In the family now: WVU Music Biz students gain experience, make connections at Country Radio Seminar

Three WVU Music Business and Industry students interned at the 2026 Country Radio Seminar, the premier national gathering of country music industry professionals. Audrey Hasley, Jarett McHale and Matteo Pandolfi spent three days in Nashville, Tennessee, supporting one of the most influential events in the country music ecosystem and making industry connections. 

CRS brings together major and independent record labels, artist teams, program directors, music directors, consultants and other key industry leaders. It is the central event where emerging artists and new singles for the coming year are showcased to the national country radio community.

“This is the highest-profile gathering of industry professionals in the country. All the major and indie labels are in the room, meeting with the radio teams who introduce artists to listeners nationwide. For our students, an internship at CRS can be a true springboard into the career paths they’re working toward,” said Joshua Swiger, program director of WVU’s Music Business and Industry program.

Audrey Hasley is a sophomore MBI major and Business Ethics and Prosperity minor. She’s a member of the WVU Marching Band and a Kendrick Fellow with the WVU John Chambers College of Business and Economics.

Jarett McHale is a junior MBI major who serves as Head of A&R (artists and repertoire) for Mon Hills Music Group and is an aspiring artist.

Matteo Pandolfi is pursuing a Master of Arts in Music Business and Industry, He’s the Director of Public Relations for Mon Hills and plans to pursue a second master’s degree in Live Entertainment Management. 

Ahead of the Country Radio Seminar, CRS Project Manager Ashley Bourque praised the three WVU students. 

“I was thoroughly impressed with the professionalism and preparation showcased in the WVU students’ résumés. We are very excited to welcome all three WVU students to the CRS team.”

Each student took on a different role at the CRS. Hasley worked in conference registration under Bourque, McHale worked under long-time country radio executive and CRS Executive Director RJ Curtis and Pandolfi worked as a talent wrangler under Logistics and Events Director Heather Martin.

Hasley’s work started before the seminar even started.

“Prior to the conference, I sent a lot of emails to labels and partners, keeping track of their conference registrations and making sure their people were accounted for,” she said.

Once the CRS began, Hasley worked the registration table with her counterpart from another university, giving attendees all the paperwork and passes they would need for the three-day event. 

“During registration, I got to interact with a couple A&R representatives, which was important to me because that’s a lot of the work I do at Mon Hills Music Group,” she said. 

In some ways, McHale was Curtis’ personal wrangler, making sure Curtis was prepared and in the right place at the right time. Sometimes McHale helped Pandolfi with the other artists, but for the most part, he worked with Curtis. 

“Radio guys talk for a living, so they’re really good at talking and talking and talking, so I had to make sure he stopped talking to one person so he could talk to somebody else,” said McHale.

Pandolfi worked with several different artists over the course of the seminar, escorting them from the “garage to backstage to the artist lounge, and just making sure they were where they need to be at the right time.” That included a stints on the escorts for country music star Hardy and “The Voice” coach Blake Shelton. 

Pandolfi didn’t get to attend many of the informational sessions because he was wrangling performers, but he didn’t mind. 

“Since I want to pursue live entertainment management, the best part for me was going backstage, bringing artists in for soundchecks and getting to see the behind-the-scenes before the artists perform,” he said. 

As part of his artist-wrangling duties, Pandolfi worked alongside a security guard who had done similar work at the Grammys and VMAs and had just returned to Nashville after working the Oscars. 

“I asked him, what do I have to do right now to get to that point in my life? And he just told me to make connections and network. It's all about who you know,” he said. 

“I never thought I would do work related to security, but I got to make so many connections. If there's anything I could take out of this experience, it’s to take any opportunity that’s thrown your way, no matter what it is. You never know what you’re going to do or who you’re going to meet,” Pandolfi added.

Hasley attended the women’s networking breakfast and was pleased with all the connections she made there. 

“We got to talk to some industry professionals on a more personal level in that setting, and that was really cool,” she said. “When you’re in a setting with music industry professionals, the default thing to talk about is music—which is a great place to start—but the best conversations I had with people weren’t related to music at all. The best networking I’ve done involved getting to know each other in a more personal way.” 

For McHale, his top highlight was escorting Randy Owen, lead singer of the band Alabama, before the New Faces of Country Music Show, which was co-presented by the Academy of Country Music and St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

“I was escorting him, and we talked about boots for, like, 30 minutes, and it was awesome. But I had to say, ‘all right, we gotta stop talking about boots,’ which was terrible. I hated to end that conversation, but I had to lead him backstage so he could go out and give Keith Urban an award for his contributions to St. Jude,” McHale said. 

“When I didn’t have an assigned task, I would go out and meet people. I had no idea who most of them were, but I would talk to them and hear what they had to say,” he added. “That was another highlight for me.” 

“The whole conference is like a giant family reunion,” said Hasley. “You have industry professionals from all over the U.S. that come to CRS, and some of them only see each other during this one week a year. I knew that there was going to be a strong community at CRS, but it exceeded my expectations.” 

Hasley said that the MBI program prepared them to walk confidently into a professional music environment. They were armed with the right knowledge, the right terminology, the right questions to ask and, as McHale added, the right personal skills to make connections. 

It also helped that the MBI program and Mon Hills are community-based.

“Most of us work for the record label together, and we work on these group projects together, so you learn how to build a community,” said Hasley. “It’s cool to apply that collaboration skill in a professional setting and to be able to hold your own in a conversation with industry professionals because of the work we’re doing here at WVU.”

McHale said the three of them were welcomed with open arms, and Hasley mentioned that they’ve all been invited back for next year. 

“It really was like a huge family reunion,” said Hasley, “and now we’re in the family.”

Learn more about the School of Music and the Music Business and Industry major at music.wvu.edu and follow @wvumusicbiz on social media.