You heard it right “Classic Country”  WKCW in Warrington, VA just changed it’s format to a Spanish speaking station.
WKCW was one of the nation’s oldest country music stations, and had been broadcasting country music in Fauquier County since 1960. George Jones and Charlie Pride came by the station and performed their current hits live for Tom “Cat” Reeder my ole buddy, we worked together at WDON in Wash, D.C. in the late 60′s and early 70′s.
Also the ole Tom “Cat” would invite his good friend Willard Scott the nationally known TV weatherman down to the station and they would chat in the studio about the honky-tonks and country music they they both loved.
Well no more will they do any chatting and ole Tom “cat” won’t be spinning any more of Hank Williams Jr’s Live album from Cobo Hall in Detroit featuring Lamar Morris and The Cheating Hearts. If you’ve never heard that live album with Hank Jr and Lamar Morris you need you find it and give it a spin that was when country music was “damn” good and country. The Ole Tom “Cat” is in the country music Disc Jockey Hall Of Fame in Nashville as he should be he is one of the greatest country DJ’s America has ever had.

WKCM was the last AM station in the Washington area playing country music it was known throughout the area as the Big K. Now when you tune into WKCW 1420 on the am dial you’ll hear Mexican music. The odd thing about all this is there are very few Hispanics in Faquier county. As a matter of fact Faquier County has the fewest Hispanics in Northern Virginia.
WKCW was a community family oriented station people called in to talk about their aches and pains tell about the family dog or cat and what was going on in country music sounds like the America we all love and wished there were more towns like Warrington, VA plain and uncomplicated USA. Well they ain’t gonna be calling in and talking to the Ole Tom “Cat” no more unless he learns to speak Spanish.

One thing is for sure country music on AM Radio will be missed in Warrington, VA. WKCW wasn’t bringing in the needed revenue to keep from operating at a loss. If you like a station support the station by buying from the people who advertise on the station otherwise the advertisers will drop their sponsorship and that sure hit’s the station in the pocket book.
No radio station can operate without sponsors unless that station has another means of revenue, and even if they do they still want the station to pull it’s on weight. The amount of people tuning into the station begin to drop. Each the ARB takes a toll to see which  station has the most listeners and at which time they tune in known in the business as drive time.
If your stations ARB is low then the big money sponsors who buy only stations with a high ARB won’t advertise on your station. Then your station ends up with only mom and pop sponsors who usually have low budgets for radio. You need aggressive salesmen to keep a station going when the sales staff have a hard  time selling air time the station is in Big Trouble, and good radio sales people are always looking for an opening at a bigger station no one ever said owning and operating a radio station was easy.

Metro Radio Inc who owned WKCW begin to look for someone to buy the station or lease the licence usually it will profit a station owner to lease the licence because there are no more broadcasting license left in the USA, either you lease a station’s license or buy a radio station for sell. The FCC hasn’t granted any new broadcasting license in in many years.
So Metro Radio was contacted a Spanish entrepreneur who leased the station at a price each month that pleased both parties and WKCW begin to broadcast in Spanish to an audience of Hispanics who support the station by buying from it’s advertisers. There are now five Spanish AM radio stations in the Washington, D.C. area. Hispanics are growing in the Washington area each year their numbers increase. Falls Church, Va, in Prince William County now has 27,000 Hispanics just across the Potomac River from Wash,D.C. and growing each year.

Not only has Country Music changed to the Ultra Modern Sound of Punk Country it’s being “TAKEN OFF THE AIR” and replaced by Mexican Music down south of the border is now USA BACK YARD.

Don’t think it can’t happen your Town it can and might sooner than you think all this took place Sunday January 18 2004. Support Country Music and it’s sponsors let’s keep it alive and on the airways forever. I’ll bet there’s not one Country Music Fan in Warrington, VA, who wouldn’t give $100.00 to hear Tom “Cat” Reeder say ” Folks my time has all come and gone for today but till me meet again let me leave you with this thought, May the good lord take a liking to you and may you live as long as you want and never want as long as you live, BYE, BYE, DARLING.

I’d like to thank my good friend Chet “Teeter” Cissel in Centreville, Md. for helping me in getting the information for this report.

-Widmarc Clark