SALT LAKE CITY — Donut Day or Peanut Butter and Jelly Day may not receive a lot of recognition, but today--September 17--is International Country Music Day, and a new survey shows just how much Utahns love their country music.
Lawn Starter surveyed more than 180 U.S. cities to see how much people living there love country music, and while Nashville topped the list by far, the Salt Lake City and Utah listening area are not far behind.
They ranked five key factors which they feel make up a strong country music market.
This includes the number of country stations, concerts, performance venues, and country music fandom (measured by Google search trends relating to the genre).
After crunching those numbers, Salt Lake City ranked fourth, behind Nashville, Las Vegas and St. Louis.
“I started here in the 90s, I have been to some other markets, (but) the level of passion for country music in Utah is a little different then it is in other places," said Travis Moon, Program Director at K Bull 93.
"Folks just aren’t enjoying the hits they’re hearing, they’re enjoying the album tracks, things like that, they really dig deep into these artists,” he added.
He says a great example is the recent Garth Brooks concert.
Not only did Rice Eccles Stadium sell out in record time, Moon said it created record-setting social media engagement for K Bull.
In the week leading up to the concert, he says the K Bull Facebook page had nearly 1 million likes, shares and comments about the show.
Salt Lake City may not top Nashville any time soon for its love of country music, but people here are pretty "crazy" for it regardless.
