21 One Month In, WUSN Chicago's New Morning Team Is Making Itself at Home
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
2021 JUNE 21 CountryInsider.com | Sign Up For Daily Email Here One Month In, WUSN Chicago’s New Morning Team Is Making Itself At Home. On paper, the pairing of Melissa McGurren and Austin Huff should work perfectly as the morning team at Audacy “US99” WUSN Chicago. She’s a familiar voice in the market with 22 years of history at a crosstown station. He’s a Nashville native who grew up around the city’s music scene and has connections in the sports world. Even though neither has worked at a country station before coming to WUSN, they appear to have all the elements for success — comfort level, lifestyle music. It’s all there. Real life doesn’t always play out like planned scenarios. This time, though, things seem to be going okay. (Continued on page 4) COUNTRY INSIDER TOP 5: Country Fans Love 70s And 80s Music — But Is That Where Their Favorite Country Comes From? Why Country Radio In Los Angeles And Atlanta Wouldn’t Be The Same Without Norm Schrutt. Mike O’Malley: Radio And The Benefits of Limited Time Offers. Viva Las Vegas: Jason Aldean Headed Back To Sin City For Three Nights In December. Meanwhile In Virginia: Eddie Garcia Begins His West Virginia-To-Tennessee Walk. 1 | JUNE 21, 2021 CountryInsider.com Ryan Fox Joel Burke My Top 5 Favorite Mornings Top 5 Fave Songs Operations Manager NEW Songs: Westwood One Right Now: KBEY 103.9 Marble Falls, TX Hot Country Format 1. I Was on a Boat That Day - 1. Gone - Old Dominion Dierks Bentley 2. half of my hometown - 2. I Was on a Boat - Kelsea Ballerini Old Dominion 3. Wish You Were the 3. Country Again - Whiskey - Priscilla Block Thomas Rhett 4. We Didn’t Have Much - 4. Country Again - Justin Moore Thomas Rhett 5. Glad You Exist - 5. She Got That - Dan + Shay Drew Green When It Comes To Music, What Decades Do Country Fans Love Most? Nearly half of American country music fans think the 1970s and 1980s produced the best music, according to a YouGov poll of more than 17,000 Americans. Country ranked as the fourth-most popular genre behind rock, pop and R&B, with three in 10 (31%) of those polled identifying as fans of country music. According to YouGov data journalist Jamie Ballard, the “data suggests a general trend around people tending to most prefer the music that was popular when they were young.” While 23% of country fans say the best music came from the 80s and 21% said the 70s, the poll didn’t specify whether the country fans consider the best country music to have been created during those decades. Eddie Garcia Makes Day-One Goal In His West Virginia-To-Tennessee Walk. Eddie Garcia of the Premiere Networks-distributed “The Bobby Bones Show” began his 90-mile trek from West Virginia to Tennessee on Father’s Day, reaching his first-day goal of 16 miles. “We’re making great time,” Garcia said in a video posted early Monday. “I hit the ground running. I’ve been powerwalking — stopped a couple times to stretch and stuff and get a protein bar and refill my water.” Videos from Garcia’s walk are streaming on the show’s YouTube channel. Garcia’s committed to the walk, which he expects to complete Thursday as a fundraiser for National Angels, a foster-care organization. Jason Aldean Gets “Back In The Saddle” For Three-Night Vegas Run. Jason Aldean returns to Las Vegas’ Park Theater at Park MGM in December for three nights. Aldean’s “Back in the Saddle: Las Vegas 2021” will be held Dec. 9-11 at 9pm PT. Lainey Wilson will open. Aldean previously played three nights at the Park Theater in 2019 for his “Jason Aldean: Ride All Night Vegas” show. Tickets go on sale this Friday (10am PT) via Ticketmaster. Third Time’s A Charm For Expectant Father Matty Jeff At Townsquare Albany. Townsquare Media Albany Director of Content Matty Jeff and wife Stacy are expecting their third child in October. On Facebook Sunday, Jeff called the news the “Greatest Father’s Day gift ever!” The Jeffs currently have two children, Scarlett and Emmett, and plan to keep the sex of the third a secret for now. Jeff oversees Townsquare’s six-station Albany, NY, cluster, which includes country WGNA (107.7). 3 | JUNE 21, 2021 CountryInsider.com Chicago’s New Morning Team. (Continued from page 1) “It’s difficult to put together a morning show, to Cubs game if you wanted me to, but I had never try to figure out people who have chemistry, and done a minute, so I had to just jump in. I was honestly, these two had instant chemistry,” Audacy impressed right off the bat with the way we got Regional Brand Manager and WUSN PD Marci along. I kept thinking to myself, if we get along this Braun tells Country Insider. “Melissa and Austin” well over Zoom, the freaking magic we can create debuted on WUSN Monday, May 10, running from when we are together in the same room is really 6am-9am. exciting.” McGurren comes from Hubbard Broadcasting hot McGurren says Huff, a former high-school football AC “101.9 FM The Mix” standout in the Nashville suburb of Brentwood WTMX, where she spent whose father worked in the Christian music more than two decades, industry, has the ability to quickly put others at first as a traffic reporter ease. “He’s a powerhouse but he’s not threatening,” than as co-host of “Eric in she says. “He rides this fine line of being a strong the Morning.” character but never over the top. Braun says Audacy “I get his sense of humor. He gets mine. I can be Regional President Rachel sweet but I’m sassy. I’m Williams reached out to sarcastic, and I think he McGurren after she left likes the sarcasm. He WTMX in December. plays off that well.” A colleague at Audacy Top 40 “B96” WBBM tipped Huff welcomes good- WUSN staff to Huff, a former producer of “The Jim natured sparring, too. Rome Show” who runs a sports blog called Korked “It’s hard to find another Bats and starting hosting the “Titan Up” football radio host that can roll podcast after exiting Hubbard sports/talk “101 with the punches,” he ESPN” WXOS St. Louis at the end of 2019. says. “I can make fun of Melissa, and she won’t “We were mixing and matching several pairs and get upset; she’ll just ideations,” Braun says. “This was the one that make fun of me right back.” was immediate. We knew right away there was something there.” Braun characterizes the pair’s dynamic as a brother-sister relationship, “because they tease Braun noticed the chemistry in her first Zoom call each other constantly. What you get on the air is with McGurren and Huff, an interview held virtually what you get off the air. There’s no pretense.” because of the coronavirus pandemic. When that conversation went well, Braun asked the pair to Indeed, reference a bit from the morning’s show quickly put together a sample show — even though about “Real Housewives of Chicago Morning Radio,” they had never been, and wouldn’t be, in the same and suddenly the duo is off to the races, riffing on room beforehand. McGurren eating cookies for breakfast and the way Huff talks to his dog at home. “I will cuddle with her “I had never had any and snuggle with her … and I probably shouldn’t be conversations with Austin, saying that right now,” he says. didn’t know anything about him,” McGurren says. McGurren and Hall are WUSN’s third morning team since 2016. In Nielsen Audio’s May ’21 PPM survey, Huff had an additional US99 had a 1.7 share of adults 25-54 in the 6am- obstacle. Despite local 9am daypart with a cumulative weekly audience radio stints in St. Louis and of 87,500. Overall, the station ranked 17th in the Nashville, “I had never done market with a 2.5 6+ share and a weekly cume of a music radio segment,” 745,500. he says. “I could talk for 12 minutes about last night’s (Continued on page 7) 4 | JUNE 21, 2021 CountryInsider.com 2021 Country Radio Hall of Fame Inductee Norm Schrutt. Late broadcasting legend Norm Schrutt was known supervised the company’s stations in Chicago, for successfully building country stations in two Washington, Dallas, Atlanta and Minneapolis. He major markets, in part because he understood the also helped bring commercial radio to Scandinavia importance of on-air personalities. as the company’s consultant with the Scandinavian Broadcast System, which owned 10 stations in Schrutt, who died in 2020, will be inducted Denmark, Finland and Sweden. posthumously into the Country Radio Hall of Fame on Oct. 13 at the Westin Nashville, joining a class He then joined forces with prominent Atlanta that includes Bob Call, R.J. Curtis, Bill Hagy, Heather entertainment attorney Joel Katz to form Schrutt and Froglear, Buzz Jackson, Bob Pickett and Angie Ward. Katz, a talent agency that represented more than 20 radio personalities. “Norm put country on the air in Los Angeles on the FM with KZLA and then was moved to “Norm was always really special in Atlanta, where he had country on WKHX understanding talent,” McVay says. “He and built that into a very strong country took an almost Top 40 approach to station,” says Mike McVay, president country radio with air personalities and of McVay Media Consulting.