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1-21-2013

As to yesterday's news about the new Country station in NYC (NASH FM), we feel here at Thunder 106, that the real story behind the story is "how and why" this happened. I assure you EVERY media outlet writing this story will overlook the real reason. That sole reason has to do with the tremendous success that Thunder 106 has enjoyed in New Jersey, Staten Island, Long Island, Brooklyn, Queens, and parts of Manhattan for many years. Had Thunder 106 failed to do what it has done, there still would be no Country outlet in NYC.

The fact that, for over 18 months, Thunder 106 has been #1 or #2 in almost every major Arbitron Demo in the Monmouth-Ocean Market (plus the Middlesex - Somerset - Union multi-county CSAR) speaks to "WHY" Cumulus decided to try Country in NYC. I have been told that "imitation is the greatest form of flattery" and we are flattered and proud that we helped bring Country music to additional listeners in NYC and north Jersey where our signals physically did not allow us to fully penetrate as a Class A radio station. We are proud of everything that Thunder 106 has accomplished and will accomplish moving forward. We have a brand that we feel is unparalleled in the industry as evidenced by Radio Ink's #3 ranking as America's most favored Country radio station, as voted on by "listeners." WOW! That is really something to be proud of and we ARE humbled and proud.

I know that no matter who comes to compete against us, we have a formula that is not replicatable. Our dedication and focus on breaking new "rocking" Country artists is something that very few stations will take the chance to emulate. We know that most radio stations fail to want to break artists before they reach Top 30 "status" on any of the Billboard charts or Media Base charts, thereby (in our opinion) creating "homogenized" radio. Other stations are mono-focused on "Mscores" and how music is treated by listeners in the PPM world. While we pay attention to those types of metrics, we also believe in doing an exhaustive amount of homework in other areas, and we pride ourselves on "knowing" our listeners and delivering what we know works.

WE WILL NEVER BE A FOLLOWER AND WE WILL LEAD AND BRING RELEVANT COUNTRY MUSIC TO OUR AUDIENCES! We also know that we have developed a brand affinity with listeners and we don's state this lightly, but Thunder 106 is our listeners' radio station. I cannot emphasize this enough. That is not some tag line that sounds good for marketing materials, but rather we feel our station does belong to our listeners and we will deliver what they want 24/7 365 days a year. We pay attention to everything that our audiences ask for and then deliver it for them. With this in mind, we will never fail them and we know they will never lose their affinity for what we do.

We are equally proud of the other extremely creative things we have done in the broadcasting business. Our company has a 122-year history in NJ. We were at one time an independent newspaper group, Internet company, direct mail service, TV station owner, and radio group owner (and first FM licensee in the state of NJ back in 1946 with WJLK, which stood for the company's newspaper founder J. Lyle Kinmouth). In fact, in radio we were one of, if not the very first station in America, to bring talk to the FM dial when we created NJ 101.5 FM -- "Not NY, Not Philadelphia, but proud to be NJ" in 1989. In keeping with that heritage, we were also the only radio station that also featured the "Home of the No Repeat Work Week" that was done on our AC station called The Breeze (107.1FM/99.7FM). Again, everyone said that there was no way to program a station without repeats all week long and yet we did and grew a heritage station in NJ in the process.
 
So with all that said, we will expand in making a real difference for listeners and we will look to other avenues through our recently added affiliation with PMCM TV LLC (partners of PMCM TV are also partners of Press Communications, LLC, the parent company of all our radio properties in NJ) which will be bringing long-awaited truly local TV coverage to NJ.

Rich Moreno is part owner and General Manager of Thunder Country in New Jersey and can be reached by e-mail at r35morena@aol.com

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