The first radio station broadcasting out of Assiniboia is officially on the air, and owner — and current radio personality — Steve Huber is impressed with the response he’s gotten from the community.
Cat Country 98.1 officially kicked off on May 31st, but Huber has been running some hot tracks since May 15 — beginning with 10,000 songs scheduled in a row.
Huber describes the station as “hot country,” a demographic he thought would be well-received in the area.
“Country music certainly stood out head-and-shoulders above what the other format options were,” said Huber. “It's what I would call a ‘hot country’ format, so we are a very active modern country station.”
And the response he’s gotten has been ecstatic; Huber estimates taking around 200 calls a day in the first week on air and even now, two weeks later, he gets around 60 calls a day from people who are happy to have a station in their area.
“The response from the community has been outstanding. The common denominator that keeps coming up is they absolutely love the fact there's an FM radio station in this area,” said Huber. “And, the other thing too, is it's just a breath of fresh air to have something that's new, and a new country format as well.”
Cat Country 98 is covering a ton of area: the signal is broadcasting from a tower in Willow Bunch and touching as far south as Montana, as far east as Weyburn, and as far west as Val Marie, as well as up to Moose Jaw and Regina areas.
Huber is still working on staffing the station, and he’s adamant about keeping things as local as he can — there are no plans on bringing in staff from far away cities.
Cat Country 98 is meant to be there for the local community, said Huber, and he hopes to see the community engage with the new station.
“We're super excited to be here to serve southern Saskatchewan. We're based out of Assiniboia and we want to be here for the local community,” said Huber. “At the end of the day, what radio does better than any other medium is local.”
The small nature of the community isn’t slowing Huber down, either. The station is as big-time as any other, as evidenced in the first promotional giveaway Cat Country 98 is kicking off with: a trip for two to Las Vegas to see George Strait, with tickets and spending money included.
Having grown up in Avonlea as a farm boy and spent much of his life in the radio industry, Huber was excited to return to his home turf and get involved with the Saskatchewan radio scene.
“It was a great opportunity and I look forward to serving the community for a lot of years to come,” said Huber.
