By: Mike Anderson
Country music lovers won’t have to wait much longer, as K Country 93.7 FM is set to launch the week of October 26.
The station was initially scheduled to launch over the labour-day weekend, but the pandemic delayed installing the station’s 40,000-watt transmitter, which had to be imported from Italy.
Now, with the transmitter up and running on Glenwoods Ave, Ed Torres, President and CEO of Torres Media, says the station is good to go, and he’s confident that Georgina will embrace its New Country music format.
“We did an extensive amount of market research after the license was granted. Country and rock were the two favourites. But country was a good 20 per cent above rock. And it’s also the hottest growing format in Canada right now,” said Mr. Torres, who’s company owns three other radio stations, including Rebel 101.7 FM in Ottawa and 105.5 Hits FM in Uxbridge.
“There’s also no country station to service the area. So country is the perfect fit from a market point of view. The station is going to be very contemporary. We’re going to play Blake Shelton, Gabby Barrett, Luke Bryan, those kinds of current charting artists.”
But, according to Torres, K Country won’t just play Top 40 country songs. He also sees the station nurturing aspiring local artists.
“If you have anything that’s playing on the radio, we will play it. We’ll also interview artists on-air,” said Torres.
“Leah Daniels is a good example, she’s from Uxbridge, and she’s cracked country radio in Canada. So, we’ll be playing any local artists, as long as they’ve got good quality content.”
Torres also says the station will sponsor local music festivals, post-pandemic, which is one of its CRTC license requirements.
“We believe that building local roots is very important. With our rock station in Ottawa, we do a band contest with prizes. We also support local artists through music festivals. So some of those ideas we’ll be bringing to Georgina.”
Coleton MacDonald, K Country’s morning show host, also sees the station becoming a big part of the community.
“We’re going to be very involved with the community, and I think it’s going to be a lot of fun. The morning show is going to be upbeat. And there’s going to be a lot of interaction with listeners. So it’s going to be a good time.”
While both Torres and MacDonald admit launching a radio station during a pandemic hasn’t been easy. They’re hopeful the station will provide listeners with a welcome distraction from all the bad news.
“Covid is nothing to take lightly. It’s definitely a tough time for everybody,” said MacDonald.
“But it’s nice to have something in the community that’s going to put a smile on people’s faces every morning. Hopefully, it will give them a little better start to their day. That’s what we’re looking forward to doing.”
