Issue A Crack In The Wall - Country Aircheck

[Pages:23]July 8 2019, Issue 660

A Crack In The Wall

The morning of March 28, Steel City KBEQ/Kansas City PD

Todd Nixon was awakened by the sound of Miranda Lambert's

"Vice" and Jason Aldean's "Any Ol' Barstool" playing back-to-

back on a loop booming out of his clock radio speakers. Totally

kidding ? no one has a clock radio anymore.

But, Nixon did turn on the station at 4:35am

to find that something was terribly amiss. Little

did he know the NBC Dateline level of drama

that awaited.

Nixon thought for a moment that perhaps

he was dreaming. Surely the station wasn't

playing a loop of the same two songs over

and over again. Or was it? "I kept listening, Todd Nixon and after each song would be a dead space,"

explains Nixon. "Then, the repeat would start."

Nixon flipped around to one of the other stations in the cluster only to find that the same two songs were playing. What had happened to Steel City Media? Was it just a glitch in the automation software, or was it something much more sinister?

Shake And Blake: Warner/WMN's Blake Shelton celebrates his 26th career No. 1, "God's Country," with label and management staff. Pictured (l-r): Starstruck's Brandon Blackstock and Narvel Blackstock, the label's John Esposito, Shelton, and the label's

"I was on duty to board op for the morning show that day,

Scott Hendricks.

because they were on location doing a live remote for the Kansas

City Royals' home opener," Nixon says. "I suppose this was the perfect time for this to happen, since I was up early and ready to go." He raced to the station hoping his engineer, Dustin Hilton, could shed some light on what was unfolding. As Nixon arrived, Hilton met him at the door with a jaw-dropping revelation.

"We'd been hit by a ransomware attack," says Nixon. "It destroyed anything that was on the network ? everything we had. Every computer in the building was infected, and it took down sales, traffic, the business department, every piece of automation, all of the backups and every one of our stations. All of the files were corrupted and encrypted, and a ransomware note had been left behind on the computers." It was the worst possible news, yet it was only the beginning. Hilton had been running all four stations with a single emergency CD he had on hand, which is why Nixon was hearing dead air and the same songs over and over. "It took us completely off the air," says Nixon.

(continued on page 6)

McAnally Tours SongLand

Songwriter producer publisher label head CEO entrepreneur

mogul Shane McAnally is a judge on NBC's Songland,

alongside Ryan Tedder and Ester Dean. He spoke recently with

Country Aircheck about his latest endeavor.

CA: How did you get involved with SongLand?

SM: Four to five years ago, I got a call from

Audrey Morrissey, head producer of The Voice,

who had gotten my name from [Starstruck

Management's] Brandon Blackstock. On

the set of The Voice, Audrey was talking

about a new show [Eurythmics] Dave Stewart

was creating about songwriters. She asked

Brandon if he knew anyone in Nashville who

might be like Blake, but from a songwriting

and producing standpoint.

Shane McAnally

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Page 3

MY TUNES: Carly Rae

KJKE/Oklahoma City's Carly Rae discusses her most influential music:

1. Brooks & Dunn's "Neon Moon": This is just one of the No. 1 songs Brooks & Dunn released in the early `90s which irrefutably set the foundation for years of great hits. If there's a jukebox nearby, I'm playing this... on repeat.

2. Dolly Parton's "9 To 5": Dolly wrote Carly Rae this by making a beat with her acrylic nails

while on set for the movie of its name sake. Who does that?! Oh yeah, Queen Dolly! 3. David Nail's "Burnin' Bed": This is a deep album cut that I imagine sparked the conception of a few children back in 2014 when it was released. The heat is turned up in this one! It makes me wonder what Brandy Clark and Shane McAnally were thinking when they sat down to write this with Bob DiPiero. Ha! 4. Keith Whitley's "Don't Close Your Eyes": I could have easily picked any Keith Whitley song and been satisfied, but this one is my favorite. 5. Dixie Chicks' "Goodbye Earl": It wasn't just a statement song or a novelty song; it signified a change that was taking place within country music. It has a touch of dark humor, but if you know the Dixie Chicks at all, you know they aren't afraid to push boundaries. Highly-regarded music you've actually never heard: I have never listened to any rock album in its entirety. I truly live, love and listen only to country music. An "important" piece or style of music you just don't get: Death metal. Whose idea was it to classify death metal as music? An album you played or listened to incessantly: Miranda Lambert's Platinum and Weight Of These Wings; Reba's Rumor Has It; Eric Church's Chief; Brooks & Dunn's Brand New Man; Dixie Chicks' Fly and Taking The Long Way; Lorrie Morgan's Something In Red and Watch Me; Kacey Musgraves' Same Trailer, Different Park; and anything Luke Combs puts out is my jam! An obscure or non-country song everyone should listen to right now: "Ocean Eyes" by Billie Eilish. (Listen here) Music you'd rather not admit to enjoying: Hanson's Christmas album. Ha!

So, someone with a personality?

Someone with a personality who is connected to Nashville,

but also has the credentials and could speak from experience.

Brandon said "There's nobody like Shane McAnally," and that

was good enough to get me a phone call. There were a couple of

times when it looked like it wasn't going to be me, but I just knew.

I was never scared, because from what they were telling me

about the show, this is what I do every day. I knew ultimately that

it would be something I'd end up involved in. I patiently waited

and ? after a lot of back and forth ? ended up on the show.

Did you

set out to lift

the veil on

the often-

misunderstood

process of

songwriting?

Some of the

criticism of the

show is, "How

can you teach

someone to be

a songwriter?"

I've said that in

the past about songwriting classes. What

McAnally (l) with fellow judges Ester Dean and Ryan Tedder.

people might

misunderstand if they haven't seen [the show] is we're not

teaching people how to write songs; we're giving their songs

a commercial advantage. That's the secret to being a working

songwriter who makes a living as opposed to being a songwriter

who just tells your truth ? which I also fully support. On this show,

our goal is to write a song that will be recorded by a specific

artist, so it's not so much about teaching someone to write a

song or telling their truth, it's about taking their song and turning

it into monetary, commercial value.

Was it difficult to resist taking over and changing the

songs too much when collaborating with the contestants?

Yes. If I had a songwriter who was especially passive or just

happy to be in the mix, I had to continue to remind myself

and them, "This is your song. How would you do this?" When

you're in a fast-paced environment and you really get into the

rhythm, it would be easier for me to go, "This is what we're

doing, because I can get it done faster." But that isn't the

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Page 6

point. Luckily, I mostly worked with writers who had a game plan, and if I went too far down the road that wasn't working, they told me.

Unlike other competition shows, Songland doesn't focus as much on winning or losing, but on choosing the best song for the guest artist. Was it designed after the real songwriting business purposely?

If I take one of my songs to Tim McGraw and he says it's not right for him, I can't assume that means the song isn't good. I have to think, well maybe it fits Keith Urban better. That's the nature of pitching songs and that's what they're learning and getting from [the show].

At least now when people ask what you do, you can direct them to the show, right?

I finally get to show my parents what exactly I do. My mom would call me in the middle of the day while I was writing, and that wasn't good enough to get her off the phone. I'm getting to have conversations with people who learned about the songwriting process through the show. That's the purpose of the show for me ? to shed light on the songwriting process and to show a whole world that some people didn't know existed.

What can we expect from the rest of the season? People will get to see that Nashville is the true Harvard of songwriting. And, I'm so glad that's the school of songwriting I went to. What's really great is how appreciative artists from other genres I've never worked in are, and how much credit I get for that. That's all because of the songwriting community and the artists I've worked with. I hope people in Nashville are proud that I'm there. I hope people see what we do in Nashville is the true art of honing a lyric and melody. The standard is so high. Songland airs on NBC Tuesdays at 10/9pm CT.

?Caitlin DeForest

Chart Chat

Congrats to Blake Shelton, Kristen

Williams, Tom Martens, Katie Bright,

Anna Cage and the Warner/WMN team

on earning this week's No. 1 with "God's

Country." The song is Shelton's 26th career

No. 1. Writers are Devin Dawson, Hardy

and Jordan Schmidt.

And kudos to Kristen Williams, Tom

Blake Shelton

Martens, Adrian Michaels and the

Warner/WEA crew on landing 22 adds for the Ingrid Andress

single "More Hearts Than Mine," topping this week's add board.

News & Notes Tanya Tucker will perform a limited run of shows to celebrate her new album While I'm Livin', starting Aug. 22 in Nashville. Schedule here.

The Bakersfield Sound 1940 ? 1974 will be available Aug. 9, featuring 300+ songs by artists including Buck Owens, Merle Haggard, Cliff Crofford and Billy Barton.

Bill Anderson will receive the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Love From Music City Gala in September.

Tanya Tucker, Walker Hayes, Sara Evans, Easton Corbin, Cam, Kristian Bush and Black River's Gordon Kerr are among the judges for the 2019 International Songwriting Competition.

Summer NAMM will host its second annual Make Music Experience July 20 as part of the annual mid-year gathering of music products and pro audio industry at Nashville>s Music City Center. Tickets and additional information are available here.

Westwood One nationally syndicated Country Gold With Terri Clark has added WDRQ/Detroit; WNKN/Cincinnati; WSM-FM/Nashville; WPUR/Atlantic City, NJ; WCCQ/Crest Hill, IL; WKPA/Lynchburg, VA; KTJJ/Farmington, MO and KXKC/Lafayette, LA. The program now boasts 165 total station affiliates. For information about carrying Country Gold With Terri Clark, email Westwood One here.

The Week's Top Stories Full coverage at . ? Big Loud's Clay Hunnicutt stepped down. (BN 7/8) ? WIVK/Knoxville's Nikki Thomas exited. (CAT 7/3) ? Chuck Reeves is joining KTFW/Dallas as PD/afternoon host, succeeding Mike Crow. (CAT 7/2) ? Scooter Braun's Ithaca Holdings purchased Big Machine Label Group. (CAT 7/1) ? MCA's Briana Galluccio was upped to Mgr./Southeast Promotion, succeeding retiring Louie Newman. (CAT 7/1) ? Mark Gray joined Columbia as Dir./Southeast Promotion; Lauren Longbine shifted to Midwest. (CAT 7/1)

A Crack In The Wall (continued from page 1)

"Our first priority had to be getting the stations back up and running." But how?

"The computers could turn off and on, but nothing was functional," says Nixon. "Inside every folder was a little text file with the ransom note requesting payment in Bitcoin in order to

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