Digging Deeper, Unearthing Better News

My blog last week (Country Fans & Republicans) reflecting on the headline of researcher Mark Kassof's latest national "Listener Think" study (Country Fans: Born This Way?) and the fact that after all the great new country music of the last five years the largest group of our listeners proved to be what seems like the same folks who have been listening all their lives made me feel a bit like Reince Priebus, Karl Rove, Ralph Reed, Frank Luntz and other leaders of the Grand Ole Party who are juggling expectations of a life-long-loyal core with their own hopes, attempting to grow their pie.

I took solace in the latest CMA Insider Panel research showing how active, youthful and family-oriented our users are, but also asked Mark to crunch his numbers to see what was there below the headline picked up last week by the trades. 

He was kind enough to do so:

Some observations on his data from Kassof:

    •    RAISED ON/GREW UP WITH IT is #1 with both younger and older country fans.
    •    Younger country fans are more motivated by RELATES TO ME/MY LIFE, REAL/TRUE/HONEST and SOOTHING/CALMING/RELAXING than the older group.
    •    Older country fans are more motivated by UNDERSTAND THE WORDS, LIKE THE SOUND and >THAN/DIS OTHERS (translation: like it more than or dislike other genres) than the younger group.
    •    Men are more motivated by RAISED ON/GREW UP WITH IT  (30%!) and RELATES TO ME/MY LIFE than women.
    •    RAISED ON/GREW UP WITH IT  still ties for #1 with women.  Women are more motivated by TELLS A STORY/STORIES, UNDERSTAND THE WORDS and SOOTHING/CALMING/RELAXING than men.

As strong as country radio's ratings are, it still has more room to grow by leveraging the music's relatability and power to keep building appeal among men and younger listeners.

Country Fans & Republicans

• “I’ve been a Republican all my life." - Phyllis Schlafly
• "Raised on it/Grew up with it." - one of five of the 121 who named country as their preference of 805 18-64′s nationwide on WHY IS COUNTRY YOUR FAVORITE KIND OF MUSIC TO LISTEN TO ON RADIO? when questioned by Researcher Mark Kasoff

This poll came out yesterday just as news of the Faith and Freedom Coalition's "Road to the Majority Conference" chairman Ralph Reed calling on Republicans to learn how not "to preach to the choir," but rather make the message spread also hit my browser.

We've been hearing these comments on both our music and many of our core listeners' vaues for 30 years.

Maybe it's because 18-64 is too wide a swath to accurately reflect what Roadmap 2013 and rating trends across North American are documenting, but as Mike O'Malley said after seeing Kasoff's report "nothing about exciting new acts, nothing about how the format has evolved, nothing about the powerful younger demo growth?"

Fortunately, another new research study on country music partisans also just came out yesterday from the CMA:

The latest member-only research tracking the country music "Insider's Panel" by the Country Music Associations research department shows a young, active, well-educated group of country fans lead active, busy, youthful family oriented lives.

Top single-day family activities include going to the movies, attending a concert or music festival, and visiting family entertainment centers. 

To grow a country brand:  don't be like Republicans.

Be like Disneyland.

Check The Bookcases Around Your Radio Station

Hopefully, after a full free year as a CMA member last year thanks to 2012 "The Year Of Radio," I am hoping that your management saw the amazing return on investment and joined for 2013.

If so, something amazing is back this year after living online for a few years.

It's the CMA Directory, full of the contacts you need at your fingertips almost constantly:  artists, management companies, record labels, talent representatives and booking agents, publishers, publicity firms and of course every radio station, syndication company and satellite broadcaster in North America.

I don't know about you, but there are times that opening a browser and searching just isn't as convenient as opening and paging through a fact and content-filled book.

Thanks CMA, for bring it back!

I am betting that whoever opened the envelope this week with the new one quietly snagged this incredible, useful resource and added it to their office reference bookcase.

Before you have to run all over your building yelling, "help, I need the new CMA Directory, who has it!," now would be a good time to locate it and let everyone in management, programming, marketing, promotions and sales know where it is.

Before too long, they'll all find that they have a need for it.

I'll Have What She's Having

CMA reports that country music fans dine out frequently, with 77 percent of respondents indicating they dine out once a week or more, primarily for dinner meals. On average, 46 percent estimate spending more than $50 per week on restaurant meals, with 17 percent exceeding $100 per week.

Country Music fans are an influential group and a key target for the dining category, with 83 percent having tried a new restaurant in the past six months. Social media’s influence on restaurant choice ranks on par with television and radio advertising among all respondents; even stronger among Adults 18-44 years old with 60 percent trying a new restaurant based on advertising cited social media.

The survey was conducted online with respondents ages 18+ from the CMA Insider Fan Panel, a group of more than 13,000 Country Music fans recruited from various industry and consumer sources. The make-up of the CMA Insider Fan Panel includes adults from all demographic groups; however, the results of this panel research are not projectable to the overall U.S. population.
CMA’s research reports are a benefit of CMA membership.

Where Your Listener Is Lunching

More CMA Insider's Panel data that YOU need to be using in sales.

Go To A Party, Listen To Music, Take In A Movie, Then Join CMA

• Every U.S. radio station is a complimentary CMA member through March 1, so this is a reminder to grab your share of free research with CMA Insiders, a proprietary Country Music Consumer panel.
 
• This research was conducted via online survey during November 2012 and resulted in a total sample base of 485 respondents.

You'll want to budget for a CMA membership in 2013 so you can continue to access this great resource in the coming year!

• This holiday season, the percentage of Country Music Consumers shopping at online retailers, 83%, was nearly equivalent to the 93% who indicated they would be shopping at brick and mortar retailers.

• Country Music Consumers are more likely to buy and give, rather than receive, the gift of Country Music this holiday season.   Overall, males between the age of 18 to 49 are more likely to expect to give, and receive, Country Music gifts.

• Toys, clothing/shoes and CDs/DVDs are top gift-spending categories among Country Music Consumers this season.

Boiling It Down To Three Charts

As part of its ongoing research and membership services initiatives, the Country Music Association just announced results from its recent Music Listening Study (click to read the complete press release).

Country Music fans are avid radio listeners and doing as much radio listening as ever.  Compared to a year ago, 87 percent of respondents are listening to local Country Radio stations as much or more, with 18-24 year olds being twice as likely to listen to more Country Music than the prior year, driven largely by the appeal of new music genres.

Loyalty is a top influencer for choosing Country Radio as evidenced by 75 percent of listeners reporting they have been listening to the same station for years. 

While AM/FM car radio is the top source Country Music fans tap for music listening, fans are also fueling their passion for music online as well.

Every country radio station has a complimentary membership for 2012, thanks to CMA, so be sure to go online and grab this free information and if it raises any questions, any of the A&O team would love to talk with you about it.

"We Run Everything Through The ‘Is it Good Enough For The CMA Aircheck?’ Filter."

"... If it isn’t, we don’t put it on the air. " - Lisa McKay, station manager of Curtis Media's WQDR, Raleigh/Durham (Large Market Radio Station of the Year)

WQDR's "Award Winners' Share Success Strategies" as told in February-March CMA Closeup Magazine to writer Brad Schmitt:

It’s all about connection to the audience and the three M’s: music, morning show and marketing.

Twice a year we run TV campaigns with 300 grps a week to talk about the radio station and to cement our relationship with current listeners as well as to get listeners from the AC (adult contemporary) and pop radio station.

We pre-produce a tremendous amount. We do a lot of re-purposing for the things we think are really good to recycle them later in the day.

We’ll tape artist interviews days in advance and run short segments in the morning show. We always look for something that’s a hot button for our listeners, whether it’s gas or money or experiences they can’t get anywhere else. everything we do is listener-focused. I think that, in a nutshell, is how we won.

(The internet has) given us a new revenue stream for selling ads and sponsorships on the Web page. But it all goes back to making your listeners feel connected and that they’re the stars.

Every last one of our personalities, even our part-time ones, is an administrator. Anytime anything happens that we find qDR-worthy, we’ll pop it up on our Facebook page.

Part of the station’s personality is being well-rounded. To connect with listeners, you need to connect with what’s important to them — and that’s children and homeless animals and people who have fallen into bad times. Whatever is local to the community needs to be addressed on the air.

We do a fundraiser for our children’s hospital (for just one example). We broadcast live all day and we put on a pretty large concert, which usually generates about $100,000 for this particular hospital. We’ve been doing it for 10 years. It’s a really big deal.

We also do our own Christmas wish program. It’s actually our Christmas present to each other. We never exchange gifts because we allow our listeners to nominate families in need. Then we post the information on the website, enough so that people can connect with them and either feel better that their life isn’t so bad or actually reach out and make a difference to somebody in a real way. A lot of times, it’s a family whose house burned down and they need a kitchen table. every radio station has a listener with an extra kitchen table, so it’s a really neat way for listeners to connect with each other through the station.

Even if the person can’t give anything, at least they can say a prayer for the kids. People want to make a difference, whether it’s with money or with their thoughts.

"Changing The Way You Focus On Things"

We focus a lot on our community and what’s going on in our town. Of course, we hit the national pop culture stories too, but we’re very locally focused, very interactive with our listeners whether on the phone or online.

Once a week, the Humane Society comes in with a new pet. We take a video, put it up on the website and Facebook page and we talk about it.

And, we have a 100 percent adoption rate! Every week, that critter gets adopted.

I feel like the percentage of listeners who call you is so small. With social media, they’re more comfortable talking with you online. even people who just kind of listen to us will take time to look at our Facebook page, to see our pictures, to make a comment and to like us.

And, the fact that we interact back creates a stronger bond; it makes them more likely to become our P1s.

-- Scotty Cox and Carissa Loethen of KCLR, Columbia. (Small Market Broadcast Personality of the Year) to Brad Schmitt in CMA CloseUp

Make The Most Of Your Free CMA "Year Of Radio" Membership

CMA’s commitment to Country radio is long and enduring, dating back to the origins of the Association and continuing through today.

This year, CMA takes that commitment to a new level with exclusive content, promotions, research tools and more. It's possible that your membership credentials arrived too late for you to see a copy of February-March CMA Closeup Magazine.

If that's the case, I hope you'll enjoy this quick reprise of quotes from a terrific two page article by Brad Schmitt with insights from the CMA Broadcast Award winners on what it takes to score a national award which I plan to reprise here this week, starting with:

I think radio should try to make ‘em happy, make ‘em cry, make ‘em mad, make ‘em sigh. We just try to get emotions out of them, make them passionate, get them to show up for your causes, get them to show up at your events and do things on the air that inspire reaction. Get them to
call in with their comments. Make radio valuable. Give them what Pandora can’t give them. Give them what the Internet can’t give them. Give them all these great options they can’t find anywhere else.

Do things on the air that will inspire reaction. We have an open mic segment twice every morning. They call in and we don’t interfere, but we’ll throw in sound effects and clips. They can rip us, they can argue with us, they can call in and congratulate us on a CMA win.

They can do whatever, and we try to keep it entertaining. Make it a radio blog! Let them know they’re welcome to be a part of it, participate in it and have fun.

-- Chris Carr of “Chris Carr & Company,” WUBE, Cincinnati, Ohio (Large Market Broadcast Personality of the Year)

Take The Gift And Make The Most Of It

CMA used the annual gathering of radio representatives from across the country known as CRS last week to announce that the organization is awarding complimentary organizational and two individual memberships to every Country Music radio station in the United States for one year. The free radio memberships are a cornerstone of CMA’s “Year of Country Radio” campaign, said CMA Chief Executive Officer Steve Moore.

“Country radio stations and broadcast professionals do an outstanding job of broadening the scope of Country Music and presenting artists to their listeners,” said Moore. “Country radio is on the front line of the format expanding the careers of established artists; creating and developing awareness of new talent; and delivering music directly to the fans that support our business.”

Obviously the strength and vitality of Country radio has a direct influence on the industry. And CMA values the significant impact of these radio professionals and honors their talent and creativity each year with the presentation of the CMA Broadcast Personality and Station of the Year Awards as part of the annual CMA Awards, which is recognized as Country Music’s Biggest Night(tm).

In 2012, CMA has prioritized its support of this important constituent group with the “Year of Country Radio.” In addition to complimentary membership for 2,033 Country radio stations, member stations will have access to more CMA research, online content, promotional opportunities, and other services than ever before.

“We are going to examine each of our touchstones with radio and approach everything we do with an eye toward being inclusive of all stations,” said Brandi Simms, Senior Manager of Membership and Balloting.

CMA will send membership kits to stations this week with information about the tools and resources available including medical insurance, telecommunications discounts, research, and the ability to vote for the annual CMA Awards. In addition to an organizational membership for each station (valued at $200 each), the program director and general manager at each station will be provided a complimentary individual memberships (valued at $100 each). Any current CMA radio member will be given an additional year of membership in the organization.

“Country radio professionals are among our best ambassadors and it is important for CMA to recognize their outstanding contributions to the Country Music format and make the vast resources of CMA available to support their efforts,” Moore said.

“Enabling every Country station in the U.S. to be a member of the organization provides CMA the opportunity to gain valuable insights from this important constituency group that we can use to better our services to them and support the growth of the format,” added CMA Vice President of Marketing Tammy Donham. “Everything we do is about promoting the genre worldwide and we want to work collaboratively with our friends at Country radio to extend not only the reach of CMA events, but to develop the fan base for the benefit of all.”

The ACM did a similar thing several years ago and it was distressing to see how few stations took advantage of it.

These organizations are country music's Chamber Of Commerce and I can't imagine no matter how busy we all are that anyone serious about advancing in country music and radio that the great work they both do isn't self-evident.

Get involved. This is your free, one year opportunity to take advantage of getting an inside view of all that CMA does.

Thank you, CMA for doing something "huge" to let radio know how important broadcasting is to you. I hope radio responds in an equally BIG way!

News And Comment

News: A bit of poetic justice and extreme irony as CBS Radio resigns from the Country Music Association just as the organization started Country Music Month, after CMA signs a ten year deal for TV broadcast rights with ABC. They told CBS Radio/Phoenix OM and KMLE PD Jeff Garrison to resign his longtime position on the CMA Board Of Directors. Now, he gets a new assignment, as he explained to Country Aircheck “helping our Country stations and our digital platforms to work more closely with artists to extend the brands of our stations while promoting new artists, album releases, concerts and other projects" as VP/Country Artist Relations, in addition to his role in Phoenix.

Comment: Every country radio station in the world needs to join the CMA. Now, more than ever. As a board member, I promise to work with the other radio representatives on the board to make it more worth your while than ever in the coming year!

CBS may have a lot of reporting and monitored station muscle, but no one in the industry is as well positioned to aggressively assist “Country radio stations and our digital platforms to work more closely with artists to extend the brands of our stations while promoting new artists, album releases, concerts and other projects." Join. Then, let's join hands with CMA to do what CBS hopes to do without CMA within it and even better for all radio stations in every market size and ownership affiliation. That's what CMA was founded to do.

News: Cumulus/Atlanta has decided that the future for their new acquisition WKHX is to offer a choice rather than battle head-on anymore with Clear Channel's WUBL KIX has just gone from 220 tunes in its Gold catalog the week prior to 381 last week. If every song is a marketing message, KIX is saying "hellooo, 45-54." They now play only 37% current and recurrents and have added early Garth Brooks, Brooks & Dunn, Alan Jackson, Clint Black, the Judds, Patty Loveless, Diamond Rio and many others from the 80's and 90's. CC's The Bull is 68% current/recurrent. It's "best country hits" vs "today's new country."

Comment: A&O's 2011 "Roadmap" national perceptual study certainly has shown that there's a large upper demo appetite for more variety and less repetition and Coleman's CRS 2011 research project replicates that it's also quite possible to build a very viable and unique music coalition centered on the highly familiar music of the class of '89 boom.

However, are there enough meters in the Atlanta country sample for two stations to create a "difference" that only half the audience will love?

Both Cumulus and Clear Channel managements are savy and smart, so you can be sure they looked hard at it before making this decision.

It's a first for PPM measured markets, though Cox's classic country KTHT/Houston, has proven that an even older narrow country target can perform consistently in a PPM market with a large enough country cume.

Keep an eye on Atlanta and be prepared to learn something about country's narrow demos and metered sampling.

The pressure is on ARB to deliver consistent samples in 18-44, men, women, and 40-54, men and women.

If they don't, the ratings for 'KHX and 'UBL will be more of an indication of ongoing panel sample issues than with the differentiation strategy Cumulus unveiled last Friday.

Facts You May Find Interesting

(More) A&O's Dan Van reports ‘Live’ From CMA MUSIC FEST:

Yesterday was a classic Dan Van moment. My wife and I bumped into Shania Twain. I was chatting with her husband when Shania came up and made sure he was doing well.

That was when I said. “Thank you for your time” and Shania extended her hand. I then proceeded to tell Shania that I was thanking her husband Fredric for the conversation.

Dan Van Note: “Awkward!” Shania was very sweet and I can not wait for the new music project. Shania was awarded a plaque for selling the most records by ANY female artist even beyond country by her record label.

SHIP YOUR MEMORIES HOME

I mentioned in Jaye's Wednesday blog that there is a surprising amount of free stuff at the CMA Music Fest. So much free stuff that you could have a problem getting all in your suitcase if you are limited with space.

Thus I would like to tell you about a really cool perk!

The US Postal Service is setting up shop in the Fan Fair Hall (Room 107 at the Nashville Convention Center)! They are on hand through Saturday (9:00 AM to 5:00 PM) with materials to package and ship your prized possessions for a low ("if it fits, it ships") fee.

It’s a feature available to all 4-day ticket holders, so they don't put a limit on what they take home... and don't pay excessive baggage fees to the airlines!

Dan Van Note: “What A Great Idea!”

A&O's Daily Prep Producer Dan Van ‘Live’ From CMA MUSIC FEST

The CMA Music Fest will get underway ‘Officially’ tomorrow, even though activities featuring some of country music names have gotten underway.

As an example of the Grand Ole Opry show last night with Lady Antebellum, Carrie Underwood, Martina McBride, Darius Rucker, Oak Ridge Boys and Jerrod Niemann and new comers Eden’s Edge.

Numbers that give you a scope of the size this music festival brings:

• 65,000 attendees each day expected. (Last Year Stats).
• Official attendance will be posted on Monday (June 13)
• Fans from all 50 states and 26 nations will attend
• Approximately 130 Music Acts will make up the Fest
• There are approximately 80 different vendors/activities

• All of the artists who appear at CMA Music Festival do so for free.
• As a result, much of this hometown country music festival is free for everybody!
  

Free things to do at this four-day (actually five-day) country music celebration: 

1. I love a parade. The festival doesn’t officially start until Thursday, but at 11 a.m. Wednesday, there is a parade along Broadway from 10th Avenue to First Avenue with the Music City Drum and Bugle Corps, various marching bands, inflatables, Boy Scout and Girl Scout troops, a Harley Davidson group of 300 bikes, and 40 Chevy vehicles all occupied by celebrities including Billy Dean, Mark Wills, Bill Anderson, Josh Thompson and more. The Budweiser Clydesdales are expected to participate in this parade, which winds up with a 1 p.m. block party at Riverfront Park, where you can see performances by Josh Thompson, Lee Brice, Uncle Kracker and Randy Houser. All free.
2. I love free country music. There are several stages with free continuous music during the daytime hours Thursday through Sunday. For example, the Chevrolet Riverfront Stage will have Gary Allan, Sammy Kershaw, Emerson Drive, Phil Vassar, Bucky Covington, Bill Anderson, Jo Dee Messina, Darryl Worley, Lonestar, Mel Tillis, Billy Ray Cyrus, Josh Kelley, Crystal Bowersox, Terri Clark, The Bellamy Brothers, Roy Clark, the Gatlin Brothers and more. There is also the Lays Stage at Bridgestone Arena Plaza and the Bud Light stage in the Sports Zone next to Schermerhorn Symphony Center — all with strong lineups all four days.
3. I love free CMA food. Thursday is “Family Day” in the Family Zone (Walk of Fame Park, Fourth to Fifth avenues), and there is a free picnic sponsored by White Castle with free hamburgers and cheeseburgers and such for the first 500 people. There are also free samples in the Fun Zone (Broadway between Fourth Avenue and the river). One of the most popular is the Blue Bell Ice Cream giveaway. I’m told that last year 50,000 samples were handed out.
4. I love the giveaways. Socks and T-shirts (Gildan is one of the sponsors) will be handed out in the Fun Zone. In the Sports Zone (Schermerhorn parking lot, off Fourth Avenue, across from Family Zone), visitors will have a chance to drive a Chevy and get a free T-shirt.
5. I love children’s activities. The Family Zone is offering free books to children and will have an arts and crafts booth where kids can create. There will be free finger-printing for children and free temporary tattoos, storytelling and more 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Thursday through Saturday in the Family Zone.
6. I love seeing interesting animals. I have no idea what they have to do with country music, but you can get up close and personal with the Budweiser Clydesdales in the new Power Zone (parking lot at Second Avenue and Church Street), and I highly recommend seeing the Ultimate Air Dogs in action. These water-loving canines run and dive and are great fun.
7. I love an auction. The celebrity auction of clothing and personal items that Martina McBride hosts on Sunday to benefit the YWCA is not only fun but might even feature some Ms. Cheap-worthy bargains.
8. I love it that the festival site is so compact. All the zones are within walking distance of one another, so put on your walking shoes and check out all of the free fun.
   
   

   -- Dan Vanlandingham

"The New Radio"

ABC-TV has been the television home of all things CMA for the past five years and network executives just created this knock-your-socks-off video recap of the high points of the relationship from their perspective, expressing the hope that the partnership continues for another term.



The net, they say, loves using music in many of their shows and has been finding that music discovery can have a powerful multiplier effect to the benefit of all involved.

I was nodding affirmatively to all of that when I recently saw their strong pitch -- until they uttered five words which caught me by surprise, "TV Is The New Radio."

Huh?

Both local and national television morning offerings have been sounding more and more like the very best radio morning shows for many years, attempting to eat into our medium's traditional "at home" audience, marketing their personalities, teams, and services in the same way radio stations once did but rarely do anymore.

But, this was the first time I had ever heard another "old medium" so explicitly crave the "cache" of radio in the new media space.

Let's not forget, take for granted, or fail to promote the many great things radio still possesses, clearly much-desired by this sister broadcaster!

Ya Can't Beat Charlie Brown

.. but it's nice to see that CMA Country Christmas, the first joint CMA-ABC effort at a Country Music Holiday special attracted 7.3 million viewers Nov. 29, and 4.3 million, Dec. 22, ranking in the top ten among all the December 2010 tinsel and holly TV.

Marketing Lessons From CMA

The 2010 CMA Music Festival was a huge success in many ways, not the least of which as an opportunity for sponsors to personally touch fans individually. CMA provided each corporate partner a customized wrap book that showcased their presence and activities in positive ways after the event, so that they'll want to see and be seen next year too.

If you do NTR events, you'd be proud of what your industry organization did this year on the country music business' behalf, but also you'll learn a thing or two about how to create a big event for fun and profit.

CMA's Board Goes To Washington, And Makes Me Proud To Be In This Biz

While in the nation's capitol for an annual meeting, Kix Brooks, Victoria Shaw, Randy Scruggs, Bob Dipiero and nearly 50 other members visited the Library of Congress for a tour and a presentation yesterday.

"Our strategic mission first and foremost -- it's been for 50 years -- is to promote the format, to promote country music," said Steve Moore, chairman of the CMA's board of directors. Visiting the Library of Congress "is a great opportunity to meet the staff and look into collaborations."

It was an amazing source of pride to be 'an insider' in the crowd at what has become so routine in Nashville, a candid, political, edgy, fun, ad libbed, unrehearsed guitar pull featuring those four as well as Lorrie Morgan and hard-lobbying man, the always political, brilliant and authentic John Rich, be so well-attended by Washington, D.C. glitterati and reviewed so favorably by the Washington Post.

Hopefully, the behind the scenes negotiations on royalties and performance rights between NAB and RIAA will be half as productive in the due course of time.

CMA Tweets Awards

Remember when radio used to simulcast the CMA Awards because there was no stereo TV? Remember when radio listeners asked us not to spoil the awards broadcast by announcing the winners before they were shown on TV?

That all was sooooo "YESTERDAY"! (click to see what the CMA is doing today)

Sound Matters As CMA Fest Ends

Nashville's Tennessean has complete recaps of each day of the amazing 2009 festival.

Behind the scenes, a team of Starkey Hearing Foundation staff, Nashville area volunteers, celebrities and sponsors from Big Machine Records and Music City Merchandise brought the Gift of Hearing to Nashville children in need during the CMA Music Festival yesterday (6/14), who then went to the closing performances.

More than 100 children and adults were fitted - at no cost - with digital hearing instruments at the Nashville Renaissance Hotel Ballroom.

CMA CEO Tammy Genovese, Big Machine Records President/CEP Scott Borchetta, and artists including Chuck Wicks, Sunny Sweeney, and Kate & Kacey were on-hand to encourage these children as they were fitted with digital hearing instruments and began hearing clearly, some for the very first time. (thanks to Big Machine's John Zarling for the photos)

Starkey partners with local hearing professionals, school districts, and special education centers to identify and aid local children with hearing loss. Since 2000, the Foundation has distributed nearly 340,000 hearing instruments to those in need around the world.