Clay Hunnicutt: Clear Channel's Country Connoisseur
Crystal Caviness
May 12, 2007
One can only imagine what size business card Clear Channel's Clay Hunnicutt carries. In 2006, Hunnicutt's cluster of job titles sounded like he's a one-man operation: VP of Country Programming; Director of Programming for Nashville's five-station group (WSIX, WRVW, WNRQ, WUBT and WLAC); Brand Manager; and Regional VP of Programming for a 28-station region in the Southeast.
As VP of Country Programming for Clear Channel's 200+ Country radio stations, Hunnicutt's job is to know Country Music. But his other hats require that he knows what's going on at rock, Top 40, urban and talk radio, all of which makes Hunnicutt better at his Country gig, he said.
"I love what I do because it affords me the flexibility to not only focus on the Country format but also to be able to look at and understand all formats," Hunnicutt said about his multiple roles at the nation's largest operator of radio stations.
"I think we do a disservice to Country radio when we circle the wagons and say 'this is the only way we do it.' When you see what classic rock does, they have historical artists, just like Country does," he said. "I think a lot of Country radio stations make the mistake of thinking we're primarily a female format. It's foolish for us not to acknowledge the male aspect of our format. Classic rock is a very male 25-54 driven format and [males] do go back and forth [between Country and classic rock stations]. . Charlie Daniels, Hank Jr. and Toby Keith drive the male listeners and a lot of new (Country) artists - Jake Owen, Kenny Chesney, Brad Paisley - are still bringing a lot of males to the format."
Make no mistake, Hunnicutt knows radio. The 18-year veteran of the industry began his career at WUSY-FM in Chattanooga, Tenn., while attending the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. He climbed the corporate rungs at WUSY from unpaid intern in the production department to Program Director for the nine-time CMA Radio Station of the Year. Before joining Clear Channel, Hunnicutt spent a year and a half as Program Director at WGAR-FM in Cleveland, Ohio.
"Clay has an extensive knowledge and love of Country Music," said Butch Waugh, Executive VP, Sony BMG Nashville. "He not only reaches out to support established artists, but is always eager to hear music from, and know more about, new acts. Clay is very creative and looks for innovative ways to introduce new artists to the Country audience."
A number of those innovations involve new technologies, including Internet and high definition (HD) strategies.
"Ten years ago, the Internet was a minor player for us," Hunnicutt said. "Now it is such an integral part of what our radio stations do in building the brand."
Live concerts online, acoustic-based performances titled "Stripped," and a program called "New," introducing up-and-coming acts is how Clear Channel is working to grow its demographic, Hunnicutt said.
"You go to a Keith Urban or Rascal Flatts concert, and there's a lot of the 12-24 [age group] in the crowd too," he said. "And that's who is going online. Eventually people grow out of your target demos and we need to keep building our future audiences."
Building the audiences means listening to the existing ones, an area of his job Hunnicutt takes seriously. "I think everything we do is listener based," he said. "We ask listeners what they want to hear. We still do research projects to directly touch the listeners."
Today's listeners want choices beyond terrestrial radio, Hunnicutt said, which is why Clear Channel is aggressively implementing online and alternative initiatives.
"There will always be radios and a market for free radio stations," he said. "But we do have to react to giving listeners more choices. That why you see our stations streaming. We're also on XM Radio. The streaming, HD, XM and terrestrial - that's not building a radio station, that's building a brand. Coke doesn't promote Coke. Coke promotes lifestyle, youngness, vitality. We have to get better about that. Our brands have to become more important than an FM frequency.
"It's about growing it and making it have value to the listeners," he added. "If terrestrial's only stronghold is that it's free, we're done. It's not about free. That makes it cheap. It's not cheap. It has great value. It adds value to our society and communities. It must maintain a sense of companionship."
Clear Channel's content can be heard on AM/FM stations, HD digital radio channels, on the Internet, via iPods, through Motorola's iRadio cell phone service and via mobile-navigation devices from Cobra, Garmin, Kenwood and others.
The passion Hunnicutt maintains for radio spills over into the loyalty he has for his company.
"This may be a big group of radio stations - Clear Channel owns more than 1,000 radio stations worldwide - but it is still an individual programming a radio station, impacting their local community everyday," Hunnicutt said. "We're the ones out here doing this on a day-to-day basis. Every programming director makes their decisions about their programming on a daily basis. There aren't national playlists. There aren't national edicts about what they play and how often they play it. Those are fallacies. No one wants to believe that you can be a very large company but still make an impact on a local market."
Though he wears many hats including CMA Board member, Hunnicutt's primary focus remains clear.
"I'm trying to be the conduit and communicator of the company through our successes and failures," he said. "What I'm trying to do with all the Country programmers at Clear Channel is to share as much information as is out there, whether it's research or trends in the format. I learn as much from my Country programmers as I hope they learn from me."
On Dec. 21, 2006 Clear Channel announced that Clay Hunnicutt had been named Atlanta OM of the company's six-station group there, including Country WUBL-FM, News/Talk WGST-AM, Regional Mexican WBZY-FM, Rock WKLS-FM and Spanish CHR WWVA-FM & WVWA-FM.
On the Web: www.clearchannel.com
As VP of Country Programming for Clear Channel's 200+ Country radio stations, Hunnicutt's job is to know Country Music. But his other hats require that he knows what's going on at rock, Top 40, urban and talk radio, all of which makes Hunnicutt better at his Country gig, he said.
"I love what I do because it affords me the flexibility to not only focus on the Country format but also to be able to look at and understand all formats," Hunnicutt said about his multiple roles at the nation's largest operator of radio stations.
"I think we do a disservice to Country radio when we circle the wagons and say 'this is the only way we do it.' When you see what classic rock does, they have historical artists, just like Country does," he said. "I think a lot of Country radio stations make the mistake of thinking we're primarily a female format. It's foolish for us not to acknowledge the male aspect of our format. Classic rock is a very male 25-54 driven format and [males] do go back and forth [between Country and classic rock stations]. . Charlie Daniels, Hank Jr. and Toby Keith drive the male listeners and a lot of new (Country) artists - Jake Owen, Kenny Chesney, Brad Paisley - are still bringing a lot of males to the format."
Make no mistake, Hunnicutt knows radio. The 18-year veteran of the industry began his career at WUSY-FM in Chattanooga, Tenn., while attending the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. He climbed the corporate rungs at WUSY from unpaid intern in the production department to Program Director for the nine-time CMA Radio Station of the Year. Before joining Clear Channel, Hunnicutt spent a year and a half as Program Director at WGAR-FM in Cleveland, Ohio.
"Clay has an extensive knowledge and love of Country Music," said Butch Waugh, Executive VP, Sony BMG Nashville. "He not only reaches out to support established artists, but is always eager to hear music from, and know more about, new acts. Clay is very creative and looks for innovative ways to introduce new artists to the Country audience."
A number of those innovations involve new technologies, including Internet and high definition (HD) strategies.
"Ten years ago, the Internet was a minor player for us," Hunnicutt said. "Now it is such an integral part of what our radio stations do in building the brand."
Live concerts online, acoustic-based performances titled "Stripped," and a program called "New," introducing up-and-coming acts is how Clear Channel is working to grow its demographic, Hunnicutt said.
"You go to a Keith Urban or Rascal Flatts concert, and there's a lot of the 12-24 [age group] in the crowd too," he said. "And that's who is going online. Eventually people grow out of your target demos and we need to keep building our future audiences."
Building the audiences means listening to the existing ones, an area of his job Hunnicutt takes seriously. "I think everything we do is listener based," he said. "We ask listeners what they want to hear. We still do research projects to directly touch the listeners."
Today's listeners want choices beyond terrestrial radio, Hunnicutt said, which is why Clear Channel is aggressively implementing online and alternative initiatives.
"There will always be radios and a market for free radio stations," he said. "But we do have to react to giving listeners more choices. That why you see our stations streaming. We're also on XM Radio. The streaming, HD, XM and terrestrial - that's not building a radio station, that's building a brand. Coke doesn't promote Coke. Coke promotes lifestyle, youngness, vitality. We have to get better about that. Our brands have to become more important than an FM frequency.
"It's about growing it and making it have value to the listeners," he added. "If terrestrial's only stronghold is that it's free, we're done. It's not about free. That makes it cheap. It's not cheap. It has great value. It adds value to our society and communities. It must maintain a sense of companionship."
Clear Channel's content can be heard on AM/FM stations, HD digital radio channels, on the Internet, via iPods, through Motorola's iRadio cell phone service and via mobile-navigation devices from Cobra, Garmin, Kenwood and others.
The passion Hunnicutt maintains for radio spills over into the loyalty he has for his company.
"This may be a big group of radio stations - Clear Channel owns more than 1,000 radio stations worldwide - but it is still an individual programming a radio station, impacting their local community everyday," Hunnicutt said. "We're the ones out here doing this on a day-to-day basis. Every programming director makes their decisions about their programming on a daily basis. There aren't national playlists. There aren't national edicts about what they play and how often they play it. Those are fallacies. No one wants to believe that you can be a very large company but still make an impact on a local market."
Though he wears many hats including CMA Board member, Hunnicutt's primary focus remains clear.
"I'm trying to be the conduit and communicator of the company through our successes and failures," he said. "What I'm trying to do with all the Country programmers at Clear Channel is to share as much information as is out there, whether it's research or trends in the format. I learn as much from my Country programmers as I hope they learn from me."
On Dec. 21, 2006 Clear Channel announced that Clay Hunnicutt had been named Atlanta OM of the company's six-station group there, including Country WUBL-FM, News/Talk WGST-AM, Regional Mexican WBZY-FM, Rock WKLS-FM and Spanish CHR WWVA-FM & WVWA-FM.
On the Web: www.clearchannel.com