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99.5 The Wolf

Good move. Now they just need to play some Texas country to fit their slogan... might pull some folks who would otherwise be listening to KFWR.
 
It doesn't help that the format is down from where it was a few years ago. In the markets where this is being done, the station playing the older music consistently ranks higher than the currents station. In Nashville, WSM-FM is beating WKDF and in Austin, KVET is beating KASE. So I'd expect this to return KPLX to the Top 10 or better.
 
The thing about the country format is it's created a bunch of huge artists (Luke Bryan, Jason Aldean, Carrie Underwood, FGL, Luke Combs, Kenny Chesney, and a lot more) who each have a dozen or so hits from the past 15 years. So you can focus on them, rotate those songs around, and realize that a lot of them haven't been heard in a while. I remember sitting at a Carrie Underwood show, and hearing a lot of songs that I loved, but hadn't been played recently because the focus on currents has crowded out the older hits. Plus these songs aren't that old, so it shouldn't hurt your demos too much. One song from the 90s per hour should be just right.
 
I love this move, hope it succeeds, and definitely hope other stations follow suit!

93.1 in Detroit and 94.1 in Cincinnati need to be next! 🙂
 
The problem is that Cumulus only owns one country station in each of those cities, so the priority is to have currents-based stations. They have two country stations in Dallas & Nashville.
That's the frustrating thing about Hartford/New Haven's only country station, WWYZ. The playlist is very tight and very current. There might be all of three slots per hour for anything older than the past two years, and the true gold titles are so limited that you're guaranteed of hearing most of them every single day: "Check Yes or No" and "Write This Down" from Strait, "Just to See You Smile" and "Where the Green Grass Grows" from McGraw, "Boot Scootin' Boogie" and "Neon Moon" from Brooks & Dunn, etc. I think the only Reba title being played might be "Fancy." But Country 92.5 is under no pressure to do anything differently; it's the only game in town for its format and has maintained healthy numbers through the pandemic.

Up here in the Upper Valley of NH/VT, we have two main country stations in a spirited competition, both consistently No. 2 to No. 5 in the ratings (the other slots going to the classic rocker and two NPR stations), with two other country stations chipping away to the north and south. The result is country radio with deep recurrent and gold playlists and a healthy number of new titles introduced every week. This is a tiny market (No. 220, I think), so there's probably a good reason this approach won't work down I-91 in market No. 52, but there's definitely a difference brought on by legitimate competition for listeners and advertisers.

Speaking of Strait, Scotty McCreery looks to have a potential big hit on his hands with his "Damn Strait," which incorporates several Strait titles into its lyrics. None of those songs, though, are ever heard on WWYZ, as far as I can tell. I wonder if that will change as the McCreery song moves from hot playlist add to legitimate hit.
 
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True, BigA, but their stations in the two cities I named have garbage for both ratings and billing.

Cincinnati might not be an option anyway upon further reflection due to the existence of Classic Country 105.9 in that market, but I want to say that station has more of an 80s / 90s focus.
 
What's wrong with a '90s-based Gold format? Classic Hits stations are nearly universally '80s-focused. Classic Rock stations are focused mostly on the '70s.
 
What's wrong with a '90s-based Gold format? Classic Hits stations are nearly universally '80s-focused. Classic Rock stations are focused mostly on the '70s.
The rhythmic/rock schism at radio, not to mention the polarizing effect of grunge among rock fans, make finding consensus CHR hits a huge challenge. Country music had no such problems in the '90s, and as a result, classic country stations today play mainly '90s (or mid/late '80s) music.
 
The rhythmic/rock schism at radio, not to mention the polarizing effect of grunge among rock fans, make finding consensus CHR hits a huge challenge. Country music had no such problems in the '90s, and as a result, classic country stations today play mainly '90s (or mid/late '80s) music.
Some of the Nash Icon stations do a good job with '90s Country, but some don't focus enough on the '90s. The '90s were really an underrated decade for Country music.
 
Some of the Nash Icon stations do a good job with '90s Country, but some don't focus enough on the '90s. The '90s were really an underrated decade for Country music.
Who is underrating it? Country began its transformation into a genre with strong appeal to younger, non-rural, non-Southern audiences during the '90s. It's routine for country acts to play big arenas and stadiums now, but Garth Brooks showed everyone how to do it in the '90s. And with everyone from Randy Travis to Mary Chapin Carpenter, Vince Gill to the Kentucky Headhunters, Vince Gill to Shania Twain on the radio, there was a real sense of something big happening.
 
Who is underrating it? Country began its transformation into a genre with strong appeal to younger, non-rural, non-Southern audiences during the '90s. It's routine for country acts to play big arenas and stadiums now, but Garth Brooks showed everyone how to do it in the '90s. And with everyone from Randy Travis to Mary Chapin Carpenter, Vince Gill to the Kentucky Headhunters, Vince Gill to Shania Twain on the radio, there was a real sense of something big happening.
I just don't see a lot of '90s-based Gold stations out there.
 
This move puts it in competition with KTFW 92.1 Hank FM at least on the western side of the Metroplex. 99.5's grade A contour goes out to Granbury, Weatherford, and Cleburne - all in grade A coverage of 92.1.
 
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