Well, April is coming to a close, and as the pollen kicks in and makes many of us miserable, here is a list of songs from various formats that should be on your radar! Happy sneezing season.
Top 40/Hot AC: Ariana Grande / “Twilight Zone”, another catchy song from Ariana with more than seven million streams this week. Lots of Top 40 love, but this can be big for Hot AC as well. I’m still very high on Myles Smith / “Nice to Meet You,” another four million+ streams this week. At Top 40, most of the love is coming from Sirius XM-Hits 1. A few other notables are trying this out: 101.3 KDWB in Minneapolis and FLY 92.3 in Albany. At Hot AC, Q102 in Cincinnati leads the way. This song sounds like a big ole hit! Hot AC and Top 40 programmers don’t miss this one! One last one for this week, Daniel Arison / “Selfish”, there is no streaming story here yet. To me, this just sounds like a Pop hit!
Moving into the Rock world. Lorde / “What Was That” should get quite a bit of love from Alternative and some Triple AAA. This sounds like it could also be something for Top 40 and Hot AC. No streaming data to bolster this pick, but Sum 41 / “Radio Silence” is one you should get your ears on! Final choice for the week is from the AAA world, Lana Del Ray / “ Henry, Come On” did five million plus streams this week and is only getting airplay love from WXPN in Philadelphia and The Current in Minneapolis at this point. The song deserves your ears if you program AAA!
In the Country world this week, the streaming number is small by country standards, but going up weekly, and it is over two million this week, making Kelsea Ballerini’s “Baggage” a song your ears should be on. Thomas Rhett’s “Somethin’ ‘Bout A Woman” is solid and catchy, with a building streaming story of over eight million this week.
I have two songs from the Urban/R&B world this week that caught my ears in a big way: Lizzen’s “Sweet Thing (Work It Out)” and Ciara’s “Ecstasy.” Both sound like they could be big, with streams over a million this week and growing!
There is plenty to put into your ears this week; enjoy!
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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.
