“Back to the seasons of my youth”
I was actually born and raised outside of Nashville! Almost everyone seems to be a transplant here, but I grew up 20 mins west of Nashville. I am a unicorn!
My dad was a touring musician and played bass for Sammi Smith. He was part of her band when she opened for Waylon (Jennings) and Willie (Nelson). If one of their band members were sick, he would stand in for them. After I was born, he stopped touring, but I feel like music is in my blood! We listened to all kind of music in my house: Michael Jackson, Prince, Janet Jackson, Madonna when I was young, and Soundgarden Alice in Chains, Pearl Jam and Nirvana in my teenage years. And of course we listened to Country.
Music has always been something I gravitated toward. Although I didn’t play an instrument, I was a dancer and a cheerleader because I needed to be where music was being played. I knew two things from a young age: I wanted to work in music, and I wanted to stay in Nashville. I went to Middle Tennessee State University for college and majored in Communications with a concentration in ‘recording industry’.
“The road rolls out like a welcome mat”
I listened to, and I liked, country music, but I don’t know that I respected how unique and transformative it was until college. A classmate of mine had just gotten an internship at Sony Nashville, and I needed one too. I asked her if they still needed people and sent in my resume. I landed in the promotion department and I swear, I did not know this kind of job even existed. This was my dream job. I was in love from the first second!
In 1996, Epic Records, which was part of Sony, hired me as a promotion coordinator after having been their intern for a year and a half. My job was to support the Promotion staff’s efforts to get artists on radio. In 2000, I was promoted to a Southwest regional and moved to Dallas. A Regional is a field-based radio promotion person that is responsible for getting airplay and playlist support in the Southwest region, typically Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Arizona, and sometimes parts of Louisiana or Arkansas. I worked at SONY Dallas for a little over a year and loved it.
In 2002, SONY merged Epic and the Monument label together. Since Monument had the Dixie Chicks (now The Chicks) on their label, their promotion staff stayed and Epic’s was let go. I was so upset! A week after moving back to Nashville I got a call from Broken Bow Records. They were about to launch a new artist called Craig Morgan and needed a Southwest regional. I said I was interested but that I would not move back to Dallas, and they said that’s fine, we don’t care where you live
“Take ’em by the hand, don’t let ’em all fly by”
In 2006 I took a two-year hiatus to go to a small indie label, but I came back to Broken Bow to help launch their then-new Stoney Creek label as a Regional. The label was so successful that they launched another label called Red Bow, a joint venture between SONY Red and Broken Bow. I was promoted to National Director of Promotion for Red Bow and then promoted again to Vice President of Promotion. When BMG bought Broken Bow, they dissolved Red Bow and I moved back over to Broken Bow, where I became Co-Vice President of Promotion. In 2023 I was promoted to Vice President of Radio Syndication and Group Strategy, which is what I am doing now.
The main part of my job is to achieve radio airplay for all the artists signed to our labels. It involves a good amount of travel, radio visits and artist showcases. On top of working radio singles, we set up album releases, work on artist development, artist promotion and album marketing. I put together “content days” where artists do back-to-back audio and video interviews for syndicated radio and bigger stations. I am in the trenches with our marketing team, streaming team, publicity department and more. Broken Bow has recently become a sister label to Concord Records, and I think it’s going to be a good marriage. They primarily work rock and americana and we hold down the fort on country and pop music. We complement one another.
“I’ve been takin’ care of business. Every day”
Country radio airplay is a big part of any country artist’s success. You want to have all metrics working together for every release: success with airplay, streaming, consumption, social media and more. When an artist wants to cross over into the mainstream, you must have country radio on your side. A few years ago, our artist Chayce Beckham had a single, “23,” and before the song went to radio, we were seeing 1-1.5 million streams per week. After we went to radio, and the song began to climb the chart to #1, the on-demand streams rose to 4-5 million per week! The rise in streaming was driven by Country radio!
One partner I love working with is Play MPE! When I was a coordinator, I had to physically mail out CDs to radio and partners every day, maybe 600-800 pieces of mail per release! Being able to use something like Caster to send out our music digitally changed the game! It not only cut down on the time it takes to get a song or album into radio’s hands, but it allows staffers to use their time on more important tasks than stuffing envelopes! The best part of Play MPE is knowing that if we need to get a song to a radio station, we can upload it and they can have it instantaneously! Play MPE is a much loved and much used tool!!
“The only thing that stays the same is/Everything changes, everything changes”
Coming full circle, I would say that the biggest change I’ve seen since starting to work in music is streaming. There was no digital at all when I started. With digital consumption, including social media, there are so many different ways consumers can hear music. Streaming and consumption numbers can help us build a story to take an artist to radio and it can also help artists that don’t fit into a mainstream radio plan. Many independent artists grow their fanbase via social media, and they carry that into becoming a successful touring artist. A great example is Alexandra Kay, who has a strong social media fanbase.
Of course, there was no AI when I started working in music either. It was weird at first, but BMG really encouraged us to get on the AI bandwagon and now we utilize it to help with time management, creative research, brainstorming and more.
“When the dreams you’re dreamin’ come to you”
I am blessed that when I started in the business I got to work for a fantastic company and learn under the best in the business – Jack Lameier, Rob Dalton and the entire Epic Nashville team. Then moving over to Broken Bow and being a part of building something from the ground up with Jon Loba, it is more than I could have dreamt of. I have my dream job! I love what I do, the artists I work with, and I would not change a step of my journey! Keep an eye out for Alexandra, Atlus, Ryan & Rory, Elizabeth Nichols and more. I am so excited by the incredible young talent I will be working with this next year!
The tips I would give to any developing artist would be one of the best lines I’ve ever heard anyone say, and it came from Lainey Wilson on an award show: “If you’re gonna be a dreamer, you gotta be a doer.” That couldn’t be truer! Being a musician is not for the lazy or the faint of heart. You have to be willing to devote your whole life to building your career. As far as general tips, I would say focus on growing your fan base, especially on social media. Make sure what you present is authentic. Find what sets you apart from everyone else and lean into it HARD! I always tell artists to get out on the road, play small venues, play anywhere! Feed your fanbase so they can tell people how great you are. Lastly, if making music is truly your dream, don’t ever give up!
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