weekly June 12, 2023, Issue 862
Nashville Heeds The Y’all
While CMA Fest usually brings its share of surprises, no one was expecting one of this year’s to be a new Classic Country radio station in Nashville. Last Thursday (6/8) at 9am, Midwest Top 40 WNFN started playing a loop of the 1991 dance song “Get Ready For This.” An hour later, Randy Travis pressed the button launching “Y’all 106.7,” putting it in a crowded field with four other well-established Country stations – iHeartMedia’s WSIX, Cumulus’s WKDF and Gold-based WSM-FM, and Ryman Hospitality’s Classic Country WSM-AM. WNFN sister Adult Hits WCJK “Jack FM” and Midwest Classic Country Format Captain Ron Allen is programming WNFN. Country Aircheck spoke with him last week about the move. CA: How were you able to keep this flip under wraps? RA: I’m shocked we kept it in-house. We did it quickly and once we made the decision, I really wanted to launch the first day of CMA Fest. We needed something special for the launch, and the first name that came to mind was Randy Travis because he speaks to who we are as a brand. I didn’t make the request until earlier in the week because I didn’t want to tip our hand. We told our staff at 9am, and I Told Y’all So: Randy Travis with WNFN’s Ron Randy was here Allen (l) and Eryn Cooper (r). at 9:20. He and his wife were amazing. They spent about an hour and a half in our building taking pictures with our staff, smiling, and laughing. Flips are always stressful, but Country ... in Nashville? I told my staff this may be the most scrutinized launch in the history of the company. (continued on page 9)
Diamonds Are Forever After All: River House/Columbia’s Luke Combs and songwriter Rob Williford celebrate the RIAA Diamond certification of “Beautiful Crazy” Thursday (6/8) at Combs’ CMA Fest Bootleggers Fan Club Party. Pictured (l-r) are the label’s Caryl Atwood and Ken Robold, Combs, the label’s Steve Hodges, Williford and the label’s Taylor Lindsey, Randy Goodman and Liz Cost.
CMAF: Nissan Path Finders
Recapping days two, three and four of CMA Fest at Nissan Stadium; see Thursday’s here. A Little Too L8: Friday at Nissan Stadium (6/9) delivered a lot of firsts: Cody Johnson’s inaugural CMA Fest performance, Hailey Whitters and Dalton Dover’s stadium debuts and the first time a visibly emotional Jelly Roll not only participated Cody Johnson and Reba as something more than a fan, but
© 2 0 2 3 Co u n t r y A i rc h e c k ™ — A l l r i g h t s r e s e r v e d . S i g n u p f re e a t w w w. c o u n t r y a i rc h e c k . c o m . S e n d n e w s t o n e w s @ c o u n t r y a i r c h e c k . c o m