CRB and The Country Radio Seminar have always been philanthropic partners. They have partnered with Gibson Gives, Samaritan’s Purse, Manna Food Bank, Second Harvest Food Bank, and this year California Wildfire Relief thanks to KUZZ Bakersfield‘s Brent Michaels.
The California Wildfire Relief shirts were the brainchild of the KUZZ Program Director and host. KUZZ and Michaels are no strangers to charitable causes. The station supports many in Bakersfield as well as an annual St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital Radiothon that raised nearly a quarter million dollars just last month. (BMM 1/31)
I asked Michaels how the idea and the shirt came about.
“I reached out to RJ Curtis because CRB is known for giving back and doing things for communities. Humanitarian efforts are part of the CRB and have always been something that’s important to us. Whether we team up with St. Jude or different charities.”
“We were talking about California wildfire relief. I had the idea of creating shirts with The Shop Forward, which I know has done different things with the radio. One of their hallmarks is what they call a four things shirt, which is four lines of different context, for lack of better words, four things that are themed towards something. The Shop Forward is a charitable organization. They donate their proceeds to charity.”
“I reached out to them, and they were willing to help us create a couple of CRS-themed four thing shirts. And we put them on sale for California wildfire research.”
And what were the four things?
“So, one shirt is radio, records, streaming, CRS. The other shirt was Ryman Lunch, Acoustic Alley, New Faces, and CRS.
Michaels has not seen the total sales but is open to repeating the idea next year.
“It might be something we do again in the future. It was kind of something that we came up last minute with CRS, but it’s something we’re open to kind of make it bigger for next year.”
The shirts are still available here and sell for $30.
While I had Michaels, I asked for his thoughts on this year’s seminar.
“It’s always a great thing. There’s nothing in the industry quite like CRS. It’s just the perfect meeting of all the different parts of the Country music industry. It always reminds me what a community it really is. I thought it was a great event. I think Country is really having a moment right now.”
“We kind of saw that over the last year with some of the crossover stuff. I think with some of the new artists coming up; we’re poised for the format to be in a good place here for a while.”
How about a couple of top takeaways?
“We’ve known for some time that with radio talent is key. You can find music in a lot of different places. It’s the way that personalities engage with their listeners, the things they talk about, and the way they live in their communities. That’s what separates radio as an entertainment medium from other audio sources of entertainment. So that was a big takeaway.”
“Another one of the other big takeaways is social media, which again is something we’ve known for a while, but there are more opportunities there than there’ve ever been. If you can engage people on your socials, it’s just another place to grab them. Then, hopefully, funnel them back to the radio station and your show. There’s a great platform to be entertaining on social media as well.”
How about the top music performances?
“I thought Tucker Wetmore at UMG at the Ryman was really good. I think Tucker Wetmore will be a star in our format for quite some time.”
“I think the two new faces that really stuck out to me, I mean, Zach Topp is just a guy on the rise. Dasha really impressed me as well. I thought she was great.”
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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.
