November 18, 2025 News@CountryAircheck.com

Still The Ones: Here are select Nielsen Audio Continuous Diary Measurement (CDM) ratings for October 2025 (three-month rolling average, 7/24-10/15) compared with August and September. Ranks (in parentheses) are among subscribers. Unless otherwise noted, all figures are Persons 12+, Monday-Sunday, 6am-midnight.

Albany, NY (Market 68)	WGNA Townsquare 7.0 (1) - 6.4 (1t) - 6.4 (1) WKLI Pamal 3.7 (9) - 3.6 (6t) - 3.5 (7) WINU Pamal Classic Country 1.3 (15t) - 1.5 (15) - 0.9 (17)
Syracuse, NY (101)	WBBS iHeartMedia 7.8 (1) - 7.8 (1) - 7.9 (1) WOLF FoxFur 3.4 (7) - 3.2 (7) - 3.3 (7)

Chyk Flick: Connoisseur KUPL/Portland, OR midday host Jamie "J.T." Tanchyk has added MD duties, a job that had been vacant since Danny Dwyer's departure in July (CAT 7/15). Tanchyk joined KUPL in July (CAT 7/21), and previously was Brand Mgr./air personality at Audacy Sports sister KRSK. His nearly 11 years with Audacy included afternoons at KWJJ/Portland. Prior to Portland, he spent five years with Rhythmic KHTP/Seattle after stops in Albany, NY and Boston. Reach him here.

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Big Pig Gig Jig: Following the Oct. 31 retirement of morning team Mark Thompson and Gary Nease, Seven Mountains WPIG/Olean, NY, OM/afternoon host Newman and his co-host, Nancy Ryan, have shifted to mornings for WPIG and sister WFVY/Lebanon PA. Taking over afternoons at WPIG is "Jimmy The Mick" Keltz from Classic Rock sister WQRS/Olean. Newman and Ryan re-teamed at WPIG last year (CAT 1/9/24) after doing mornings together at WRBT/Harrisburg. Nease is still doing a WPIG weekend shift, and continues broadcasting as the Voice of St. Bonaventure men's basketball during the season.

Betty Whiteout: FBMM Chief People Officer (and first employee) Betty Sanders will retire at the end of the year. Succeeding her is SVP/HR Tiffany Coursey. "FBMM has been shaped by [Betty's] kindness, dedication and the way she has always cared so deeply for both our people and our company," says Owner/Chairman Julie Boos. Sanders joined Chuck Flood & Associates in 1986, transitioned to the newly established FBMM in 1990 and rose from Receptionist to Office Manager, VP/GM and CPO. Reach her here.

Tour Support: LeAnn Rimes' 30 Years of Blue: The Voice, The Journey, The Truth tour kicks off in her hometown of Dallas April 19. Tickets (11/21) and schedule here.

Braxton Keith will ~~begin~~ continue his This Ain’t My First Tour Tour Continued… into 2026 with shows in cities including Albuquerque (1/3), St. Louis (2/13) and Austin (2/21). Tickets here.

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Festive All: Treaty Oak Revival, Muscadine Bloodline, Kaitlin Butts, The Bends and Hayden Blount will perform at Auburn Rodeo, set for March 28 at Sistrunk Farms in Auburn, AL. Tickets (11/21) here.

Tannenbaum Time: Reba McEntire will host and perform, and Brad Paisley and Carly Pearce will perform on the annual Christmas In Rockefeller Center tree-lighting special, airing/streaming Dec. 3 at 8pm ET on NBC and Peacock.

Byte-Sized Country: As the Country Cares for St. Jude Seminar takes a scheduled pause, ALSAC/St. Jude and the Country Cares Advisory Council outline how they’re keeping the mission front-and-center as radiothon season approaches. Also in Country Aircheck Weekly, winners from the ASCAP Nashville Songwriters Celebration, and programmers weigh in on Breaking Rust’s AI track “Walk My Walk.”

Special Delivery: SupeRadio Networks' Retro Country USA is offering a free, four-hour Christmas Memories special, with old and new holiday music, and season's greetings from country stars. Email SupeRadio here to get a commercial-free download.

Bits & Pieces: “I’m nervous, and I don’t even know why,” Cumulus KSCS/Dallas’ Michelle Rodriguez admitted as the morning show welcomed its furriest guest: a cat with a Texas-shaped tuft that co-host Mark “Hawkeye” Louis spotted during a recent trip to Hawaii. The newly named Kona met his furever family in-studio; local coverage here.

Dolly Parton is expanding her hospitality business into rest stops, partnering with Tennessean Travel Stop to rebrand and revitalize its Cornersville, TN location into Dolly’s Tennessean Travel Stop. Additional Parton-branded locations across Tennessee and beyond are set to be announced in 2026.

Concord's second annual Country Awards Week Challenge raised $25k for the CMA Foundation. The event brought together nine teams from companies including Riser House, BMG, Sony Music Publishing, Go West Creative and winning team Warner Chappell Music to compete in games at Nashville's Play Playground.

Stories Of The Week: Search for news and people in the archives at countryaircheck.com.

The Big Time host Whitney Allen is retiring at the end of the year. (11/17)
Connoisseur is selling 15 of its Missouri stations to Carter Media. (11/17)
Chronicle: Jack Pride.

ICYMI: Eric Church performed "Bleed On Paper" on ABC's Jimmy Kimmel Live (11/17).

The War and Treaty sang "The Star Spangled Banner" during Monday Night Football (11/17).

Nate Smith's "After Midnight," featuring Tyler Hubbard, has been chosen for the next installment of Cumulus' Your Music Plus series.

Crib Note: Red Street's Chris Lane and wife Lauren Lane welcomed their third child and first daughter, Logan Lane, Nov. 11. Their sons were born in 2021 and 2022.

Country Aircheck Today Top 5: Here are the Top 5 songs for Nov. 17, according to Mediabase 24/7.

CHASE MATTHEW/Darlin' (Warner/WAR) 4580 points
RILEY GREEN f/ELLA LANGLEY/Don't Mind If I Do (Nash. Harbor) 3286 points
PARMALEE/Cowgirl (Stoney Creek) 3162 points
PARKER MCCOLLUM/What Kinda Man (MCA) 3042 points
LAINEY WILSON/Somewhere Over Laredo (Broken Bow) 3005 points

Country Aircheck Top Point Gainers: Here are the top point gainers for Nov. 16-17, compared with the same day last week, according to Mediabase 24/7.

HARDY/Favorite Country Song (Big Loud) +965 points
ELLA LANGLEY/Choosin' Texas (Sawgod/Col. NY/Triple Tigers) +692 points
LUKE COMBS/Days Like These (Columbia) +662 points
THOMAS RHETT f/JORDAN DAVIS/Ain't A Bad Life (MCA/Valory) +533 points
MORGAN WALLEN/20 Cigarettes (Big Loud) +525 points

Tomorrow's Birthdays (11/19): Cam, Billy Currington, Phil Little, Jason Henke, the late Bob McKay.

Tube Check Tonight (11/18): Center Stage: Countdown to the CMA Awards — Special Edition of 20/20 (ABC); Stephen Wilson Jr., Jimmy Kimmel Live (ABC).

Tube Check Tomorrow (11/19): 59th Annual CMA Awards at 7pm CT (ABC).

Jock And A Hard Place: WQDR/Raleigh's Mike Wheless and Amanda Daughtry with Elektra/Warner/WEA’s Bailey Zimmerman and Big Loud's Lauren Alaina at the CMA remotes.

Play It Forward: Artists Grayson Russell and Brei Carter and the Opry's Dan Rogers (l-r) at the CMA's Country Forward event.

Remote Work: Broken Bow/Night Train's John Morgan (c) with Audacy's Holly Hutton and Rob Stone at Sharla McCoy's Music Row Live remotes during CMA week.

Buy Shirt: Team MCA shows off St. Jude's new "Music Gives" shirt.

'JUG Life: KJUG/Visalia staffers and friends gather for dinner ahead of this week's CMA Awards remotes. Pictured (l-r) are KJUG's Gnarley Charley, guest Reese Marshall, KJUG's Hector “The Kid” Saldaña, Riser House's Roger Fregoso, Country Aircheck's Phyllis Stark and KJUG's Rik McNeil.

Signage: Singer/songwriter/producer Jeff Garrison signs with Electric Feel Publishing and TurnTable Music. Pictured (l-r) are EFP's John Bradley, TTM's Ben Johnson, Garrison and EFP's Austin Rosen and Chandler Nicole Sherrill.