Best Country Today (formerly known as Country Coast-to-Coast, The Best Country Around and Today's Best Country) was one of the 24-hour live formats produced by Cumulus Media Networks. It is designed to appeal to a wide range of listeners, concentrating on a younger audience than would generally listen to traditional Country stations. It is one of two country formats produced by Cumulus, the other being

Real Country Real Country is a 24-hour radio format produced by Westwood One. Real Country is marketed at the demographic of men aged 35 to 64. Its programming consists of a fairly broad playlist of "Today's Stars and the Legends." Classic country is the ...

, which skews toward older listeners. Some of the featured artists were

Kenny Chesney Kenneth Arnold Chesney (born March 26, 1968) is an American country music singer, songwriter, and guitarist. He has recorded more than 20 albums and has produced more than 40 Top 10 singles on the US ''Billboard'' Hot Country Songs and Country ...

Faith Hill Audrey Faith McGraw (; born September 21, 1967), known professionally as Faith Hill, is an American singer and actress. She is one of the most successful country music artists of all time, having sold more than 40 million albums worldwide. Hill' ...

, George Strait, The Wreckers and other contemporary country music artists.

History

Beginning as one of the original

Satellite Music Network Satellite Music Network was the first satellite delivered network to provide complete live 24-hour-a-day music programming to local stations, under several different formats. History Affiliate stations, mostly in small and medium markets, co ...

formats over 30 years ago, its studios and offices were located in

Mokena, Illinois Mokena is a village in Will County, Illinois, United States. The population was 19,887 at the 2020 census. The Census Bureau's 2019 estimate found that the population had increased to 20,159. Etymology Mokena is a name apparently derived from ...

, just outside

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

. Shortly after SMN was purchased by ABC/Capital Cities in 1990, the format was moved to

Dallas, Texas Dallas () is the third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 million people. It is the largest city in and seat of Dallas County ...

, along with the other SMN formats such a
The TouchTimeless ClassicsThe Classic Rock ExperienceOldies RadioHits & FavoritesReal Country
an
Today's Best Hits
had previously been established at the Dallas location. In its over 20-year history, Today's Best Country/Country Coast-To-Coast has had three Operations Managers, Mark Edwards, Dave Nicholson and Gary Reynolds.

Citadel Broadcasting Citadel Broadcasting Corporation was a Las Vegas, Nevada-based broadcast holding company. Citadel owned 243 radio stations across the United States and was the third-largest radio station owner in the country. Only iHeartMedia and Cumulus Media ...

purchased ABC Radio Networks (now Cumulus Media Networks) and the ABC Owned and Operated radio stations from

The Walt Disney Company The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment industry, entertainment conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios (Burbank), Walt Disney Stud ...

in February 2006 and continue to use the ABC name for several years afterward. The Citadel acquisition does not include Radio Disney or the

ESPN radio stations ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The co ...

. Citadel merged with

Cumulus Media Cumulus Media, Inc. is an American broadcasting company and is the third largest owner and operator of AM and FM radio stations in the United States behind Audacy and iHeartMedia. As of June 2019, Cumulus lists ownership of 428 stations in 8 ...

on September 16, 2011. Best Country Today was discontinued months after Cumulus Media Networks' merger with

Westwood One Westwood One is an American radio network owned by Cumulus Media. The company syndicates talk, music, and sports programming. The company takes its name from an earlier network also named Westwood One, a company founded in 1978. The compan ...

as there's already a contemporary country music satellite format.

Programming

Hosts heard on Best Country Today included Charlie Derek, Darcy, Cadillac Jack, Jeremy Robinson, and Chaz Mixon.

American Country Countdown ''American Country Countdown'', also known as ''ACC'', is a weekly internationally syndicated radio program which counts down the top 40 country songs of the previous week, from No. 40 to No. 1, according to the ''Billboard'' Country Airplay ch ...

is distributed on the network on weekends. Robinson's show was also syndicated outside the network as an evening show.

Alumni

* Jim Beedle * Mark Edwards * Doug Thompson * Jim Brady (deceased

* Hubcap Carter (deceased) * Ted Clark * Kurt Schaeffer * Bob Forester * Michael Hardema

* Ed Leal * Bill Lee * Dave Marcum (deceased

* Catfish Prewit

* Steve Sharp * Joe Sot

* Jerry Walker * Jim Weave

* Becky Wight * Randy Williams * Jim Casey * Bill Fortune * Gary Semro

References

External links

* http://eclecticmax.blogspot.com/
John Tyler, Texas Radio Hall of Fame
{{Westwood One Radio formats Westwood One Defunct radio networks in the United States Former subsidiaries of The Walt Disney Company Radio stations disestablished in 2014 Radio stations established in 1985 Defunct radio stations in the United States