The third installment of Countdown to CRS features Audacy Country Format Captain and WYCD, Detroit Program Director Tim Roberts. Roberts recently appeared on Barrett Media’s Top 20 Country Program Directors and Top 20 Classic Hits Program Directors for Country 99.5 WYCD and Classic Hits 104.3 WOMC in Detroit.
Before starting our conversation about CRS, I asked Roberts for his reaction to landing on the two lists.
“Well, it’s amazing. This is a poll that was voted on by my peers in the industry, so it’s a great honor to be thought of by your peers as one of the good guys. I really appreciate it. It just makes you feel good.”
“I thought it was a great list of great programmers. There were a lot of my Audacy compatriots there, and I thought it was a great list. I’m honored to be part of it.”
Roberts has been a long-time CRS attendee and has served in various roles, including the agenda committee, panel host, and facilitator. He says that CRS played a pivotal role in his career.
“I’ve been on record before, and I’ll say it again. I really credit a lot of my career success to CRS. When I first came there in the prehistoric times of the 1980s, I really was just blown away by the level of expertise, commitment, and smart people.”
“All of my radio heroes were there. There was Les Acree and Rusty Walker, and you can name-drop forever. But these guys were legends in programming. I really looked up to them, and then to meet them and to be able to talk to them in the hallways and just be inspired by that. It made me want to be so much better. I do credit CRS for being a huge motivator and inspiring me to strive to be better at my craft.”
What does Roberts look forward to at this year’s seminar?
“CRS is unlike any other convention in that we’re all striving to be greater at our craft and we share ideas and get to hear so much great music. You can credit a ton of artists’ success over the years to just being present and playing in front of all the great programmers.”
“So that’s part of it. I look forward to the research panel every year. I’ve gotten just tremendous information.”
“They do a great job on the CRS board of lining up a different way of looking at things. And there’s been some really earth-shattering news coming out of some of those research projects that made you rethink how you’re doing radio. So, I’m sure there’ll be another great panel on that.”
“I think [KSON San Diego PD] Scott Roddy is heading up one, and it’s 30 sales ideas in 30 minutes. That’s one where it’s just a brainstorm of tremendous ideas. And then I’m looking forward to things on AI, different strategic things.”
Does Roberts have a particular memory or two that stand out?
“Former Notre Dame Coach Lou Holtz. His speech there was so inspiring that it was just like you were on the Notre Dame football team. I wanted to leave CRS after Lou spoke and get out and start playing football or do something great. It was so fun and uplifting.”
“I also remember Ken Kragen speaking; it was just how he understood marketing and his theory on the power of threes. When I was younger, those really stood out to me.”
Hosting other radio personalities was another highlight for Roberts.
“I was in charge of bringing air personalities in for years and years as part of my board duties and the agenda committee. I always hosted these killer air personality panels where I’d have Moby or John Records Landecker or Scott Shannon.”
“We would bring in these incredible air personalities, not only from the Country format, or [longtime WSIX Nashville morning host] Jerry House and many of the great Country morning shows were there, but we’d always try to pull from outsider formats.”
And from a music standpoint?
“I’d never seen Lady Antebellum before until CRS. And I remember just watching them do their first show at the luncheon, sitting right there, and I’m going, wow, unbelievable.”
“There are countless other superstars I saw for the first time at CRS: Keith Urban, Alabama going way back, Keith Whitley, and Randy Travis. I’d seen Travis as kind of our house band around the Charlotte area when I was working there. But then, when I saw him at CRS, it was like, what happened to this guy? He’s unbelievable. There’s just been so many over the years that just blew me away, and I think it’s still that way. I’m sure a lot of people thought the same thing who had never seen Jelly Roll before.”
After Roberts remembered seeing his radio heroes as a young programmer going to CRS, I reminded him that he now may be the guy younger programmers look across the room at and say, “Wow, that’s Tim Roberts.”
“One day, I realized, hey, I’m the old guy now, which was kind of a funny realization. It’s flattering that people look up to you. Secondly, we started doing those mentoring breakfasts years and years ago. And I really enjoyed that.”
“I’m happy to talk to anybody. Those other guys that I mentioned did it for me. They were always happy to spend time with me and talk radio.”
“I feel the same way, whether in the hallway, at the mentoring breakfast, or if they want to grab me for five minutes and pick my brain about something. I’m always happy to do it. I love people who want to learn and be better at what they do.”
“Maybe it’s because I played sports and was a coach for many years outside of radio. I played sports at a pretty competitive level, and so I feel like when people want to be better, that keeps me motivated in this business.”
“I want the people that work for me in Audacy to be better at their craft. And I want people, wherever they work, to be better. It makes the Country music industry better. And frankly, as a human, I like helping people.”
CRS 2025 is February 19-21 at the Omni Nashville Hotel in downtown Nashville. Online registration is closed, but walk-up registration is available at $799 starting February 19.
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Jeff Lynn serves as Editor of Barrett Media’s Music Radio coverage. Prior to joining Barrett Media, Jeff spent time programming in Milwaukee, Omaha, Cleveland, Des Moines, and Madison for multiple radio groups, including iHeartMedia, Townsquare Media, NRG Media, and Entercom (now Audacy). He also worked as a Country Format Editor for All Access until the outlet shut down in August 2023.
To get in touch with Jeff by email, reach him at Jeff@BarrettMedia.com.
