Recently listeners driving to work or school who tuned into WFGI-FM (94.5) for some familiar country tunes were shocked to find that the country station is no longer playing . . . country.

That's because Froggy 94 FM discontinued its country format two weeks ago and switched to a new format, now playing contemporary soft hits and '80s tunes.

Polly Wogg, the program director for Froggy FM, said a corporate decision came down from above which stated that the audience for soft hits and '80s music would be greater in the State College area than that of country music.

Froggy 94 is a branch of Froggy FM, simulcasting with WFGY-FM. Wogg said Froggy 98 is recepted in more than 10 counties in the central Pennsylvania area. However, Froggy 98 is not heard quite as well in buildings, and that was the reason for a separate frequency with the same music, creating better overall reception, Wogg said.

To those disgruntled listeners, the station encourages the listeners of Froggy 94 to call in with complaints or feedback.

"We've gotten a lot of listeners' complaints, and they're not happy about the switch," Wogg said, "but there is still Froggy 98 with the same music."

C.J. Daniels, the program director for WPHB-AM (1260), a country station, said, "Stations switch formats everyday, and the basic reason is that they can't make money with what they are doing. They're not getting their advertisements."

But does that mean that the country music industry is losing its listeners?

"I think that country music right now is the biggest that it has ever been," Daniels said. "It's one of the major forms of music listeners listen to. Especially with teenagers, they listen to country more now than ever before."

WPHB, a classic country station in the central Pennsylvania area, plays another spectrum of country music.

"The older country is where the market is," Daniels said. "We do a heavy base of classic country. There is a demand out there, and we make it available to our listeners."

Wogg said the popularity of country music has fluctuated in recent years.

"Country ratings did go down substantially a few years ago, but in fact it picked up after that and its popularity has increased exponentially," Wogg said. Wogg said that because of the increasing use of Internet downloads and music television, the radio audience as a whole has decreased in recent years.

"If anything, radio helps the use of downloading music," Wogg said. "You hear it on the radio, and you can download it when you get home."

For those listeners left to find a new station, Anna Lee (freshman-business administration) advises, "Listening to radio is like a habit, sometimes people just need time to adjust to the change."

However, neither program director is worried about the rising popularity of pop and rap music. Wogg said that country artists have begun to collaborate with pop stars, citing a joint effort between Shania Twain and Britney Spears on Spear's second album.

"Nowadays, some of the country songs even have a new flavor to it," Wogg said. "In fact Dolly Parton recently wrote a song with sampling of "Shine" by Collective Soul."

WPHB will always cater to the classic country listeners, Daniels said.

"We don't try to put on a pop-sounding music, because that's not what we do here," he said.

Even with the recent switch of Froggy 94, country music is here to stay, he said.