I still have that great Arkansas station on here that I've been listening to and raving about, and been thinking that the words of the Houston Press' John Nova Lomax were just about right, as he spoke of Country Legends 97.1 during his marathon 24-hour spin around the Houston radio dial...
Cox, the owners of this station, pissed away a golden opportunity here. When Country Legends debuted, it shot straight to the top country slot. A slow slide set in thereafter. There is only one DJ on the station -- the rest of the week, Country Legends is simply a jukebox, one that spits out the same lame songs way too often. ("Hello Country Bumpkin" once an hour, it seems.) If Cox had given this station even a little TLC -- hired some old-school country DJs, involved the listeners a little, played less country-pop pap -- it coulda been a contender.
I like a lot of the music they play on 97.1, but that whole so-called jukebox radio thing is something I just can't stand. Too much radio DJ talk is bad, of course, but it'd be great if Cox had taken the same route with 97.1 that the folks at Clear Channel apparently took with this Little Rock station. I mean, I'm hearing stuff on this station that I NEVER hear anymore outside of Rowdy Yates' Saturday-night country gold show on KILT or that I haven't heard at all. I don't know how much of that has to do with the fact that the station has a full DJ staff, but it's great that, just for instance, I can call in and request a song. Can't do that with Country Legends, or, for that matter, that incredibly irritating Jack 103.7. ("...Playing...what we want!" Kiss my ass.) Much as I hate what Clear Channel's done to American radio, they do get things right once in a while, and 106.7 the Wolf is one of them. I don't know where terrestrial radio is going to go, but I will say this much....if it does keep going toward the automated jukebox format, I'll be going to satellite. I know people who have it and every time I can get to tune in, I think, "Wow...this is great." We'll see how it goes...
Now playing: Jerry Reed, "yeah...here comes Ayyyyy-mos!"
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