Music Business Radio

Episode #168 - Rick Barker

Rick Barker dropped by the Music Business Radio studios today to talk about radio, fan engagement, breaking new artists, and working with one of the decade's most popular and biggest selling acts, Taylor Swift.

Rick is a music marketing consultant based out of Nashville, TN and runs Music Industry Blueprint. After a 15 year career in radio, he moved over to the record company side of the music business in 2004, accepting a job with Big Machine Records. He developed a unique touring model, which helped create opportunities for recently signed artists to get in front of people, with or without a national radio single. A number of top acts have used this model, including Sugarland, Josh Turner, and Rodney Atkins.

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Episode #149 - Jack Purcell

Jack Purcell is VP of Promotion for Big Machine Records. Before that, he was at Warner Brothers for 17 years.

Between Big Machine acts, like Taylor Swift, and his career at Warner Brothers, he's worked with dozens of successful artists, including Garth Brooks, Faith Hill, David Ball, Little Texas, Travis Tritt, and Steel Magnolia.

Jack talks about his career at Warner Brothers, which started in the mail room, shares plenty of radio promotion stories, gives advice for artists seeking radio airplay, and more.

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Episode #138 - Steve Hodges

Steve Hodges is Senior Vice President of Capitol Records / EMI Nashville.  He's worked with hundreds of artists including Garth Brooks, Keith Urban, Lady Antebellum, Dierks Bentley, Darius Rucker, and Trace Atkins.

This episode is all about breaking acts via radio.  We talk about how Steve started in radio (on the programming side), how he got his first major label job, the importance of research, songs that are "too hot" for radio, how the importance of radio affects songwriting, riding around in a car with Keith Urban, how Lady Antebellum broke, the secret behind Darius Rucker's life after Hootie and the Blowfish, and more.

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Episode #109 - Jeff Cook

Jeff Cook is an artist, writer, and producer who has had songs cut by Tommy Bolin, Motley Crue, Deep Purple, and others.  He's been in radio promotion over 30 years and worked with artists like The Grateful Dead, The Kinks, Metallica, Motley Crue, 10,000 Maniacs, John Hiatt, Steve Earle, and Drive By Truckers, just to name a few.

This episode talks about radio promotion, what it takes to get an artist on the radio, writing hit songs, the value of a good song, career longevity for artists, and more.

Also coming shortly... A special edition of the Music Business Radio Post-Show Show, where Jeff joined us and he answered questions from Gary (Producer) and Dan (Engineer) about the finer points of radio and what it takes to get music on the air.

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Episode #105 - Andrea Kleid and Jenn Brinn

Two guests on this episode...

Andrea Kleid is the Director of National Promotions at Word Entertainment in Nashville.  She works with over 150 radio stations across the country to promote songs and brand artists.

Andrea is also the Music Industry Liason for RAINN - the nation's largest anti-sexual assault organization.  She founded the annual Red Umbrella Tour, a benefit concert tour for RAINN with shows in 10 cities featuring over 35 independent artists.

Jenn Brinn started her career as Manager of National Promotion at EMI CMG Label Group, serving as the in-house radio promoter for the AC, CHR, & INSPO charts.  She currently runs Ear To The Ground Entertainment, working with the legendary songwriting venue Eddie’s Attic and artists like Jen Foster and Margaret Becker.

This episode talks about radio promotion, artist development, using charity to promote music, and using music to promote charity.

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Episode #68 - Gene Dries and Chris Palmer

Gene Dries worked in the radio promotion department of Warner Brothers Records for 20 years, promoting acts such as Madonna, Prince, Van Halen, Fleetwood Mac, and the Doobie Brothers.

Chris Palmer started in the mail room at Warner Brothers Records, working his way up to Senior Vice-President and General Manager.  He's worked with acts like Bela Fleck and the Flecktones, Steve Earle, and Faith Hill.

Both now work managing Take 6.

We talked about how records get on the radio, the future of the music business, the advantages and disadvantages of both small and large music companies, and more.

And of course, we reviewed demos.

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Episode #60 - Norm Winer

Norm Winer is the Program Director for WXRT and VP of Rock Programming for CBS Radio Networks.

This show was taped live in Austin, TX, during Austin City Limits Festival.  We talked about local radio, the future of radio, payola, music festivals, and more.

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Episode #48 - Nancy Tunick

Nancy Tunick is Vice-President of Promotion at Warner Brothers Records Nashville where she designs strategies and heads the team that promotes to radio the music of acts that include Faith Hill, Big&Rich, Blake Shelton, The Wreckers and Lori McKenna.  Nancy is currently the only female to hold the Vice-President of Promotion title within Country Music, and is among only a handful of females to have reached that position in the history of Nashville’s music industry. 

Demos Reviewed: Jack Rooney, The Subliminator, Big Tubba Mista, Different Point of View, Tim Ratcliff & Ken Bailey, and Echoing August.

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