AM station plays classic country

Country music fans pining for Patsy and dreaming ofDolly now have a new option on the radio dial.

On Monday Curtis Media Group, in a bid to capitalize on the popularity of its country music station WQDR-FM, launched an AM station with the same call letters that plays country from a bygone era.

The Raleigh-based company transformed its lagging talk radio station, WDOX-AM, into WQDR-AM, which it bills as Country Legends 570AM. Raleigh-based Curtis Media owns 25 radio stations in North Carolina.

"I think having the WQDR name gives us instant credibility," said Phil Zachary, president and chief operating officer. "WQDR has stood for country in the Triangle for 25 years."

WQDR-FM sticks to contemporary country artists and its playlist goes back only about a decade, but the AM version will focus on "what we call B.G., before Garth," said Zachary, referring to mega-star Garth Brooks. WQDR-AM is playing music by the likes of Waylon Jennings, Anne Murray, Dolly Parton, The Oak Ridge Boys, Patsy Cline and others.

WDOX-AM was an obvious choice for a format switch because "it had a lengthy history of failed talk programming," Zachary said. The station ranked 26th in the Raleigh-Durham market in the latest Arbitron rankings.

But Zachary credited the inspiration for creating a classic country station to Curtis Media's major competitors in the Triangle market: Raleigh-based Capitol Broadcasting and national giant Clear Channel.

Several years ago Capitol and Clear Channel started rival country stations, which at the outset played a lot of classic music, before switching to other formats. Clear Channel's WRDU-FM now has a talk format, including the local broadcast rights to Rush Limbaugh. And Capitol's WCMC-FM is now "99.9 The Fan," a sports talk station.

Still, Curtis Media's research shows an appetite in the market for a classic country station, Zachary said.

WQDR-AM isn't relying solely on the AM dial, which trails better-sounding FM stations in the ratings. All of the top 10 stations in the Raleigh-Durham market were FM stations in the latest Arbitron ratings.

"We know the days of music on AM have long passed by," Zachary said.

WQDR-AM will be available in about two weeks online at www.countrylegends570.com. This summer a free mobile application will be available from the iPhone App Store.

Another option

The Triangle already has one classic country station, WTSB-AM at 1090 on the dial. The Johnston County-based station is owned by Lamm Media Group.

"Don Curtis is a genius," Lamm Media president Carl Lamm said in a prepared statement, referring to the founder and CEO of Curtis Media. "We wish him a lot of luck. Whatever he does, he does well."

Zachary said the two stations won't overlap much.

WTSB "is really a community station that happens to play country songs," Zachary said. "Carl Lamm's station is very heavy on personality. They do local birthdays, obituaries, community stuff. They do good, local, small-town radio."

"Our station," said Zachary, "will be very iPod-like, heavy on music, very light on personality, by design."