Well, I guess the email I sent to Entercom last week caught the eyes of the people over at "The Wolf". I received an email from the station's program director, asking if we could talk. So I sent him my telephone number and he contacted me. Our conversation lasted for just over thirty minutes and most of the conversation was dominated by him.
He spoke of the greatness of country stations like "The Wolf", and how the format is the most popular for "Country" music today. He called his station a leader in country music and compared it to KNIX in Phoenix. Had I been able to get a word in edgewise, I would have told him that I used to live in Phoenix and "The Wolf" is nothing like KNIX or the other Phoenix country station, KMLE.
He also lectured me on how "Classic Country" is dead and will never be played on "The Wolf." He reminded me that the station tried a Saturday morning "classic country " show in the past and nobody listened. Really? Well maybe if you gave it more than a couple of months, you would have seen some success. He also talked about a recent concert featuring an older act that had to give away thousands of tickets to the military in order to make the venue look like there were people there. I'm assuming he was speaking of the December concert featuring The Judds. But he didn't elaborate.
The program director also gave me some insight to other country acts like Alan Jackson and Martina McBride, saying that they were out, while others like Taylor Swift, Zac Brown Band and Rascal Flatts are the reason people listen to country these days.
We also talked about the two personalities that I have spoken about on this blog and elsewhere. While he completely agreed with me that the Alan Kabel show was a pathetic joke, he said that he had no control over that programming decision. On the subject of the new "Fitz in the morning" show, he completely backed the decision to bring this show to the Bay Area from Seattle. He indicated that this show was the direction that the station was going in, while also admitting that there is not much of a pool for morning talent to select from.
All in all, the conversation confirmed that "The Wolf" is not interested in hearing what true country music fans have to say about the state of today's country. It's all about the garbage that they call country. In this radio world that is dominated by corporations and big bucks, there is no room for the people who built the genre. So expect more Taylors and Rascal Flatts in the future, which means you can expect the music to continue to "devolve" into something even further from the crap we have on local radio today.
I ended our conversation by telling him that "thanks to The Wolf, my iPod has never gotten more play." Country Music in the Bay Area is still dead, and there is no hope for it at "The Wolf".
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