When Joni Mitchell wrote You Turn Me On I'm A Radio in 1972, country music did carry the connotation of being "a little bit corny." Although the genre had long spawned crossover artists like Jim Reeves and Skeeter Davis, country music still meant "Hee Haw" and Mother Maybelle's Wildwood Flower to the majority of Americans.

Ten years later, Gail Davies' cover of You Turn Me On I'm A Radio was a top 20 country hit. That Davies' version strays little from Mitchell's original pop styling is a measure of how far country music, and country radio, has come in the past decade.

According to Country Music Assn. figures, there are not 2,114 full-time country radio stations, up from 1,785 in 1981 and 633 in 1972. Country is being touted as the format of the 80's, a prediction backed by some solid statistics. A study commissioned by the National Assn. of Broadcasters for its recent Radio Programming Conference states that the number of people between the ages of 16 and 24 will decline by one million during the '80's. The bulk of the population is moving into the 35 to 54 age bracket, the peak demographic for country listeners, with 42% of its audience falling into this age bracket.

In short, country radio has come of age. But like any other rite of passage, certain residual problems go hand-in-hand with this new found maturity. Virtually every major market has more than one country station. Programmers must also face the increasing number of country songs appearing on AC playlists and the threat of beautiful music and AC stations biting into country's bread and butter audience.

To stay on top of the competition, country radio has been moving toward programming ploys commonly found in other formats, such as tightened playlists and "three-in-a-row" music sweeps.

"Anytime you have a heated competitive battle, people are going to chop playlists. It happens in any format," asserts Bill Figenshu of Viacom. "The station that plays the better songs wins." He also contents that because of the increased competition, country stations are actually playing more music per hour than ever before because that's "what the audience wants."

But a growing concern among the country music industry is radio's predilection for playing oldies. Some playlists in the past year contained as much as 70% country gold, a situation which is mirrored in other formats, most notably rock.

Other country programs implement oldies from acts like Eric Clapton, James Taylor, Gary Puckett & the Union Gap, Creedence Clearwater Revival and Bob Dylan, in order to appeal to their converts. Conversely, programmers worry about whether to add a contemporary non-country artist like Bertie Higgins and Charlene or to play the latest release from a new, traditional artist like George Strait or Ricky Skaggs.

Most programmers agree, however, that playlists top-heavy with oldies will taper out. Right now, it is one means country radio stations have of establishing their identity within the market. But p.d.s are acutely aware that oldies have a burnout factor the same as more current songs.

"You play what the marketplace wants," says Dene Hallam, program director of WHN New York. "It's a supply and demand situation. Eventually, the marketplace will level off between the traditional and non-traditional artists."

Tom Phifer, operations manager of KRMD-FM Shreveport, expresses concern over stations which play an over-abundance of oldies, widening the gap between the record companies and the radio community. He urges programmers to help as many new artists as they can. "We think that by holding onto a few artists we can survive. But if we keep that up, we will be faced with losing stations."

"Playing older country music establishes the fact that you're country," Phifer continues. "But if the audience goes out to try to buy a record that's 10 years old and can't find it, they become frustrated. I don't think that's good for the business; it's not progressive."

Like a number of programmers, Phifer sees the key to survival for country in the extra services it can offer its listeners. He stresses the importance of country personalities talking between records in order to prevent stations from becoming "jukeboxes."

"Is there life after 'three-in-a-row'" laughs Charlie Cook, p.d. of KLAC Los Angeles. "You need to be a forefront, rather than a background, music station. If you offer your listener no service other than music, soon that monotony starts to wear."

"People look for radio to be a companion," Cook continues. "You can't be a single-faceted friend."

Joel Raab, program director of WHK Cleveland, reasons, "Some of the stations which arose during the urban cowboy can no longer ride. They did not put any meat on the bones, but were relying too much on the music. Now that the fad is over, they need to pay attention to good, solid radio fundamentals."

"Country music's perceived growth potential was distorted by the fad," says Bob Cole, program director of WPKX-FM (KIX-106)Washington. "A lot of people jumped on the format as a panacea, and there's no such thing."

"The growing pains have subsided and country is settling into a comfortable adult format," says Viacom's Figenshu. He adds, "But people must use your country station for the type of music it is—not simply as an alternative to a rock or pop adult station. If people are listening to your station just to get their crossover fix, then it's not going to fly."

Sums up WHN's Hallam, "Country radio is going to displace AC stations because the country format is more defined. What AC stations are doing by playing so much country music is giving it an endorsement that country music is okay."

Unquestionably, country is a healthy, viable format. The fad is over, the competition is greater and more sophisticated, but the base audience is larger than ever before. The challenge for programmers is how best to nurture that growth.