NASH Icon Signs Ronnie Dunn / Makes Big Network Move
NASH Icon is ramping up for a big 2015, making some significant moves on Monday (1-12) to start the year where 2014 ended: stirring conversation about where country music is headed and potentially stimulating a format split that would see more older country music return to the airwaves en masse.
The long rumored signing of Ronnie Dunn to the label has been officially announced. The former Brooks & Dunn member whose status with NASH Icon had been a point of much speculation over the last few weeks was finally given official acknowledgement and a press release by the label on Monday.
READ: Saving Country Music Raises the Eyebrow of Ronnie Dunn
“Ronnie Dunn has one of the smoothest, most-recognized and most-popular voices of the last twenty five years in Country music,” Scott Borchetta said as part of the announcement. “I’m truly honored to have him join us and take his rightful place as an Icon. Great music is on the way!”
Ronnie Dunn added, “This is the best possible scenario that I can imagine. The Big Machine and Cumulus combination is a force, and I am proud to be included in this innovative venture.”
After exiting Brooks & Dunn and finishing a deal with Arista Nashville, Dunn released his last album Peace, Love, & Country Music independently through his own Little Will-E Records. Though Dunn has been offering a sizable amount of anti-industry rhetoric through his colorful Facebook posts over the last few years, it has mostly dealt with how the industry had abandoned older talent—the very thing NASH Icon is meant to address.
The announcement comes two weeks after Martina McBride was announced as NASH Icon’s second artist after Reba McEntire. Reba released the first single from the label called “Going Out Like That” on January 6th. Also stirring the NASH Icon rumor mill, on Monday the Vince Gill Twitter account tweeted out, “An exciting announcement coming this week from Vince.” Though there’s no word on whether the announcement will be about NASH Icon, Vince may be a free agent, and within the range of artists NASH Icon is looking for.
Also bolstering NASH Icon’s prospects is an upgrade in access to the NASH Icon network by Cumulus Media through the syndication network Westwood One. According to Country Aircheck, Cumulus has now launched a 24/7 version of NASH Icon that other stations can include in local programming, emanating from NASH Icon’s flagship station, WSM-FM in Nashville. “Nash Icon is quickly emerging as a cornerstone of our Nash country music brand, and we’re excited to make this radio format available to stations nationwide given the growing demand from advertisers and listeners,” says Cumulus Executive Vice President John Dickey.
The move will make it much easier for NASH Icon to grow beyond its dedicated stations. Though the Nashville flagship has been doing resoundingly well, beating all the other country stations in the market including the big Clear Channel rival, poor dial location has kept NASH Icon from expanding in certain markets.
READ: A Deeper Look at NASH Icon’s Ratings & Impact
Though some in the industry may see the NASH Icon venture as foolhardy, it has worked very well in certain markets, and Cumulus and Big Machine look to be doubling down on the idea for 2015.
January 12, 2015 @ 1:41 pm
This is great news!
January 12, 2015 @ 1:45 pm
With all the speculation surrounding the signing, it’s a wonder they took so long to officially announce it. Also, has anyone heard from Clint Black?
January 13, 2015 @ 11:20 pm
I can’t for the life of me figure out why Clint Black and also Travis Tritt–1990’s country superstars–have been unable to put out new music for a decade while all sorts of commercially (previously) less successful artists–(Marty Stuart, Rodney Crowell, Guy Clark)–seem to have no trouble getting their new material released. I don’t know if they’re pricing themselves too high or if respectable independent labels really don’t want anything to do with them.
January 12, 2015 @ 3:11 pm
I think Ronnie Dunn is capable of putting together a career-defining record. I’d love to see him put out an album in the vein of Lee Ann Womack’s latest release ”“ Pure and inspiring.
January 12, 2015 @ 3:38 pm
This whole thing totally intrigues me.
All the artists that have been signed to the Nash Icon label so far have been solid choices, and if they do end up signing Vince Gill, even better.
The only that about this whole venture that bothers me is the idea of Scott Borchetta becoming even more powerful, and having an entire new format and stable of classic country artists under his control, but at this point that guy seems pretty much unstoppable. He’s got his fingers in a lot of pies.
January 12, 2015 @ 3:54 pm
I’d call him an American idol.
January 12, 2015 @ 4:58 pm
Yeah. His whole operation is really like a Big Machine at this point.
January 12, 2015 @ 5:32 pm
Honestly, I am not enthused over this Icon concept because we may have a situation like that of classic rock where we have the same playlists at stations for a many years. I like classic rock, but there is only a finite number of times I can hear Hotel California before it annoys me, and we might have a similar situation whereby variety suffers. Also, the idea of this new format sounds as if we are taking our ball and going home, forever ceding modern country to the Aldeans of the world.
January 12, 2015 @ 6:01 pm
They’ve actually been addressing this issue from the very beginning, NASH Icon and other radio station programmers who see the error in the ways classic rock has been handled over the years. I do think there’s a forward-thinking process to make sure this doesn’t happen, and having new music from older artists, which is at the foundation of NASH Icon, is what hopefully will keep the format fresh.
Having said all of that, NASH Icon is not anywhere near to ideal at the moment. Even though they said the wouldn’t include “Bro-Country” from the beginning, there’s much of this music on their playlists, turning a lot of people off the format.
NASH Icon is still trying to find its legs, but I think the worry of stale playlists is one of its least concerns.
You’re totally right about classic rock though. Great music turned terrible from overplay.
January 12, 2015 @ 6:24 pm
Sorry. I was under the impression that this would exclusively play 80s 90s and early 00s music.
January 12, 2015 @ 11:57 pm
“Having said all of that, NASH Icon is not anywhere near to ideal at the moment. Even though they said the wouldn”™t include “Bro-Country” from the beginning, there”™s much of this music on their playlists, turning a lot of people off the format.”
I’m certain this has to be an attempt to avoid being labelled as strictly ‘oldies radio ‘. ….and perhaps its necessary to some extent. In theory it may create a more homogenized country market again where various themes, styles , lyrics , arrangements etc can co-exist ‘under one roof’ and bring a young demographic to some ‘trad’ country while introducing an older listener to some promising new stuff which they otherwise wouldn’t bother to look for on an all-contemporary country station’s format .
In any case ….its all good news so far , I think . Talents like the above-mentioned are too rare to be turned out to pasture because the industry has chosen to target a much much younger demographic . Just listen to the great stuff the Bluegrass veterans are putting out and how the influences between the newer and older ‘grassers goes both ways while maintaining the strong traditions …all on the same airwaves .