Worcester Radio Station drops Oldies for Country

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At 10AM Friday October 31st Cumulus Broadcasting flipped OLDIES 98.9 WORC-FM in Worcester, Mass from Oldies to Country as 98.9 NASH ICON. NASH ICON is a format developed by Cumulus that features Country Music from the late 80s through Present Day, which is different than their NASH format.

From the Worcester Telegram & Gazette:

WORC-FM taking a country music radio format

By Craig S. Semon TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF


WORCESTER - On Friday, the City's oldies/classic hit radio station WORC 98.9 FM will switch to a country music format.

Bob Goodell, vice president and market manager for WXLO 104.5 FM, WWFX 100 FM (a.k.a "The Pike") and WORC FM 98.9 FM, expects the switch to be a popular one.

"This is a country format that our company (Cumulus Media) has that's very popular all across the country. They're creating their own cable TV channel. They have their own record label. They got a concert tour. They're going to have their own country awards show on television," Mr. Goodell said.

"It's a pretty big deal. They're trying to do the country music equivalent of ESPN, where they are trying to have a national brand with all this music and then there will be all these other tentacles around to promote it. We're part of a much bigger universe, which is going to make this even better than if we just decided to do it on our own."

Cumulus Media (which owns the three Worcester stations) has Nash FM stations (typically "hot country" formats) and Nash Icons (a "middle ground" between modern and classic country).

It launched its first Nash FM station last year in Newark, N.J., and its first Nash Icons station in August in Atlanta and Savannah, Ga., with a series of stations following suit.

Cumulus Media announced a joint venture with Big Machine Records (Taylor Swift's label).

As the first radio station in Worcester dedicated to country music in many of moons, WORC 98.9 FM will serve up its share cry-in-your-beer tearjerkers, hoedown hootenannies and honky-tonk power ballads to the Central Mass. audience. WORC AM had a country format in the 1980s.

"Country music is now the second most popular (radio) format in the United States. It's really where some of the best music development is going on with new artists. So it's a very exciting area for us to get into," Mr. Goodell said. "The most popular format in the country is hot adult-contemporary, which WXLO is. So, we really wanted to throw our cowboy hat in the ring with something big."

Cumulus CEO Lew Dickey has been quoted as saying Nash Icons brand would emphasize the "biggest country artists of the last two decades, who are still recording and touring but not getting enough exposure today."

"We're going to play the country music of the '90s up to today," Mr. Goodell said. "So you're going to hear some classic artists like Garth Brooks, Kenny Chesney, Rascal Flatts, Reba McEntire, Brooks and Dunn, Dixie Chicks, Faith Hill, Alabama," Mr. Goodell said. "And, there's a demand for that."

With the number one and two most popular radio formats covered (and classic rock covered with the Pike), Mr. Goodell expects big listening numbers. Even better for fans of the former oldies station, WORC current radio personalities (Adam Webster, Dave O,Gara and Mark Veau) will continue on NASH Icons.

"They're all really excited mainly because they're going to a very popular music format, so we know the radio station is going to grow," Mr. Goodell said. "We're going to be a bigger radio station than we are right and being a business, that's the goal."