RadioZack said:
It makes me sad to see Eddie, Justin, and Lisa get the boot.
True, I hate to see anyone lose their jobs (Zack, do you have a spot for them in Huntsville?). But the greater truth is that while KDF would be a great country radio station if it were set up anywhere else, it has just been flat out manhandled by superior country competition. And it seems that once that was realized, it was shifted into "coast," where it stayed for far too long.
People started saying "Maybe they're switching back to rock!" almost before the news broke, so I didn't get a chance to start that rumor. Maybe I'll start the rumor that they're hiring Coyote and Cathy or that they'll be filling in shifts with one of the ABC country formats. Oops, too late, heard both of those before I finished the previous sentence. ;D
Now it's time to see what Bud (as in beer) Ford (as in truck) can do -- he's had PD experience besides country, you know. But alas, it appears they'll give country even yet another try. My 2 cents: He's going to have to do a lot more than pull his own airshift and find a new morning team. He's going to have to find a new image for the station.
One of largest percentages of the Nashville radio audience and potential audience see KDF's image as "the rock station that I grew up with, that went country" and they're still waiting for the second coming of Rock 103.3. Another one of the largest percentages of the Nashville radio audience and potential audience see KDF's image as the #3, or for some, #4, country station in town. And again, it's not they have done country wrong, they've simply been bested.
That's a big image problem. If they want to stay country, they've got to find something other than today's country hits and the legends. They've got to find something that the other country stations in town aren't doing. Sure, they have the Titans, but that only helps them through half of the year, and even then, it seems they're only existing in their little brother Zone's shadow.
It seems like all of the other things that country stations do to improve their ratings are already being done elsewhere in town, so how do you find that something unique? As Dave Ramsey would say, "I can't tell you what to do, but I can tell you what I would do."
I would tip my hat to KDFs legacy, and introduce into the playlist some of the music that made it famous -- Southern Rock and Country. Make a move to keep some of the country audience with Hot Country, make a grab for the old audience with Southern Rock classics.
Suddenly I'm hearing all of the naysayers shouting "Country/rock hybrids never work!" Just a minute. Have you heard Lonestar 92.5 out of Dallas yet? That format just blows me away! True there's more classic rock than country here, but it is creating a lot of buzz. Why? It's not because it's a country/rock hybrid, it's because what they've created is uniquely "Texas". Ever notice Austin City Limits isn't just country acts, or western acts, its also rock acts? Texas music is about a mix of all of that, and Lonestar captures the sound and feeling of Texas pretty well.
Now WSM-AM is always going to be uniquely "Nashville" in terms of historical country, so why not go in a slighty different direction and go uniquely "Southern"? Create a station that can appeal to today's 18-34 country fans, redneck rockers, NASCAR enthusiasts, Dukes of Hazzard watchers, and football tossers everywhere.
Why not? Everything else country is already being done.
