In 2021, KRTY San Jose made the year’s list of Intriguing Stations on the particular strength of its streaming efforts—the “download our app, enable our skill, follow our socials” promos that sometimes felt perfunctory elsewhere were more impactful. KRTY was also a great, independently-owned local radio station that found its own Country hits. Then, just as last year’s column landed, the usually successful-enough KRTY found itself a surprise market leader.
A few months later, KRTY was sold at a bargain price to become an affiliate of Christian AC network K-Love, and all of those device promos were no longer a drill. There were no takers for the station’s intellectual property, although AC rival KBAY (Bay Country 94.5/92.1) did decide to fill the Country franchise. KRTY moved to streaming-only with much of its airstaff in tow. For a month, when Nielsen inadvertently…
