I recently discovered that 990AM in Albany (OR) has recently changed formats. They were a classic country music station (as KRKT-AM), then switched to Air America programming (and changed call letters to KTHH)and has now switched back to classic country music. They are now known as "The Legend." Don't know if this had something to do with the recent bankruptcy of Air America.

No, it's just that after giving AAR a try they must have realized what a mistake they had made.

Heard from a sales staffer that they could hardly sell the station in the market thus the change back...

The Willamette Valley is a strange place. The north end (Portland) and the south end (Eugene) are liberal as Hell. But the central valley is much more conservative. Linn County (Albany) was a hot spot for the OCA. It's no wonder AAR would die there.

As someone who enjoys much of AAR (especially Franken and Maddow) I am a bit concerned at the number of markets where stations have dropped progressive talk in the past few weeks....New Orleans, Boston, Cincinnati, Madison, Albany/Corvallis and Buffalo. Any thoughts as to what's up?

Uh, could it be that AAR sucks? It was started by and has been run by non-radio people. They put most of their eggs in one basket, the unlistenable Franken, and they spent money (for little or nothing) like the proverbial liberal Democrats.

AAR was started to impact elections, not to be good radio. They have achieved neither. The idiot Bush was re-elected in 2004 and this year the Democrats didn't win, the Republicans lost.

Actually, I always thought that Classic Country with a personality based live airstaff could do quite well, but, like oldies, you need a sales staff that can "sell" the format. Everybody wants to fight for the younger demo.

The two pies syndrome. 20 people fighting to get a piece of the Cherry Pie, while the Blueberry sits untouched.

(I'll beat you to it, you Homer wannabes)

um-m-m-m-m-m-m Pie..........

So maybe it doesn't suck, it's just too different to pass the acceptance bar in that region?

AAR doesn't suck, but it's often on sticks that suck (relatively speaking). 990 in Albany is only 250 watts daytime/9 watts night and only covers Albany and Lebanon well at all. AAR on a CORVALLIS stick would have a chance. Albany and Lebanon are quite conservative.

It seems that for the most part AAR is on low power stations in a lot of markets and therefore is underperforming. KPOJ has a good signal and a left-leaning market...hence its relative success.

"AAR doesn't suck..."

Well, it blows then. To me, unlistenable.

Radiolocator map shows it (cricket 990) closer to Corvallis than to Lebanon. Perhaps HD would have saved it?