It’s time to put our money where our mouth is. Summer concert season is here, and it is Country radio’s Super Bowl.
Look at the national landscape for Summer 2026. You’ve got Morgan Wallen‘s “Still The Problem” stadium run, or Chris Stapleton hitting the road with Lainey Wilson. But let’s bring it local to where I sit, just north of Saratoga Springs. Look at the lineup rolling through the Albany Med Health System at SPAC this summer: Jelly Roll’s “The Little ASS Shed Tour” on June 18, followed immediately by Riley Green the next night.
We’ve got Tim McGraw in July, Little Big Town and the Outlaw Music Fest rolling through, Luke Bryan’s “Word On The Street Tour” in August, and Parker McCollum closing it out in September.
These aren’t just concerts; they are massive cultural moments for our audience.
This is the ultimate proving ground. The listeners are explicitly begging us to be visible. But here is the reality check: if your station’s game plan is to set up a 10×10 pop-up tent, unfold a plastic table, dump out a box of leftover koozies, and have your talent scroll on their phones for two hours, you are failing. You are handing the audience to someone else.
To be clear, we still use the 10×10 tent and the folding table. Sometimes that is the only footprint a venue will give you. But winning the summer isn’t about the table; it’s about the energy you bring inside and around it. It requires spectacle, content creation, and actual human connection.
Here is how the people who are actually winning do it.
1. The Tailgate is Your Content Engine
Stop treating a concert appearance as a mandatory shift to check off a box. It is a content goldmine.
Look at John and Tammy, the morning show at KSON in San Diego. When a massive country tour rolls into town, they don’t just stand behind a table waiting for people to approach them. They do a bit called “Are You Smarter Than a Tailgater.” They take microphones deep into the parking lot, find the happiest, loudest, most passionate fans, and record them playing trivia.
They are mining the parking lot for audio gold and creating a connection. The next morning, that audio becomes the anchor bit of their show. They didn’t just give away tickets before the show; they entertained the audience during the tailgate and then used it to drive tune-in the morning after. That is how you squeeze every drop of value out of a tour.
2. Outsmart the Venue Rules
We all want to be impossible to ignore. At Pamal in Albany, we have some great assets. We have The Cat Bus, the video truck, and over at Fly 92.3, we even built a giant, interactive human slot machine for major events.
But what happens when the venue rules say, “No vehicles inside the gates”? Do you just give up and go back to the folding table?
No. You find ways to overcome the limitations. If they won’t let the big Cat Bus park at the tailgate, you better believe that bus is going to be slowly rolling up and down the street right outside the venue while everyone is stuck in traffic on their way in, and again on their way out. You create top-of-mind awareness. You figure out how to hijack the ingress and egress so that even if they didn’t see you inside, they undeniably know you were there.
3. The Hook is the Handshake
You can have the biggest bus, the loudest video truck, and the coolest interactive games in the market. But if your talent is hiding from the crowd, you have completely missed the point. The spectacle is just the bait; the hook is the 1-to-1 connection.
Sean and Andrea from The Cat in Albany understand this perfectly. When they go to a show, they are out there pressing the flesh. They are taking pictures, having actual conversations, and looking listeners in the eye. They know that every single handshake is a listener who is going to go back to work the next day and tell their coworkers, “I met Sean and Andrea last night, and they were awesome.” That is your Net Promoter Score in action. You cannot algorithm your way into a handshake. They will actively skip an artist meet-and-greet just to stay in the crowd, because they know the connection with the listener is ten times more valuable than a backstage photo. Do both if you can.
The Playbook for the Summer
The biggest stars in the world are pulling your core listeners into parking lots right now. You have the ultimate home-field advantage.
Audit your concert strategy today. Are you just “showing up,” or are you putting on a show? Outsmart the venue rules. Turn the tailgate into tomorrow’s content. Shake their hands. Want more ideas? Reach out. I’m happy to share. Hint: You don’t need a video truck or a bus!
Let’s get out of the studio. And if I see you out there, feel free to hand me something cold out of the cooler.
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As the Executive Director of Programming & Operations for Pamal Broadcasting, Kevin Callahan oversees 25 stations across five markets, including the company’s four Country brands. An award-winning brand specialist, Kevin is a passionate advocate for talent development, dedicated to mentoring personalities and restoring our medium to its most vibrant, high-impact form. His career is highlighted by 12 years as Audacy’s West Coast Regional VP of Programming for the Country format, where he managed premier brands across major markets including San Diego, Seattle, Phoenix, Riverside and more. Today, Kevin balances his corporate leadership with his role as President of Sonic Maple Media, serving as a fractional executive advisor to broadcast leadership and fractional programmer and talent coach to broadcasters nationwide. He can be reached at kevin@pamal.com
