11th year of the CRS Daily Buzz, powered by your friends (and one distant cousin) at Country Aircheck. Recaps of the prior day’s main events and a Day Ahead preview (see page 5) will be delivered via the CRS app, email and in print at the first session each morning.

What these pages will cover – and what attendees are about to experience – is a painstakingly curated event unlike any other. As CRB Board Pres. Kurt Johnson explains, “Country radio and the music business are looking for guideposts in changing times. CRS is uniquely positioned to provide tools and knowledge for navigation. Our north star is to present insights and tools that attendees can put into action the next day.”

Actionable content is a must, as challenges abound. “Don’t we all have more challenges than ever?” Johnson asks. “Like every industry, music and radio are working harder than ever, making it difficult – but more important than ever – to pause, connect, assess and regain perspective. CRS does that extremely well. Every year I hear, ‘I wasn’t going to come, but I am so glad I did!’ That’s the first challenge in planning the seminar. The second is finding ways to top ourselves. We deliver killer content and music discovery at entertaining events every year. That fosters an environment for networking in an organic way. You can’t match that anywhere; it just doesn’t exist. Finding new ways to deliver that is a challenge,

, iHeart’s Alek Halverson , Moroney, Audacy’s Marci Braun , Marlowe, and the label’s Randy Goodman and Ali O’Connell

but we are definitely up for it.” Read more of Johnson’s thoughts on the future of CRS in Monday night’s Country Aircheck Weekly.

Power Aids

Speaking of networking, for those who don’t find it quite so organic, the March Country Aircheck print edition offers helpful talking points from a wide range of industry pros. Find out who

March

Issue 1

13, 2023,

Aircheck

Powered by Country Kurt Johnson Pre Bird: Sony’s Dylan Marlowe and Megan Moroney gather a crowd at the label’s Pre-RS event in Nashville Sunday evening (3/12). Pictured (l-r) are the label’s Thomas

hates condiments, likes pipe organs or brings reduced fat CheezIts as a covered dish. Pick up the issue from the Performance Hall lobby or check for digital delivery via email.

While you’re at it, try not to get lost in tales from perhaps the greatest storyteller in the industry, retiring UMG/Nashville Chairman Mike Dungan. Here’s a sample:

“My first CRS was at the Opryland Hotel, which was bizarre enough. The plants alone will completely freak you out. You can’t drink and walk around in there. And what I saw was a whole bunch of people who looked like they were entering a Charlie Daniels lookalike contest. Scruffy beards, big hats and really loud. I thought, ‘Oh my God. I guess this is the price we pay for doing country music.’”

And another: “We were just getting started with Darius Rucker when I took him to CRS and the Bridge Bar. It was a feeding frenzy. I was hoping people would know and appreciate him, but I didn’t expect that kind of attention. We were being pulled in different directions. I could see him at the bar, and the crowd around him getting bigger and bigger. He was continually reaching in his pocket and throwing tens and twenties up on the bar – he’s buying people drinks. He’s got like $200 on the bar by the time I got back to him. I’m like, ‘No, no, no! I’ve got a tab! Use my tab!’ He looks at me and goes, ‘Man ... I’m not like the other artists you work with. I’m already rich.’”

Faces For Radio

As the week fills brains with knowledge, hearts with music and livers with ... buffet food, remember it’s all building toward the New Faces of Country Music dinner and performance. Kind of a big deal, but even more so for the artists.

“Being welcomed into such a great community, there’s some validation to the hard work that my team and I have put in,” Frank Ray says. “As an independent artist or aspiring songwriter, you hope to get this badge of honor.” For Jackson Dean, getting any badge is a big step. “I was having a burger with my day-to-day [Bridger Simons], when he told me about New Faces,” Dean says. “I thought, ‘Well, damn, I remember not even being able to get a laminate to attend last year.’ It’s a hell of an honor.”

The vote of confidence matters to Priscilla Block. “This industry can make you start feeling like you’re not enough, and I never want to feel like that,” she says. “That’s what I’m leaving in 2022: self-doubt.” Nate Smith moved away before returning to Nashville with newfound confidence. “I ended up on a GoFundMe and moving back, even though I swore I never would,” he says. “It has made me appreciate everything so much more.”

Jelly Roll, who closes Wednesday night’s show, leans on the power of three chords and truth. “The only pressure associated with songwriting is the pressure to attempt to make an impact,” he says. “Music is meant to be there for us when we need it the most. At the end of the day, what’s most important to me is that my music is remembered as honest, edgy, thought-provoking and therapeutic.”

Page 3 March 13, 2023

Mike Dungan Frank Ray Priscilla Block Jelly Roll Nate Smith Jackson Dean

The Day Ahead

Monday, 3/13

8:30-11:30am: A&O&B Client Seminar

Omni, Level 3, Cumberland 5-6

7:30am-6pm

Registration

Omni, Level 2, Broadway Hallway

8-8:50am

Sweet Streams (Are Made Of These)

Omni, Level 2, Legends A-C

9-9:50am

Flex Ability: Marketing Without A Map

Omni, Level 2, Legends A-C

10-10:50am

Reach Out: Meeting Listeners Where They Are

Omni, Level 2, Legends A-C

11-11:50am

How They Built It: “Fancy Like” And Its Path To No. 1

Omni, Level 2, Legends A-C

11:45am-12pm

Pre-Lunch Performance by Molly Lovette

Articles inside

DAILYBUZZ

4min

pages 1, 3, 5, 7