2 Seattle radio stations flip to country music

Country music is having a moment in Seattle — at least according to two Seattle radio stations that flipped their formats to country this week. 

Enthusiasm for country music is what drove a decision to flip adult contemporary station Star 101.5 — which had been on the Seattle airwaves since 1994 — to 101.5 Hank FM on Monday, with a focus on a more traditional country sound, according to Lotus Communications President Jim Kalmenson. On that same day, Hubbard Broadcasting switched Seattle adult album alternative radio station KPNW to country station 98.9 The Bull.

“Star FM, which had been a great legacy radio station for years, had really kind of stalled over the years and had been unable to crack through to the higher echelon of listening,” Kalmenson said. “Meanwhile, country music in Seattle has been growing very rapidly.”

Kalmenson pointed out that Audacy’s country-format 100.7 The Wolf is often the top or second-ranked radio station in the Seattle market, trading places with KUOW, Seattle’s National Public Radio station. In February, The Wolf was second with a 7.1 Nielsen rating compared with 7.2 for NPR. Comparatively, last month, KPNW earned a 0.8 rating, while Star 101.5 received a 2.1 rating. 

The switch to Hank FM does come with a cost. Most on-air personalities from Star 101.5 will lose their jobs, but there is a possibility some might be retained, Kalmenson said. On-air personalities at KPNW also lost their jobs. 

Longtime local radio personality Marco Collins, who left KEXP to join KPNW last year, posted on Facebook Monday: “Well I almost made it a year. I appreciate all the support from our listeners, bands, promoters & labels that believed in what we were doing.”

Former KPNW DJ Marty Riemer posted on Facebook, saying: “It did feel like we were trying to recreate the glory days of The Mountain at KPNW. But the station also made a valiant attempt at moving forward, at distancing itself from the past. I learned more new music than I had in the decade before.”

Despite The Wolf having been the only country radio game in town for a year, Hank FM’s Kalmenson says he sees plenty of room for additional country-focused stations.

“The country music market has been largely focused on the most current, pop-driven crossover country music, and there appears to us to be a very substantial appreciation and demand for what we call ‘real country,’ which is the style of country that is in line with traditional country music,” Kalmenson said. “We’re playing a very strong mix of songs from the ‘90s through maybe 2019. What we’re not doing is playing all the new releases unless it’s something that comes from one of the classic, traditional artists.”

Kalmenson said that there is a deep fracture in the country music scene between those who enjoy the pop-driven sounds popular today and others who hew more toward tradition. For the latter group, Kalmenson said they will likely appreciate the larger catalog of songs — about 1,500 — that Hank FM has to draw from.

“As country has grown so much toward the pop genre, there’s this lost generation of people yearning for the country they grew up on,” Kalmenson said, comparing the situation to modern rock and classic rock stations and how both serve different populations.

In just the first day since the switch, Kalmenson said, the station has already received emails thanking them for bringing back a different flavor of country music.

For 98.9 The Bull, the switch back to country comes just over a year after Hubbard Broadcasting changed the station’s call sign from KNUC to KPNW in February 2023 and started playing adult album alternative. Before that, from 2017 to 2023, the station had been called The Bull and played country music.

“At the time [of the switch-over in 2023], the ratings on The Bull were mediocre at best,” said Trip Reeb, Hubbard Seattle vice president and market manager. “And, by the way, they were the same way on The Wolf. We had two stations seemingly splitting what would have been a whole audience — or a good station’s audience.”

However, ratings for The Wolf started to take off as the country music scene became hot again. And since the new format never took hold at KPNW, it made sense to switch back, Reeb said.

“It was just the belief that there was more audience to be gained by going back,” Reeb said. “We had a brand. We weren’t really starting over; we were just relaunching.”

Taking an opposite approach from Hank FM’s nod toward the more traditional, at The Bull, expect to hear more Hardy and Jelly Roll and less George Strait and Merle Haggard. Part of that relaunch involved tweaking the musical style to fit the mainstream, popular sound that Reeb said is driving the current success country music is having in Seattle and other markets.

“It’s 100% the music, it’s the music, and it’s terrific,” Reeb said. “Yes, it leans kind of pop, but it’s really good.”

Helping to spin that music will be former morning host Cory “Fitz” Fitzner who returned to that role Tuesday. Fitzner was at the station from 2019 to 2021 and also hosted a morning show with 100.7 The Wolf from 2005 to 2017. He announced his return in a Facebook post Monday.

“He has an incredible passion for Seattle, the people of Seattle and country in Seattle,” Reeb said. “He said, ‘I’m dying to get back to connecting with the country audience in Seattle.’”