B-105 duo up for big award

CINCINNATI - When you think of country music, Cincinnati probably isn't the first city that comes to mind.

That's changing, right along with country music itself.

Let's run the numbers here. B-105 is a finalist for national station of the year for the fourth time in five years.

Its afternoon drive team is up for personalities of the year, just one year after its morning crew won that same award from both the Academy of Country Music and the Country Music Association .

It's becoming a bit of a broken record, so it got us thinking. What is it about this Cincinnati station that's putting Nashville on notice?

Trading barbs with his "radio wife" is part of the fun for B-105 personality Big Dave.

The give and take with his partner Chelsie is part of the reason the duo's been nominated for the A.C.M.'s "large market personalities of the year."

The two spend a lot of time together on the air.

"I don't sit and talk to my husband for four hours straight, that's for sure," said B-105 personality Chelsie.

And awards at B-105 are as common as cowboy hats on the artists they play.

Chris Carr and company swept country music's "personalities of the year" for 2011.

"The community has always loved country music. Since I came here in 97, I've always looked at B-105 as a big battleship. It's been around a longtime and everybody knows it," said B-105 Program Director Grover Collins.

And the ratings show it.  Last year, the station broke 700 WLW's 10-year hold on the No. 1 spot in the market.

Collins attributes the station's success to its on-air personalities and to the evolution of country music.

Dave and Chelsie are like many of their listeners.  They grew up listening to all kinds of music.  Chelsie's first concert?  Poison. The ringtone on Big Dave's phone is Heaven's On Fire by Kiss.

"I'm extremely horrified that this is gonna go off one day in the middle of church," said Big Dave.

They're proof positive that the lines are now blurred between country, top 40, pop and rock. Crossover artists are bringing fans young and old to stations like B-105.

"My kids can go from Taylor Swift to Metallica. It doesn't matter, good music is good music," said Collins.

"A lotta people hear a Lady Antebellum song on another station and they might buy that CD. They like all the songs and they want to hear more of just country," said Chelsie.

"Younger people don't define themselves today by genres, formats. They just like a good song. they don't care who does it.  We're just lucky a lot of these songs are ones we're playing," said Big Dave.

While the artists don't know whether they'll win an A.C.M. until the night of the awards show in April, Big Dave and Chelsie should find out if they're winners in the next week or so.

We'll keep our fingers crossed.  And they'll keep entertaining listeners.