With the impending sale and flip of 95.3 KRTY Los Gatos to Educational Media Foundation, Alpha Media has moved quickly to fill the format hole in the Bay Area.
Alpha has flipped AC 94.5 KBAY Gilroy/San Jose to Country as “Bay Country 94.5“. The flip took place at 3pm today as Britney Spears “Baby One More Time” gave way to Thomas Rhett “What’s Your Country Song”, Jon Pardi “Head Over Boots” and Morgan Wallen “Wasted On You” to kick off the new format.
The new brand will also be heard on 92.1 KKDV Walnut Creek starting Wednesday replacing its long running AC format to cover the areas east of Oakland and Berkeley. Premiere Networks’ “Bobby Bones Show” will be heard in mornings starting April 15.
The move comes just months after another format shift took KBAY from Classic Hits “94.5 Bay-FM” to a gold based AC back under its heritage call letter branding after a Christmas music run as “K-Sleigh“. KBAY registered a 4.7 share in the February 2022 Nielsen Audio ratings, well behind KRTY’s 7.5 share.
Alpha Media’s 94.5 KBAY FM and 92.1 KKDV announced today the debut of Bay Country on two signals.
Market Manager, David Drutz shares, “With the recent sale of KRTY, the County format would have no longer been offered. We feel strongly that Country is a format that the market deserves, and we are excited to keep it alive and well in the Bay Area with much greater coverage than ever before.”
The soon to be announced local staff will be joined by The Bobby Bones Show, effective April 15th. The CMA and ACM Award-winning Country radio show will broadcast weekday mornings from 6 a.m. to 10 a.m. PST.
Each morning, Bobby Bones and his co-hosts Amy, Lunchbox and Eddie welcome the biggest names in Country music and entertain listeners with their unique mix of pop-culture news and information, crazy stunts, and hilarious conversations. Nationally syndicated by Premiere Networks, The Bobby Bones Show broadcasts to over 150 stations and is the #1 Country morning show in the U.S. with millions of weekly listeners.
“The team at Alpha are amazing partners. And thank you, EVP Phil Becker who is changing the industry daily, which I would say even if he wasn’t instrumental in the growth of my show. I can’t wait to get on in the Bay Area and make some new friends every morning,” said Bones.
This story first appeared on radioinsight.com