WNSH NYC, KSCS D/FW Using Pop To Tweak Playlists

Cumulus Country WNSH 94.7 FM NASH-FM NYC PD Brian Thomas and his New Country KSCS 96.3 FM D/FW PD JR Schumann are keeping their lips sealed, but the industry is buzzing about some huge musical adjustments on their respective stations this week.

All About Country reports both station are adding mass appeal,  highly familiar, non-Country titles from #1 ranked pop stations in their markets.

KSCS has added a handful of Top 40 titles already found on iHeartMedia’s crosstown Top40 KHKS. Mediabase shows KSCS featuring such titles as Magic’s  “Rude,” Capital Cities’ “Safe And Sound,” Avicii’s “Wake Me Up,” Ed Sheeran’s “Don't” and “Thinking Out Loud,” in addition to a number of songs from Taylor Swift’s self-declared pure pop, “TS 1989” album. Right now, KSCS is committing one slot per hour to these songs. A look back at the station’s list from 30 days ago shows these slots formerly had been a Country Gold song.

KSCS LISTEN-LIVE: Click Here

Meanwhile, in New York, WNSH appears to be using music from iHeartMedia AC WLTW 106.7 FM. NASH playlist includes Kelly Clarkston’s “Mr. Know It All,” Green Day’s “Time Of Your Life,” John Mayer’s “Daughters,” Sister Hazel’s “All For You,” Blues Traveler’s “Run Around,” Eagle Eye Cherry “Save Tonight,” appearing once per hour between 10 AM-5 PM (ET).

WNSH LISTEN-LIVE:  Click Here

In Dallas and New York respectively, KHKS and WLTW are ranked #1 in both share and cume. WLTW’s weekly cume tops five million according to February PPM figures and KHKS’ weekly cume is just under the two million mark for February.

Since October, WNSH has been trending in the mid-one share level, and the cume is just short of 800,000 weekly persons; Meanwhile, KSCS has been trended 4.3-3.8-3.6 in the past three PPM monthlies, with weekly cume this side of 800,000.

EVP of content and programming John Dickey tells InsideRadio, it’s part of a reverse crossover strategy that takes advantage of the high cross-cuming taking place between country and other pop-based formats like CHR, hot AC and AC. “Pop selectively waits for something to explode on country and then benefits from the all the exposure and relevance that the country format has built for it,” Dickey says, pointing to Taylor Swift as Exhibit A.