weekly July 24, 2023, Issue 868
KUZZ Passes The Morning Buck
A new morning show can be a challenge for any station, but transitioning to only its third wakeup iteration since moving to FM in 1988 adds even more weight to the recent moves at Owens KUZZ/Bakersfield. Rather than fraught, the retirements of Cliff Dumas and Tanya Brakebill offered opportunity for continuity and growth by teaming afternoon host Kenn McCloud and evening host Vanessa “Ness” Heraldez. Both duos recently spoke with Country Aircheck. The new show’s origin story opens with a kicker. “I got into radio when I got out of prison,” says Heraldez. “I used to be a teacher at a prison, but I was laid off during Covid and heard on the radio they were looking for people.” While training for a weekend shift, she met McCloud, eventually following him on-air when she moved to the night shift. “The two of us would hang out the last hour of my show,” McCloud says. “I’d done mornings before, and I knew just from her personality and how well we got along that there was more than just potential here. When we found out that Cliff and Tanya were going to retire, we presented ourselves as an option.” Once they’d gotten the nod but before starting in mornings, McCloud and Heraldez took advantage of their on-air proximity. “We started doing our show together from 6pm to 7pm,” says Heraldez. “We did that for two months and could tell it was working.” Adds McCloud, “It was basically spring training. We had the opportunity to work on our rhythm, chemistry and bits before we started in mornings.” They also benefited from a good relationship with their predecessors. “In most situations when a new morning show starts, it’s because the other morning show didn’t work out or moved to another market,” McCloud says. “That’s not the case here.” (continued on page 6)
Country Tilt-A-Girl: Capitol’s Luke Bryan at the California Mid-State Fair. Pictured (l-r) are KUZZ/Bakersfield’s Vanessa “Ness” Heraldez and Kenn McCloud, Bryan, KRTY(.com)/San Jose’s Nate Deaton, the label’s Katie Bright and KSNI/Santa Maria, CA’s Jay Turner.
Q2 Drivetime Leaders Following the release of the June Nielsen PPM monthlies, Country Aircheck has analyzed Q2 numbers for stations with the leading cumes and shares in morning and afternoon drive. Quarterly averages eliminate the wobbles that can be present at a daypart level on a month-to-month basis. All figures are Persons 6+. Mornings: The Bobby Bones Show retains its place atop the cume rankings with a total cume of 1,176,200 over 16 stations, down 22,700 from Q1. KKBQ’s 93Q Morning Show with Andy Riggs, Erica Rico and Katelyn Maida is the largest cumeing single station show with 298,200, followed by WUSN/Chicago’s Melissa McGurren and Austin Huff with 283,700 weekly listeners.
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