Here in the United States, we like our music to fit neatly into a genre. Because of that radio has traditionally stuck to a handful of clearly defined formats here in America. That isn’t the case everywhere, the lines between formats are blurrier in most other countries. To fit into those boxes here in the US we task our programmers with developing an ear to determine whether songs ‘fit the sound’ of our stations or not. As long as our programmers excel at that, there are benefits to programming this way. It’s safer, creates a consistent sound in all dayparts and strengthens the station’s brand because listeners know exactly what kind of music they’re going to get when they tune in. However, there are multiple downsides to programming this way, it takes a lot of man hours to keep our pulse on formats and our individual markets, even the best of programmers often miss changes in the sound of a format when they happen suddenly and most importantly, we often allow that gut feeling for ‘fitting the sound’ to trump irrefutable data. That’s the case with one very popular country artist radio is almost entirely ignoring right now, Zach Bryan.

I left my radio job to start consulting five and a half years ago. Before that I spent the prior twenty-two years either directly choosing the music on some variation of a country station or overseeing the people who choose the music. I also grew up in a small market country station my family-owned being taught the business by my father who started in radio when he was eighteen. So, over the years I developed a pretty good ear for determining which country songs would become hits and which ones would fall flat. At my best, I guessed right roughly 90% of the time. That’s not bad considering the bulk of my programming career was spent in a time were acquiring good, market level data was expensive, hard to come by for most independent groups, and quite frankly, not all that reliable. Once I began consulting, I fully adopted a data-driven approach and paired that with my gut to eliminate that 10% because I no longer had to guess whether a song is connecting with an audience. By every measure we look at internally, Zach Bryan is one of the top four country artists right now. In some markets he’s literally number one overall. Nationally, and in most major markets, he falls behind the format’s leader the past few years, Morgan Wallen, as well as Luke Combs and Jelly Roll. The only other country artists pulling his kind of numbers are Post Malone and one song from both Dasha and Shaboozey. Yet, Zach’s name is nowhere on the country charts Mediabase 24/7 Charts | Top Music Radio Song Chart Ratings

So, why isn’t country radio playing Zach Bryan? Most of the feedback I hear is that his songs are too slow, too long, too edgy and/or too singer-songwriter-ish (whatever that means). Because of that most country programmers who even know he exists have determined that he doesn’t ‘fit the sound’ of country. Which gives them the excuse to not play him, despite overwhelming evidence that country listeners LOVE Zach Bryan. Ironically, though, it isn’t just mainstream country that ignores him. Most Americana stations don’t play Zach either Radio Charts - Americana Music Association and even Texas-Red Dirt, a format I’m very familiar with, refuses to spin him Texas Country Music Chart - THE CHART, opting instead to spin a bunch of people most of you have never heard of. Even though Zach is from Oklahoma (the birthplace of Red Dirt), ex-military and writes his own songs, meaning he checks literally every box.

To be clear, country radio refusing to play Zach Bryan isn’t killing his career. Zach’s won four Billboard Music Awards, an Academy of Country Music Award, sells out arenas and has sold over 30 million albums and singles at a time when it’s very hard to do that. But, most record labels will still tell you that a song is only a hit if it’s a hit on all platforms. So, I’m sure Zach would love to get some love from radio and spinning a massive artist that your audience is already a fan of, and your competitor isn’t spinning, would benefit any country radio station regardless of the type.

I’m focusing on country radio because Zach Bryan is a clear oversight right now. But, to be fair to country radio, all new music formats are missing an artist or two and playing one or two in higher rotation than they should.

What do you think? Should country radio be playing Zach Bryan? Comment below or email me at Andy@RadioStationConsultant.com.