HALIFAX – The frequency may be the same, but the sound isn’t.
“I think people are going to be pleasantly surprised,” Trevor Romkey, general sales manager of Hot Country 103.5.
Energy 103.5 was rebranded a country music station on Thursday.
The nine-year-old station has changed its name once before, but the new change marks its first foray into country music.
Comparatively, Energy 103.5 had 1.9 per cent.
Romkey said that the station will differentiate itself by emphasizing a younger vibe.
“We’ll be able to provide that additional country programming that our research shows that Haligonians want to hear,” he said.
The hope is that month’s Canadian Country Music Association Awards in the city will help draw in listeners, he added.
“Traditionally, stations that have flipped formats tend to be wanting to increase their audience demographic,” said David Bannerman, a radio instructor at Nova Scotia Community College.
He said that for a city with only one country music FM station, the competition is a good thing because the stations will try to outdo each other.
With online radio streaming becoming more popular, and country music listeners being an especially loyal group, it will be challenge for Hot Country to grow its audience, Bannerman said.
“It will be really interesting to see how it splits, if it splits,” he said.
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