Data Journalism Report
They Don't Play a Lady-O on Country Radio
Examining back-to-back plays by gender, race, & sexual orientation
The Morning Drive
It's 8:35am on a Friday morning. You hop into your car and turn on the local country radio station: a classic, Brooks & Dunn's "That Ain't No Way To Go."
You've got nothing else to do today but ride around and blast some songs. After a few hours you hit a stretch that includes Keith Urban, Kenny Chesney, Michael Ray, Tim McGraw, Thomas Rhett, Easton Corbin, Chris Stapleton, Sam Hunt, George Strait, Jordan Davis, Luke Bryan, Cody Johnson, and Jon Pardi.
Noticing a pattern here? All men.
Men's Back-to-Back Songs: Morning Drive
Brooks & Dunn
That Ain't No Way To Go
Keith Urban
Blue Ain't Your Color
Kenny Chesney
Get Along
Michael Ray
Think a Little Less
Tim McGraw
Humble and Kind
Thomas Rhett
Die a Happy Man
Easton Corbin
A Little More Country
Chris Stapleton
Tennessee Whiskey
Sam Hunt
Body Like a Back Road
George Strait
Amarillo By Morning
Jordan Davis
Singles You Up
Luke Bryan
Country Girl
Cody Johnson
Til You Can't
Jon Pardi
Dirt on My Boots
52 min
Total Duration
100%
Male Artists
0
Women Artists
All 14 consecutive songs by male artists — a common pattern on country radio during peak listening hours
It'll be 9 hours and 16 minutes before you hear a rarity on country radio: back-to-back songs by women with Priscilla Block's "Just About Over You" played right after Carly Pearce and Ashley McBryde's collaboration "Never Wanted To Be That Girl."
The Numbers Don't Lie
If you listened to this station non-stop from midnight to 11:59pm today, you'd likely only hear 3 back-to-back songs by women, compared to 245 from men.
98%
Men
1.2%
Women
0.8%
Mixed
Gender Ratio
For every 1 woman's back-to-back song, there are 66 men's back-to-back songs
We looked at 19 dates throughout 2022 for this same radio station and found that out of 6,474 songs, only 64 (0.99%) were back-to-back songs by women. For back-to-back songs by men, it was 4,231 (65.53%).
TomatoGate
Back in May 2015, a radio consultant said in an interview about programming that women in country music are not the lettuce in the salad, but the tomatoes — they should be "sprinkled" on the playlist and not played back-to-back.
This was the first public admission of a statistical formula guiding radio practices around gender. But this wasn't new information for those working in radio.
Men Back-to-Back
65.53%
4,231 songs
Women Back-to-Back
0.99%
64 songs
Mixed Gender
0.56%
36 songs
This practice of not programming songs by women back-to-back goes back to at least the 1960s. When TomatoGate erupted in the industry, one former program director said, "...since the 1960s, program directors have been telling people not to play two women back-to-back."
Voices That Deserve To Be Heard
These are the women and artists of color whose music deserves equal airtime on country radio. Click any album to hear their incredible talent. (If your browser doesn't paly the albums for you, I encourage you to find them. They're worth the listen! :)
Kacey Musgraves
Golden Hour
Kacey Musgraves
Golden Hour
Carly Pearce
29: Written in Stone
Carly Pearce
29: Written in Stone
Miranda Lambert
Palomino
Miranda Lambert
Palomino
Kacey Musgraves
Same Trailer Different Park
Kacey Musgraves
Same Trailer Different Park
Ashley McBryde
Girl Going Nowhere
Ashley McBryde
Girl Going Nowhere
Miranda Lambert
Wildcard
Miranda Lambert
Wildcard
Lainey Wilson
Whirlwind
Lainey Wilson
Whirlwind
Carly Pearce
Every Little Thing
Carly Pearce
Every Little Thing
Lainey Wilson
Sayin' What I'm Thinkin'
Lainey Wilson
Sayin' What I'm Thinkin'
Rissi Palmer
Welcome Home
Rissi Palmer
Welcome Home
Race Records
Miko Marks
Race Records
Miko Marks
Miranda Lambert
The Weight of These Wings
Miranda Lambert
The Weight of These Wings
Interactive Dashboard
Explore the data in depth with interactive visualizations and detailed statistics
Pattern Analysis
Weekday morning drive times (6-9 AM) show the highest male dominance at 97-99%, while weekend afternoons offer marginally better diversity at 91-93%.
9.2 hours
On average, listeners wait over 9 hours between consecutive women's songs
Peak wait: 18.5 hours
47 songs
The longest recorded streak of consecutive songs by male artists
Duration: ~3 hours
+33%
Only a modest increase from 3 to 4 back-to-back plays on release days
Still only: 1.3% of total
66:1
For every woman's back-to-back song, there are 66 men's
Industry standard: ~15:1