Continuing consolidation, station wars and the impending arrival of Arbitron’s PPM methodology were among the hot topics facing country radio and the music industry 10 years ago. That is, until Sept. 11 of that year, when the focus of those industries—and the whole country for that matter—completely shifted. Also that year, we began to see more label-sponsored spins on radio stations, the CMA attempted to launch a controversial branding campaign, three Nashville labels staged a mutiny against the CRS New Faces show, and the Wall Street Journal’s Walter Mossberg introduced the NAB Radio Show audience to newfangled inventions the smart phone and wi-fi.

In the conclusion of this week’s two-part look at the industry’s recent history, we take a peek back at country radio 10 years ago as I reported it then in Country Airplay Monitor, with the help of my colleagues. In Tuesday’s issue, we covered the topics facing the industry 15 years ago. If you missed that story, you can read it right here.

The year 2001 began with headlines like “Wall Street, Consolidation Spark Bleak View of Radio Landscape.” In that story, then Cumulus/Toledo, Ohio, OM Tim Roberts said, “Some of the giant radio companies—not mine—are eliminating a lot of entry-level jobs, and the talent pool continues to shrink. There’s less choices for employment, thus some companies are paying lower wages.”

In the same story, then (and now) WKSJ Mobile, Ala., PD Bill Black lamented that consolidation has sapped the business’s competitive spirit. “Fewer owners has meant less competition within any given market,” he said, “and if you don’t have to worry about a competitor, you don’t produce the best radio for your market… It can make for lazy PDs and sloppy radio. Does ownership care? Depends on the stock price.”

In another story, titled “The End Of Corporate Radio? Some PDs Dare To Dream,” PDs predicted (incorrectly, as it happens), that the current era of corporate radio wouldn’t last indefinitely. Eventually, they said, the ability to generate 20% growth per year for stockholders will force the mega-groups to lose interest in radio and cash out.

At the NAB Radio Show that year, Radio One president/CEO Alfred Liggins has an ultimately more accurate prediction. “If you didn’t like the last four to five years of consolidation,” he said, “stick around—you’re not going to like the next four to five years any better.”

In a poll Monitorconducted at the end of 2001, 50% of country PDs said they’d considered leaving the radio business altogether in the previous 12 months. That figure was actually down from 52% the prior year.

Meanwhile, the hostility between competing country stations in the same market continued to make record label promo reps sweat, even after consolidation brought about peace in some of the markets that had previously been the worst offenders. Said then Lyric Street VP of national promotion Kevin Herring, “I wish here was a way the artists themselves could be off-limits from being in the middle of the tug of war. Every station plays the music and wants a piece of the artist. That’s the good news. It’s [just] a shame the artist gets held hostage in some instances.”

In St Louis, then WIL PD Russ Schell responded to the competition from crosstown KSD by actually asking labels to sign an exclusivity agreement with his station for area appearances. KSD PD Rob Walker put a promo on the air in response denouncing Schell by name and encouraging listeners to call or e-mail the rival station.

Prior to Country Radio Seminar that year, labels DreamWorks, Lyric Street and Mercury started a fight of their own when they jointly scheduled a “Class of 2000” show at a Nashville nightclub, directly competing with the CRS New Faces show. The label execs were angry that their acts—Darryl Worley, Rascal Flatts and Jamie O’Neal—hadn’t been selected to play at New Faces. (This was in the days before radio votes determined the performers.) One label VP boasted, “I’m pretty confident we can take half of the audience from New Faces.” CRS responded by threatening to revoke all registrations the three labels had paid for, including some the labels had purchased for radio programmers, an estimated $40,000-$45,000 worth of total registrations.

It took three weeks of negotiations, but a compromise was finally reached, adjusting the start times for both shows so they did not directly compete. Incidentally, the new Faces performers that year were Trick Pony, Sara Evans, Phil Vassar, Chris Cagle and the Clark Family Experience.

At CRS, panelists questioned whether there was any independent thinking going on at radio, and in particular, whether PDs were willing to resist label priorities. Although his answer was yes, consultant Joel Raab quipped, “There are a lot of companies whose ‘independent thinking’ is given to them every week.”

CRS also addressed the still emerging Arbitron PPM methodology, which would begin testing later that year. Arbitron’s Bob Michaels said at the time a number of key issues still needed to be resolved, including whether to lower the ratings age from 12-plus to 6-plus (they did, of course), whether to release the minute-by-minute ratings, and whether to change to traditional average quarter hour methodology.

Other highlights of CRS that year included then KRYS Corpus Christi, Texas, PD Clayton Allen rushing the stage at the disco party sponsored by Premiere Networks shirtless, and with the words “Soy Bomb” written on his chest. He remained onstage, dancing with a flustered artist Tim Rushlow.

CRS’s presence in town was acknowledged by an on-air salvo from top 40 WRVW Nashville morning hosts Woody & Jim, who read off a list of bogus session topics, including “How to properly resent any artist who becomes popular outside the format.”

In April, the Country Music Assn. announced it was sinking big bucks into an extensive branding effort along the lines of the dairy industry’s “Got Milk” campaign. Country Airplay Monitor asked broadcasters for their suggestions, and got some hilarious answers like “Ten million soccer moms can’t be wrong,” “Country: Please don’t say ‘and Western’” and “Country: It doesn’t suck as much as jazz.”

Scott Lindy, who at the time was PD of WPOC Baltimore, suggested, “Country music: Admit it, you like it.” Sure enough, when the real slogan was revealed, Lindy was very close to the final “Country. Admit It. You love it.”

That slogan was immediately controversial, and the post 9/11 environment later in the year provided the perfect cover for the CMA to quietly announce plans to scuttle the whole $2.25 million effort.

The issue of paid back-sells got some attention that year following an early experiment with the practice from Clear Channel in other formats. Later in the year, Entercom began offering infomercials, dubbed the “Preview” feature,” at its top 40, adult top 40, album rock and modern rock stations. The produced feature, which ran in place of a stopset, allowed a song to be heard seven times per week, book ending the spin with artist info, tour details and Web site plugs before identifying the sponsoring record label. Citadel had begun offering a similar program the previous year.

The terrorist attacks of 9/11 changed the tone of the whole country for the remainder of the year, and country radio responded with promotions and charity drives, an upswing in patriotic music, and even different imaging at a lot of stations, like KNIX Phoenix, which launched a billboard campaign that simply read “God Bless America. KNIX 102.5.”

Garth Brooks postponed the release of his first new single in four years, “Beer Run,” saying, “I just can’t find it in my heart to feel that ‘Beer Run’ is appropriate for right now.”

The attacks also caused stations to re-evaluate their preparedness for providing news coverage, and caused stations and record labels alike to beef up their own security, particularly when media outlets began being targeted for anthrax and other bioterrorism attacks by mail.

One major Nashville record label found a bit of humor in the situation by playing a joke on a temp worker in its mailroom. The man was sent an internal package containing a yellow rubber coat and pants, a shower cap and barbecue tongs, with a note saying it was the new corporate policy that mailroom employees wear the gear and use the tongs to deliver mail. He complied, to the great amusement of his co-workers.

In one final note about how fast things change, the NAB Radio Show that year included a keynote presentation from Wall Street Journal technology guru Mossberg who described what the then new wi-fi was and—long before the term “smart phone” had been invented—brandished a new digital phone and told the impressed audience it would allow users to make calls, send and receive e-mail and instant messages, surf the Web, and likely even stream content in the near future. Remarked Mossberg to the radio crowd, “If you don’t think that’s going to compete with you, you’re making a mistake.”