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Best Country radio stations...

BRH said:
As far as country stations I don't care for. My local heritage, legendary country powerhouse, here in the Knoxville area (WIVK) isn't a favorite of mine. I've never really seen what the fuss is about with WIVK. It's one of those old school, full service type stations. Granted, it's a part of the community and so forth, but from a pure production and overall sound and feel perspective, it just bores me to tears.
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We have the exact same problem here in Detroit. Longtime country powerhouse WYCD is very old school to. The mix of music is not to fres. It takes them forever to add new music, the imaging has gone way down hill, and the all the DJ's are just boring and its all about the music for them. It isn't fun to listen to anymore. It is just boring
 
How about KEAN 105.1 in Abliene, TX? LOTS of lesser-known stars and older songs from Tracy Lawrence, which you NEVER hear except for "Find out Who Your Friends Are".

-crainbebo
 
jeffryan said:
101.9 The Twister (KTST/Oklahoma City) is one of my favorites.

Great name, great logo and kick ass imaging...
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I like 93.3 much better.
 
Greetings.....One of the BEST country stations out west was KNIX-FM Phoenix. This station was purchased by country legend Buck Owens in 1968 for $75,000... A year earlier, Buck bought an AM daytimer at 1580 he named KTUF. Buck and the Owens family owned KNIX for just over 30 years before selling it to Clear Channel in 1999.....for about $84 MILLION...! KNIX was well respected in the country music industry as one of its top legendary stations

The history of the station is pretty incredible. Program Director Larry Daniels came on board in 1971 and in 1980 Bucks son Micheal Owens came on as GM. I was fortunate to be a part of this great station for 8 years....KNIX was one of the first country stations to start doing TV commercials and the station and its personnel were everywhere in the market. We superserved Phoenix and the southwest. We were a part of every country night club and honky tonk, promotionally active at every concert that came to town and the airstaff was very cohesive and tight. In 1980 KNIX hit Number One in Phoenix and pretty much stayed at the top of the local ratings for nearly 20 years. Long time morning man W. Steven Martin was there for some 26 years. Other staff members in the 80's and 90's included...Tim and Willy, Steve Goddard, "Layback" Lennie Roberts, Steve Wood, Jim West, R.J. Curtis, Erik Foxx, Buddy Alan Owens and many more.

KNIX won several ACM and CMA awards, Marconi awards and several others. In a country radio career that spanned 35 years I can honestly say that my years at KNIX were the best of my career. It was an incredible ride. The Owens family really knew how to treat their employees and it really was a big family and an honor and priviledge to be a part of its legacy. It also did not hurt that Phoenix was and still is an incredible country market. Today with Buck's passing 3 years ago in March the Owens family still owns KUZZ in Bakersfield.
 
This is a old topic but before starting a new thread, I figure best to just reply to the old one.
I see no one mentioned WOKQ/WPKQ up in New Hampshire. I've always like them.
Some of the better country stations in New England (in my opinion only)
WOKO in Burlington, VT, WINQ in Keene, NH, WPKX in Springfield, MA.,
WCTY in Norwich, CT., WTHT in Lewiston(Portland), ME.
 
Some good ones around Iowa:

98.7 KMGO (Centerville-Ottumwa). They play more newer country than classics, but still a very good variety.

Somebody already mentioned KWMT in Fort Dodge. They're good at night when they don't have their talk shows.

1360 KMJM (Cedar Rapids). Yeah it's Clear Channel and it's not locally originated, but it's still a very good format.

93.9 KIA-FM (KIAI - Mason City). One of the best FM Country stations I know of, along with sister station KIAQ (Clarion-Fort Dodge).

As for locally programmed and locally supported, WLLR in Davenport is likely a good one to mention. They have quite a following, but part of that is because they're the only country format in the Quad Cities Metro. As most know, Cumulus pulled the plug on country formatted "The River 104.9" back in 2007. I was one of those that wasn't happy about it, since I liked 104.9 better than WLLR. But you can't make everyone happy, and KBOB didn't have the best ratings. They also had very few on-air personalities.

Also previously mentioned, but not in Iowa, was 650 The Legend (WSM-AM - Nashville). That's one of the strongest AM signals here at night believe it or not, and it's also one of the best.

In terms of real small town country stations, 103.5 KNEI in Waukon (northeast iowa) plays a big variety of country as well, and is also 100% locally originated (with the exception of Weather forecasts from La Crosse, WI, and national news headlines).
 
KNEI is locally originated? When did they drop "Real Country?" I used to listen to that on their web stream once in a while.
 
relevantradio said:
Texas-style's got KASE/KVET, Austin. Pop's got WKHX, Atlanta. A couple of Wolves, some Bulls and even a few Sheep are pretty dang nice.

Ever take a listen to the Jack-approach of a good ol' Hank? Done right, it's really not a bad sound.
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Agree that KASE/KVET are good stations, but San Antonio's KJ97 (CMA's Station of the Year) and 98.3 KORA in Bryan College Station in my opinion are better...they play more Texas country artists.
 
ocmccormick said:
Some good ones around Iowa:

98.7 KMGO (Centerville-Ottumwa). They play more newer country than classics, but still a very good variety.
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I used to listen to KMGO's stream when I lived in North Hollywood and I was devastated when Billy Cole passed because I loved his Sunday Classics. Now I live in Ottumwa and due to a weird reception issue I can only get them outside. Apparently they have downgraded their stream because it has very limited frequency response and dynamic range now.

However they do have a great mix and even though most of the day appears to be tracked it sounds as good as any.

My next nomination is the Ohio tri-cast of WBZI, WEDI, WKFI which streams classic country on myclassiccountry.com. They play the widest variety I've heard anyplace and they feature a fabulous weekend host named Chubby Howard.

KKGO Go-Country 105 in Los Angeles showed promise when they began but they've been fiddling around a lot lately so they've lost their initial luster. Also they killed off their Sunday Night Classics show which was a real good one. Not sure why they did that but it has been gone for a couple of years now and is still missed by a lot of fans.
 
PTBoardOp94 said:
KNEI is locally originated? When did they drop "Real Country?" I used to listen to that on their web stream once in a while.
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They dropped REAL Country 2 years ago. They're still streaming online at KNEIRadio.com.
 
WRF in Galax, VA just went classic country. They were doing it part-time but now they've dumped all the new stuff. Still, they play more 90s than I would want. Seriously ... "Back at One" by Mark Wills?
 
ocmccormick said:
Some good ones around Iowa:

98.7 KMGO (Centerville-Ottumwa). They play more newer country than classics, but still a very good variety.

Somebody already mentioned KWMT in Fort Dodge. They're good at night when they don't have their talk shows.

1360 KMJM (Cedar Rapids). Yeah it's Clear Channel and it's not locally originated, but it's still a very good format.

93.9 KIA-FM (KIAI - Mason City). One of the best FM Country stations I know of, along with sister station KIAQ (Clarion-Fort Dodge).
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KMGO continues to have a very decent variety, but they are in the process of moving their transmitter to better cover the Des Moines market. I personally see it as a bad move, as Des Moines is very tightly controlled by Citadel's 92.5 KJJY and 97.3 KHKI (105kw powerhouse).

1360 KMJM has gone down hill over the past few months. They are playing many newer songs, while keeping a very small playlist. The station has yet to gain any traction against KHAK which has a 15+ Arbitron rating. Clear Channel's KKSY is also failing to take down KHAK, and KKSY is perhaps the worst station I have ever listened to. If they want to take Cedar Rapids, they need to make a country mix station with better variety than KHAK. Having two poorly programmed stations will get them no where.

KIAQ is pretty amazing. I can occasionally tune them in, but it is difficult as they are well over 80 miles away. Whenever I do manage to tune them in, they usually get blown out by WCOW 97.1, which is very far away.

540 KWMT has gotten better since Clear Channel sold them a while back. They cover nearly all of Iowa during the day, so they have a good sized following.

I use to listen to KCOB 95.9/1280 from Newton. They have since changed their 1280 format, so I have not been able to listen since. But they were pretty good back when I could hear them. 1130 KILJ from Mount Pleasant is pretty good.
 
radio programmer said:
1. WAMZ-Louisville
2. WFMS-Indianapolis
3. WKOA-Lafayette, IN
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I happen to tune in WFMS stream last saturday to listen to the CMT yearend countdown with Lon Helton.They must of had a problem with the webstream automation at the time.they lost a couple of segments of the countdown and lopped off the top 2 songs of the year.
BTW.the top country station is the late 1050 WHN New York ,the late WIOF W104 Waterbury CT.also the old 1170 WWVA Wheeling WV .And WSM.
 
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