We all know they're the core of country music and radio. There just aren't enough of them in the station's signal area. Since my leaving LA, there's been a steady chastising of what we did there. Some have called what was done, wrong. This re-creation of history needs to be illuminated, not for my benefit solely, but also as an example to help country stations everywhere break out of their sameness.
Country radio can attract many more people than it does today simply by becoming more open.
When describing my time at KZLA everyone points to the fact that we played an occasional Eagles record. But we did so many other things that were responsible for the success of the radio station. But they'd always drop right back to what is probably the average share of the station over the entire 22 years, about a 2.0 or 2.1. By fall of 96 we reached a 2.9 share in 25-54 and over the next 6 Arbitron quarterly reports we had three 2.9s and a 2.8. We improved the shares and cume of the radio station dramatically and consistently.