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Hello Americana, farewell oldies

KIMBERLY NICOLETTIsummit daily news

DILLON – Oldies are out; Americana’s in.FM 100.7 changed format from High Country Radio’s oldies station to an Americana mix of classic rock, country, bluegrass, folk, rhythm-and-blues and Motown Thursday.The station, renamed KCMV, or Colorado’s Mountain Voice, will model its format on another station NRC Broadcasting owns in Denver, KCUV. The Denver station is known as Colorado’s Underground Voice and plays Americana, a new trend in radio. Top stations in Austin, Texas, and San Francisco are playing the mix of music, said Lisa Cheek, general manager of KCMV.Listeners will hear a wide range of artists from Dolly Parton to Widespread Panic, but it won’t be the musicians’ top-40 hits; the station will feature deeper cuts.”I think it will appeal to possibly a broader audience,” said M.R. Murray, former general manager of High Country Radio.Though Murray’s morning show will no longer be, a morning DJ will give news, weather and snow reports.”It will be a different kind of program. It would be impossible to replicate Murray; he’s a great broadcaster,” Cheek said. “But this lends itself to playing more music. I think it will fill a niche in Summit County that hasn’t been filled as far as music.”John Hayes, whom many consider to be a pioneer of programming, currently works with Denver’s KCUV. He also will program KCMV.”He’s just got a really good vision,” Cheek said.The station will maintain a “huge community focus” and sponsor events, Cheek said.And, it will strengthen its signal, allowing all of Summit County and the Vail Valley to tune into 100.7. The signal upgrade will take a couple of months.The Technical SideNew Field Communications, an offshoot of NRC Broadcasting, changed the 100.7 FM frequency in Summit County from High Country Radio’s oldies to Americana Thursday. The company entered into a local marketing agreement Aug. 1 – a step it must go through to get approval from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) before the actual sale is complete. The time it takes to get approval from the FCC varies, but it’s often months. NRC Broadcasting is a Denver-based company with a corporate office in Avon. It also owns KSMT in Summit County.Listeners weren’t able to get 100.7 FM on their radios Thursday because of technical difficulties unrelated to NRC Broadcasting, but the station should be up and running today under the moniker KCMV, or “Colorado’s Mountain Voice.”Kimberly Nicoletti can be reached at (970) 668-3998, ext. 245, or at knicoletti@summitdaily.com.


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