Radio Report: The Cat’s All Hat

It’s been a busy week on the Nippertown radio dial.

Laura Glazer’s “Hello Pretty City” switches from WRPI to WEXT. Then 100.9 FM became The Bridge. And Barbara Kaiser’s former WRPI show “Jazz &…” re-surfaces on the internet.

The lastest radio news? The Edge has been transformed into The Cat.

In an apparent attempt to go directly after the area’s biggest radio station, WGNA-FM, The Cat is a country station. Or rather, a station that plays what passes for country music on the radio these days.

So once again doing my duty as music journalist, I tuned in to The Cat about 1pm today, and I heard – Taylor Swift. Hmmm, apparently folks just can’t enough of this gal.

Anyway, for the hour that I listened, the playlist went like this:

Taylor Swift‘s “15”
Darius Rucker‘s “History in the Making”
Kid Rock/Sheryl Crow‘s “Picture”
Josh Thompson‘s “Beer on the Table”
Kenny Chesney‘s “Never Wanted Nothing More”
The Zac Brown Band‘s “Toes” (although they beeped out the offending word in the chorus, “Got my toes in the water, ass in the sand”)
Billy Currington‘s “Good Directions”
Joe Nichols‘ “Gimmie That Girl”
Miley Cyrus‘ “The Climb”
Josh Turner‘s “Why Don’t We Just Dance”
Darius Rucker‘s “It Won’t Be Like This for Long”
Taylor Swift‘s “Fearless”
Trace Adkins‘ “Ladies Love Country Boys”
Miranda Lambert‘s “White Liar”
Confederate Railroad‘s “Trashy Women”
Keith Urban‘s “Sweet Thing”
Gloriana‘s “Wild at Heart”
Brad Paisley‘s “American Saturday Night”

And if the playlist doesn’t really let you know what the station’s all about, those snappy, little between-song promos certainly made it clear:

“10,000 in a row. 10,000 of today’s best country songs in a row. Back to back.”
“Today’s best country. 104.9. The Cat.”
“Today’s best country. WZMR. Altamont.”
“We’re your new home for today’s best country. And to help you get to know us a little better, we’re playing 10,000 songs in a row.”
“10,000 of today’s best country songs back-to-back.”
“All new 104.9 The Cat”
“Someone let The Cat out of the bag. And there’s no way we’re going back in.”
“We’re your new home for today’s best country.”
“Because we just met, we thought we’d break the ice with 10,000 songs in a row.”
“Why the Cheshire grin? 10,000 songs in a row would make anyone smile this way.”
“10,000 in a row. 10,000 in a row.”

OK, OK, enough already. We get the idea…