Nashville's Newest Hit Maker Is Sirius Programmer John Marks

While dozens of country artists performed in Nashville  recently for the nation's country-radio programmers at an annual gathering, singer-songwriter Cole Swindell played instead at a private show hosted by an unlikely new power broker: satellite-radio programmer John Marks, write Hannah Karp for WSJ.

A 60-year-old who sports a foot-long white beard and can often be spotted devouring fried-bologna sandwiches in Nashville's honky-tonk district, Mr. Marks chooses the music played on SiriusXM's contemporary country channel, the Highway.

Despite an audience that is minuscule compared with FM radio stations in big markets, the Highway wields disproportionate influence on sales of records and concert tickets, say label executives, particularly for new and emerging artists from outside the major-label system, a group terrestrial country stations tend to avoid.

Country radio stations have long had a particularly cozy relationship with big record companies, whose lobbying efforts include wining and dining broadcasters at the annual Country Radio Seminar. That makes it difficult for independent artists to break through. But new music services from Sirius, Pandora, Spotify and others are starting to disrupt Nashville's long-closed ecosystem, even as terrestrial broadcasters pour their resources into amassing country listeners, who are generally wealthier, better educated and more likely to use social media than fans of other genres, according to their research.

John Marks with Florida Georgia Line (SiriusXM photo)

Though terrestrial broadcasters fear losing listeners' attention to modern distractions, including satellite radio and social media, few see the Highway as a giant threat. Lew Dickey, chief executive of radio-station owner Cumulus Media Inc., said Highway's intense focus on new, unfamiliar music wouldn't fly with mainstream audiences that listen to its NASH country stations, and that are inclined to tune out when they don't recognize song after song.

The Highway's profile in Nashville began to rise about two years ago, after an artist manager gave Mr. Marks a single called "Cruise" by an unsigned band called Florida Georgia Line. In the three months after Mr. Marks put the song in regular rotation, the band sold 200,000 songs online without any significant airplay on FM radio.

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