INTERVIEW – LARRY GATLIN – Grammy Award-winning country music songwriter and musician

Country Music Consultant Advises Stations To Play Fewer Songs By Female Artists
(USA Today) — NASHVILLE — A radio consultant cautioned country-music stations against playing back-to-back songs by women, and the backlash began as word began spreading on Music Row here.

In an interview with Country Aircheck Weekly, a website and newsletter that focuses on country radio, consultant Keith Hill of South Padre Island, Texas, also said stations shouldn’t play too many songs by women.

“If you want to make ratings in country radio, take females out,” he told Country Aircheck. “The reason is mainstream country radio generates more quarter hours from female listeners at the rate of 70% to 75%, and women like male artists.

The expectation is we’re principally a male format with a smaller female component. I’ve got about 40 music databases in front of me, and the percentage of females in the one with the most is 19%. Trust me, I play great female records, and we’ve got some right now. They’re just not the lettuce in our salad. The lettuce is Luke Bryan and Blake Shelton, Keith Urban and artists like that. The tomatoes of our salad are the females.