March 26, 2025 News@CountryAircheck.com

Raisin' Fran: As reported earlier via Breaking News, Cumulus has launched The Overnight Ride airing weeknights from midnight to 5am across 47 stations. The show is based at WKDF/Nashville and hosted by Justin Franiak, who most recently did swing at Beasley WXTU/Philadelphia, and also spent time in mornings at AC WJBR/Wilmington, DE and KBBL/Santa Rosa, CA. Overnights on most Cumulus stations had been jockless since the end of the company's partnership with PickleJar in December (CAT 12/10/24).

Abernethy To Depart: Audacy Reg. Pres. Doug Abernethy will exit May 9. He leads the Austin cluster, which includes Classic Country KKMJ-HD3, and oversees more than a dozen other markets for the company. Abernethy joined then-Entercom in 2015 (CAT 7/15/15), overseeing the Miami cluster and moving to his most recent role five years ago (CAT 8/24/20). He previously spent 10 years as RVP/Texas for Radio One. No word on plans for the positions.

Fit Check: Country Radio Seminar's CRS360 webinar Fitting In! Listeners Say What Music To Play And The Numbers To Back It Up is available for streaming here. Moderated by Clay Hunnicutt, the session delves into data-driven insights on listener preferences in country music, providing information not included in NuVoodoo's CRS ‘25 research presentation (CRS '25 Daily Buzz, 2/21). NuVoodoo's Carolyn Gilbert and Leigh Jacobs, and Beasley's Justin Chase discuss how stations can better understand and respond to audience demands through actionable data.

Festive All: Jason Aldean, Kelsea Ballerini, Dierks Bentley, Brooks & Dunn, Luke Bryan, Jordan Davis, Riley Green, Cody Johnson, Ella Langley, Ashley McBryde, Parker McCollum, Megan Moroney, Rascal Flatts, The Red Clay Strays, Darius Rucker, Shaboozey, Blake Shelton, Zach Top, Keith Urban and Bailey Zimmerman will perform at Nissan Stadium during CMA Fest June 5-8 in downtown Nashville; full lineup here and tickets here.

Napster Or Nurture: Nashville-based music service Napster is being acquired by digital media and AI company Infinite Reality (iR) for $207 million. Napster CEO Jon Vlassopulos will continue in the position he has held since 2022, and take on a broader role for iR globally. iR says it plans to "transform Napster beyond streaming into a social and interactive music platform ... that prioritizes active fan engagement over passive listening, allowing artists to connect with, own and monetize the relationship with their fans." Find the full release here.

Signage: Songwriter/producer Clint Lagerberg has signed with Peermusic Nashville. His cuts include Keith Urban's "Blue Ain’t Your Color” and Rascal Flatts' “Here Comes Goodbye."

Bits & Pieces: Audacy/Pittsburgh, which includes Country WDSY, raised funds for 258,375 meals during its sixth annual Giant Eagle Feed The Need Radiothon benefitting the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank.

Cumulus KSCS/Dallas morning hosts Mark "Hawkeye" Louis and Michelle Rodriguez capped their Great Egg Giveaway on March 21 with a live broadcast during which they gave out 96 cartons of eggs.

ICYMI: Megan Moroney performed "Break It Right Back" on CBS' The Late Show with Stephen Colbert (3/25).

Country Aircheck Today Top 5: Here are the Top 5 songs for March 25, according to Mediabase 24/7.

LOCASH/Hometown Home (Galaxy) 4438 points
DYLAN SCOTT/This Town's Been Too Good To Us (Curb) 4418 points
JELLY ROLL/Liar (BMG/Republic/Stoney Creek) 3689 points
JOHN MORGAN f/JASON ALDEAN/Friends Like That (Night Train/Broken Bow) 3310 points
MORGAN WALLEN/I'm The Problem (Big Loud) 3196 points

Country Aircheck Top Point Gainers: Here are the top point gainers for March 23-25 compared with the same days last week, according to Mediabase 24/7.

DYLAN SCOTT/This Town's Been Too Good To Us (Curb) +2418 points
ERIC CHURCH/Hands Of Time (EMI Nashville) +1577 points
MORGAN WALLEN/I'm The Problem (Big Loud) +766 points
LOCASH/Hometown Home (Galaxy) +688 points
JOSH ROSS/Single Again (Core/Mercury) +462 points

Stories Of The Week: Search for news and people in the archives at countryaircheck.com.

NuVoodoo's Leigh Jacobs offers a deeper look at the CRS 2025 research project in Country Aircheck Weekly.
Kenny Chesney, June Carter Cash and Tony Brown are the newest members of the Country Music Hall of Fame.
Sony/Nashville SVP/Marketing Jennifer Way exited.

Tomorrow's Birthdays (3/27): Brad Wolf, Kent Blazy, Lee Gerald, John Hare, Kris Lamb, Bonnie Sugarman, Eddie Ybarra, Tiffany Kerns, the late Elroy Kahanek.

Missin:Possible: Back Blocks/EMI's Tucker Wetmore celebrates his inaugural No. 1, "Wind Up Missin' You." Pictured (back, l-r) are Concord’s Brad Kennard, Combustion’s Keithan Melton, BMI’s Leslie Roberts, the label's Damon Moberly, SESAC’s Lydia Cahill, Back Blocks Music’s Rakiyah Marshall and Hang Your Hat’s Emily Baldridge; (front, l-r) Studio Bank’s Ron Cox, songwriter Thomas Archer, Wetmore and songwriter/producer Chris LaCorte.

What Makes You Lowcountry: WCKN/Charleston, SC's Cares for Kids radiothon raises a record $355,559 for the MUSC Shawn Jenkins Children’s Hospital. Pictured (l-r) are Tug Cowart, Hunter Meyer, Jeff Cushman, Jessica Chandler, TJ Phillips, Brian Cleary and Stephen Crumbley.

Hi, KEEY: Valory's Preston Cooper (c) with the label's George Briner, KEEY's Gregg Swedberg, the label's Ashley Sidoti and KEEY's Pat Knight (l-r) in Minneapolis.

I'm Movin' Von: WZZK/Birmingham's Mike Sanders (wearing lanyard) with Rascal Flatts' Jay DeMarcus, Gary LeVox and Joe Don Rooney (l-r) at Huntsville's Von Braun Center.

Meet The Rich: ONErpm's Tyler Rich with KRTY.com staffers at San Jose's Rodeo Club. Pictured (l-r) are Michael Moore, Gary Scott Thomas, Rich and wife Sabina, Nate Deaton, Julie Stevens and Indiana Al.

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