examining voltair and beyond - country aircheck

July 20, 2015, Issue 457

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Crushin’ With Success: Arista’s Brad Paisley (c) on his Crushin’ It World Tour in Cleveland Friday (7/17) with (l-r) Sony’s Ken Robold, WQMX/Akron’s Sarah Kay, Jody Wheatley and Sue Wilson, Sony’s Randy Goodman and Steve Hodges and Arista’s Lesly Simon.

PPM For Dummies (Like Us) Conceptualized in the ‘80s, developed with the help of engineers at defense contractor Martin Marietta and implemented beginning in 2007, Nielsen Audio’s (formerly Arbitron’s) Portable People Meter uses an audio watermarking technology. Employing principles of psychoacoustics, the premise is basically to hide a specialized audio code

Examining Voltair And Beyond At noon CT tomorrow (7/21), a Nielsen Audio client webinar aims to begin answering questions about the Voltair processor that many in the industry say have shaken their belief in the reliability of the entire PPM system. The notion that revenue, formats, careers, music and more have been shaped by what some feel could be flawed technology has, in less than a year, become a widely discussed possibility. “This could be a cataclysmic circumstance for this industry,” says Max Media/Norfolk VP/GM Dave Paulus. Whether Nielsen’s presentation can begin to put the doubt genie back in the bottle – or will even attempt to – is speculative, although there are a few hints. But more on that later. Here’s what’s known: Manufactured by the Telos Alliance’s 25-Seven Systems in Cleveland, the first Voltair went on the air in May of last year. Currently there are estimated to be between 600 and 700 of the units across PPM markets and there is a six to seven-week waiting list for the $15,000 unit. Talk Of The Talk: Proponents say that once installed in a station’s audio chain, the Voltair unit “enhance[s] the detectability” of PPM watermark codes. These codes are embedded into a station’s content 12 times each minute (see PPM For Dummies, right), but critics question the robustness of that encoding when the station’s content in the target 1-3kHz frequencies is quiet, intermittent or weak – (continued on page 6)

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P A G E T H R E E P I C

Joe Joe Joe Joe Diffie: Then-WROO/Jacksonville PD Buzz Jackson (r) and girlfriend Dena at a 1997 Joe Diffie label event with the “dead guy” from the “Prop Me Up Beside the Jukebox (If I Die)” music video (inset). Don’t be a stiff; send your old pictures to [email protected].

slightly behind (in time and amplitude) an existing segment of audio in a station’s signal. The human ear will hear the initial and more prominent tone and will not hear the encoding signal. This is called masking. These masked codes are injected 12 times each minute into the audio by a Nielsen encoding device installed at the end of a station’s audio processing chain. The encoding happens in the 1kHz to 3kHz sonic range, so when those tones are quiet, intermittent or non-existent – as in talk or silence – audio may be broadcast that is simply not well encoded. To what extent this happens is still in question. “You can read the [PPM] patent applications online, but Arbitron was very reluctant to share technical information,” says researcher Richard Harker. “If they did tests like those done in other countries, they wouldn’t release the results. We still don’t know what an acceptable error rate is. We’ve never heard a number as far as how loud radio has to be to be accurately decoded. Ambient noise is a big issue. Maybe 97% of audio codes correctly for a quiet room, but most people don’t listen in that environment. There were hints that became red flags for us – stations dropping in share and other disturbing changes in the ratings.” “We were enthusiastic about PPM’s potential for greater precision and timely information,” he says of those early days. “The more we learned about audio watermarking and how Arbitron implemented it, some things weren’t quite right.” As the Voltair website points out, PPM has two distinct components that affect accuracy. On the audio content side, the nature of a station’s broadcast can impact how robustly Nielsen’s encoding is added to the signal. On the listener environment side, the acoustics of the room or vehicle can impact how well the meter records the embedded watermark. For obvious reasons, the Voltair unit can only impact the audio content side of the equation. In addition to monitoring a station’s content and allowing programmers to see how well different elements are encoding, the box’s active mode processes the station’s signal to boost encoding. Essentially, Voltair increases the amplitude or duration of 1kHz to 3kHz elements in a station’s content to provide the encoding device with somewhere to add codes. Excessive Voltair processing can result in “break through” events that allow the listener to actually hear a doubling or distortion effect. Whether stations risk driving listeners away with excessive processing, or even need Voltair at all, is still in question. One radio insider points to PPM editing rules: “The encoding happens 12 times a minute and only needs to be recognized once to register. And if a minute drops out between two minutes of listening on either end, the editing rules fill it in and the station

gets credit for the five minutes. I wouldn’t be surprised if Voltair did improve the level of codes to make them more easily recognized, but with the editing rules I’m doubtful about how much affect that would have. I’d be shocked if it’s substantial.” –Chuck Aly

Chart Chat Congrats to Jason Aldean, Carson James, Lee Adams and the entire Broken Bow promotion crew on landing this week’s Jason Aldean

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Mediabase/Premiere’s Sr. Dir./Music Initiatives Robin Rhodes discusses her most influential music:1. Elvis Presley, Anaheim Convention Center, Nov. 30, 1976: Elvis was my first concert ever. My sister got tickets and took me. We were in the very last row of the nosebleed section and I was hooked!2. Alice Cooper, Welcome To My Nightmare: My mom didn’t want me listening to it. She thought it would give

me nightmares ... so I hid the album and every time she would leave to go to the grocery store, I would play it.3. Tom Petty, You’re Gonna Get It: My favorite cut was “I Need To Know” and I played it so many times I wore a deep groove in my vinyl. I still have it today.4. Mary Chapin Carpenter, Hometown Girl: This album and I found each other when I got my first official full-time on-air job at KAVR/Apple Valley, CA. Even though this album never produced a hit, I was in love with every note.5. Guns N’ Roses: I didn’t want to embrace heavy metal at first, but after seeing these guys on MTV I gave it a shot.•Highly regarded music you’ve never heard: Sam Smith – and pretty much any album that wins Album Of The Year at the Grammys!•An “important” piece of music you just don’t get: Reggae. It’s like nails on a chalkboard for me. It’s essentially one long song over and over again. My theory is, nobody notices because they’re too stoned.•An album you listened to incessantly: Guns N’ Roses’ Appetite For Destruction. For years it was the only CD I had in my car!•Obscure or non-country music everyone should know: Sixx:A.M.’s The Heroin Diaries. It chronicles a year of Nikki Sixx’s heroin addiction. The lyrics are emotional and the album takes you on a real journey. The follow up album This Is Gonna Hurt is equally great.•Music you’d rather not admit to enjoying: The Bee Gees. But it’s okay, I’ll let my freak flag fly. I love the Bee Gees!Reach Rhodes here.

MY TUNES: MUSIC THAT SHAPED MY LIFE

Robin Rhodes

No. 1 with “Tonight Looks Good On You.” The song is the third chart-topper from his current album Old Boots, New Dirt. And kudos to Mike Wilson and the Black River team on landing 51 adds for Kelsea Ballerini’s “Dibs,” topping this week’s board.

News & Notes Townsquare’s KQCS/Quad Cities, IA-IL and WPKQ/Concord, NH; Colonial’s WBYB/Eldred, PA; Penelope’s WANO-AM/Pineville, KY; Cotton’s KOUL/Corpus Christi; Ohana’s KXLW/Anchorage and Shamrock’s KACP/Pahrump, NV are new affiliates of Sun’s The Fitz Show. Flood, Bumstead, McCready & McCarthy promoted Laura Beth Hendricks to Dir./Internal Compliance and Support. Big Machine-sponsored Chip Gannassi Racing Teams rookie driver Sage Karam earned his first podium finish with a third-place finish in the Iowa Corn 200 in Round 13 of the 2015 Verizon IndyCar Series Saturday (7/18). Journeys will be the presenting sponsor of the Live Nation Concert Series at Nashville’s Ascend Amphitheater, kicking off July 30 with two sold-out Eric Church shows.

Artist News Darius Rucker has extended his Southern Style Tour through November. A Thousand Horses continues on the tour and David Nail joins in October. Brett Eldredge, Sam Hunt, Dustin Lynch and Chris Stapleton have been added to the Luke Bryan Crash My Playa lineup Jan. 22-26, 2016 in Riviera Maya, Mexico. More here. Cassadee Pope will perform at the Opening Ceremony of the 2015 Special Olympics World Games July 25. Chase Rice will kick off the JD and Jesus Tour 2015 in October with openers The Cadillac Three; dates TBA. Restless Heart, Becky Hobbs, Smiley Weaver, Tim DuBois and Scott Hendricks will be inducted into the Oklahoma Music Hall of Fame Oct. 16 at the Muskogee Civic Center. RCA’s Sara Evans, EMI Nashville’s Eric Paslay, Curb’s Bryan Stewart and Vanguard/Sugar Hill’s Kevin Welk are among the judges for the 2015 International Songwriting Competition. More here. Finalists for Chideo’s Clint Black Dream Recording Session Contest are Jefferson Clay of Austin, Sasha Aaron of Nashville, Blake Esse of Culpeper, VA and Julie McCloud of

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Waynesboro, PA. More here. Proceeds raised during the competition benefit Rettsyndrome.org.

The Week’s Top Stories Full coverage at countryaircheck.com.• Nielsen released Spring 2015 diary ratings. (7/13-20)• iHeartMedia launched WUBG/Indianapolis. (7/20)• Promo vet Gator Michaels joined Reviver as SVP/Promotion. (7/20)• WUSY/Chattanooga, TN responded to the city’s U.S. Marine shootings. (7/17)• Entercom closed on its purchase of Lincoln Financial. (7/16)• Tickets for the CRS 2016 New Faces of Country Music Show sold out. (7/16)• Veteran radio exec Bob Bolinger was named VP/GM at Entercom/San Diego. (7/15)• Perot companies acquired Connoisseur’s 42 stations. (7/15)• The CRB elected its 2015-16 officers and board. (7/14)• Veteran radio exec Jeff Boden joined Delmarva as President. (7/14)

John Osborne of EMI Nashville’s Brothers Osborne puts an industry spin on the artist interview: We grew up listening to WMZQ/Washington and WPOC/Baltimore. The first time we heard ourselves on the radio was in Florida. It was blistering hot and we’d just stopped to get some breakfast. When we went back to our car and started it up, there it was, right there at the intro. It was an “aha” moment. “Wow, this is actually happening!”

When we did our first radio tour, TJ and I brought some percussion and made the PDs and MDs play along. It was nice putting them in the hot seat for once. And I’ll tell you what – they’re good at running radio stations, but they’re not so good at playing tambourines! Lots of them still talk about it. Some still have the egg shakers we gave them with our logo on it. Sometimes they’ll even bring ‘em out to our shows and play along in the audience. My guitar is my favorite road companion because at the end of the day it’s always there. It’s a 1968 Telecaster that’s beat up and worn, just like I am. Whenever things get fishy I grab my guitar and escape for a little while. I always get made fun of for eating CornNuts. I love ‘em. My favorite is BBQ CornNuts. I don’t know what it is – the flavor, the saltiness, the texture. And I also like that they fight back; they make you work for it. If I could have dinner with one person it’d be Jimi Hendrix because of the way he viewed the world and his relationship with music. He transcended reality, went to a place no one has ever been before and created music from there. Everyone says it was the drugs, but it wasn’t. Everyone was doing drugs back in the ‘60s and no one did what Jimi did. I wish I had written Bob Seger’s “Night Moves.” That is one of the best songs and American tales ever written. It’s perfect. There’s not a throwaway word in the entire song. The thing that has thrown me and TJ off more than anything is when people tell us they’re huge fans of ours and they voted for us every day when we were on the The Voice. Man, The Swon Brothers are great. They’re both amazing singers and amazing talents, but we could not sound or look any more different than them!

John Osborne

OFF THE RECORD: JOHN OSbORNE

(continued from page 1)Examining Voltair And Beyond

most notably during talk segments. Voltair boosts audio in those frequencies, creating an arguably better platform for embedding the codes that are picked up by listeners’ PPM meters and form the basis for ratings. While the technology is being debated, programmers see all the evidence they need in ratings. “You see meter counts jump and think it’s a fluky week, but the next week it goes even higher,” says a large market station manager who asked not to be identified. “When you dig into the ratings, you see Average Time Exposed numbers just jumping. I got to see one in action at a conference and when you can watch how often it encodes versus what would be encoded without it, it becomes a piece of technology that every station has to have.” Paulus is one of the few radio executives who will go on record discussing the technology in any respect. “I started to hear more and more about Voltair, so I composed a letter to my Nielsen reps and forwarded it to a colleague in the market,” he tells Country Aircheck. “Three months ago he called and said he had one. He let me come over and see it and I stood there with the GM and his chief engineer watching it for 90 minutes.” He was impressed, and a bit disturbed. “I’m not the guy to tell you whether it works or not, I’m the guy to tell you I want an

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July 20, 2015


answer from Nielsen and I’m not going to stop until they give us one,” Paulus says. “My gut tells me there’s something to it.” Tri-Color Trance: Many are way beyond gut feeling, including this unnamed PD: “The colors alone – you see all these reds and yellows in your signal that mean you’re not getting strong enough audio to carry the PPM watermark, then you see Voltair turn all those to green. On the News/Talk side, you can see it go three full minutes without a single watermark. And with the Voltair [in active mode] it’s encoding every four seconds like clockwork.” The reaction is only reinforced as the weeklies and monthlies roll in from Nielsen Audio. “When you see huge share growth with not a lot of cume growth, that’s a game-changer. We looked month over month and year to year – it’s pretty eye-opening. When 6+ numbers jump two shares ... that’s your first clue.” Even Country Aircheck’s monthly PPM ratings graphs seem to be showing what might otherwise be inexplicable growth. The numbers of stations posting “highest share (or cume) ever” are striking. Harker Research’s Richard Harker – one of PPM’s most vocal critics – has already published results of two tests. Ratings were compared pre- and post-Voltair for a station that saw a 26% ratings gain, and for a morning show playing relatively little music that saw a 61% increase. “This is only going to get worse the more we dig,” he says. Revenue, Jobs & More: Many are openly questioning tenets of “PPM-friendly” programming, primarily the idea that listeners overwhelmingly prefer music over talk. Did an entire industry decide their best practices were completely wrong, rather than question the new metric that was asserting that notion? “A lot of people are going to be asking themselves that,” Harker says. “A lot of people are going to be kicking themselves. There are a lot of good personalities on the beach who shouldn’t be.”

If true, Paulus thinks the industry will mourn the talent decisions made “because ratings didn’t support talk. The best music and announcers should be on the air and rewarded for their popularity. But the measurement has to be based on true popularity. You see these Voltairs working and wonder, has that been the case?” There’s more. “PPM came out in 2007 and I watched a lot of markets compress,” he says. “We were going from leading stations with 1.7, 1.9 or 2.1 ratings – share doesn’t have a lot to do with revenue – to seeing the top 18-49 stations barely having a 1 rating. But we’ve always taken Nielsen’s word for it that listenership was being accurately received. Maybe we gave them too much benefit of the doubt.” Those ratings points, or tenths of points, are key. “The biggest source of our revenue is transactional business,” Paulus continues. “For lead stations in depressed markets, those ratings points are significant. I saw numbers in Miami where the top 18-34 station had a .7 rating. That’s frightening.” The timing portends other concerns. “Pureplays were challenging radio,” Harker says, pointing to Pandora and Spotify. “How could radio win against a jukebox like commercial-free Pandora? The only chance was to offer what they couldn’t – curation, personality, localism, community. Instead, radio was pulling jocks, automating, firing staffs and voice-tracking. In a way I’m sympathetic with broadcasters who were working with the best information they thought they had. The stations that were pulling jocks were going up in ratings. Those that weren’t were going down.” Not everyone is ready to throw out the bathwater. “What PPM taught us clearly isn’t completely flawed – some of it reflects [programming precepts] we know to be true,” says Albright & O’Malley & Brenner’s Becky Brenner. “Teasing, programming in shorter

Is It Code In Here? A Voltair processor.

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July 20, 2015


increments – these things make sense. But did we make assumptions about songs, bits or formats based on weak information? “Where it gets hairier is when we decide not to do artist interviews and stay away from any longer talk segment regardless of how compelling. That’s an area that’s very suspect. Maybe it really was fine, but the audio wasn’t being picked up. There are some very widespread ramifications.” And Nielsen Says... Little information has been forthcoming since Nielsen Audio undertook a project to study Voltair, but some insight can be gleaned from comments made by Nielsen VP/Audience Insights Jon Miller at the Talkers conference in New York last month. “Nielsen realizes how big of a deal this is,” Miller says. “We haven’t said a lot about Voltair, because the way we tend to do things at Nielsen is we want to be as thorough as possible and as rigorous as possible.” In a room of Talk personalities and programmers, he said, “I strenuously disagree PPM undercounts spoken word ... It’s not perfect, no measurement system could be ... we designed the meter from day one to have a series of rules that deal with how we stitch together codes. We basically give you the benefit of the doubt – if we see a certain amount of codes from a station, we give the station credit even if we don’t capture every second, word or piece of content.” The title for tomorrow’s event, “PPM Enhancements And Voltair Testing Update,” indicates steps are being taken to “enhance” PPM. That is at least tacit acknowledgement of room for improvement, and how far that extends will soon be answered. Next Week: What do PPM’s potential deficiencies mean for music? “I don’t think there’s any questions certain songs encode better than others,” one radio executive says. “I’ve seen it in action.” Also, the upside to the problem: “If everybody gets full credit for the listening that’s actually happening, all the ratings go up.” Plus, reaction to the webinar and, of course, evenmore questions. –Chuck Aly

A Red Light In The Sunshine: Voltair software shows a Talk station (top), a morning talk show on a music station (middle) and a music sweep. The top meter in each image shows encoding robustness without processing, the bottom shows it after Voltair enhancement.

Lon Helton, [email protected] Aly, [email protected]

Russ Penuell, [email protected] Wright, [email protected]

Wendy Newcomer, [email protected](615) 320-1450

July 20, 2015


Here are Spring 2015 (4/2-6/24) Nielsen Audio diary ratings results from July 14-17, listed alphabetically by market. Ranks (in parentheses) are among subscribers. Non-subscribing stations in published markets are excluded.

Spring Diary ScoreboardLegend: A “+” indicates a Classic Country outlet; a “^” designates co-owned Country stations in the metro; “t” indicates a tie; and a “*” indicates a station best in that statistic.

WGNA/Albany 8.8 (1) 8.0 (1)WKLI/Albany 3.3 (9) 4.7 (8)*WKSF/Asheville, NC 17.7 (1) 18.1 (1)WEBB/Augusta, ME 9.8 (2) 7.2 (2)WQCB/Bangor, ME 12.9 (1) 14.9 (1)WTGE/Baton Rouge^ 4.9 (6) 5.1 (5)WYNK/Baton Rouge 6.3 (5) 4.5 (6)WGBL/Biloxi, MS 1.6 (12) 1.7 (12)WKNN/Biloxi, MS 4.6 (7t) 4.0 (9t)WZKX/Biloxi, MS 6.5 (2t) 7.8 (3)WDXB/Birmingham 5.2 (5) 5.5 (6)WZRR/Birmingham 2.2 (12t) 1.7 (15)WZZK/Birmingham 6.0 (3) 7.2 (3)WYRK/Buffalo 11.3 (1) 10.1 (1)WOKO/Burlington, VT 13.5 (1) 14.0 (1)WCYK/Charlottesville, VA -- 9.7 (1)WNHW/Concord, NH 6.5 (1) 7.1 (1)WPKQ/Concord, NH 1.4 (4t) 1.1 (5)WCLI/Dayton 2.0 (10) 2.4 (10)*WHKO/Dayton 12.0 (1) 9.6 (1)WYDB/Dayton 1.6 (12) 1.6 (12t)WFLS/Fredericksburg, VA 11.0 (1) 10.4 (1)WBCT/Grand Rapids 9.4 (1) 9.5 (1)WTNR/Grand Rapids 3.2 (10t) 3.6 (9)WESC/Greenville, SC^ 8.1 (2) 7.9 (3)WSSL/Greenville, SC^ 6.6 (3) 8.1 (2)KBON/Lafayette, LA 4.7 (6) 4.9 (7)KMDL/Lafayette, LA 8.9 (1) 8.0 (2)KSIG/Lafayette, LA+ 1.4 (13) 2.5 (12)KXKC/Lafayette, LA 4.2 (8) 3.3 (10t)KXKW/Lafayette, LA 1.1 (14t) 0.6 (15)WBBN/Laurel, MS 10.0 (2) 14.1 (1)WJEN/Lebanon, NH 1.8 (9) 1.7 (9)WXLF/Lebanon, NH 4.7 (2t) 6.4 (2)WXXK/Lebanon, NH 4.7 (2t) 4.6 (3t)

WAMZ/Lousville 7.6 (2) 7.8 (1)WQNU/Louisville^ 3.1 (10) 3.0 (12)WRKA/Louisville^+ 2.9 (11t) 3.1 (11)WOKQ/Portsmouth, NH 8.2 (2) 7.1 (3) (Manchester, NH)WKMK/Monmouth 3.7 (2) 3.4 (5)WJJZ/Montpelier, VT 1.5 (7t) 2.3 (7)WKXH/Montpelier, VT 4.5 (4) 4.6 (5)WLVB/Montpelier, VT 1.5 (7t) 1.5 (8t)WWFY/Montpelier, VT 9.8 (1) 6.9 (2)WNOE/New Orleans 4.9 (6) 5.0 (6)WRKN/New Orleans 1.3 (14) 1.4 (14)KJKE/Oklahoma City 6.5 (1t) 5.0 (4t)KTST/Oklahoma City^ 5.6 (5) 5.5 (3)KXXY/Oklahoma City^ 3.4 (9t) 3.7 (7)WTHT/Portland, ME 5.1 (4) 6.1 (4)WOKQ/Portsmouth, NH 13.5 (1) 9.9 (1)WKXP/Poughkeepsie, NY 2.2 (8) 2.5 (6)WRWD/Poughkeepsie, NY 4.4 (3t) 4.4 (3)WKHK/Richmond 8.1 (2) 4.6 (8)WLFV/Richmond^ 2.2 (12) 2.1 (12t)WWLB/Richmond^+ 2.1 (13) 1.7 (14)WBEE/Rochester, NY 10.0 (1) 11.2 (1)WBBS/Syracuse 10.5 (1) 11.3 (1)WOLF/Syracuse 1.8 (9t) 3.5 (8)KIIM/Tucson 7.5 (3) 6.8 (2)KYWD/Tucson 0.8 (19t) 1.4 (15)KTGX/Tulsa 4.6 (6t) 4.3 (8)KVOO/Tulsa^ 6.2 (2) 4.5 (7)KWEN/Tulsa 6.1 (3) 7.1 (1)KXBL/Tulsa^+ 4.6 (6t) 5.6 (5)WTXT/Tuscaloosa, AL 5.6 (3) 6.1 (3)WFFN/Tuscaloosa, AL 4.0 (6) 5.1 (4)WFRG/Utica, NY 13.6 (1) 14.9 (1)

12+ Share Last BookStation/City 12+ Share Last BookStation/City12+ Share Spring 2015 12+ Share Spring 2015

July 20, 2015 Chart Page 1


LW TW Artist/Title (Label) Total Points +/- Points Total Plays +/- Plays Audience +/- Aud Stations ADDS

2 1 JASON ALDEAN/Tonight Looks Good On You (Broken Bow) 29012 1147 8330 260 56.964 1.828 154 0

4 2 LITTLE BIG TOWN/Girl Crush (Capitol) ✔ 27460 4208 8012 1285 52.577 6.878 154 0

5 3 BRANTLEY GILBERT/One Hell Of An Amen (Valory) ✔ 25500 3080 7399 897 49.41 6.003 153 0

1 4 CANAAN SMITH/Love You Like That (Mercury) 24317 -4276 6893 -1361 47.32 -6.607 154 0

6 5 MICHAEL RAY/Kiss You In The Morning (Atlantic/WEA) ✔ 23378 2089 6685 605 45.953 4.093 154 0

7 6 LUKE BRYAN/Kick The Dust Up (Capitol) 22096 1346 6367 473 42.661 3.567 154 0

3 7 BLAKE SHELTON/Sangria (Warner Bros./WMN) 20796 -5976 5995 -1624 38.595 -14.084 154 0

9 8 FRANKIE BALLARD/Young & Crazy (Warner Bros./WAR) 20443 1438 5966 445 39.246 3.057 154 0

11 9 ZAC BROWN BAND/Loving... (SouthrnGrnd/Varvatos/BMLG) 19944 1680 5627 494 39.299 2.554 154 0

10 10 BRAD PAISLEY/Crushin' It (Arista) 19289 790 5800 289 36.691 1.035 154 0

12 11 DUSTIN LYNCH/Hell Of A Night (Broken Bow) 17732 767 5030 212 34.398 1.321 153 0

13 12 SAM HUNT/House Party (MCA) 17505 1646 4969 432 35.124 3.716 152 0

8 13 EASTON CORBIN/Baby Be My Love Song (Mercury) 16006 -4464 4535 -1427 33.201 -8.497 153 0

14 14 THOMAS RHETT/Crash And Burn (Valory) 15349 1219 4422 386 30.724 2.603 152 1

16 15 ERIC CHURCH/Like A Wrecking Ball (EMI Nashville) 14157 517 4126 133 28.103 1.573 152 0

17 16 CHRIS JANSON/Buy Me A Boat (Warner Bros./WAR) 14156 1093 4171 303 26.975 3.636 150 1

15 17 BRETT ELDREDGE/Lose My Mind (Atlantic/WMN) 13996 312 3945 148 27.774 1.379 154 2

20 18 KEITH URBAN/John Cougar, John Deere... (Capitol) ✔ 12868 1920 3616 594 23.758 3.722 152 4

21 19 MADDIE & TAE/Fly (Dot) 11204 486 3244 168 20.93 0.783 152 0

23 20 JAKE OWEN/Real Life (RCA) 10919 1117 3025 273 20.201 2.264 149 2

24 21 CHASE RICE/Gonna Wanna Tonight (Columbia) 10780 1067 3100 311 17.655 2.534 147 0

22 22 KIP MOORE/I'm To Blame (MCA) 10464 340 2970 91 19.254 1.448 151 2

25 23 COLE SWINDELL/Let Me See Ya Girl (Warner Bros./WMN) 9334 412 2732 157 15.646 1.129 135 1

26 24 LADY ANTEBELLUM/Long Stretch Of Love (Capitol) 8624 27 2427 51 17.107 0.443 153 2

27 25 DAN + SHAY/Nothin' Like You (Warner Bros./WAR) 8471 397 2358 131 15.954 1.554 141 3

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LW TW Artist/Title (Label) Total Points +/- Points Total Plays +/- Plays Audience +/- Aud Stations ADDS

34 26 KENNY CHESNEY/Save It For A Rainy... (Blue Chair/Columbia) ✔ 8184 2380 2228 694 16.586 6.597 137 13

28 27 BIG & RICH/Run Away With You (B&R/New Revolution) 7722 371 2371 104 12.901 1.136 139 8

29 28 OLD DOMINION/Break Up With Him (RCA) 7422 357 1924 115 12.454 0.836 136 2

32 29 FLORIDA GEORGIA LINE/Anything Goes (Republic Nashville) 7333 952 2117 282 12.548 1.746 126 9

31 30 PARMALEE/Already Callin' You Mine (Stoney Creek) 6815 286 2104 80 10.163 0.481 142 3

30 31 REBA/Going Out Like That (Nash Icon/Valory) 6791 -159 1960 -24 14.841 -0.341 83 0

36 32 CAM/Burning House (Arista) 6570 978 1919 280 13.408 2.51 119 17

35 33 BROTHERS OSBORNE/Stay A Little Longer (EMI Nashville) 6232 441 1767 144 10.513 0.951 124 5

33 34 MICKEY GUYTON/Better Than You Left Me (Capitol) 5591 -481 1755 -123 7.271 -0.449 148 0

37 35 CHRIS YOUNG/I'm Comin' Over (RCA) 5587 1108 1528 195 8.829 2.202 124 8

38 36 JANA KRAMER/I Got The Boy (Elektra/WAR) 4696 362 1396 101 9.15 0.804 122 4

40 37 MO PITNEY/Country (Curb) 4053 177 1225 68 5.509 -0.109 105 2

41 38 HUNTER HAYES/21 (Atlantic/WMN) 3794 249 1158 99 7.226 -0.25 122 8

39 39 AUSTIN WEBB/All Country On You (Streamsound) 3759 -252 1250 -56 7.036 -0.836 102 0

42 40 DRAKE WHITE/It Feels Good (Dot) 3744 279 1063 74 4.804 0.279 98 1

MIRANDA LAMBERT/Smokin' And Drinkin' (RCA) 2940 335 838 102 4.036 0.156 97 9

43 42 CHASE BRYANT/Little Bit Of You (Red Bow) 2747 131 886 40 3.695 0.199 91 3

DARIUS RUCKER/Southern Style (Capitol) 2572 185 693 14 3.45 0.422 92 2

46 44 LOCASH/I Love This Life (Reviver/Star Farm) 2556 201 830 19 3.55 0.346 75 5

RANDY HOUSER/We Went (Stoney Creek) 2381 167 783 63 2.661 0.098 96 9

48 46 THOMPSON SQUARE/Trans Am (Stoney Creek) 2258 9 703 -1 2.639 0.07 91 0

47 47 TOBY KEITH/35 MPH Town (Show Dog) 2255 -87 653 -11 2.74 0.237 99 3

THE CADILLAC THREE/White Lightning (Big Machine) 2234 198 728 46 2.096 0.067 94 4

BILLY CURRINGTON/Drinkin' Town With A... (Mercury) 1958 124 642 38 2.406 -0.011 93 3

50 A THOUSAND HORSES/(This Ain't No)... (Republic Nashville) 1873 254 571 78 2.495 0.36 77 11Debut

RE-ENTER



Country Aircheck Top Spin gainersLITTLE BIG TOWN/Girl Crush (Capitol) 1285

BRANTLEY GILBERT/One Hell Of An Amen (Valory) 897

KENNY CHESNEY/Save It For A... (Blue Chair/Columbia) 694

MICHAEL RAY/Kiss You In The Morning (Atlantic/WEA) 605

KEITH URBAN/John Cougar, John Deere... (Capitol) 594

ZAC BROWN BAND/Loving... (SouthrnGrnd/Varvatos/BMLG) 494

LUKE BRYAN/Kick The Dust Up (Capitol) 473

FRANKIE BALLARD/Young & Crazy (Warner Bros./WAR) 445

SAM HUNT/House Party (MCA) 432

THOMAS RHETT/Crash And Burn (Valory) 386

Country Aircheck Top Point gainersLITTLE BIG TOWN/Girl Crush (Capitol) 4208 ✔BRANTLEY GILBERT/One Hell Of An Amen (Valory) 3080 ✔KENNY CHESNEY/Save It For A... (Blue Chair/Columbia) 2380 ✔MICHAEL RAY/Kiss You In The Morning (Atlantic/WEA) 2089 ✔KEITH URBAN/John Cougar, John Deere... (Capitol) 1920 ✔ZAC BROWN BAND/Loving... (SouthrnGrnd/Varvatos/BMLG) 1680SAM HUNT/House Party (MCA) 1646FRANKIE BALLARD/Young & Crazy (Warner Bros./WAR) 1438



Activator Top Spin gainersFRANKIE BALLARD/Young & Crazy (Warner Bros./WAR) 249

MICHAEL RAY/Kiss You In The Morning (Atlantic/WEA) 238

KENNY CHESNEY/Save It For A Rainy... (Blue Chair/Columbia) 212

BRANTLEY GILBERT/One Hell Of An Amen (Valory) 210

KEITH URBAN/John Cougar, John Deere... (Capitol) 175


CHASE RICE/Gonna Wanna Tonight (Columbia) 127


CAM/Burning House (Arista) 123


Activator Top Point gainersFRANKIE BALLARD/Young & Crazy (Warner Bros./WAR) 1186 ✔MICHAEL RAY/Kiss You In The Morning (Atlantic/WEA) 1131 ✔BRANTLEY GILBERT/One Hell Of An Amen (Valory) 1128 ✔KENNY CHESNEY/Save It For A Rainy... (Blue Chair/Columbia) 1057 ✔KEITH URBAN/John Cougar, John Deere... (Capitol) 903 ✔THOMAS RHETT/Crash And Burn (Valory) 819



CHASE RICE/Gonna Wanna Tonight (Columbia) 652

SAM HUNT/House Party (MCA) 635

Country Aircheck Top Recurrents Points

KELSEA BALLERINI/Love Me Like You Mean It (Black River) 12719

BILLY CURRINGTON/Don't It (Mercury) 11024

FLORIDA GEORGIA LINE/Sippin' On... (Republic Nashville) 10415

ZAC BROWN BAND/Homegrown (SouthrnGrnd/Varvatos/BMLG) 10335

CARRIE UNDERWOOD/Little Toy Guns (19/Arista) 9713

A THOUSAND HORSES/Smoke (Republic Nashville) 9160

SAM HUNT/Take Your Time (MCA) 8395

LUKE BRYAN/I See You (Capitol) 6702

DIERKS BENTLEY/Say You Do (Capitol) 6249

TIM MCGRAW/Diamond Rings And Old... (Big Machine) 6126

Country Aircheck Add Leaders Adds

KELSEA BALLERINI/Dibs (Black River) 51

DAVID NAIL/Night's On Fire (MCA) 30


KENNY CHESNEY/Save It For A Rainy... (Blue Chair/Columbia) 13

A THOUSAND HORSES/(This Ain't No)... (Republic Nashville) 11

FLORIDA GEORGIA LINE/Anything Goes (Republic Nashville) 9

MIRANDA LAMBERT/Smokin' And Drinkin' (RCA) 9

RANDY HOUSER/We Went (Stoney Creek) 9

BIG & RICH/Run Away With You (B&R/New Revolution) 8

CHRIS YOUNG/I'm Comin' Over (RCA) 8

HUNTER HAYES/21 (Atlantic/WMN) 8

http://millerharrisfoundation.org



Scott Stevens Self-Titled (Cotton Gin Prod.)Knoxville native Stevens’ debut album was produced by label heads Erin Enderlin and Alex Kline, with Kline playing all the instruments on the six-song EP.

JULY 24Ashley Monroe The Blade (Warner Bros./WMN)Monroe wrote 12 of the 13 songs on her Like A Rose follow-up, once again teaming with producers Vince Gill and Justin Niebank. The album features single

“On To Something Good.”

Sarah Ross Calm Before The Storm (Average Joes)Ross mixes country, rap and rock on her debut EP, produced by hit songwriter Josh Kerr (“Love Me Like You Mean It”). The project features five songs she co-

wrote and a cover of Linda Ronstadt’s “You’re No Good.”

July 28 Daryle Singletary There’s Still A Little Country Left (TMFx4)

August 7 Luke Bryan Kill The Lights (Capitol) Michael Ray Self-Titled (Atlantic/WMN) Lindi Ortega Faded Gloryville (The Grand Tour/ Last Gang)

RANDY HOUSER/We Went (Stoney Creek) Moves 49-45* 2,381 points, 783 spins 9 adds: KBEB, KDRK, KIIM*, KNIX, WDRM, WQMX, WUBE, WWKA*, WYRK

THOMPSON SQUARE/Trans Am (Stoney Creek) Moves 48-46* 2,258 points, 703 spins No adds

TOBY KEITH/35 MPH Town (Show Dog) Remains at 47 2,255 points, 653 spins 3 adds: WITL, WNCB, WTQR

THE CADILLAC THREE/White Lightning (Big Machine) Moves 50-48* 2,234 points, 728 spins 4 adds: KNCI, KNIX, KTTS, WKIS

BILLY CURRINGTON/Drinkin’ Town With A Football Problem (Mercury) Re-enters at 49* 1,958 points, 642 spins 3 adds: KILT, WGNA, WLHK

A THOUSAND HORSES/(This Ain’t No) Drunk Dial (Republic Nashville) Debuts at 50* 1,873 points, 571 spins 11 adds including: KBEQ, KHGE, KILT, KZSN, WBCT, WNSH*, WPOR, WRBT, WTHT, WUBE

CRAIG CAMPBELL/Tomorrow Tonight (Red Bow) 1,769 points, 592 spins 2 adds: KAJA, KILT

DIERKS BENTLEY/Riser (Capitol) 1,687 points, 517 spins 3 adds: KFGY, WGTY, WMZQ

STEVEN TYLER/Love Is Your Name (Dot) 1,353 points, 467 spins 7 adds: KATM*, KHKI*, KIZN*, KRST*, WFMS*, WIVK*, WKDF*

COUNTRY AIRCHECK ACTIVITY

JULY 27JENNIFER NETTLES/Sugar (EMI Nashville)EASTON CORBIN/Yup (Mercury)ANDY GRAMMER & ELI YOUNG BAND/Honey I’m Good (S-Curve/Valory)JERROD NIEMANN/Blue Bandana (Arista)

AUgUST 3WATERLOO REVIVAL/Bad For You (Big Machine)

AUgUST 10None Listed

Send yours to [email protected]

A D D DAT E S

C H E C K O U T 7 / 2 1

mailto:adds%40countryaircheck.com?subject=Add%20Date%20Listing

http://smarturl.it/LightTheNight

Chart Page 5July 20, 2015


LW TW Artist/Title (Label) Points +/- Points Plays +/- Plays Stations Adds

2 1 JASON ALDEAN/Tonight Looks Good On You (Broken Bow) 11637 312 2314 50 54 1

4 2 LITTLE BIG TOWN/Girl Crush (Capitol) 10852 522 2162 83 53 0

6 3 BRANTLEY GILBERT/One Hell Of An Amen (Valory) ✔ 10426 1128 2032 210 54 0

3 4 CANAAN SMITH/Love You Like That (Mercury) 10372 -375 2058 -78 52 0

5 5 BRAD PAISLEY/Crushin' It (Arista) 9678 342 1929 89 55 0

9 6 MICHAEL RAY/Kiss You In The Morning (Atlantic/WEA) ✔ 9184 1131 1839 238 52 0

10 7 FRANKIE BALLARD/Young & Crazy (Warner Bros./WAR) ✔ 9109 1186 1834 249 54 0

7 8 LUKE BRYAN/Kick The Dust Up (Capitol) 8905 626 1784 125 53 0

1 9 BLAKE SHELTON/Sangria (Warner Bros./WMN) 8814 -2667 1768 -527 51 0

8 10 ZAC BROWN BAND/Loving You Easy (SouthrnGrnd/Varvatos/BMLG) 8804 698 1725 121 53 0

11 11 THOMAS RHETT/Crash And Burn (Valory) 7658 819 1470 156 53 0

12 12 SAM HUNT/House Party (MCA) 7422 635 1451 104 54 0

14 13 DUSTIN LYNCH/Hell Of A Night (Broken Bow) 6959 368 1402 76 53 1

15 14 ERIC CHURCH/Like A Wrecking Ball (EMI Nashville) 6855 287 1345 29 53 0

16 15 CHRIS JANSON/Buy Me A Boat (Warner Bros./WAR) 6402 129 1308 28 53 0

17 16 BRETT ELDREDGE/Lose My Mind (Atlantic/WMN) 6328 164 1255 31 55 0

18 17 KEITH URBAN/John Cougar, John Deere... (Capitol) ✔ 6184 903 1237 175 55 5

19 18 JAKE OWEN/Real Life (RCA) 5406 206 1047 42 53 0

20 19 KIP MOORE/I'm To Blame (MCA) 5200 232 1006 53 52 3

21 20 MADDIE & TAE/Fly (Dot) 4925 278 990 63 51 0

23 21 COLE SWINDELL/Let Me See Ya Girl (Warner Bros./WMN) 4601 321 894 63 52 2

22 22 LADY ANTEBELLUM/Long Stretch Of Love (Capitol) 4404 116 908 34 52 0

26 23 KENNY CHESNEY/Save It For A Rainy Day (Blue Chair/Columbia) ✔ 4169 1057 833 212 53 4

24 24 CHASE RICE/Gonna Wanna Tonight (Columbia) 4056 652 785 127 49 3

25 25 FLORIDA GEORGIA LINE/Anything Goes (Republic Nashville) 3733 372 745 84 53 1

28 26 CHRIS YOUNG/I'm Comin' Over (RCA) 3062 226 630 34 47 0

27 27 REBA/Going Out Like That (Nash Icon/Valory) 2841 -159 556 -14 34 1

30 28 DAN + SHAY/Nothin' Like You (Warner Bros./WAR) 2732 397 550 74 37 2

34 29 CAM/Burning House (Arista) 2723 660 498 123 32 10

31 30 PARMALEE/Already Callin' You Mine (Stoney Creek) 2361 37 478 15 41 1

http://crb.org

Chart Page 6July 20, 2015


LW TW Artist/Title (Label) Points +/- Points Plays +/- Plays Stations Adds

32 31 MIRANDA LAMBERT/Smokin' And Drinkin' (RCA) 2353 129 490 28 43 1

33 32 BROTHERS OSBORNE/Stay A Little Longer (EMI Nashville) 2222 134 402 16 40 1

37 33 OLD DOMINION/Break Up With Him (RCA) 2107 451 433 97 42 8

36 34 BIG & RICH/Run Away With You (B&R/New Revolution) 2090 200 417 41 32 5

35 35 HUNTER HAYES/21 (Atlantic/WMN) 1940 -32 383 -3 31 0

39 36 LOCASH/I Love This Life (Reviver/Star Farm) 1581 56 223 13 14 0

41 37 RANDY HOUSER/We Went (Stoney Creek) 1565 282 290 64 26 5

40 38 MO PITNEY/Country (Curb) 1561 192 277 36 30 0

38 39 AUSTIN WEBB/All Country On You (Streamsound) 1515 -61 305 -13 29 0

42 40 JANA KRAMER/I Got The Boy (Elektra Nashville/WAR) 1336 84 266 13 25 2

44 41 DIERKS BENTLEY/Riser (Capitol) 1330 253 294 53 32 2

43 42 A THOUSAND HORSES/(This Ain't No) Drunk Dial (Republic Nashville) 1200 0 233 -2 22 1

46 43 BILLY CURRINGTON/Drinkin' Town With A... (Mercury) 936 -19 205 -3 20 0

45 44 DARIUS RUCKER/Southern Style (Capitol) 906 -109 180 -25 15 1

48 45 DRAKE WHITE/It Feels Good (Dot) 885 105 147 23 17 2

49 46 OLIVIA LANE/You Part 2 (Big Spark) 850 99 160 26 16 0

47 47 TOBY KEITH/35 MPH Town (Show Dog) 829 -58 158 -17 22 4

55 48 KELSEA BALLERINI/Dibs (Black River) 712 358 103 47 11 4

51 49 THE CADILLAC THREE/White Lightning (Big Machine) 587 124 75 20 7 1

50 50 LEE BRICE/That Don't Sound Like You (Curb) 558 -60 132 -16 13 0

52 51 CLARE DUNN/Move On (MCA) 523 66 84 18 13 1

56 52 OLD DOMINION/Nowhere Fast (ReeSmack/Crescendo) 500 180 50 18 1 0

53 53 STEVEN TYLER/Love Is Your Name (Dot) 461 13 92 -2 13 2

54 54 TYLER FARR/Withdrawals (Columbia) 425 38 82 10 9 1

55 ELLE KING/America's Sweetheart (RCA) 350 120 35 12 1 0

58 56 DREW BALDRIDGE/Dance With Ya (This Music) 340 50 34 5 1 0

57 UNCLE EZRA RAY/B.Y.H.B. (Tentative/INgrooves) 320 80 32 8 1 0

57 58 JT HODGES/Ray Bans (Buffalo Sound) 320 20 32 2 1 0

59 BLACKJACK BILLY/Why God Made Summertime (Reviver) 310 60 31 6 1 0

60 60 WILLIAM MICHAEL MORGAN/I Met A Girl (Warner Bros./WMN) 310 50 31 5 1 0

Debut

Debut

Debut

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examining voltair and beyond - country aircheck

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