In the Summer of 2025, I had to make a tough call. I gathered our troops and notified them that Barrett Media was going to cover Music Radio without an editor. To no surprise, Stephanie Eads, Dylan Barrett, John Mamola, Garrett Searight, and Andy Drake looked at me like I was nuts. How exactly would that work when the site owner and longtime sports radio pro, who is busier than ever, is also guiding it?
Quite honestly, I didn’t know if it would work either. But I knew we had to do something different. I’m in this to create impact, not just exist. You can’t do that without constantly making adjustments even when it creates temporary challenges.
Lessons Learned
Year 1 of covering music radio taught me that there is a healthy appetite for industry transactions, and we’ve done plenty of those stories, but there is far more to the music/radio industry than that. I’m interested in exploring topics that matter to programmers, executives, talent, sales and advertising professionals, artists and label reps, and having deeper, and more meaningful conversations about issues that affect radio and the music industry. Helping both sides requires celebrating, educating and challenging the industry by exploring issues on a deeper level.
Offering that type of content requires folks who know and love the game, have strong relationships, and deep knowledge of music and radio across multiple genres, markets and formats. An ability to write well and keep readers interested is also important.
I’ve shared this example before with my crew and folks we’ve interviewed, I’m not interested in being a destination site to learn that P-Diddy got arrested. Hundreds of outlets will have that story. If we try to do that we will fail. But I am interested in what the news means. For instance, if a thought leader can explain why an Urban/Hip Hop station should or shouldn’t play his music after he’s been arrested, that’s helpful and interesting to format folks. So is asking people in the format if they’re spending more or less time discussing it on-air, and explaining why. Reporting the news is fine, explaining why it matters is more important.
There are interesting stories and topics across all of radio and music. This isn’t just about an Urban/Hip Hop example. I use it to explain why it’s important to offer a strategy that is unique to your brand. Then comes finding the people who understand the mission, share similar vision, have passion and expertise, and possess the ability to communicate it consistently.
Making Strategic Adjustments
After moving away from a dedicated editor, we shifted our focus to adding columnists with great respect in the business, and writers with passion, knowledge and deep connections across the music industry. Enter Phil Becker, Keith Cunningham, Jim Ryan, Mike Stern and Terrie Carr alongside original columnist Kevin Robinson. Each has been awesome to work with. Their commitment to providing quality content consistently has helped us improve. If you’re not reading them regularly, you’re missing out. They are excellent communicators who love the industry and make our readers smarter.
After solidifying our columnists, we decided to stop cramming Music news into the Morning and Evening Edition newsletters. Instead, we would prioritize Music on its own with the launch of The Nooner. Unlike sports and news media, music radio doesn’t have 10-20 media stories each day. It can get lost in a crowd of sports/news content. We run into that issue sometimes on the website. The shift to deliver content 3x per week in a dedicated Music/Radio newsletter, including promoting stories from outside websites, has grown interest from music and radio pros. We’re planning to make the newsletter even stronger moving forward, so subscribe now if you’re not already.
Goals and Focus
Since changing our strategy, traffic has improved. In fact, we’re coming off of our best six-month run in the history of the brand. More importantly, connections inside music and radio have grown stronger. The Top 20 series was a bigger hit this year than last. Including our Music Radio writers on our video show, The 4-Cast, has let different audiences see and hear them. Conversations with label reps at CRS in Nashville showed great enthusiasm for what we’re building. Our first-ever Music Summit on Thursday, July 2nd in NYC is also attracting strong interest. That will help us take another step forward. Tickets are available here.
All of that is exciting and the reason why we do this. Money and traffic are nice, but for me, this is about connection, passion, and creating impact.
When people ask me what my goals are for Barrett Media, I never talk about growing revenue, web traffic or subs to our social channels, video shows or newsletters. We’d like to do all of that, but it’s first and foremost about delivering a product every day that media professionals, past, present, and future, respect, trust, and find useful. Whether someone works in music, news or sports, radio, TV, podcasting, advertising, research, tech, at a record label or performs on stage, I want every one of them to know that when they come here, we’ll make them think, and give them a deeper understanding of what’s happening inside the media industry. Being the most connected and invested person in media is a lofty goal but I don’t believe in aiming low.
Hiring 2 Music Radio Editors Instead of 1
Now that a strong crew of writers has been hired, and the newsletter strategy is better, it’s time to add steady support to the music radio division. John, Garrett and I interviewed 13 people for our Music Editor role during the past two months. We spoke to many smart, talented, and accomplished music radio folks, and that made the decision difficult. Narrowing a field from 13 to 4 is hard enough. Choosing 1 for a role that 4 can do is even harder. Making it tougher was that it became clear that adding one editor wouldn’t be enough.
So I started thinking about adding two people because I want to do this right. After going through the final conversations, I’m excited to welcome David Hill and Bethany Kent to our Music Radio team. They will serve as co-editors of our Music Radio coverage, adding daily news, regular columns and features, working with our writers, and contributing in the future to additional video projects. They start with us officially on May 1st with a few weeks of training prior to that. If you already know them or don’t, be sure to reach out and welcome them aboard. David is accessible by email here. Bethany is reachable here.
Introducing David Hill and Bethany Kent
David Hill‘s experience in music radio programming is extensive. He has led 101 The Fox in Kansas City, Big 105.9 in Miami, The Edge in Albany, NY and WMRQ in Hartford. He has also served as SVP of Programming for iHeartMedia Indianapolis where he also programmed Q95 and ALT 103.3, and SVP of Programing for iHeartMedia Portland. In addition, he enjoyed a twelve year run in Baltimore where he successfully guided 98ROCK and WBAL-AM. Hill’s radio career started in 1994 in Atlanta where he performed as an on-air talent and programming assistant.
“I’ve been chasing this since I was a kid in my living room with two turntables, a mic, and a speaker wired down the hallway, pretending to be Casey Kasem,” said Hill. “That love for music radio has never left me. I’ve been lucky enough to spend 30-plus years in radio, learning from a lot of great people and watching the industry change firsthand. Getting to be part of Barrett Media and cover music radio at a national level — honestly, I can’t wait.”
Bethany Kent is no stranger to the business either. She has worked in multiple markets for different radio groups, holding important titles throughout her career. From 2021 to 2025 she was Audacy’s Director of Music Initiatives where she worked across all formats, curating national content, contests, and tentpole events. She has also been the Marketing & Events Director for HOT 97 in New York, Promotions/Marketing Director for Wired 96.5 in Philadelphia, and has held a similar role at HOT 106 in Providence, RI.
“I’m incredibly excited to join Barrett Media and contribute to a platform that plays such an important role in shaping industry conversation” shared Kent. “Radio has always been a powerful force in building culture and connecting audiences, and I look forward to covering the stories, trends, and talent that continue to move the business forward. I’m happy to be joining the strong team Jason has built, and can’t wait to get started. And fair warning: look out for me in your DMs, inboxes, and popping up at events soon. I’m always ready to talk radio.”
Moving Forward
Adding David and Bethany will strengthen our daily news, columns, features, and original projects. It will help us with our future video plans too. I hope soon to add a Country columnist too, and possibly one more contributor. From there, it’s all about sharpening our focus to connect with each format.
Our music coverage starts first with radio. However, as you continue to follow us, you will see more stories in the future on artists, music labels, and other areas of the business that intersect. The road we’re traveling on has no end in sight, and I’m excited to explore. Thank you for taking the ride with us, and please connect with David and Bethany when time permits. Onward and upward we go!
Barrett Media produces daily content on the music, news, and sports media industries. Sign up for our newsletters to stay updated and get the latest information right in your inbox.
Jason Barrett is the Founder and CEO of Barrett Media. The company launched in September 2015 and has provided consulting services to America’s top audio and video brands, while simultaneously covering the media industry at BarrettMedia.com, becoming a daily destination for media professionals. Prior to Barrett Media, Jason built and programmed 95.7 The Game in San Francisco, and 101 ESPN in St. Louis. He was also the first sports programmer for SportsTalk 950 in Philadelphia, which later became 97.5 The Fanatic. Barrett also led 590 The Fan KFNS in St. Louis, and ESPN 1340/1390 in Poughkeepsie, NY, and worked on-air and behind the scenes at 101.5 WPDH, WTBQ 1110AM, and WPYX 106.5. He also spent two years at ESPN Radio in Bristol, CT producing ‘The Dan Patrick Show’ and ‘GameNight’. JB can be reached on Twitter @SportsRadioPD or by email at Jason@BarrettMedia.com.
