weekly February 20, 2024, Issue 897
Justin Case Looks Back On 34 Years
After dedicating “All I Need Is You” to wife Ronda Aurand on Valentine’s Day, Summit/Wichita, KS OM and KFDI PD/midday host Justin Case concluded his last break and hung up his headphones. Literally. It was an emotional moment for the 34-year radio veteran, who revealed in January that he would be leaving his job to go care for his 88-year-old father in Indiana (CAT 1/17). Case had been with KFDI since 2012, following previous Country programming jobs at WDSY/Pittsburgh, WYRK/Buffalo, WUSN/Chicago, WWYZ/Hartford, WZZK/Birmingham and WPKX/Springfield, MA. Just prior to his departure, he chatted with Country Aircheck about his remarkable career. CA: It takes courage to walk away from your career, right? JC: I’m doing this because I feel a pull to do it. You don’t want to have that nagging thought in the back of your head that you were just unavailable. I just don’t like the sound of that. Will this be retirement for you, or do you Justin Case hope to get back into radio one day? Once you’re out, it’s very, very difficult to get back in. So, I don’t necessarily have a plan to be back in radio, but when it comes to my air work, I have never been better. I never considered myself a great air talent, but when I look back, I was No. 1 in Springfield, No. 1 in Buffalo, and I’ve had two different No. 1s here – a night show and, in the book that just came out, middays. So maybe I didn’t give myself enough credit. After all these years, do we finally get to learn your real name? I honestly don’t know if I’ll be able to detach from my radio name or not. We’ll see how then it goes. Ronda still calls me Justin, and I kind of like it. My real name is Scott, but I’ve never considered myself a Scott, which is weird. I’ve been Justin Case since 1990 when I joined WPKX. You know, Justin makes boots and Case makes tractors. Before that I was Max Volume, and before that I was Race Banner. What are you going to miss most about radio? The fact that it’s different every day – different challenges you get to tackle and solve. When you’re prepping for a show, there’s so much information you get to sort through in order to present what you think is (continued on page 7)
Schitzengiggles: Big Loud’s Larry Fleet grabs a ”bier” before his show at the Tabernacle in Atlanta. Pictured (l-r) are WUBL’s Angie Ward, WKHX’s Lucas Phelan, the label’s Stacy Blythe, Fleet, WKHX’s Mike Moore and the label’s Sarah Headley.
Meet The CRS Scholars
Rascal Flatts played a surprising role in launching the careers of two of the three recipients of CRS 2024’s Rusty Walker Scholarship winners, designed to give first-time attendees the means to attend the Nashville event. The third got her start after sliding into someone’s DMs. Meet this year’s recipients. • Erin Bourne, WJEN/Lebanon-Hanover, NH-VT midday host: Bourne graduated with a
Erin Bourne
© 2 0 2 4 Co u n t r y A i rc h e c k ™ — A l l r i g h t s r e s e r v e d . S i g n u p f re e a t w w w. c o u n t r y a i rc h e c k . c o m . S e n d n e w s t o n e w s @ c o u n t r y a i r c h e c k . c o m