Experts React: Big Deal For All Country Stations

NashFM Control Room

Veteran country radio consultant Jaye Albright tells Inside Radio  the return of the format to New York a “wonderful victory” and says it’s a “big deal” for every other country station.

Ed Salamon, former WHN NYC programmer and onetime head of the Country Radio Broadcasters told Tom Taylor NOW “Having a country radio station in New York exposes Madison Avenue to country music, encouraging more use of country music in commercials and making national advertisers more likely to buy country radio. He added the move could spark another 'crossover era'.

94.7 “should be able to crack the top ten, at the very least, with strong female demos,” opines Long Island-raised consultant Joel Raab to Tom Taylor. He observes that “Country has gotten younger in the last year, especially 18-34, and I see no reason why a New York station with a lot of New Jersey listeners could not get their fair share.”

But reaction wasn’t entirely positive, one country pro – who didn’t want Taylor to use his name – stays cautious. “This could be a great thing, if Cumulus works with Nashville in a more cooperative way. Some labels view Cumulus as a very top-down operator when it comes to decision making and weekly song adds. The company is more conservative than, say, CBS, which might execute this format in New York with a younger, hipper sound.

Michael O'Malley

Consultant Michael O’Malley, of Albright & O’Malley, opines Country won’t be a gimmie in the New York Market

Having launched WYNY as a country station for NBC and programming it from 1987-1992, he has a unique perspective and writes in his blog that the New York metro is a great country market.....

We had a number of firsts at WYNY including being the first country station to raise 1-million dollars for St. Jude. We had a cume of over a million with no sports affiliation to inject additional audience. 

We had a staff of high profile personalities including the great Dan Daniel and Jim Kerr – two of the biggest names in New York City radio – and Scott Carpenter from KZLA, plus talent that worked (before or after) at New York's legendary CHR Z100.  

We marketed. 

We researched (continually) which helped us develop a unique brand strategy and a programming action plan that was built on totally on the New York/NJ/Connecticut country user. 

We had a stellar promotions department that had a passion to find ways to put our amazing station and talent in the midst of listeners.

We hung with listeners every chance we could. 

We embraced them and loved on their towns. 

Obviously the revenue potential is a key consideration of any format decision, and formats have various power ratios (a power ratio of 1.2 means you can generally charge 20% above your ratings). These ratios vary across formats and across the country, so if the power ratio of one format is better than another, that would be a consideration. Recently country’s national Power Ratio was 1.07;   all news was a 2.0.

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