Throughout my career, one thing that gave me the most joy was discovering new songs that I thought the audience would like. That was the case even when I wasn’t in charge of making the decisions on what to add to the radio station’s rotation.
I consider myself a music fan! So, with this weekly scribe, I intend to bring a few songs each week that I believe programmers, APDs, and Music Directors (if there are any still left) need to know about and possibly consider. Not every one of these will end up being a monster hit, but let’s see how many singles, doubles, and triples I can manage. Maybe a few will even leave the park (yes, I’m a big baseball fan. #LGM!)
Let me start this week with the Pop world. There are a couple of big, anticipated releases today, Ed Sheeran’s “Azizam” and Miley Cyrus’ “Something Beautiful.” Both of these songs will likely grab a ton of early airplay. We’ll see pretty quickly how sticky they are.
Sure to have a couple of strong early weeks is Ariana Grande‘s “Twilight Zone”, but here are a few other potential hits you should be open to. Alex Warren‘s “Ordinary” has quite a bit of Top 40 airplay but still has a lot of growth potential. There were 16 million national streams this past week for Alex, and at Hot AC, there only about 124 spins total.
Another potential three-format winner is Dasha‘s “Not At This Party”. The song is currently outside the top 30 at Pop, Hot, and Country. Streams grew 19% this week to just shy of 5 million.
For Country, it’s hard not to make a case for Morgan Wallen‘s “Just in Case.” With over 21 million streams in the first week or so out, this looks to be a no-brainer. But let’s throw this out as a consideration: Dan + Shay‘s “Always Gonna Be” is catchy with a solid hook.
Russell Dickerson‘s “Happen To Me” is another song with a great hook that is getting solid airplay. Streams are also growing nicely.
In the rock world of active, AAA, and Alternative, here are a few picks this week: Evanescence‘s “Afterlife” which showcases Amy Lee’s amazing vocals, and If Not For Me‘s “Say It To My Face”. Both are worth a listen!
From the Rhythm, Urban, and R&B world, I like Muni Long‘s “Superpowers.” It’s catchy and well-written, and Long’s vocals stand out. Ari Lennox‘s “Soft Girl Era” has a good hook, and I love her vocals too.
So, there you have it. That wraps up my first “Hits on Horizon” feature. I’ll be keeping score, as I’m sure you will be too.
Music is at the heart of what we do as programmers, and my goal each week is to present a few songs across a spectrum of formats worthy of your consideration. Some may be obvious, and some require taking a chance, but the thing to remember is at one point, somebody took a chance on a group called The Beatles and put them on the radio. That worked out ok!
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Jim Ryan is a Music Radio columnist for Barrett Media. In addition, he runs Jim Ryan Media LLC, a consulting company which assists major market radio brands and top talent including national radio personality Delilah. Prior to relaunching his consultancy in 2025, Jim spent 15 years with Audacy/CBS Radio, serving as SVP of Programming. Among his responsibilities included programming WNEW-FM and WCBS-FM. His career includes additional programming stops in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Houston. Jim was voted the #2 PD of 2024 in Barrett Media’s Top 20 series in the AC category. He can be reached by email at Jim@JimRyanMedia.com.
