An hour and a half after Entercom flipped 94.1 KMPS Seattle to Soft AC “94.1 The Sound“, Hubbard Radio has countered by flipping Rock “98.9 Rocks” KVRQ Seattle to “Country 98.9“.
The flip took place at 10:40am this morning as the station dropped out of Red Hot Chili Peppers’ “Other Side” in progress.
Listen to the launch of Country 98.9 at FormatChange.com.
Early today Hubbard Radio Seattle announced the new Country 98.9 FM, “Nobody Plays More New Country”. The station is committed to playing more new country than any other country station in Seattle, with an emphasis on today’s top Country artists.
“We at Hubbard Radio Seattle are looking forward to winning the Country war in Seattle. With a live and local Hubbard Radio mantra, it’s going to be a whole lot of fun building one of America’s great country radio stations.”
“Now we are ramping up on staff hires including a Program Director.” states Marc Kaye, Hubbard Radio VP/Market Manager Seattle.
COUNTRY 98.9 FM is owned by Hubbard Radio Seattle, which owns and operates four other Seattle stations including WARM 106.9 FM, MOViN 92.5 FM, AM 880 KIXI and AM 1150 KKNW. Visit 98.9 on the web at country989fm.com
Eric Jon Magnuson 
Today’s “Tom Taylor Now” (at https://us6.campaign-archive.com/?u=78b390ff9f5b002e3f050238c&id=4ef6130b32) cites a rumor that iHeart has also considered launching a Country station in Seattle. I’m not sure, though, that a three-way battle involving core/full-market FMs would really be good. (For me, it would’ve been more plausible for iHeart to use 102.9 or 104.9 for Country–especially if a major goal here was just to clear Bobby Bones. Of course, since iHeart is now spinning those two off, that’s now a moot issue.)