God's Country Radio network ends

[brian.marchand]

God's Country Radio Network has lost their Radio Stations as of 11/1/2010 because they were not raising enough money. It continues as an online feed. Most of their stations were from EMF and most of those are now Spanish Christian from Radio Nueva Vida. Radio Nueva Vida has a station list on their website they just updated with their new stations they are LMAing from EMF.

KGCO 88.3 FM in Fort Collins, Colorado and 107.3 FM

KGCN 91.7 FM in Roswell, New Mexico

WGCN 90.5 FM in Nashville, Tennessee

101.7 FM translator in Valdosta, Georgia

KGCE FM 107.3 in Post, Texas

94.1 FM in Lubbock, Texas translator

99.1 FM in Lubbock, Texas translator

KQGC FM 91.1 Belen, New Mexico

KGCL 90.9 FM Jordan Valley, Oregon

91.5 FM Scottsbluff, Nebraska translator

89.5 FM Great Falls, Montana translator

They were already LMAing KSTN 91.5 in Redding, CA from EMF.

A few of the old EMF stations are now back to either Air1 or K-Love according to EMf's station listings. But those stations are in markets where K-Love and Air1 already had stations - Lexington, KY WLAI 107.1, Utica, NY WOKR 93.5, Bismarck, ND KLBF 89.1 and Hayti, MO WGCQ 98.7.

KGCM 90.9 Belgrade, MT I have not found what has happened to.

 

[xmusicmatt]

Wow.. They make it look like EMF's the bad guy here

From the God's Country website:

"Please understand that this is not a decision from the owners/producers of the God's Country format, but a business decision of the owners of your local radio station. We sincerely apologize for any dissappointment that this change will cause"

"a business decision of the owners of your local radio station"....

I think it's more like "we could not pay the LMA fees anymore so EMF went with someone who could since keeping FM's on air isn't free.."

 

[w9wi]

God's Country Radio Network has lost their Radio Stations as of 11/1/2010 because they were not raising enough money. It continues as an online feed. Most of their stations were from EMF and most of those are now Spanish Christian from Radio Nueva Vida. Radio Nueva Vida has a station list on their website they just updated with their new stations they are LMAing from EMF.

....

WGCN 90.5 FM in Nashville, Tennessee

....

Nashville, Georgia. There's no 90.5 here in Nashville, Tennessee. (because there's an 80kw 90.3 )

GCN doesn't have a station around here.

I wonder what happened to their station on 94.9 in southeast Missouri? - guess I'm going to have to swing my antenna west & find out.

 

[anotherguyTN]

There is a little bit of good news for the West TN area in that WGCQ in Hayti, MO is now Air 1. It's close to KAIA in Bloomfield, but it will reach further into areas of West TN that couldn't get it before.

 

[Talk_Dude]

Wow.. They make it look like EMF's the bad guy here

From the God's Country website:

"Please understand that this is not a decision from the owners/producers of the God's Country format, but a business decision of the owners of your local radio station. We sincerely apologize for any dissappointment that this change will cause"

"a business decision of the owners of your local radio station"....

I think it's more like "we could not pay the LMA fees anymore so EMF went with someone who could since keeping FM's on air isn't free.."

Including this bit makes that quote above little more honest.

As a listener-supported format, this Christian Country format didn't connect with enough listeners to sustain the expenses of the broadcast. We do believe that in better economic times this format of music would flourish. Please understand that this is not a decision from the owners/producers of the God's Country format, but a business decision of the owners of your local radio station.

This is one of those situations where the 8th commandment applies.

 

[anotherguyTN]

I don't know about in other areas, but in West TN the few attempts at Christian country stations have failed. I guess that the Southern Gospel audience (Who are still very strong here) sees it as being too contemporary, and the CCM audience sees it as being too traditional, or at least not contemporary enough for their tastes. I'm not sure why, but just my observation.

 

[pobryan]

WGCN is in Nashville, GA not TN. Nashville is a bedroom community of Valdosta, GA. It's amazing how many Nashville's there are around the country.

 

[brian.marchand]

I of course new WGCN 90.5 is in Nashville, GA not TN. The error came from the Radio Nueva Vida website when I copied their station list where they have listed TN. I also asked EMF about it and they said there were a number of reasons they decided to drop God's Country.

 

[xmusicmatt]

I meant no ill feelings towards God's Country with my comments, Just don't want EMF to look like the bad guy here when they are just doing what everyone else does and that's business.

The stations that God's Country was on are left over EMF stations anyways that EMF already has signals in those areas carring their own formats (in most cases both Air1 and KLove), one would think that if economy was better that EMF would be selling these for a good price.

 

[jry]

I meant no ill feelings towards God's Country with my comments, Just don't want EMF to look like the bad guy here when they are just doing what everyone else does and that's business.

The stations that God's Country was on are left over EMF stations anyways that EMF already has signals in those areas carring their own formats (in most cases both Air1 and KLove), one would think that if economy was better that EMF would be selling these for a good price.

You're right. They do blame that local station but, in fact, they relied on donations from listeners. If they could not compensate EMF for airtime, as per their contract, how is that EMF's fault. You cannot say that it did not connect with listeners then say it was a business decision of the local station. Well, in a way, i guess you can...... "hello, mr local manager, we cannot pay our bill anymore". Mr. local station owner says that he needs compensation for the airtime and has to cancel your deal.....
Our guys said that the format was kind of all over the map. Lacked focus. We did Christian Country, years ago. There just wasn't enough product. Then you find yourself morphing into Southern Gospel. We do some Southern Gospel and folks listen.

 

[xmusicmatt]

You're right. They do blame that local station but, in fact, they relied on donations from listeners. If they could not compensate EMF for airtime, as per their contract, how is that EMF's fault. You cannot say that it did not connect with listeners then say it was a business decision of the local station. Well, in a way, i guess you can...... "hello, mr local manager, we cannot pay our bill anymore". Mr. local station owner says that he needs compensation for the airtime and has to cancel your deal.....
Our guys said that the format was kind of all over the map. Lacked focus. We did Christian Country, years ago. There just wasn't enough product. Then you find yourself morphing into Southern Gospel. We do some Southern Gospel and folks listen.

I never listened to these guys .. Only saw their website a few times however the biggest thing I would think that would hurt a Christian Country station is that due to the lack of product most try to mix in Mainstream music and a hybrid format... just isn't going to drawl many people... Your mainstream folks will listen to the country station ... and those who want to hear Christian tunes do not want to hear mainstream country too...

I think one would do better with a Southern Gospel format that sprinkles in some Christian Country content too.