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Non Com Classic Country

I heard a station like that about a month ago when I was in the NE Kingdom of Vermont (that's what the area is called), I believe it was on 89.7. It sounded totally automated, with no local content.
 
This makes absolute, total sense.

Commercial radio is abandoning oldies and classic country formats because the demos they predominantly reach are too old to sell to advertisers.

But, the mission of a non-com is not to sell to advertisers in the sense that a commercial station does. It is to get community support thru underwriting by both individuals and businesses. There are still plenty of baby boomers who will support stations that cater to them.

Such a station, if run well and sensibly, I think can do very well for itself.
 
This is why PBS stations fundraise with oldies concerts. It brings in big bucks. More lucrative than classical music.
 
mcrawford620 said:
Sounds fantastic, but where's the playlist? It's a bummer when the webpage doesn't have the Recently Played playlist available.
Click to expand...
Been listening for the past hour. Not bad, but haven't heard anything that Clear Channel isn't already playing on its HD2/iHeartRadio classic country stream. Don Williams' "Love Is On a Roll," Reba's "Cathy's Clown," the Everly Brothers' "Bye Bye Love," Alan Jackson's "Dallas." If Goodland doesn't have a commercial classic country station in the vicinity, I'd think Cat Country will find its niche. If it does have one, I'm not sure that "no commercials" alone will be a strong enough selling point against a well-run commercial operation.
 
Aren't stations called "Cat Country" usually "new country"? Classic country is usually associated with dogs. Fans of new country tend to have cats.

Although I don't like dogs or a lot of the new country.
 
I agree that "Cat" isn't a slogan I associate with classic country, but the average listener probably doesn't make that distinction. If they do giveaways, maybe the winners can be "Fat Cats."

Will Cat Country be soliciting donations from listeners or just raising money through underwriting? Country is not a format where you would normally expect pledge drives, like you would on a public radio or religious station.
 
They'll be selling underwriting as though it was advertising, and doing pledge drives, too. Any way to bring in some money. The commercial guys figured out years ago that the only substantial difference between commercial radio and non-comm was semantic. This is just a commercial operator using some non-comm sticks to re-establish his business. Nothing illegal, mind you. But we could probably start an argument over whether this is what non-comm channels are meant to be...
 
Absolutely. Knew a guy that sold his AM & FM in a small town to a big boy that moved them to the city. He started a NCE with 3 person morning show, News Director, local high school sports and mass appeal music format. No fundraising at all, just a team of folks selling underwriting and calling it the sort of advertising their audience appreciated and responded to. I'm likely to start an argument here but when you sit down to write an Underwriting spot versus a commercial it is all in the selection of the wording most of the time. Obviously price and item and such are off the table but much of the content advertised on commercial radio, especially outside the major market is institutional or simply who you are, what you do and how to get in touch. In a commercial you'd say 'Give them a call'. In Underwriting you say 'the number is'. Not a heck of a lot of difference in many respects. Correct me if I'm wrong, but Underwriting is who you are, what you do and how to get in touch. And in the scheme of things, that's what advertising is all about: letting people know you're out there, what you offer and how to find you.
 
We don't do pledge drives, but we do have underwriting. Even more basic then you've mentioned here. We do PSA campaigns with sponsor mentions. Both our Goodland, KS and Colorado stations are doing well, and have found their niche.
 
I'm thinking this might be a good way and a good model for struggling AM stations to consider. Already there are a few oldies, standards and alternative stations on AM that are non-commercial. If they can pull it off, why can't it be done with a classic country format?
 
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