Cumulus websites

[101tm]

I generally don’t have much issue with the major operators’ websites. iHeart has the best followed by Audacy. Beasley, Bonneville, Hubbard, Urban One and others have nice, fairly easy to navigate websites.

What the heck is with Cumulus? At least on their mobile sites, the layout is awful, the half working tunegenie thing pops up on the screen, ads pop up everywhere, just hard to find a lot of stuff via the drop down menu. Does anyone else find the website design Cumulus uses quite amateurish and difficult to use?

 

[Kent]

I agree that the Tunegenie and how it stops Cumulus sites from doing much of anything until either you close it or it autocloses after 5 seconds is really irritating. I also would agree that Cumulus websites don't make particularly good use of screen real estate, but I find that a bigger problem on desktop computers. I actually think Cumulus sites work better on mobile and tablet devices. I'm guessing that's how most people access its stations' websites. When I think about my own computer use these days, I use my tablet more than anything else except for when I'm working. It's been several weeks since I've used my home desktop, and my personal laptop has been in my closet since the end of December.

Personally, I find Audacy to be the most irritating of the radio websites. At some point during browsing of its stations' sites, I almost always accidentally end up starting a stream of the station. So many different screens on most Audacy stations' websites lead to the stream, and which links do isn't always intuitive.

As a general rule, I try to avoid visiting radio websites these days. Most of them, in my opinion, aren't that special, and, if I'm listening, I don't really need to read about it on the website. When I sit down every weekday morning at work, I open tabs for Audacy, iHeart, TuneIn, and, sometimes, SiriusXM, and I do all my listening from those sites.

 

[SomeRadioGuy]

The Cume-u-less websites suck donkey you know what. They bog stuff down, slow it down and I've been saying this for years

 

[victorres43]

The webpage for KNBR looks like it came out of 2007. Oddly enough, it looks different from KTCK.

The website for WLS-FM looks just slightly better than those of KRBE and WJR. These latter two stations have a website more appropriate for medium-market stations. And why does a TuneGenie window pop up for WJR, when the TuneGenie window does not even have a program schedule!

Thank goodness KLOS is no longer under Cumulus, or they will have a medium-market-esque website!

 

[101tm]

LOL, I clicked on the KRBE link and it started scrolling down on TuneGenie! Half of the cumulus music stations in smaller markets don’t even upload the music logs in to TuneGenie. TG is nice when implemented properly (Entercom made great use of it). Sometimes it’s tough to get the TuneGenie widget to swipe down and minimize. Now they’re putting links to Facebook Messenger chatbots on some websites, making them even more cluttered.

Another issue is Cumulus can’t seem to decide how they want to promote their streams. Some sites are just a TuneIn embedded player. Some (most) sites use TuneGenie. A few refer you to iHeartRadio (LOL). Some stations have their own apps. Something Cumulus has struggled badly with is moving in to digital and streaming. They put their stations on iHeart which made sense at the time, but they never built out a platform or any kind of partnership to manage their streams and promote them (like Radio.com/Audacy, iHeart). A lot of smaller broadcasting companies like Beasley have developed apps for individual stations that are very listener interactive. Cumulus just dropped the ball on digital. Also, they’ve invested very little in overall graphic design with some stations having terribly 90s-dated logos. I get that it’s expensive, but a bright/fresh image is important for a format like CHR. WMGB and WQSM just come to mind immediately.

Not bashing Cumulus, no dog in their fight but as someone with prior graphic and media web design exposure I’m a bit perplexed at how bad they let their online experience be.

 

[TheBigA]

They just hired a new SVP Digital a few weeks ago. Not much station experience listed. I suspect he'll focus on podcasting and not local station websites.

Cumulus Hires Digital SVP - Radio Ink

Jared Merves is joining Cumulus Media as Senior Vice President, Digital. Merves was most recently Chief Revenue Officer of Distributed Media Lab.

radioink.com

 

[Kent]

Another issue is Cumulus can’t seem to decide how they want to promote their streams. Some sites are just a TuneIn embedded player. Some (most) sites use TuneGenie. A few refer you to iHeartRadio (LOL). Some stations have their own apps. Something Cumulus has struggled badly with is moving in to digital and streaming. They put their stations on iHeart which made sense at the time, but they never built out a platform or any kind of partnership to manage their streams and promote them (like Radio.com/Audacy, iHeart). A lot of smaller broadcasting companies like Beasley have developed apps for individual stations that are very listener interactive. Cumulus just dropped the ball on digital. Also, they’ve invested very little in overall graphic design with some stations having terribly 90s-dated logos. I get that it’s expensive, but a bright/fresh image is important for a format like CHR. WMGB and WQSM just come to mind immediately.

Something you're definitely right about is that Cumulus has never been consistent with its web presence. Cumulus has deals with iHeart, Audacy, and TuneIn. Plus, all of its stations have their own apps, at least for the iPhone. It almost looks to me like Cumulus lets its individual markets decide how to promote their streaming experiences. My local Cumulus stations rarely mention any of the content aggregators and just direct listeners to their station apps. One of the local stations was having problems with its stream on iHeart a few years ago, and a friend of mine who worked there said, "Oh, that again. I just wish people would use our app instead." There was also that foray into Rdio that was a total disaster. Weird thing was, even when Cumulus seemed to centralize everything, the web presence was as varied and scattered between markets as ever. Even the corporate strategy seemed incoherent and all over the place.

I also agree with you about some of the station logos. I was never fond of most of the Cumulus CHR logos. I worked for a cluster that got gobbled up by Cumulus in '04, and it hasn't changed any of the logos of the stations that still run the same format in almost 20 years. Even the news/talk AM's that have since gotten translators have only seen the FM frequency added to the old logos. A couple of stations that changed formats took corporate logos, and the classic hits station that was launched got a new logo that no longer matches the old "Cool" logo for oldies about four years ago. The stations where I did most of my work, however, have had the same logos for 20 years now.

Not bashing Cumulus, no dog in their fight but as someone with prior graphic and media web design exposure I’m a bit perplexed at how bad they let their online experience be.

I suspect a lot of the reason for that is because digital still doesn't bring much money. You ride a horse in the direction it's going, and almost all of the ROI in radio is still the over-the-air signal. So, that's where most operations are putting their money. I have heard that's slowly changing at Cumulus, though. A friend of a friend who works there was moved into the digital department (over his objection, or so I was told), and he's since felt relieved to have been moved since that seems to be the only area outside the corporate office that is immune from budget cuts. I know someone at Audacy who says the same thing. The creative freedom on the digital side is amazing, and corporate is actually putting more money into it rather than having to figure out how to do more with less every few months.

 

[101tm]

Yeah, even in Cumulus’s strict top-down era in the early 2010s there wasn’t much of a streaming strategy, although they did make that deal with iHeart and SweetJack to get their stations on iHeartRadio. I believe they were the first competitor to then-Clear Channel to get their stations on iHR. Now they’re on Audacy (same with Cox), everywhere else.

Maybe their idea is to just get the stations as out there to as many ears as possible since it’s very unlikely at this point they could successfully launch their own platform like Audacy and iHeart have, much less afford it. Cumulus has a lot of stations, but outside some of the top markets, their stations tend to be in lower median income metros or smaller/more rural cities. They have a lot of stations but a lot of those are in markets outside of the top 100 and even 150 so they’re probably not bringing in a ton of cash for the amount of stations they have. They have been selling some of those markets (like nearby Albany, GA) off, and selling/donating the small market flea AM’s and even the big market properties, so I think they’re still right sizing the terrestrial footprint.

Hopefully after this is done they’ll streamline their digital presence. I love TuneGenie, when implemented properly, but I feel the cloud company would benefit from adding a separate page on their websites so for TG last songs played/streaming instead of the pop up that won’t go away on the homepage.

One thing I can say for iHeart is as cheap as they are criticized for being, they do keep their stations fresh as far as graphics and logos go. I’m not a fan of the “slanted” uppercase CHR logos, but they do look modern compared to the blue ball KISS logos. iHeart can create some really nice logos. Cumulus is still in the MS Paint era or maybe an early version of Photoshop.

 

[victorres43]

Yeah, even in Cumulus’s strict top-down era in the early 2010s there wasn’t much of a streaming strategy, although they did make that deal with iHeart and SweetJack to get their stations on iHeartRadio. I believe they were the first competitor to then-Clear Channel to get their stations on iHR. Now they’re on Audacy (same with Cox), everywhere else.

I believe they were one of the last major radio companies to use Windows Media Audio (WMA) for their audio streams. After the Citadel acquisition, Cumulus slowly changed the streams of their stations to Advanced Audio Codec (AAC), which was used for the Citadel stations. If I remember correctly, Citadel stations were using the StreamTheWorld platform; either that or Triton Digital.

One thing I can say for iHeart is as cheap as they are criticized for being, they do keep their stations fresh as far as graphics and logos go. I’m not a fan of the “slanted” uppercase CHR logos, but they do look modern compared to the blue ball KISS logos. iHeart can create some really nice logos. Cumulus is still in the MS Paint era or maybe an early version of Photoshop.

Count me in as another person who is baffled by some of the logos. Just look at the logos of KSMB, WEMX, and WWLI, for instance.

I do want to add that Cumulus uses TM for their jingles, whereas iHeart mostly uses ReelWorld (with some stations using Wisebuddah and TM). Take that as you will.

 

[Kent]

Yeah, even in Cumulus’s strict top-down era in the early 2010s there wasn’t much of a streaming strategy, although they did make that deal with iHeart and SweetJack to get their stations on iHeartRadio. I believe they were the first competitor to then-Clear Channel to get their stations on iHR. Now they’re on Audacy (same with Cox), everywhere else.

Univision was the first outside operator to join iHeart. I believe Cumulus announced it would join about three months later. Cumulus was never as hostile to streaming as Infinity/CBS was during the Mel Karmazin era, but it didn't view it as central to its business model. Even today, the costs of streaming are high. Bandwidth has gone down in price, but it's still not cheap. The sound performance royalties are high, too. Streaming spots, on the other hand, still sell cheaply. I understand revenue from spots is increasing, but I'd be surprised if anybody even gets a quarter per impression. Even a nickel or a dime per impression is enough to make money on paper, but you're not going to get rich at those rates.

Maybe their idea is to just get the stations as out there to as many ears as possible since it’s very unlikely at this point they could successfully launch their own platform like Audacy and iHeart have, much less afford it.

To me, that's smart. You want to be wherever your audience is, and being in as many places as possible makes a lot of sense, even if you have your own portal you'd rather people use. I get that the main aggregators are essentially using your stations to steer your listeners to their own content, but you don't want your listeners to complain they can't listen when they want. That's a surefire way to get them to explore their other options.

Cumulus has a lot of stations, but outside some of the top markets, their stations tend to be in lower median income metros or smaller/more rural cities. They have a lot of stations but a lot of those are in markets outside of the top 100 and even 150 so they’re probably not bringing in a ton of cash for the amount of stations they have. They have been selling some of those markets (like nearby Albany, GA) off, and selling/donating the small market flea AM’s and even the big market properties, so I think they’re still right sizing the terrestrial footprint.

The cluster where I worked that was gobbled up by Cumulus in '04 was in a sub 200 market. It and the unrated adjacent market where we had stations still did about $7 million a year, and the two big clusters split about $6.5 million roughly evenly. The AC in our cluster did about $1.2 million the year before Cumulus bought us. There's plenty of money to be made in markets like that, though even some of the lowest billing FM's alone in top-10 markets could do $7 million or close to it. Of course, that Cumulus paid almost $40 million for that cluster didn't help it achieve the margins it wanted. I also realize billing is down from what it was 15 years ago, but small markets still have plenty of opportunity. You won't get filthy rich running a small market cluster, but, if you run it smartly, you can have a healthy and successful business.

I believe they were one of the last major radio companies to use Windows Media Audio (WMA) for their audio streams. After the Citadel acquisition, Cumulus slowly changed the streams of their stations to Advanced Audio Codec (AAC), which was used for the Citadel stations. If I remember correctly, Citadel stations were using the StreamTheWorld platform; either that or Triton Digital.

You're probably right. Cumulus used a Silverlight-based player in 2009. I believe it shifted to Citadel's model after it signed the deal with iHeart. I remember the ex-Citadel stations joined iHeart two or three months before the legacy Cumulus stations arrived. I heard it had to do with those stations having to switch streaming providers. Seems like, when Cumulus was on TuneIn back then, the streams worked fine on mobile apps, but, on the desktop app, they were pop-up links that opened the stations' own players. iHeart required a uniform playback across its platforms, and Cumulus couldn't provide that until it switched.

 

[101tm]

I want to say that the Citadel stations used Triton, and Entercom? was using StreamTheWorld. I know before Clear Channel centralized things, they used something called liquid? or something like that which I haven't heard of in ages.

Citadel made a lot of bad decisions that got them in the shape they were in, mainly the Disney/ABC purchase which hasn't done Cumulus any favors other than a few stations. But once Citadel got integrated with the legacy Cumulus portfolio and platforms, there was a noticeable decline in the quality of the stations overall. Too bad it couldn't have been the other way around. But I will give Cumulus credit for seemingly going in the opposite direction of Audacy and iHeart, a lot of decisions seem to be allowed at the cluster level now instead of top down corporate like when the Dickeys ran the show.

 

[Kent]

I want to say that the Citadel stations used Triton, and Entercom? was using StreamTheWorld. I know before Clear Channel centralized things, they used something called liquid? or something like that which I haven't heard of in ages.

I don't remember exactly who used whom, but the company you're thinking of is Liquid Compass. I believe Liquid Compass, Triton, and Stream the World are the same company now. Seems like Stream the World and Triton merged, and Liquid Compass is now the name of the combined company's analytic arm. Triton Digital was recently acquired by Scripps. Most of the companies we were using in the early days of streaming are gone, whether through acquisition or just having folded. Real Networks is still around, but it's focused more on subscription based streaming. I haven't used Real Audio in a dozen years.

Citadel made a lot of bad decisions that got them in the shape they were in, mainly the Disney/ABC purchase which hasn't done Cumulus any favors other than a few stations.

I always thought Susquehanna and ABC fit each other like a glove. When the Telecom Act passed and that seemed a possibility, Cumulus was barely around as its predecessor only had stations in Atlanta, Toledo and Nashville. That Cumulus would arise out of that small company and be the one to make it happen still seems almost surreal.

But once Citadel got integrated with the legacy Cumulus portfolio and platforms, there was a noticeable decline in the quality of the stations overall. Too bad it couldn't have been the other way around. But I will give Cumulus credit for seemingly going in the opposite direction of Audacy and iHeart, a lot of decisions seem to be allowed at the cluster level now instead of top down corporate like when the Dickeys ran the show.

Although it was nowhere near the monster Cumulus was, I'd always heard Citadel was really bad after Larry Wilson sold the company to Forstmann-Little and left. My friends at my local Cumulus cluster tell me it's a lot better of a place to work now than it was when the Dickeys ran it. The corporate cramdown isn't nearly bad as it was, but it's not dead either. Budgets are better than they used to be, too, but nobody's getting what they got prior to the Great Recession. Going back to the local cluster, every music station was live 6 AM - 6 PM, and two stations were live 6 AM to midnight until October 2008. None of the nighttime and midday shifts that were cut have ever come back, and, despite better budgets today, they're not going to be back anytime soon.

 

[PTBoardOp94]

I do want to add that Cumulus uses TM for their jingles, whereas iHeart mostly uses ReelWorld (with some stations using Wisebuddah and TM). Take that as you will.

Cumulus bought TM studios some time ago when they acquired Westwood One. Then they sold it to the management in 2020.

 

[gr8oldies]

I don't remember exactly who used whom, but the company you're thinking of is Liquid Compass. I believe Liquid Compass, Triton, and Stream the World are the same company now. Seems like Stream the World and Triton merged, and Liquid Compass is now the name of the combined company's analytic arm. Triton Digital was recently acquired by Scripps. Most of the companies we were using in the early days of streaming are gone, whether through acquisition or just having folded. Real Networks is still around, but it's focused more on subscription based streaming. I haven't used Real Audio in a dozen years.



I always thought Susquehanna and ABC fit each other like a glove. When the Telecom Act passed and that seemed a possibility, Cumulus was barely around as its predecessor only had stations in Atlanta, Toledo and Nashville. That Cumulus would arise out of that small company and be the one to make it happen still seems almost surreal.



Although it was nowhere near the monster Cumulus was, I'd always heard Citadel was really bad after Larry Wilson sold the company to Forstmann-Little and left. My friends at my local Cumulus cluster tell me it's a lot better of a place to work now than it was when the Dickeys ran it. The corporate cramdown isn't nearly bad as it was, but it's not dead either. Budgets are better than they used to be, too, but nobody's getting what they got prior to the Great Recession. Going back to the local cluster, every music station was live 6 AM - 6 PM, and two stations were live 6 AM to midnight until October 2008. None of the nighttime and midday shifts that were cut have ever come back, and, despite better budgets today, they're not going to be back anytime soon.

When Dickey was ousted, it was like one could hear the collective sigh of relief. They added some live hours to the News-Talk. Unfortunately, they still had to take the Bongino cramdown.

 

[101tm]

When Dickey was ousted, it was like one could hear the collective sigh of relief. They added some live hours to the News-Talk. Unfortunately, they still had to take the Bongino cramdown.

I remember the painful top down playlists that were forced on country, CHR, and other formats no matter the size or demographics around 10 years ago. A sub-200 market, Kansas City, and Atlanta all had the same CHR playlist. That just doesn’t work. Even before the Dickeys and Jan Jeffries left, I think there were enough issues on a local level for them to loosen up on controlling adds all over the country from Atlanta.

As much as people hated on Clear Channel back in the day, I don’t believe they were ever as strict as the later Dickey-era Cumulus days. I don’t believe Clear Channel/iHeart ever ordered all of its top ~50 market CHR’s to play the exact same songs and still allowed for some more localization.

I don't remember exactly who used whom, but the company you're thinking of is Liquid Compass. I believe Liquid Compass, Triton, and Stream the World are the same company now. Seems like Stream the World and Triton merged, and Liquid Compass is now the name of the combined company's analytic arm. Triton Digital was recently acquired by Scripps. Most of the companies we were using in the early days of streaming are gone, whether through acquisition or just having folded. Real Networks is still around, but it's focused more on subscription based streaming. I haven't used Real Audio in a dozen years.

With so many big clients using their own natively developed platforms and sites like TuneIn now, there really isn’t the demand for the outsourced media/design companies like there was. Smaller and online only stations may, but a lot of the former revenue has dried up. Almost every cluster used to have a webmaster of some sort (remember webmasters)? Now web design for the big groups is handled centrally and internally with ease and low cost, someone local can probably insert the few local promotions or events.

 

[Kent]

When Dickey was ousted, it was like one could hear the collective sigh of relief. They added some live hours to the News-Talk. Unfortunately, they still had to take the Bongino cramdown.

That's for sure. I can’t imagine many people at the local level were sad to see the Dickeys go. When I was there, most of us didn’t think Lew was a bad guy, but nobody thought he was a good manager. In addition to Bongino, I understand Levin and Red Eye Radio are mandated for talk stations. Cumulus also has a group deal with Tesh, but I don't think its stations are forced to use him. I know at least a handful of its AC's don't carry his show.

As much as people hated on Clear Channel back in the day, I don’t believe they were ever as strict as the later Dickey-era Cumulus days. I don’t believe Clear Channel/iHeart ever ordered all of its top ~50 market CHR’s to play the exact same songs and still allowed for some more localization.

I often wondered how Cumulus got away with doing what everyone accused Clear Channel of doing. Cumulus was far more autocratic in its programming than Clear Channel ever imagined being. I suspect it came down to Cumulus generally doing live and local radio, at least during the daytime, prior to October 2008. Plus, if you were at a station that changed formats, Cumulus would usually try to find other stations or markets to put you rather than just push you out the door. Most people were willing to give Cumulus the benefit of the doubt because it usually didn't come in and make wholesale changes and mass staff purges, but it was only modestly more gentle. Cumulus would come into your market like a tornado. It leveled some properties while leaving others intact, but it rarely left anything quite the way it found it. I only worked for Cumulus for four months, and, by the time I left, the cautious optimism people had when Cumulus bought us was pretty much gone. Most of the air staff had turned over within the first year of it arriving, and it went through a multiple market managers in its first three years. One of those market managers only lasted a few months and went to prison several years later either for stealing or embezzling from one his subsequent employers.

With so many big clients using their own natively developed platforms and sites like TuneIn now, there really isn’t the demand for the outsourced media/design companies like there was. Smaller and online only stations may, but a lot of the former revenue has dried up. Almost every cluster used to have a webmaster of some sort (remember webmasters)? Now web design for the big groups is handled centrally and internally with ease and low cost, someone local can probably insert the few local promotions or events.

While there has been some consolidation on the site of the web design companies, you'd be surprised how many places still use them. It may not be the business it once was, but money would seem to be available to the right people. Radio still has a lot of small to medium sized companies that can't do everything, and not every broadcasting company has a central strategy for its digital presence yet. The Cumulus cluster where I worked had a webmaster. They moved him into the engineering department after Cumulus acquired the stations, and that was what ultimately forced me out. He and I still get along, and we even occasionally work together in our new IT jobs.

 

[101tm]

I often wondered how Cumulus got away with doing what everyone accused Clear Channel of doing. Cumulus was far more autocratic in its programming than Clear Channel ever imagined being. I suspect it came down to Cumulus generally doing live and local radio, at least during the daytime, prior to October 2008. Plus, if you were at a station that changed formats, Cumulus would usually try to find other stations or markets to put you rather than just push you out the door. Most people were willing to give Cumulus the benefit of the doubt because it usually didn't come in and make wholesale changes and mass staff purges, but it was only modestly more gentle. Cumulus would come into your market like a tornado. It leveled some properties while leaving others intact, but it rarely left anything quite the way it found it. I only worked for Cumulus for four months, and, by the time I left, the cautious optimism people had when Cumulus bought us was pretty much gone. Most of the air staff had turned over within the first year of it arriving, and it went through a multiple market managers in its first three years. One of those market managers only lasted a few months and went to prison several years later either for stealing or embezzling from one his subsequent employers.

I think it took the buyout of the Citadel stations for it to come to light on a nationwide level. Prior to Cumulus, most Citadel stations still had local air staffs in most dayparts as well as even nights in a lot of cases. When Cumulus got those, and the debt that came with that purchase, the axe started falling hard. Morning shows were replaced with shows from larger markets, the midday and 7pm-12am shift was automated or became syndicated, weekends became jockless, all overnight shifts were definitely eliminated, etc. Since Cumulus doesn’t have pre-packaged formats and voice trackers like iHeart and even Audacy (to an extent) have, it makes the cuts more obvious when there are just 2 DJ’s listed on the website.

A lot of Cumulus AC’s place John Tesh in the midday slot. I’d rather hear music, but generally they do this because they have to carry Delilah at night, case in point WPEZ in Macon, GA. It’s rare to see Tesh carried on an iHeart station.

 

[davideduardo]

I think it took the buyout of the Citadel stations for it to come to light on a nationwide level. Prior to Cumulus, most Citadel stations still had local air staffs in most dayparts as well as even nights in a lot of cases. When Cumulus got those, and the debt that came with that purchase, the axe started falling hard. Morning shows were replaced with shows from larger markets, the midday and 7pm-12am shift was automated or became syndicated, weekends became jockless, all overnight shifts were definitely eliminated, etc. Since Cumulus doesn’t have pre-packaged formats and voice trackers like iHeart and even Audacy (to an extent) have, it makes the cuts more obvious when there are just 2 DJ’s listed on the website.

There is a mistaken impression that Cumulus did national formats and talent to save money. In fact, they did it to do "major market radio" in every size market. I think that the were seeing the model most of the rest of the world had for "national" radio but they ended up doing rather sterile formats that tried to sound big but did not sound warm.

The names, such as Nash, were noxious and management didn't understand what listeners liked and did not like. Despite having some good programmers, the top management just did not get it.

A lot of Cumulus AC’s place John Tesh in the midday slot. I’d rather hear music, but generally they do this because they have to carry Delilah at night, case in point WPEZ in Macon, GA. It’s rare to see Tesh carried on an iHeart station.

There is room for personality in all dayparts, but it depends on format and the competitive array in each market. Cumulus did not have the ability to adjust in each market, unlike shows on iHeart like Seacreast that are based on bits and pieces that fit with the local commercial load, service elements and music research.

 

[101tm]

There is a mistaken impression that Cumulus did national formats and talent to save money. In fact, they did it to do "major market radio" in every size market. I think that the were seeing the model most of the rest of the world had for "national" radio but they ended up doing rather sterile formats that tried to sound big but did not sound warm.

The names, such as Nash, were noxious and management didn't understand what listeners liked and did not like. Despite having some good programmers, the top management just did not get it.

One of the most puzzling things about Nash was the fact it was based in NYC, and the “flagship” was an at launch unknown (to most) FM signal that didn’t match its counterparts in signal coverage, in a market where country hadn’t been heard on a full market signal since 1996. I get that they wanted it to be a media conglomerate, but NYC still makes no sense.

Nashville and one of their country FM’s there would have, although I believe it would have failed just as much. There are some scattered small market Nash stations (mainly Nash Icon) that soldier on. They tried a similar strategy with CHR, but more loosely by mainly having most of them emulate the playlist and sound of then-Q100 in Atlanta with its Hot AC-leaning CHR playlist and morning show.

 

[TheBigA]

One of the most puzzling things about Nash was the fact it was based in NYC,

Not exactly. WNSH began in 2013 with America's Morning Show hosted by Blair Garner in NY. But in February of 2014, Blair moved to Nashville and the show originated from something called the "NASH campus," which was the base of operations for the various NASH products. That coincided with Blair's show being picked up by Cumulus owned WKDF in Nashville. From that point on WNSH ran the national morning show, evening show, and overnight show from Nashville. Mid-days and afternoon drive were local in NYC.