Managing two competing Country stations within the same cluster is a unique challenge, but the experience has given Cumulus Media Dallas Program Director Mike Preston rare insights – ones that he shared during the most recent Global Radio Ideas webinar.
Hosted by P1 Media Group’s Ken Benson and Benztown’s Andy Sannemann, Preston joined to discuss the evolving landscape of Country radio and the impact of streaming and crossover hits on the format. With a programming career spanning four decades and multiple major markets, Preston currently oversees both New Country 96.3 (KSCS) and 99.5 The Wolf (KPLX) in Dallas, a position he’s held since 2020.
“New Country 96.3 is kind of like the CHR country station. It’s focused on today’s country, the hottest Country songs of today,” he explained. “Whereas [99.5 The Wolf] is more of a hot AC-styled station. We take the songs we’ve built up on 96.3 after they’re really familiar and burned into the audience. Then we move them over and we complement that with a lot of gold.”
Preston also touched on Country music’s increasing crossover into pop, referencing the success of artists like Morgan Wallen, Luke Combs, and Jelly Roll. Despite Country’s pop crossover success, Preston cautioned against losing the genre’s identity. “It does not make me happy when our songs are being played somewhere else,” he admitted. “You punch into country expecting country, and you hear pop, I think that the average reaction is like, ‘what’s going on? I’m in the wrong place.’”
Preston highlighted how streaming data informs programming decisions, but he still relies on gut instinct when evaluating new artists. He pointed to Zach Top as an example, saying, “He had no streams, there was nothing – not one metric you could go look at and say, ‘Oh my gosh, we should find out what this is.’ It was just based on listening to the song, listening to him, and saying, ‘Wow, I think there’s something for this.’”
That decision paid off. “A few weeks ago, I took a screenshot of the Dallas streams, and that song was the number one streaming song in Dallas. This is the power of radio. This guy went from no metrics at all to a number-one streaming song in a big market.”
The conversation also turned to the ongoing downsizing in radio and its impact on the industry. “When I ran Kiss in Seattle for CBS, I had 16 people for one station,” Preston noted. “Today, including me and my two promotion people, I have 11 people for two stations.”
Beyond staffing concerns, Preston expressed worries about the mental health toll of job cuts. “There’s been so much of that going on recently. I think the effects of downsizing, layoffs, and restructuring have a far greater impact on lower and mid-level employees than management ever truly understands,” he said. “I went through it myself in 2020 when I left iHeart. It’s something that is extremely difficult, especially when you know you did good, and you’re told it’s not that you didn’t do good. It’s really hard to juxtapose that with, ‘Then why?’” He urged radio professionals to support colleagues dealing with job loss on a personal level.
Looking ahead, Preston sees a strong future for country radio, but he remains focused on maintaining the format’s identity and keeping radio relevant amid streaming competition. “The one thing [streaming services] have not figured out a way to do yet is to relate to the audience in the very moment that we are living in,” he said. “When all hell’s breaking loose; when the power’s out in some cities or areas for six or seven days, radio is the lifeline.”
The full webinar is available on demand.
