and i'd say it's a damn good thing. i'm talking about the lack of country music in NYC, not the dudes saying that it'll happen someday.
Country Fans Out of Luck in New York City
By LARRY McSHANE, Associated Press Writer Fri Nov 11, 6:28 PM ET
NEW YORK - Spin the radio dial in the nation's largest city, and the choices are dizzying. Talk shows in English and en Espanol. Smooth jazz and heavy metal. Nonstop hip-hop and 24-hour news. Classic rock and all-sports. But AM or FM, one thing remains absent: A country music station.
The exclusionary attitude of New York stations toward country music is perplexing to industry observers and frustrating to fans. Country listeners constitute a desirable audience, with solid numbers in key demographics. New York, in the recent past, hosted a country station with more than 1 million listeners.
Not having a station in New York is "the largest nagging problem for country music," said Tom Taylor, editor of the trade publication Inside Radio.
The Country Music Association agrees. Their annual awards show is being held to New York for the first time Tuesday; organizers acknowledge their move from Nashville to New York is tied to finding a radio home (and creating a marketing arm) in the Big Apple.
Will it work? That's another question in a city where the late baseball hero Tug McGraw remains more beloved than his Grammy-winning son Tim.
It's been 3 1/2 years since Kenny Chesney or Patti Loveless were regularly heard over the New York airwaves. The format, though a proven commodity, has since held little appeal for programmers more interested in finding the next big thing.
"You've got to come up with something flashier, cooler, more glamorous around here," said longtime New York disc jockey Jim Kerr, who worked on the city's last two country stations. "Country lacks glamor in a lot of people's eyes in this area."
That attitude doesn't play much beyond the city. In upstate Syracuse and Albany, the top-ranked stations feature country formats. It's the same thing nationally, where country is the format of more than 2,000 stations.
It's only within the confines of the five boroughs that stations opt for "ABC" — anything but country.
The legendary rock station WNEW-FM stumbled through a half-dozen formats over the past decade as its ratings bottomed out, but never made the move. And when WCBS-FM recently decided to end its run as the nation's oldest and most successful oldies station, it switched to the flavor-of-the-month "Jack" format.
New York boasts an extensive country music history, from Flatt & Scruggs playing Carnegie Hall in 1962 to Garth Brooks headlining Central Park in 1997 for more than 250,000 people. And when New York had its last major country radio outlet, the station rose as high as No. 6 in the Arbitron ratings.
"I think country is a no-brainer for New York," said Joel Raab, a programming consultant who worked at a New York City country station in the 1980s. "A company that puts on an FM country station is not even taking a chance."
Kerr, now the morning drive time host on a classic rock station, thinks the time will come for country's return to New York. When he gave away prize packages to the CMA event, his rock listeners flooded the station each morning with correct answers to a country trivia question.
"There will be a station again someday," he said.
Country Fans Out of Luck in New York City
By LARRY McSHANE, Associated Press Writer Fri Nov 11, 6:28 PM ET
NEW YORK - Spin the radio dial in the nation's largest city, and the choices are dizzying. Talk shows in English and en Espanol. Smooth jazz and heavy metal. Nonstop hip-hop and 24-hour news. Classic rock and all-sports. But AM or FM, one thing remains absent: A country music station.
The exclusionary attitude of New York stations toward country music is perplexing to industry observers and frustrating to fans. Country listeners constitute a desirable audience, with solid numbers in key demographics. New York, in the recent past, hosted a country station with more than 1 million listeners.
Not having a station in New York is "the largest nagging problem for country music," said Tom Taylor, editor of the trade publication Inside Radio.
The Country Music Association agrees. Their annual awards show is being held to New York for the first time Tuesday; organizers acknowledge their move from Nashville to New York is tied to finding a radio home (and creating a marketing arm) in the Big Apple.
Will it work? That's another question in a city where the late baseball hero Tug McGraw remains more beloved than his Grammy-winning son Tim.
It's been 3 1/2 years since Kenny Chesney or Patti Loveless were regularly heard over the New York airwaves. The format, though a proven commodity, has since held little appeal for programmers more interested in finding the next big thing.
"You've got to come up with something flashier, cooler, more glamorous around here," said longtime New York disc jockey Jim Kerr, who worked on the city's last two country stations. "Country lacks glamor in a lot of people's eyes in this area."
That attitude doesn't play much beyond the city. In upstate Syracuse and Albany, the top-ranked stations feature country formats. It's the same thing nationally, where country is the format of more than 2,000 stations.
It's only within the confines of the five boroughs that stations opt for "ABC" — anything but country.
The legendary rock station WNEW-FM stumbled through a half-dozen formats over the past decade as its ratings bottomed out, but never made the move. And when WCBS-FM recently decided to end its run as the nation's oldest and most successful oldies station, it switched to the flavor-of-the-month "Jack" format.
New York boasts an extensive country music history, from Flatt & Scruggs playing Carnegie Hall in 1962 to Garth Brooks headlining Central Park in 1997 for more than 250,000 people. And when New York had its last major country radio outlet, the station rose as high as No. 6 in the Arbitron ratings.
"I think country is a no-brainer for New York," said Joel Raab, a programming consultant who worked at a New York City country station in the 1980s. "A company that puts on an FM country station is not even taking a chance."
Kerr, now the morning drive time host on a classic rock station, thinks the time will come for country's return to New York. When he gave away prize packages to the CMA event, his rock listeners flooded the station each morning with correct answers to a country trivia question.
"There will be a station again someday," he said.
