About 300 country stations nationwide -- including three in Central New York -- are hunting for new programming to fill their weekend schedules after Premiere Radio Networks cancelled the long-running "Jeff Foxworthy Countdown" today.
That news comes from radio-info.com, which reports Premiere is offering the "Crook & Chase Countdown" as Foxworthy's replacement in markets where the show isn't already taken by another station. The final weekend for Foxworthy's show will be December 26-27, which is also the final weekend of 2009.
Locally, Foxworthy's show is carried by Big Frog 104 (WFRG) in Utica, Froggy 97 (WFRY) in Watertown, and Q-Country 103.7 (WQNY) in Ithaca. The two amphibian-themed stations will not be able to take Crook & Chase because competitors in the market already carry the show. No interference preventing WQNY from picking up the show, but no word yet on whether it will do so.
The radio-info.com report doesn't include any reasoning for the countdown -- which may be seen as something of a surprise, considering the 10-year-old show's affiliate list includes stations in many major markets.