Update 12/2 12:50pm: Country “93.7/106.3 The Dude” launched at 12pm today.
The press release follows:
Hometown Wilmington Media launched its newest radio station, The Dude (93.7 and 106.3 FM), at noon today.
The Dude is a country radio station featuring the hottest stars, the latest songs and, most importantly, a listener-driven format, according to Hometown Wilmington Media General Manager Beau Gunn.
“In keeping with the tradition of being your hometown connection, we wanted a country radio station that played the songs listeners wanted to hear,” Gunn said. “We want your input. We want to play the country music Wilmington wants to hear; not music that was selected in Atlanta or New York.”
Listeners can expect to hear songs from the latest country stars, including songs you won’t hear anywhere else.
Artists featured on The Dude include Carrie Underwood, Blake Shelton, Miranda Lambert, Jason Aldean, Taylor Swift, Florida Georgia Line, Luke Bryan, Keith Urban, Kelli Pickler and more of country music’s hottest stars. The Dude will play their chart-toppers, as well as lesser-known songs deeper in their albums.
“We knew Wilmington wanted a country station. And we know people want to be involved in selecting the songs you want to hear. We’ve created a listener advisory board so that The Dude plays songs the Port City wants to hear,” Gunn said.
With the launch of The Dude, Port City Radio—Wilmington’s only all-news radio station—will permanently broadcast on 95.9 FM and 1180 AM.
“We’re committed to continuing to offer Wilmington its only all-news radio station where you can find local news and sports from Port City Daily, financial and market updates from the Wall Street Journal, national news from CBS News, and, of course, traffic and weather every 10 minutes,” Gunn said.
Update 12/2 11:00am: Hometown Wilmington Media has moved News “Port City Radio” exclusively to 1180 WSFM/95.9 W240AS.
93.7 WNTB Topsail Beach/106.3 WLTT Bolivia are currently stunting with a ticking clock as they prepare to launch a new format. As we reported earlier, all signs continue to point towards the company launching a new Country format in their cluster. GottaLoveTheDude.com is live promoting the new station.
Update 11/12: 1180 WSFM/95.9 W240AS dropped their Classical format over the weekend and are now simulcasting sister News “Port City Radio” 93.7 WNTB/106.3 WLTT.
The move is a stopgap as Davis’ Hometown Wilmington Media plans on launching a new format in their cluster on November 29. GM Beau Gunn told PortCityDaily.com, “We’re excited to launch our new radio station in response to overwhelming requests from listeners. There’s a lot of excitement about the new station. We’ve heard people talking about it for years, and we’ll soon be bringing it to our listeners.”
As we’ve reported below, all expectations are that the company will launch a new Country station in the market.
Original Report 10/27: Cumulus Country 101.3 WWQQ Wilmington may soon gain an in-market competitor.
Davis Media registered 959KissCountry.com and 959TheNewKissCountry.com on October 13 and then added 959TheDude.com, Dude-Radio.com, PortCityDude.com, and TheDudeRadio.com on the 22nd. The latter batch match the branding used by Davis’ Country station in Columbia, SC.
95.9 is translator W240AS Wilmington, which currently rebroadcasts Classical “Hometown Bach Radio” 1180 WSFM. A flip to Country at 95.9 (either along with 1180 or by using an HD subschannel of a sister station) would give WWQQ its first direct format competitor since 99.9 WKXB flipped to Rhythmic Oldies in 1999.
