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by Paul WilliamsWarner is looking to smash through the invisible barrier currently halting UK repertoire's progress on US radio with a Shola Ama project that has partly been created with an eye on the US market.The major hopes the inclusion of big-name producers and writers such as Babyface, Rodney Jerkins and Keith Andes on the singer's second album In Return will help it triumph in what has become an ever-difficult battle to win airplay for UK artists across the Atlantic.UK-signed artists such as B*Witched, Billie and the Spice Girls have performed well during the past 12 months on singles sales, but with the Hot 100 now made up of 80% airplay data it is radio exposure which really counts. Last week Bush and Phil Collins - whose latest projects have both been signed to US record companies - were the only UK representatives last week on Billboard's Top 75 airplay chart. The situation was similar on Gavin's various radio charts, with the number one position of Bush's The Chemicals' Between Us on the alternative chart a week ago a rare UK success story.Warner Music UK international marketing director Hassan Choudhury says it is more important than ever to have a story to take to US radio with a new act. "If you get a new artist the radio producers want to know who produced the record and who's behind it, so the producers and remixers are almost as important as the artists," he says.The inclusion of big US names on Ama's album is the latest such bid by UK companies to win US radio interest. Another Level's first US single, Summertime, featured US singer TQ but while the track sold respectably, its appearance towards the end of the summer was deemed too late by radio, given the song's subject matter.Ama's bid for US success follows the 800,000 units her debut album, Much Love, sold worldwide (including 140,000 in Italy), though as Choudhury notes, "The first release never saw the light of day there. It was in the middle of changes being made to the black music division at Warner Brothers and, rather than put the record out without the specialist team behind the project, we waited for the second album."That album will be issued in the new year in the States following a release in most other territories around November 8 and promotion activity which will include trips across Europe and a November 3-7 visit to Japan.