It’s been 50 years since KNIX-FM left progressive rock behind, switching formats to country, and never looked back.

In February, the Academy of Country Music named the Valley powerhouse its Major Market Radio Station of the Year.

On Monday, July 15, the station plans to celebrate that anniversary at its annual birthday bash festivities, with Tim McGraw topping a bill at Comerica Theatre that also features Jon Pardi and Midland.

As Barrel Boy, the station’s mascot, says of securing McGraw for the concert, “He’s the most played artist in the history of KNIX (102.5). The guy isn’t just a musician. He’s also a Hollywood star. He is as A-list as it gets. So having Tim McGraw play? It’s a mic drop. It’s like ‘Hello, BOOM!’ Are you kidding me? Shut the front door.”

Barrel Boy laughs, then says, “That is a superstar artist who could headline a Super Bowl halftime show and no one would complain. And he’s playing on our birthday bash at Comerica Theater. I mean, mic drop. Good night.”

Tim Hattrick, who hosted the KNIX morning show with Willy D. Loon for an Emmy-winning 10-year run from 1997-2007, was at the Valley’s other major country station, KMLE-FM, when he first experienced the power of McGraw. 

It was late October 1994 and McGraw had just turned in an opening set for Little Texas at the Arizona State Fair. 

“Our phones rang all morning long with ‘Oh my God, who was that cowboy in the big black hat who sang the song about the little girl?'” Hattrick recalls with a laugh. “It was ‘Don’t Take the Girl.’ I’ll never forget that. People went crazy. That’s the first time I heard of Tim McGraw. And all these years later, he’s still doing it.”

KNIX has deep roots in the Valley

Hattrick grew up in the Valley, and although he wasn’t into country at the time, he was aware of KNIX. 

“For long as I can remember,” he says, “it was this sort of … I don’t know if it’s an institution, this sort of almost church-like presence in the community — you know, that plays country music.”

He recalls his brother listening to KNIX for a week straight while the two of them were building a patio cover for their parents’ house. Hattrick was fresh out of college, working his first job in radio at the rock station KDKB-FM (93.3).

“All he wanted to listen to that whole week was KNIX,” Hattrick says, with a laugh. “I thought, ‘Oh, gosh, I can’t believe this station.’ All I remember is the song, ‘I Love Little Baby Ducks.’ And I thought ‘People like this, actually.’”

Hattrick laughs, then says, “It was only 10 or so years later that I had to call my brother and say ‘You’re not gonna believe this. I just got hired to work at KNIX.'”

That was the start of Hattrick’s 10-year run with Willy.

It was during Tim and Willy’s run, in 1998, that the station, previously owned by an actual country legend, the great Buck Owens, was acquired by Clear Channel Communications, which changed its named to iHeartMedia in 2014.

Hattrick returned to the station in 2017. 

“I was ecstatic to be invited back,” he says. “One of the first things I did was check with Willy. It felt almost like, you know, a divorced spouse checking to see if it’s okay to get remarried. He was fine. He’s more than happy up in Prescott, golfing every day, and he gave me his blessings. I had a good four or five years that I wasn’t on the radio. And I had all these stories building up in me. I was like ‘Gosh, I hope I get somewhere to tell these again’ and then the call came from KNIX. And it was great to go back home. I love getting to be on the morning show, rallying Ben and Brooke every morning, Barrel Boy too, and just to be a part of this family again.”

They owe it all to the listeners

The continued success of the station in Phoenix comes as no surprise to Hattrick. 

“Country music always kind of has been and still is just music with great stories about things we all go through,” he says. “I say this a lot: At KNIX, we play drinking songs for people with drinking reasons.”

Barrel Boy says of the station’s continued success in the market, “First and foremost, it’s our audience, our listeners. They support us. Also, everyone who works at KNIX. You don’t stay at KNIX long term if you don’t have pride. You don’t wear the KNIX letters or say those letters on the air if you aren’t willing to go the extra mile to make the experience great for the listeners and the artists. That drive is what’s kept us not only relevant but the leader.”

Coleen Kelly is one of those listeners Barrel Boy mentions.

“When I think of KNIX country, I think of a community of country-music fans,” she says. “We all love country music. Whether it be new, old or upcoming, we love it. The KNIX crew gets just as excited as the fans do. It’s fun to be able to enjoy country music with a team that also enjoys it. They play the soundtrack to our lives. Sounds cliche but it’s true.”

A country station in a country city

It helps that the station is be based in a market where country continues to thrive.

“Who set the attendance record at the University of Phoenix Stadium for the largest event ever there?,” Barrel Boy asks. “Garth Brooks. That itself speaks volumes. When ADOT is putting up road closure signs and they’re quoting Garth Brooks lyrics and you have the largest event that ever happens in the universe at University of Phoenix Stadium, which is the Super Bowl and Garth Brooks draws a bigger crowd, that right there goes to speak to the magnitude of it.”

He points to Luke Combs selling out Talking Stick Resort Arena concert in a single day as further proof.

“That’s a brand-new artist who’s coming into the format who two years ago was trying to get his name out there,” he says. “It goes to show that isn’t just the legends like Garth. There’s new blood coming in to energize the audience.”

By 2017, the year Hattrick returned to the station as the Tim in “The Tim, Ben and Brooke Show,” KNIX had started to play what the DJ calls “more of a mix of country from the ’90s and 2000s.”

It’s what the market demanded, Hattrick says.

“When I was off the radio for a little while is when this so-called bro country came in, you know, your FGL and your tailgates and your Daisy Dukes and short shorts down by the river,” he says, with a laugh. “But as we play more of the all-time favorites – Brooks and Dunn, Alan Jackson, lots of Garth Brooks, George Strait, it’s kind of fun to see that sort of ’90s sound come back. There’s even been some dance nights at the Van Buren where they do ’90s country, and it’s a young crowd.”

Even a few of the newer acts they play, he says, are drawing on the ’90s more these days, from Combs to Midland – “so I think I think it’s kind of balanced out some of the maybe more poppy sound that it had five or so years ago.”

Staying relevant

One thing that hasn’t changed, he says, is that the station has remained a Valley institution.

“The colors are still true,” he says. “We don’t have the Buck Owens guitar for the logo anymore. But people know who we are and what we’re about when they see the KNIX logo”

They also know what KNIX is about when they see Barrel Boy, a fixture on the local country concert scene.

“It’ll be 13 years in August,” Barrel Boy says of his tenure as the station’s mascot, a character he plays with such conviction, he declines to use his real name. “There are other people that wore the barrel, shall we say. But I was the first person that they actually quote unquote gave the title to and I’m the original character. The barrels existed as a promotional item or a mascot suit that never really took off. I started and it went (sound of rocket launching).”

He was working in promotions for the station when the opportunity to don the barrel arose and the Barrel Boy character was born.

“It allowed me to start getting on air and doing events,” he says. “And man, it’s been a great run. I hope it doesn’t end anytime soon. I get paid to have fun and make people happy. Best gig in the world.”

In addition to “once-in-a-lifetime” experiences as cool as McGraw coming into Comerica Theatre to play the station’s birthday bash, part of what makes this such a special gig for folks like Barrel Boy is the role the station and its listeners play in the community.

“Whether it’s our Million Can Crusade, where we raised over a million cans of food for the St. Vincent de Paul food bank, helping first responders injured in the line of duty or helping families displaced because of an emergency like a fire, KNIX is immediately there,” he says. “If we put out the call for help, our listeners come out in force and they allow us to be the conduit to those in need.”

Hattrick feels the same way.

“There’s a real connection to the audience,” he says. “In fact, we’ve said it all along: They’re not really listeners, they’re the KNIX family. When we do the Million Can Crusade, they just show up. If we’re out on a street corner saying, ‘This officer lost his life, and we want to show support for the 100 Club,’ they just show up. Through all my years, through all the fun and shenanigans, through all the stars we got to meet and crazy things we’ve done, it’s that connection to the town you’re in and the people. You’re there for them at their vulnerable spot in the morning when they’re driving to work and they don’t feel like being happy. And then they show up for you and support the station all day long and all year long.”

KNIX Birthday Bash

What: Tim McGraw headlines the station’s 50 anniversary bash. Jon Pardi and Midland.

When: 7 p.m. Monday, July 15. 

Where: Comerica Theatre, 400 W. Washington St., Phoenix.

Tickets: Resale prices vary. 

Admission: 800-745-3000, livenation.com.

Reach the reporter at [email protected] or 602-444-4495. Follow him on Twitter @EdMasley.

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