I don’t usually write a Second Listen column about recently launched radio stations. Even with fewer new stations these days, there’s usually another First Listen lined up. Also, there aren’t always second acts. The 10,000-songs-in-a-row jockless launches of the early ’00s usually gave way to something more full-service eventually. You can’t count on that now.
But there are a number of 2026 launches that deserve a follow-up, from iHeart’s version of TikTok Radio to SonicTrek’s AI-powered relaunch of The Zone Phoenix. In coming weeks, we’ll be returning for some second listens; this week, that also includes a second and Final Listen to TuneIn’s The Big 615, following the end of its three-year deal with Garth Brooks.
A lot of Ross on Radio readers have probably already taken their own second listen to Oldies WKRP Cincinnati/Dayton, whose rebranding from “The Oasis” was one of our biggest columns of the year in early May. As OM/morning man Dave Mason noted on Wednesday, the mission remains “all kinds of songs that you haven’t heard in a while.” It is still the place where you can hear Cliff Richard’s “Devil Woman” at :00, which for the author and ROR readers is an entirely valid mission.
Gary Sandy liners still pop in occasionally, as well. “I grew up in Dayton. I spent a few years managing a fictional station down the road,” said one. The coda of the WKRP in Cincinnati TV theme is still used as a signature jingle; I’m OK with not having encountered the full song in my recent listening.
The update is that WKRP has grown from 2.0 to 2.6 during the launch, tying it with Mason’s longtime home, N/T WKRC, which for years did the sort of full-service AC presentation that WKRP is trying to replicate now. With that sort of adoption by listeners, the Oasis name seems to have been phased out.
I thought I’d stumbled upon one follow-up. In yesterday’s news headline, a local official had been reinstated after sexual harassment charges had been dropped for lack of evidence. I went back to my first day’s notes, and it was actually a different suburb’s police chief, accused of different wrongdoing, who was fighting to hold on to his job that week.
When I took my First Listen to WKRP, I compared Wally J’s high-energy morning and afternoon newscasts to CKLW Detroit’s legendary 20/20 News. That prompted a reader to declare that real 20/20 News should have continuous teletype SFX in the background and more of the famously stylized/lurid writing. But the police blotter stories continue to dominate — a fire, a fatal car crash, a teenager shot in the back, and incidents at the University of Cincinnati. And I did hear a newscast begin with a teletype sounder.
On his Sept. 23 show, I heard Mason’s daily Beatles feature, today with John Lennon talking about the writing of “Happiness Is a Warm Gun.” He also had Beach Boy tickets to give away to anybody who could say they had been to two of the places mentioned in “Surfin’ U.S.A.,” and while, technically, most people could have gotten in on “the U.S.A.” and “Cali-forn-I-A,” the winner had been to Del Mar and Pacific Palisades.
Here’s WKRP with Dave Mason at 7:45 a.m., September 23:
- Swing Out Sister, “Am I the Same Girl?”
- Beatles, “Happiness Is a Warm Gun” — the “Daily Beatles” song
- Stevie Wonder, “My Cherie Amour”
- Daryl Hall & John Oates, “I Can’t Go for That (No Can Do)”
- Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, “Our House”
- Eagles, “Tequila Sunrise”
- Styx, “Lady”
- Beach Boys, “Surfin’ USA”
- Bad Company, “Rock ’n’ Roll Fantasy”
- Steppenwolf, “Magic Carpet Ride”
- Fleetwood Mac, “Second Hand News”
- Blondie, “The Tide Is High”
Here’s WKRP at 3 p.m., September 22 with p.m. driver B-Man:
- Michael Jackson, “Bad”
- Bob Seger, “Turn the Page”
- Led Zeppelin, “Black Dog”
- Bob & Earl, “Harlem Shuffle”
- John Lennon, “Whatever Gets You Through the Night”
- Zager & Evans, “In the Year 2525”
- Eric Clapton, “Lay Down Sally”
- John Cougar Mellencamp, “This Time” — There was a break about the first Farm Aid concert featuring Mellencamp and a then-little-known Bon Jovi.
- KC & the Sunshine Band, “Boogie Shoes”
- Four Tops, “Ain’t No Woman (Like the One I Got)”
- Del Shannon, “Runaway”
- Billy Joel, “The Stranger”
- Spinners, “It’s a Shame”
- Abba, “Dancing Queen”
- Joe Jackson, “Steppin’ Out”
When WTWV (The Wave) Norfolk, Va., segued from Mainstream AC to “Yacht Rock for Coastal Virginia,” it was the biggest of a handful of stations at the beginning of the year that surprisingly focused around the late-’70s/early-’80s pre-MTV soft rock that didn’t seem so great to me at the time.
The Wave has continued to evolve since February under new PD Barry McKay. The plummy captain’s voice heard on the initial imaging has been minimized. The station had a 2.3 in March. In August, it had a 3.2 and has been as high so far as 3.6 — finding a better life than the second Mainstream AC and also ahead of more mainstream Soft AC WNOH (The Breeze), which was at a 1.0 share.
WTWV launched with a lot of songs that had become part of the Yacht Rock canon over the last decade but weren’t radio hits. Those are mostly gone, although there’s still plenty of music you wouldn’t hear on a Mainstream AC or Classic Hits. There are also a few sonically compatible titles from the late ’80s; e.g., “Waiting for a Star to Fall” by Boy Meets Girl, and McKay says he’s constantly trying songs that “sonically fit” to see what works and does not.
The original Farm Aid concert had gotten a mention on WKRP. The Wave was running ads for Farm Aid 2026, featuring Mellencamp, Neil Young, Willie Nelson, Dave Matthews, and Margo Price. Here’s The Wave at 4 p.m., September 8 with McKay:
- Jimmy Buffett, “Fins” — a song that survived on Norfolk radio for decades
- Eagles, “I Can’t Tell You Why”
- Journey, “I’ll Be Alright Without You”
- Lobo, “Where Were You When I Was Falling in Love?” — “I was right here. What’s the problem?” asked McKay
- Hamilton, Joe Frank & Reynolds, “Don’t Pull Your Love”
- Pablo Cruise, “Cool Love”
- Boz Scaggs, “Lowdown”
- Daryl Hall & John Oates, “She’s Gone”
- Steve Winwood, “Valerie”
- Player, “This Time I’m in It for Love”
- Air Supply, “All Out of Love”
- Jackson Browne, “Boulevard”
- Dr. Hook, “Sexy Eyes”
- Firefall, “Just Remember I Love You”
TuneIn’s yesterday-and-today Country The Big 615 launched three years ago as part of a planned seven-station partnership with Garth Brooks. On Monday, it was announced that relationship was ending, with two of the three stations that eventually made it to air signing off and The Big 615 continuing, without Brooks, through the end of the year.
The Big 615 and Brooks’ version of the Tailgate Radio format were, according to TuneIn, their two most-streamed channels and aggressively promoted on-site. By the time I came back for an official Second (and Final) Listen, references to Brooks were already gone, but morning host Storme Warren was still there. So was the music mix that dipped back to the ’80s and ’90s but also featured brand new releases (differentiating it from both major-market Country FMs and the more stratified SiriusXM Country channels).
TuneIn struck up alliances with both Brooks and actor Tom Hanks around the same time. Artist channels have been the centerpiece of the SiriusXM strategy for years, and I’ve had mixed feelings about whether that’s enough for any entity. If we agree that radio’s point of differentiation is personalities that feel like they could be your friends, I don’t know if John Mayer qualifies, although I do now have to concede that some musical bonding is possible.
That the Big 615 felt like “real radio,” not just an artist playlist, from the outset had a lot to do with the radio people involved, PD Charlie Morgan, MD Monta Vaden, and Warren. Its concept of a global country station remains a valid one for the infinite dial. Here’s the Big 615 at 12:30 p.m., September 22:
- Trisha Yearwood, “That’s What I Like About You”
- Zach John King, “Get to Drinkin’”
- Blake Whitten, “Bet on That”
- Trace Adkins, “Every Light in the House”
- Mitchell Tenpenny, “Gone Like That”
- Garth Brooks, “The Dance”
- Ella Langley, “Loving Life Again”
- Chris Young, “Raised on Country”
- Cody Johnson, “Horseback”
- Dan + Shay, “Bigger Houses”
- Judds, “Love Is Alive”
- McCoy Moore, “Forget We Ever Met”
- Chris Janson, “Fight for a Girl”
- Megan Moroney, “6 Months Later”
- Joe Nichols, “Gimme That Girl”
Wally J sounds GREAT!