Fresh Listen: ACM Country Small-Market Nominees

When radio stations or their hosts submit airchecks for radio awards, they’re usually heavily edited “greatest hits” reels. They start out with a barrage of big-name morning-show guests. There are usually highlights from radiothons or other public service promotions. In between, there’s very little sense of what the station sounds like in real time. 

When I monitor a radio station or personality, I usually have a different checklist. Did I feel like there was something going on at the station? Did I laugh, (or choke up)? Did I learn anything about life in the market?  When I listened to the ACM Station of the Year winners two years ago, they did a good job on that score, as one would hope. But so did this year’s Small-Market ACM Country Station of the Year nominees, including the “choked-up” part.

In that last ACM listen, there was still a sense of stations trying to cover the “New Country” franchise, even as more and older gold titles came into the format. There’s more new country worth talking about now, but I only came across one station that had its positional flag planted there. The station that most felt centered around Country’s streaming-era artists didn’t talk about era at all.

Here’s a Fresh Listen to the five nominees as heard on Monday, March 18: 

WNGC (Your Georgia Country) Athens, Ga.

This year’s ACM small-market nominees feature two long-prominent “shadow market” stations. Cox’s WNGC Athens, Ga., under veteran PD Pete deGraaff, competes with nearby Atlanta stations with a lot of localism. On one sweeper, the listeners identified themselves by name and town. Another encouraged them to try the Brunswick stew at Zeb’s BBQ in Danielsville. 

Middayer Abby Jessen teased the Adam & Haley morning show’s Zach Bryan ticket giveaway. (“If you’re thinking ‘I don’t know how I’m going to get into this one … ”) She also preceded a Luke Combs song by declaring, “I’m convinced he’s just trying to see how much he can make us cry” on his social media postings. Here’s WNGC at 10 a.m.:

• Kane Brown, “I Can Feel It”
• Dustin Lynch f/Mackenzie Porter, “Thinking ’Bout You”
• Zach Bryan, “Something in the Orange”
• Scotty McCreery, “Cab in a Solo” — with an artist-intro stager
• Garth Brooks, “Ain’t Goin’ Down (’Til the Sun Comes Up)”
• Thomas Rhett f/Morgan Wallen, “Mamaw’s House”
• Kenny Chesney, “American Kids”
• Jelly Roll w/Lainey Wilson, “Save Me”
• George Birge, “Mind on You”
• Jason Aldean, “Burnin’ It Down” — with a “Georgia artists play here” stager
• Luke Combs, “The Kind of Love We Make”
• Megan Moroney, “I’m Not Pretty”
• Alabama, “Song of the South” — on “the only station where you’ll hear real country like Alabama”
• Chris Stapleton, “White Horse”
• Jordan Davis, “What My World Spins Around”

KCLR (Clear 99) Columbia, Mo.

On Monday morning, KCLR (Clear 99) Columbia, Mo., middayer Josh Ryan did a break about driving across Missouri for a kids’ softball tournament and celebrating by having a Reuben Sandwich Pizza at Wally’s, a Buc-Ees-like mega-service station. 

At the end of the hour, he returned to the topic, explaining that it was his daughter’s first tournament since undergoing nine months of chemotherapy, how it put being a travel-sports parent in perspective, and how grateful he was for her chance to be a child again. 

Zimmer’s KCLR and its sister stations are radio-awards perennials. Ryan also did a break that hour on the ACM nominations for both the station and the Liz & Scotty morning show. He thanked the audience for not just listening but supporting the station and its causes. It’s also worth mentioning that a lot of the local spots heard showed a level of enterprise and creativity less heard in this hard-sell era.

Here’s Clear 99 at 10 a.m.:

• Megan Maroney, “Tennessee Orange”
• Scotty McCreery, “Cab in a Solo”
• Brad Paisley, “She’s Everything”
• Mitchell Tenpenny, “Truth About You”
• Luke Combs, “Where the Wild Things Are”
• Travis Tritt, “Take It Easy” — with a “throwback” stager
• Tyler Hubbard, “Back Then Right Now”
• Dan + Shay, “Save Me the Trouble”
• Bailey Zimmerman, “Rock and a Hard Place”
• Thomas Rhett f/Morgan Wallen, “Mamaw’s House”
• Jason Aldean, “Trouble with a Heartbreak”
• Dierks Bentley, “Lot of Leavin’ Left to Do”
• Chayce Beckham, “23”
• Dustin Lynch f/Jelly Roll, “Chevrolet” — with a sweeper “supporting the new faces of country music”
• Eric Church, “Drink in My Hand”

WRTB (95.3 the Bull) Rockford, Ill.

Launched in 2014, Mid-West Family’s WRTB (The Bull) Rockford, Ill., is the newest station on here. Despite having a ’90s title in the hour I monitored, “The State Line’s Country” was also the station most entrenched in the new post-streaming sound of Country music. It was also the only station I head doing a produced artist feature, “The County Breakdown.”

Early midday host Ryan Sartori did both an impossible question/“morning mindbender” (44% of men notice a woman’s hair first) and a post-St. Patrick’s Day bit about the cost of post-holiday hangovers to your employer (about $1.90 for every drink you have). At the end of the hour, he handed off to Gordon Mays, “the other big-bearded gentlemen who works here.” 

Here’s the Bull at 11 a.m.:

• Chris Janson, “Good Vibes”
• Conner Smith, “Creek Will Rise”
• Jackson Dean, “Don’t Come Lookin’”
• Megan Moroney, “I’m Not Pretty”
• Chris Stapleton, “Tennessee Whiskey”
• Riley Green f/Luke Combs, “Different Round Here”
• David Lee Murphy , “Dust on the Bottle”
• Morgan Wallen f/Eric Church, “Man Made a Bar”
• Keith Urban, “Long Hot Summer”
• Cole Swindell, “Drinkaby”
• Tyler Hubbard, “5 Foot 9”
• Kenny Chesney, “Take Her Home”
• Luke Bryan, “I See You”
• Darius Rucker, “Alright”
• Alan Jackson & Jimmy Buffett, “It’s Five O’Clock Somewhere”

WFLS Fredericksburg, Va.

“May your clothes be comfy, your coffee be strong, and your Monday be short,” said WFLS Fredericksburg, Va., middayer Bonnie Miller in her first break of the morning. Alpha Media’s WFLS is a longtime small-market powerhouse that also shows up in the Washington, D.C., ratings. That morning, Miller was preparing to give away Alabama tickets on the all-request lunch-hour; there were also tickets coming up to the Paranormal Cirque and, with morning team Steve & Tiffany, the Fredericksburg Wine & Food Festival.

WFLS has a sweeper that promotes both “variety” and “the best of today’s new country.” There’s also a hook promo that begins “’if you’re new to WFLS, let me give you a little sample of what you’ll get,” which featured Luke Combs, Kane Brown, and Chris Stapleton. Here’s WFLS just before 10 a.m.:

• Kenny Chesney, “There Goes My Life”
• Scotty McCreery, “Cab in a Solo”
• Morgan Wallen, “Whiskey Glasses”
• Corey Kent, “Wild as Her”
• Chayce Beckham, “23”
• Dierks Bentley, “Sideways”
• Bryan Martin, “We Ride” — with a “discover the best new country now” stager
• Jelly Roll w/Lainey Wilson, “Save Me”
• Tim McGraw, “Where the Green Grass Grows”
• Warren Zeider, “Pretty Little Poison”
• Chris Young & Kane Brown, “Famous Friends”
• Cody Johnson, “Dirt Cheap”
• Thompson Square, “Are You Gonna Kiss Me or Not”
• Luke Combs, “Where the Wild Things Are”

KATI (Cat Country 94.3) Jefferson City, Mo.

It speaks to the strength of the Zimmer mid-Missouri cluster that two stations in the same region are nominated. In the 10 a.m. hour I heard, KATI (Cat Country 94.3) was also the only one of five nominees that is jockless, but there were a lot of promos for morning team Kevin Hilley & Erin Hart, including the team’s Classroom Caravan, where they read stories at local schools. Afternoons are hosted, and like Clear 99, the local spots here showed the same level of creative enterprise.

Cat Country 94.3 is positioned as “all-time favorites for Central Missouri.” This is the yesterday-and-today mix in the 10 a.m. hour:

• Toby Keith, “How Do You Like Me Now”
• Dierks Bentley, “Somewhere on a Beach”
• Randy Travis, “If I Didn’t Have You”
• Corey Kent, “Wild as Her”
• Craig Morgan, “International Harvester”
• Jon Pardi, “Last Night Lonely”
• Daryle Singletary, “Too Much Fun”
• Rodney Atkins, “These Are My People”
• Shania Twain, “(If You’re Not in It for Love) I’m Outta Here!”
• Chris Young & Kane Brown, “Famous Friends”
• Dustin Lynch, “Where It’s At”
• Chris Stapleton, “Starting Over”
• Tim McGraw, “Everywhere”
• Eric Church, “Drink in My Hand”
• Keith Urban, “Somebody Like You”