ARN has announced that KIX Country will be fully integrated to become iHeartCountry Australia, and one unified national country music network across metro and regional Australia with new shows and schedule, live events, and the best of Nashville’s global hits with homegrown Aussie talent.
Lauren Joyce, ARN Chief Audience & Content Officer, said:
“Country music is the fastestgrowing genre in the world, and Australia is one of the largest country markets. This is an exciting time to create a single, national network, under the iconic iHeartCountry brand, bringing the best of country music to Australian listeners. It’s a turnkey solution for our clients to connect their brands with the passionate country fans, while offering Aussie artists the biggest platform in the country to hear their music.”
New shows and features across the week include:
• Artist of the Week – The main stage of iHeartCountry. Your favourite artists take over the station for an hour 3pm daily for the week.
• Countrified – The live performance series. Country artists covering non-country hits. Because a good song becomes great, when it’s countrified!
• Aussie Hour – Celebrating the best in Australian country, 8am Sundays
• KIX Live @ 5 – A double shot of great live country music every weekday at 5pm.
• iHeartCountry Countdown – The hottest 30 country tracks 9am Friday morning and again Sundays at 4pm.
• iHeartCountry Party – Wall-to-wall, foot-stomping country bangers – Friday & Saturday nights, commercial-free.
• Morning Music Muster – No talk, no fuss, just great country music to start the workday.
• More Aussie Music – An even stronger focus on new Australian country artists and emerging talent.
Multi award winning Justin Thomson will continue hosting from 12-3pm but it looks like Steve Fitton on Breakfast and Kristof (Chris Sandilands) on Drive are not.
There is plenty of country competition in the digital and commercial space. Beccy Cole hosts the national ABC Saturday Night Country and Robert ‘The Duck’ Smith counts down the top 20 songs in country music across Nine Radio stations in Australia Saturdays 10pm till midnight. DAB+, the ABC have a station, SCA have Triple M Country and Nova Fresh Country was introduced in Brisbane in May. There’s also iHeartCountry New Zealand. But that’s it for KIX Country, after 22 years.
Listeners can tune in to iHeartCountry Australia now via FM, DAB+, and iHeart to stream live.