Country Music Returns To LA Radio And Joe Nichols To Sing At Anna Nicole Smith’s Funeral

“Country music has never been stronger,” Scott Mahalick, the new KMAX program director, told the San Jose Mercury News. “Before you had country artists like Faith Hill crossing over to other formats. Now you have others like Bon Jovi, John Mellencamp and Don Henley crossing into country.”

Mahalick also said the station would include the Dixie Chicks in the song rotation. This move leaves New York City as the only major market in the U.S. without a country music radio station.

How has Cash’s death impacted your daily life? Your work?

It’s hard and it’s only going to get worse. As people get older, they start dying. I just feel real lucky for the time I got to spend with Roger Miller, Waylon Jennings, Johnny Cash. If there’s a lesson, it’s to value it while you’re doing it. I wish I’d known the time I spent with The Highwaymen was going to be as short as it was. It was magical.

“Many of us who have worked in radio for a long time — me included — we kind of assume that everybody knows all the country stations on the dial,” said Larry Rosin, president of Edison Media Research. “Well guess what? These people told us in the loudest voices that they have no idea we’re even there. And why should they? We haven’t done anything to tell them about us.”
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“We can’t take the attitude that we’re just the white peoples’ format. We can’t afford not to do this research because we’ll go out of business.”

The article goes on to say that Latin remixes are one suggested way of reaching this audience but that they aren’t looking to change the format of country music. To me, it sounds exactly like they will change the format and do whatever possible to put more money in their pockets. The research itself indicates that Hispanics already like country music, so it sounds like the marketing targeting this demographic needs to be kicked up to raise awareness without messing with the music at this point. And what’s with that going out of business BS?