BRISTOL — The Birthplace of Country Music Museum presents a virtual Speaker Session with Dr. Jada Watson titled The Unheard Voices of Radio Airplay, Tuesday, August 11 at 7 p.m.
The public is invited to join the Birthplace of Country Music Museum and music researcher and SongData founder Jada Watson for the August installment of the museum’s monthly Speaker Sessions. During this conversation, Watson will explore whose stories get airplay in country music—and whose are left out.
Through more than a decade of research, Watson’s work has illuminated how inequitable programming practices at country radio have limited opportunities for women and artists of color, while also shaping what audiences hear. Tracing this work back to “TomatoGate,” the session will highlight how these patterns are not only ongoing, but deeply rooted in the genre’s history. The discussion is sure to invite listeners to hear country music differently by asking whose voices are amplified—and whose are missing.
Dr. Jada Watson is an associate professor of digital humanities in the School of Information Studies at the University of Ottawa, where she teaches courses on cultural heritage, ethics, and policy. In 2018 she founded SongData (www.SongData.ca), a public-facing research program that uses music industry data to examine racial and gender inequities through descriptive statistical analysis, with a particular focus on country radio in the North American industry. This research has informed legislation on radio ownership in the United States, been cited in reports by the Recording Academy and the Black Music Action Coalition, and been presented at the annual Seminar of the Country Radio Broadcasters.
August’s Speaker Session will be held virtually on Zoom from 7–8:30 p.m. This event is free and open to the public. Anyone who is planning on attending can register for this virtual event via this link or visit BirthplaceOfCountryMusic.org/Main-Events.