One of the gratifying programming developments of recent years has been the spread of Classic Country and gold-based Country radio. I listened to Classic Country three times this week in three very different presentations for three very different reasons.
KQKS-HD-2 (Front Range Country 103.1) Denver
Six months ago, radio-management platform Super Hi-Fi partnered with Audacy to power five of the group’s HD Radio side channels with a series of AI-driven tools meant to simplify radio station operation by combining various platforms into a single, transmitter-based playout system. Now, it’s deploying that same technology over the air on behalf of Denver’s gold-based Front Range Country, in a partnership announced earlier today.
Super Hi-Fi CEO Zack Zalon says the new system integrates music scheduling, imaging, advertising, even traffic and weather. “There’s no scheduling software, no automation software. Furthermore, the station is fully cloud-to-ground, [making it] the first time ever that such a stream has been utilized as an audio origination source for a large-market FM.”
Front Range Country launched jockless last year. Super Hi-Fi’s suite of tools also includes simplified voice-tracking, and Zalon says that talent will follow shortly.
Here’s Front Range Country at 2 p.m., October 30:
- George Strait, “Check Yes or No”
- Brad Paisley, “Alcohol”
- Jo Dee Messina, “Bye Bye”
- Ricky Van Shelton, “I Am a Simple Man”
- Sara Evans, “No Place That Far”
- John Michael Montgomery, “Sold (The Grundy County Auction Incident)”
- Rodney Atkins, “If You’re Going Through Hell”
- Blackhawk, “Goodbye Says It All”
- Alabama, “Song of the South”
- Joe Diffie, “Third Rock From the Sun”
- Lee Ann Womack, “I Hope You Dance”
- Craig Morgan, “Almost Home”
- Faith Hill, “The Way You Love Me”
- Jason Aldean, “Hicktown”
- Toby Keith, “I Love This Bar”
- Sawyer Brown, “Some Girls Do”
WRVK Mt. Vernon, Ky.
Radio stations have been known to struggle getting callers. When WRVK Mt. Vernon, Ky., afternoon host Charlie Napier came on the air, he announced that he had gotten 30 entries for his KFC giveaway the day before. Today he was shooting for 31. When he finally did the giveaway an hour later, one caller was a friend who claimed to be the singer Johnny Rodriguez. (“You sounded more excited to talk to him,” he said.) The eventual winner had worked in food service when Napier taught school in Mt. Vernon in a previous career.
WRVK came to my attention through morning show veteran Gene “Bean” Baxter, already responsible for one major Ross on Radio column this year. Baxter knew that I’d appreciate its sense of place. There were promos for two different bluegrass shows (one of them gospel). There was a story on the Kentucky News Network about scammers demanding money for missed jury service. There were multiple Country shows coming to the area, but so were Warrant and Lita Ford. The mayor and city manager were on the way as guests.
Here’s WRVK at 3 p.m., October 30:
- Dierks Bentley, “Free and Easy (Down the Road I Go)”
- Alabama, “Southern Star”
- Eddie Rabbitt, “On Second Thought”
- Norma Jean, “A Little Bitty Tear” — Napier calls her “pretty little Miss Norma Jean,” noting that’s what Porter Wagoner used to call her on his TV show
- Hank Williams, “Baby, We’re Really in Love”
- Oak Ridge Boys, “No Matter How High”
- Vince Gill & Patty Loveless, “My Kind of Woman/My Kind of Man”
- Steve Wariner, “The Weekend”
- Garth Brooks, “Somewhere Other Than the Night”
- Richard Lynch, “Pray on the Radio” — the artist is “a good friend of the station”; they’re going to try to try to get him back on the air, but there may be too much happening at the station between now and January
- KT Oslin, “Do Ya”
- Sammy Kershaw, “She Don’t Know She’s Beautiful”
- Henhouse Five Plus Two (Ray Stevens), “In the Mood” — the song played while Napier was taking KFC giveaway contestants
- John Fogerty, “The Old Man Down the Road” — kicked off a set of Country-flavored rock
- Bobby Fuller Four, “I Fought the Law”
The Country Oldies Show
Longtime air personality/programmer Steve Warren debuted his “Country Oldies Show” in 1994 on the then-WYNY New York, an acknowledgement that there was room for Classic Country even at the peak of the Garth Brooks-driven Hot Country era. When WYNY became the current WKTU, Warren launched the show into syndication. (It’s currently available through his own MOR Media.) As the show celebrates its 30th anniversary, here’s the first hour of Warren’s “Country Oldies Show” from Oct. 7:
- Barbara Mandrell, “I Was Country When Country Wasn’t Cool”
- Vince Gill, “I Still Believe in You”
- Glen Campbell, “Still Within the Sound of My Voice”
- Tammy Wynette, “Bedtime Story”
- Southern Pacific, “New Shade of Blue”
- Conway Twitty, “Happy Birthday Darlin’”
- Collin Raye, “If I Were You”
- George Strait, “The Cowboy Rides Away”
- Don Gibson & Dottie West, “Rings of Gold” — 1969 hit with a similar feel to Anne Murray’s “Snowbird,” released in Canada six months later
- Mac Davis, “It’s Hard to Be Humble”
- Hank Snow, “Would You Mind” — 1955 hit with a “Time Machine” stager
- Dolly Parton, “To Daddy” — Emmylou Harris had the hit; Parton’s original was released years later
- Ray Price, “Help Me Make It Through the Night” — six months before Sammi Smith, Price recorded this song with a very different arrangement on his For the Good Times album
- Hank Thompson, “Wild Side of Life”
- Sawyer Brown, “Some Girls Do”
