Hits on the Horizon starts the first week of October with a look at how Top 40/Hot-AC radio is figuring out which new Taylor Swift to start spinning. Multiple songs from the new album, which came out today are likely filling your ears! Besides Taylor though, here is some additional ear candy that should be on your radar.
5 Seconds Of Summer‘s “Not OK” is very catchy and rocks. It has racked up 500,000 plus streams in a couple of days. It’s a song both formats should embrace! Another track to get your ears on if they haven’t been already is The Kid Laroi‘s “A Cold Play”. 2.7 million streams were generated this week. Give it a listen! Finally, the Goo Goo Dolls’ “Nothing Lasts Forever” has a solid hook and is already getting some love from Mix 96.5 in Asheville.
Jumping to the Alternative and AAA worlds, I’ve been obsessed with Portugal The Man‘s “Tanana”. Radio love is coming to the band from 94-7 NRK in Portland, Alt 94.9 in San Diego and Alt-Nation at Sirius XM. Just cause it’s that time of year and the some is catchy and somewhat funky, take a listen to Tame Impala‘s “Dracula”. It’s receiving early radio support from The Current in Minneapolis and a few others. Also this week, put your ears on Wolf Alice‘s “White Horses”. It has a catchy groove and Alt 94.7 in Sacramento and Music Choice are giving it some airplay!
Moving to Rhythm, Don Toliver‘s “Tiramisu” should be on your radar. It did 3.4 million streams this week and gained airplay from Club 93.7 WRCL in Flint and MC Max on Music Choice. Next is Clipse‘s “The Birds Don’t Sing”, which has great lyrics and a cool hook. The song also ends with spoken word which doesn’t happen in music all that often! Radio love is coming from Hot 97.5 KVEG in Las Vegas.
Finishing up with Country, Zach Bryan‘s “Pink Skies” is really good! I’m usually a big fan of songs with harmonica and this one is excellent. 5 million plus streams this week isn’t bad either. Another one with streams north of 3 million this week is Bailey Zimmerman w/ The Kid Laroi‘s “Lost”. It has crossover potential with Pop and is getting radio airplay from 101.7 The Bull in Boston. The last one to listen to this week comes from Zach Top. Check out “South Of Sanity”, which is getting radio love from Kix106 in Memphis and pulled down 3.2 million streams this week.
So there you go. My ear candy recommendations for this first weekend in October. Happy listening!
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.
