KKGO

I love country music. I haven't always loved it; the twang used to bother me. Now I love it. If you have to be barreling down the LA freeway at breakneck speeds, sharing the road with two or three million other drivers, well, there's something comforting about having Martina McBride belting out "Ride" from the radio. Or Chely Wright singing "Shut Up and Drive". Or Blake Shelton mourning the loss of the woman he thought would never leave him as he goes "flyin' down the highway" looking for her.

Country songs tell stories about a different way of life - porch swings, pick up trucks, country roads. Broken hearts aren't unique to country people but nobody sings about them like country singers do. It's a far cry from life here in a big city. Oddly, although there are 52 radio stations in LA, there is only ONE country music station.* It went off the air for a while, "when the station's parent company decided that country was not the most lucrative format for ethnically mixed Los Angeles (this, despite that Los Angeles is reported to be one of the top markets for country music CDs and concerts)".

I, for one, am glad for a little bit of country in the city. May KKGO live long and prosper.

I stand corrected: KFROG is also present here in SoCal - and fortunately the two stations have commercials at different times!