After a week of stunting with nonstop Garth Brooks, West Virginia Radio Corporation Country “96.1 The Wolf” WKWS Charleston WV flipped to Classic Country “96.1 KWS” at 7:00 this morning.
The newly positioned “Superstar Country” is focusing on Country hits from 1985-2005 while stretching a bit in both directions. WKWS’ 1pm hour today consisted of:
Neal McCoy – The Shake
James Otto – Just Got Started Lovin’ You
The Judds – Mama She’s Crazy
Eddie Rabbit – I Love A Rainy Night
John Michael Montgomery – Sold
Pam Tillis – Maybe It Was Memphis
Keith Urban – Days Go By
Randy Travis – Better Class of Losers
Dixie Chicks – Landslide
Jerry Reed – East Bound and Down
George Strait – Heartland
Tim McGraw – Please Remember Me
Patty Loveless – Blame It On Your Heart
Kenny Chesney – Big Star
Alan Jackson – Midnight In Montgomery
Original Report 10/17: West Virginia Radio Corporation Country “96.1 The Wolf” WKWS Charleston WV has gone all Garth Brooks as “96.1 The Garth“.
The stunt comes as Brooks prepares for three concerts in Charleston this weekend. However more changes may be on the way for the station following the stunt. The airstaff has been removed from the station’s website as morning host Kidd Conley jumped to afternoons at Bristol Broadcasting’s 97.5 WQBE and co-host Miss Amanda moved to sister Rhythmic CHR “98.7 The Beat” WRVZ.
WV Radio Corporation has registered multiple domains for potential use at WKWS in recent weeks. 961KWS.com and 961TheGarth.com were registered simultaneously last week, while anonymous registrations for 961Sky.com, 961SkyFM.com, Sky961.com, and TheNewSky961.com made in July match the Classic Hits brand launched by the company last month on 106.5 WWLW Clarksburg.
In the Spring 2016 Nielsen Audio ratings WKWS ranked sixth in the Charleston market with a 5.9 share, but that placed it well behind Bristol Broadcasting’s market leading 97.5 WQBE’s 16.4 share.
Could another stunt follow “Garth”??
I wonder if after this weekend (October 21st-23rd), WKWS-96.1 might go all-Christmas for a couple of months and ends up premiering it’s real new format after Christmas.
Early next week (October 24th) might not be too early to launch an all-Christmas format since KOMC-1280/K251BZ-98.1 in Branson has been all-Christmas for a little more than two weeks and WEZW-93.1 in Southeastern New Jersey (if the last couple of years are any indication) will probably do so in the next few days. And November 1st (the traditional start of the “season” for stations going all-Christmas) is a bit more than two weeks off as off this writing.