Lee Adams, Adrian Michaels and Ken Tucker all leave the label BMG this month

Three promotion chiefs are leaving BMG at the end of the month, and between them they cover the whole of the company's country imprint structure. Lee Adams ran promotion at Broken Bow, Adrian Michaels at Stoney Creek and Ken Tucker at Wheelhouse, the three labels inside BBR Music Group. Country Aircheck reported the departures first, with MusicRow carrying them as breaking news.

Adams framed his exit as a retirement he had been planning out loud for years. He said he had always wanted to leave BBR while the company was on top, and put the numbers behind it: 25 years and 52 number ones, working with the reigning ACM Artist of the Decade and the reigning CMA Entertainer and Female Vocalist. He was careful to add that the label is not slowing down even though he is, and thanked Jon Loba and JoJamie Hahr.

Michaels gave a different reason and a longer runway. He said he had told Jon Loba, president of BMG Global Frontline Recordings, several months ago that he intended to leave to start his next venture, and that staying through the merger to help with the transition came down to wanting to leave a company better than he found it. He said he has spent the past two years quietly building the foundation for what comes next, and will take a few months with his family first.

Tucker's note covered the widest career of the three. He has worked in radio, records, streaming, journalism and artist management, and teaches at university level, and he thanked Loba and Hahr for the last eight years while saying he would keep cheering on the Wheelhouse roster. He described himself as looking for his next music business adventure rather than an exit from the business.

The replacement structure is already drawn. Under Country Aircheck's reporting, national directors Dawn Ferris, Stan Marczewski and Jennifer Shaffer now report to BBR Music Group EVP JoJamie Hahr, as do the VPs Shelley Hargis and Scotty O'Brien. That is a flatter promotion department with Hahr at the top of it rather than three imprint heads reporting upward.

The practical effect on Nashville is that three of the most senior radio promotion relationships in country music change hands in the same week, at a company whose imprints have been among the format's most consistent chart performers. Country radio still decides which songs become hits at scale, and who makes those calls is not a back-office question.

Senior exits have been running through the format all year. Caryl Atwood left Sony Music Entertainment after 26 years, and Andrew Kautz set up his own consulting firm after leaving a label job of his own. Hiring has carried on around the exits, with HEY NOW Records bringing in two promotion staff of its own. More country business coverage sits on the hub.