Remember, what drives the format (like any other commercial one) is ratings,
which, it has been pointed out (most recently by Mike Hays), have been going
down, especially for HNC-oriented stations, as their target audience grows
disaffected. The obvious remedies for station owners are 1) abandon the
country format altogether, 2) chase even harder after that audience with
even more pop- and rock-oriented fare, or 3) re-orient toward the long-term,
"traditional" country music audience. I expect we'll see a combination of
all three, especially the latter two (after all, most other formats aren't
doing that well, either), and the charts will be increasingly schizophrenic
over the next couple of years. I don't imagine that many individual
stations will try to combine 2 and 3, but you may see a few cases of it.
Jon Weisberger, Kenton County, KY [EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://home.fuse.net/jonweisberger
