As it winds down the remainder of its Top 1000 Country Songs of All Time countdown it is running this week, iHeartMedia Country “Big 95.5” WEBG Chicago will debut Throwback Weekends.

Starting at 1pm on Fridays and on Saturdays and Sundays, WEBG will feature a broader mix of music from the 80s through now. The station will remain focused on a more current based playlist at all other times.

BIG 95.5, Chicago’s New Country, announced today the debut of “Throwback Weekends,” effective immediately. “Throwback Weekends” will broadcast starting at 1:00 p.m. on Friday afternoons.

“Throwback Weekends” will feature Country music’s greatest songs from the 80s and 90s, along with the newest Country hits. Leading up to the debut of “Throwback Weekends,” BIG 95.5 is honoring country music’s deep roots by counting down the Top 1,000 Country songs of all time, as ranked by a Blue Ribbon panel of Country experts.

“Throughout the countdown, we’ve heard from country fans all over Chicagoland who want more of Country music’s greatest hits on the radio mixed with best new Country music,” said Lance Houston, Program Director for BIG 95.5. “We are always listening and are happy to give our listeners more of what they want. We will continue to be No. 1 for new Country music in Chicago, while excited to provide a bigger variety of songs and sounds. Country music has always had a thousand different sounds and we are delighted to celebrate all of them.”

Original Report 2/17: iHeartMedia Country “Big 95.5” WEBG Chicago is dropping its regular format this week to present a countdown of the top 1000 Country songs of all time as selected by a selected panel of country experts.

The countdown is running daily this week from 9am to 8pm and wrapping up over the upcoming weekend. In a podcast announcement last week, Program Director Lance Houston and APD/afternoon host Brooke Taylor explained how they put the list together, with the station selecting a blue-ribbon panel to consider songs based on songwriting, artist contribution to country music history, historical and popular cultural significance of a song, sales and/or streaming data, radio airplay, and peak chart position.

At this point there does not seem to be any changes to follow the weeklong programming stunt. The station will continue to air the Bobby Bones Show in mornings and regular programming at night. The purpose of the countdown appears to be simply to generate some attention for the low-rated station this week and get some new listeners to discover the station. WEBG has hovered in the low to mid 1 share range for the past several months, with a 1.2 in the Holiday 2019 Nielsen Audio ratings.