Kxrx-Fm Joins Crowded Field With `Young Country' Format

KXRX-FM (96.5) yesterday threw the switch on "Young Country," a format the station's new owner, Alliance Broadcasting, has used with success in Detroit and Dallas.

The station is entering a crowded country-music field in Seattle-Tacoma. On FM alone, "Young Country" faces the top-rated radio station in town, KMPS-FM (94.1), plus No. 10-ranked KRPM-FM (106.1).

Walnut Creek, Calif.-based Alliance has trademarked the term "Young Country." Alliance president and former Seattleite John Hayes has described the format as "young and rowdy," targeting 18- to 34-year-olds. "Young Country" stations don't play songs older than four or five years.

After several days of broadcasting a computer-generated voice counting down and up and down again, and comedy cuts for days before that, the station's new identity was launched at 3 p.m. yesterday.

Gary Taylor, the new general manager of the station, announced the deejay lineup, which consists of Seattle-area personalities and big names from elsewhere:

-- Mornings: Lisa Dent, who has worked in San Diego and Minneapolis, and Scott Burns, who was a personality here on KJR-AM (950) and KWMX-FM (now KIRO-FM, 100.7), and was the producer for Charlie Brown and Ty Flint at KUBE-FM (93.3).

-- Middays: Penny Coyne, a Seattleite who attended Central Washington University and served as program director at KIXI-FM (now KJR-FM, 95.7).

-- Afternoons: Scotty Brink, a veteran of former Top 40 giants WNBC-AM in New York, KHJ-AM in Los Angeles and WLS-AM in Chicago, along with Sherry Brown, most recently of adult-contemporary KIOI-FM in San Francisco.

-- Evenings: Wynn Richards, who most recently worked in Cleveland.

-- Late nights: Beau Roberts, the night DJ at KXRX until recently when Alliance bought the station and dumped the album-rock format.

The new program director of KXRX is Eric Logan, who came to Seattle from Oklahoma City.