Tagging Country's Positioning

In the wake of my last two posts (Do You Own A "Tag" Or A "Position? and Making A (Position) Statement), what is the current state of the country format's efforts?

To find out, I monitored every country radio station in the top 25 markets.  Here is how all of those country stations state their positions in 2013:

Many define themselves by Era

• Today's Country, My Country
• New Country, The New..
• New country.  Always a great song, your workday station
• New country..
• (brand) country, new country
• #1 for new country
• The new (brand).. country's hottest hits.  The new generation of country
• new country first
• the best new music   an I Heart Radio station
• more country ..  the 90s to now
• New country and (area's) all time favorites
• The 90s and more ..  the greatest country from the 90s and more
• (city's) best country variety - from the tried and true to the brand spanking new

In competitive situations, Quantity is sometimes used

• More music now  (brand name) Country
• More country now
• (brand name) Country More country now
• More of (city's) best country
• Another extra long music sweep ...  30 minute music sweeps  every country song's a favorite
• Commercial free music (brand name)
• the most commercial free country   more back to back songs   (city's) most listened to country station
• another whole hour of music   the most music  XX-minute music run
• the new (brand)  52 minutes of (brand) country

The current fad is positioning on a colorful Music Brand (almost always an animal, usually a Bull - or is that a lemming? - these days)

• (WOLF, Cat, Froggy, The BULL. Coyote) country  A new breed of country station
• (area's) New country leader
• #1 for New Country
• The biggest stars .. (state)-bred .. (brand)

Or a City Brand

• (city's) Country Station
• (city's) #1 for New Country
• if it's country in (area small town), it's (area) country
• (city's) new country leader
• (city) country

Only a very few still use a "Position" in the country format's historical sense of the word

• Great country (frequency)
• real country  my country station  commercial free country

The key questions I hope managers and programmers seriously consider:

Does the average listener understand, relate to and remember .. let alone care about all of this verbiage?

And, before you push out another sloganeering "tag," shouldn't you find out what you are famous for in the mind of your user and make sure you do that a lot?