Nash FM Radio Brings Country to the Big Apple, Starting With Randy Houser

New York City knows "How Country Feels" after gaining its first country formatted radio station in 17 years, reports the New York Daily News. When the new channel -- known as Nash FM 94.7, taking over the call letters WRXP -- launched on Jan. 21, the first song fans heard was the title track to Randy Houser's new album, How Country Feels, which just so happened to be the reigning No. 1 song on both the Country Aircheck/Mediabase and Billboard charts that week.

"For a radio station starting out, that's a huge thing," Randy tells The Boot. "That's a ton of investors and their money and playing with their money and trying things. For them to decide that they were going to set the tone of their radio station right off the bat with my music, that's a huge freaking milestone for me! That's amazing and I'm very proud of that."

Nash FM, dubbed "America's Country Station," can be heard nationwide on iHeartRadio, and follows the drought left when the country call letters WYNY turned to WKTU in 1996. It also comes with the possibility of becoming the most-heard country station in the U.S., a title earned by its predecessors thanks to the huge population of the Big Apple. That, coupled with the previous song to launch a New York City country station, is more than enough to explain Randy's excitement.

"I think it was back in 1980, the other station that used to be here, the first song that they actually had played on their station when the format switched was Waylon Jennings' 'Are You Ready for the Country?'" Randy adds. "That's pretty good company to be in. I was really excited to hear that, and I look forward to meeting everybody at NASH FM and hanging out and celebrating."

Check back to The Boot for more from our exclusive interview with Randy in the coming weeks, as well as his AOL Sessions performance, which will premiere in February.