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Would Classic Country Work In Fort Wayne?

T

tsherck

With George Stright winning Entertainer Of The Year a couple weeks ago. Is Classic Country making a comeback and would it work in Fort Wayne?
 
tsherck said:
With George Stright winning Entertainer Of The Year a couple weeks ago. Is Classic Country making a comeback and would it work in Fort Wayne?
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Tangent: I can't believe that I don't already know the answer to this…but prior to the 1979 rollout of 1380 WQHK, did FtW have a radio station that played Country music?
 
In smaller markets (and maybe large markets, too, for all I know) I don't think the question is: "Will such-and-such format work successfully?" The question is really: "Is there an owner who knows how to make this format work on this station in this town?"
 
My memory says that WBTU came around after WQHK popped up when WMEE went to FM...
I'm willing to bet that classic country would garner some listeners, but most would be of the 45+ age range.
When I worked at WQHK it was a good mix of current country (for 1989 to 1991) with a healthy dose of the classics and country "standards." That format wouldn't work today -the current country format is almost classic rock to suit the die-hard country fan's ears.
 
My aunt and uncle in C City loved Johnny and Merle. They were die hard QHK and BTU fans until that classic rock sound started to impact country. After that, they were off to the political talk of WOWO. Both have passed although their kids all love that same country sound. But they're all 45+ too. What owner would take the risk? Adams once they take 1450? Maybe one of the far fringe signals like 101.1? And GRC is spot on about finding an owner who knows how to make it work. Having someone like Rick Hughes on staff would be a big help.
 
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Let's say you have a 3k FM or an AM signal that is one of your lower
priorities. There are satellite delivered classic country ( Real Country for one)
that could be a test. Do it right. Like the programmers
reccommend. Have someone on staff to actually pay attention to
it, to keep it up to date (weather, spotload, etc).
Then actually do some cross promotion on the the other station.
Of course, have sales TRY to sell it! What have you got to lose??
 
While I like "classic country" in small doses, I think it's too much of a niche format to make reasonable dough.
 
BostonRandy said:
While I like "classic country" in small doses, I think it's too much of a niche format to make reasonable dough.
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In this era of ten-million choices of media content available to everyone... is EVERYTHING a niche format today? Isn't that part of the discussion that we are having over and over and over again in these forums? How many listeners are there that actually lock into one station and listen for three or four or seven hours a day?

Is there a place in radio today where a station can expect to deliver large doses?
 
WLYV 1450 went country after WMEE (AM 1380) cleaned their top 40 clock, 1974 or so. They dropped country not long after the sign on of WQHK, which as we all know coincided with WMEE's flip to FM. WBTU came on in the early 80s.
 
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In case you all haven't seen the news elsewhere…

Adams has taken their newly acquired translator at 103.3 80s based classic country - fed from the HD2 of 103.9.
 
great country 1033

Would think it a rum shock that classic country couls work what else would adam radio put on 1033 if it didn't work my guess be 90' format or click hip hop from I heard all complan wild got when it was pull hope adam goes something like wild 96.3 on 96.9 we see how it does when it sign on it be next station to lauch
 
Interesting. Also trying to remember any country before WLYV (if we don't count the country played on WOWO's Little Red Barn).
Of course, what is Classic Country? Reba? Waylon, Willie and Hank Jr? Loretta and Conway? Hank Sr? The Carter Family?
 
I've listened a bit via Tunein. Think 1380 WQHK and the startup of WBTU. Mark Allen is programming.
 
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