The death of a superstar music performer always presents a litmus test moment where we learn which stations are vying to truly be in the moment versus those content with simply checking off the box.
The passing of Dolly Parton this past Tuesday has already turned into one of those “teaching moments.” Even though Dolly was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame more than a quarter-century ago, most of today’s Country stations no longer play her music.
As celebrity music stars go, Dolly is right up there with the biggest and best. But because most of the action was confined to Country, I got to sit this one out and objectively observe from the box seats. Over the last many years, most of the passings have been big stars primarily in the Rock community—Ozzy, Tom Petty, Neil Peart, Charlie Watts, Eddie Money, Glenn Frey, David Bowie, Chris Cornell, and the list goes on.
In most of these cases, Rock’s PDs had to instantly choose a tactic to honor the artist in question. Beyond making the announcement itself, programmers have to decide on what constitutes the appropriate on-air musical salute—a song or two from the artist (and then back to format), playing the artist’s music “wall-to-wall” for a period of time—or something else.
Other issues await decisions, too. Will there be a tribute show for the artist, locally produced or syndicated, and when/where will it be programmed? Is there any “sound” of the artist available, and if so, whether to air it is a question. Similarly, will the station put any listener voices and their remembrances on the air? And then there’s social media.
But this week, the spotlight and rhinestones were on Dolly Parton and Country radio. And according to Mike McVay (pictured), writing in Radio Ink yesterday, radio didn’t exactly hit it out of the park these past few days. In “Dolly’s Passing Exposed a Weakness of Today’s Radio,” he makes his case.
Dolly’s death was announced Tuesday early afternoon—not a bad time for radio to react and pivot. I recall several Rock superstar deaths announced during the evening hours, or worse, over a weekend. I’ve written several blog posts on the topic, like McVay, expressing my frustration and disappointment over radio’s handling of these poignant moments, the most recent of which was back in 2022 when Foo Fighters’ drummer Taylor Hawkins was found dead in his hotel room in Bogota, Colombia (“Another Weekend, Another Rock Star Death”).
In the case of Dolly Parton’s passing, I’ll gladly give up the heavy lifting of chastising radio to Mike:
“Miss Parton’s passing was announced just before 2pm ET. That sent many stations’ content creators into scramble mode to get talent to a studio (whether it was from home or an actual studio) to log into music scheduling systems to recreate a music playlist, to start work on producing special imaging, to update websites, to send push notifications, and to post on social media.
“Unfortunately, it didn’t send all radio stations, or the ones you expect, like Country and News, into that level of action and attention to detail. I camped out at my smart speaker and asked for Country station after Country station to hear what they were doing on-air. To say I was disappointed by what I didn’t hear would be an understatement. It was hours after the death announcement before I heard some stations even mention it.
“It took several major market radio stations almost three hours before they promoted special audio tributes and began playing 100% Dolly Parton music as a way to honor the icon.”
If this sounds like similar venting to what you’ve read here when influential and popular Rockers have passed on, it’s no coincidence. As Mike chided, “Radio must do better,” bringing us to the inconvenient truth that explains what happened—or didn’t happen—after news of Dolly’s death was all over media outlets everywhere. Here’s how Mike explained it:
“Some country stations acted quickly. Others didn’t. What’s most disappointing is that some of those who failed to act quickly were handcuffed by a lack of staff, unmanned studios, a lack of remote equipment, absent cloud-based technology, and programming leadership operating as a skeleton crew. I’m sure in some cases, the multitasking of programmers across multiple formats and many markets served as a time bandit to prevent being prepared for situations of such magnitude.”
On social media, some complained about how few people actually heard the Dolly news first on the radio. That doesn’t bother me. I’ve reconciled myself over the fact that the internet, social media, and television are where people now hear the news first.
But once they learned the story, it’s logical to assume many punched up their hometown Country station to hear Dolly music and reminisces from station talent, many of whom likely met her over the years. Instead, many heard Morgan Wallen and not a word about Dolly Parton’s passing.
Whether it’s about staff cutbacks, organizational chaos, voicetracking technology, or something else entirely, there are radio breakdowns that are glaring and they matter. Simply put, radio is not doing its job—it is mailing it in.
Even with skeleton staffs, stations need to develop guidelines that lay out what each person in the building needs to go through during moments like this one. My Rock clients know I’ve long been a fan of a designated person (who lives nearby) driving to the station to break in with music and talk programming appropriate for the brand. Oftentimes, people are not listening like they used to. That’s an opportunity for some, a setback for many others.
Long before there was a concept called “work/life balance,” when a radio station found itself in a situation where action was necessary, it was the PD who had to take command to keep listeners on top of the news. That burden continues to fall on the program director—essentially the go-to person. That’s who you high-five when a station does something well, but also demand accountability from when things go sideways.
There needs to be systems in place because there WILL be a next time. We know this in Rock Radio. The day will come when we’ll lose Paul McCartney, Mick Jagger, Pete Townshend, or Dave Grohl. Making sure every station is prepared with a written plan, and perhaps resources (music lists, coloring books, and other paraphernalia) that enriches the moment for fans.
Newspapers and TV stations/networks have built “morgues” that are meticulously updated—a radio station could do the same for key artists, providing audio and even video (easily accessible on YouTube) that would allow a station to better respond in the moment. That would at least be a start.
It is becoming more apparent to listeners that many radio stations are dropping the ball, mailing it in, or checking off a box rather than rising to the occasion with quality, well-designed programming. Moments like the type Mike describes are blatantly obvious to fans. Other listeners may not be able to articulate how it feels when a station comes up short during a critical moment—like the passing of a core artist.
These “ball drops” are erosive. And they add up. When the “station of record” falls short at crunch time, it is noted and recalled.
McVay’s right. We can do better. We have to do better.
P.S. Not every station playing Dolly Parton songs were Country (or news). WMMR—one of the best Rock stations ever—aired the “breaking news” about her death just after 1:30 pm Tuesday, and then played “9 to 5,” “Jolene,” and “I Will Always Love You.”
In the late 3pm/early 4pm hour, it was a version of “Let It Be,” as Dolly got together with Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr. It was followed up with a duet featuring Dolly and Joan Jett singing “I Hate Myself For Loving You.”
Later in the 4pm hour, Dolly performed with Sasha Flute and Lizzo to sing “Stairway to Heaven.”
Congrats to MMR for actually programming something fitting for a major event like the passing of Dolly Parton. -FJ
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Terrific piece. I’m sure my colleagues at non-comm AAA gave Dolly the tributes she deserved. NPR and NPR music’s coverage was fantastic. I know here at XPN in Philly we rolled into action as soon as we got the confirmed news. And we’re still paying tribute to her. Almost immediately we went into “legend” mode, playing a full hour and then some of Dolly classics and deep cuts. We followed up on the morning show the next day, during the mid-day and afternoon drive which probably resulted in XPN playing many hours of her music, her collabs, cuts from Trio and Trio II, audio clips from her TV shows. We surfaced a classic World Cafe archive session from 2001 with Dolly and the original host of the Cafe, David Dye. We turned around web and social content quickly. And to your point, we were “breaking music news” ready. You want competitive advantage and to remind listeners of your importance and relevance? Have a plan, show the f-up, and show some emotion.
Great advice, Bruce. Love that last line, and might add “Hold the mirror up to the audience.” This isn’t hard, but requires planning on multiple levels. Your team at XPN could teach a course in this stuff. Thank you for weighing in.
Fred, agree 100%. Classic rock stations in particular, need to be prepared for the inevitable bad news on the passing of aging rock stars.
Have imaging pieces, artist audio and background info at the ready. As you mentioned, a gameplan in place.
With that said, I’m more than willing to use my production experience to help any radio station in need with this matter. Just pick up the phone…I’m waiting.
Thanks for the offer, Paul. It never hurts to be prepared for the inevitable bad news.
Thank you, Fred, for naming the elephant in the room when it comes to radio companionship. If nobody is in the building anymore, it’s hard to get content on the air. First week of classes for us at WVCP and Vol State, so my “air staff” has yet to be assembled, but I did manage to juggle some songs by 2:30 (thank you, CMA, for the heads-up) and have a tribute ready in our format – 9-to-5 and Islands in the Stream. Yes I voicetracked – and considering I got choked up doing the first take, I’m glad I did. And yes, I hit all of our social media, including the next day, when there were pushes for a name change to BNA and a proposal to call 9-25 “Dolly Day.” And yes, it was all in our newscasts. Dolly was a neighbor, as far as we’re concerned.
Reflecting the post and a number of comments here, thanks for proving that there IS a way, Dianna. I appreciate your story.
We’re coming up on the 25th anniversary of 9/11. And I submit to you that after the events of the morning that day became a “radio story” across many stations and formats. And there was no prepping for that.
It’s almost dereliction of duty that Country stations didn’t have plans for an event like this. Radio, as an industry, is just failing its product.
Since this post published, there’s been criticism of McVay (and by inference, me) for not taking into account the depleted staffs and their effect on special coverage of unforseen events like Dolly’s death. I would argue that her passing should have been anticipated. I also stand by my commenent in this post. Both Mike and I have been openly critical of corporate staff cut and their short and long-term impact on radio, the medium. As short-staffed as many stations may be, their programmers (wherever they may be) have to find a way to cover bigger-than-life events.
You and Mike are so right, Fred. Part of my career was spent in news divisions and there was always that obituary file that needed to be updated, even if the people were still alive and healthy. My one big experience was when I was PD of WSAI-FM in Cincinnati, the year that The Who played there and kids were trampled trying to get through a few unlocked doors. I was in the arena, so I didn’t know about it until I got out and saw a pile of sneakers (an image I’ll never get out of my head). I immediately drove to the station, and we pulled the format and became a conduit for parents and kids to connect. This was before cell phones, so people had to find pay phones. Parents were frantic, kids were scared, and we helped connect the community in the best way we knew how given the tech limitations at the time. Our staff all came in to handle the incoming phone calls, and I was incredibly proud of the job we did pulling everything together. It wasn’t a major celebrity who died, but there were young people from the community just going out for a night of great rock music who never got to go home. We weren’t ready for it, but I think we rose to the occasion on that night, and that connection is something radio can do probably better than anyone.
Corinne, we obviously knew each other back then, but I’ve never heard you this truly tragic story before. I was at WRIF at that time, and Detroit was the next stop for that fateful Who – another “festival seating” concert for 80,000+ people at the now-demolished Pontiac Silverdome. WRIF’s PD Tom Bender was granted an exclusive backstage interview to talk about Cincinnati, the tour, and the band’s mindset. Those were amazing time for rock radio. Thanks for the reminder about the tacit value of local radio “back in the day.”
Self-promotion warning on this post. Since George Harrison died in 2001, I’ve been the point person for public radio stations – producing 83 hours on 55 artists who’ve passed in the last 25 years – getting thoughtful, comment-rich, 1 to 2 hour retrospective appreciations, usually within 24-36 hours for public stations to play….some produced while traveling in hotel rooms, in airport gate areas, and one in my sister’s basement. Music stations may and should go way into the catalogues on the day of, but when pub radio can, in the week of mourning generally associated with these passings, get a thoughtfully rendered hour or two offered up, it hits their listeners right where these artists lived… in their hearts. The latest here, being heard of 30+ stations in the system this weekend including, LA, Houston, Philly and other big markets.
https://exchange.prx.org/playlists/439497
I’m glad you did this, Paul. The industry simply has to do better here or risk irrelevance at the hands of other media. Thank you for doing this quality work.
The solution is simple. “Live” radio is the only radio.
That’s a sweeping statement, Mike, and I “get” where you’re come from. I would settle for every station demonstrating to the FCC their local content commitment. Let’s start there.