Country Radio, Where Art Thou?

Four years after Johnny Cash placed a full page ad in Billboard Magazine thanking (*cough*) country radio and the Nashville mafia for their support of his Grammy winning Unchained, a ground swell of critics are bemoaning the current state of FM country radio. How is it that in a year in when the O Brother, Where Art Thou? soundtrack won the Grammy for Best Album of the Year - beating out bands like U2 for crying out loud - country radio stations have ignored traditional, roots country artists in favor of inane, polished, pop-country drivel? How ironic is it that a traditional country album would win Best Album without any country radio support? Or was it that lack of radio interest that caused non-country radio listeners to take notice? Today the NY Times takes a look at the conundrum.