There’s a risk that comes with programming country music in a major market. You can chase the biggest tours and dominate the events calendar, only to end up sounding like every other country station in America. The formula becomes interchangeable: hit the concerts, play the safe currents, move on to the next ratings book. But that’s not what’s happening at US 99 in Chicago. When I sat down with Marci Braun — the regional brand manager for Audacy’s Central Region and program director for WUSN Chicago — one morning during Lollapalooza chaos downtown, she laid out something far more deliberate. It’s about being woven into the fabric of people’s lives, and the difference between sounding local and actually understanding what local means.
Twenty-Two Years and Counting
Marci didn’t arrive at WUSN as some hired gun sent to fix the format. She grew up listening to US 99 in high school. Eventually, she left for college in Green Bay, cut her teeth doing weekend overnights at a college station, and spent nine years working her way up in Green Bay radio. When she landed at US 99 in 2004 as an assistant program director, the goal wasn’t vague ambition — it was crystal clear. “I always wanted to run this station,” she told me. “I didn’t think it would happen the way it did, but I knew it was the goal.”
Twenty-two years later, she’s still there. In an industry where people hop markets every three to five years chasing titles and raises, this kind of tenure speaks volumes. She didn’t come to US 99 to build a resume. Instead, she came to build something that would last.
When I asked her to describe the station in one or two sentences, she paused — not hesitantly, but strategically. “US 99 just feels like part of the fabric of people’s lives,” she said finally. “We’re out in the community. We like to have fun. We like to hang out. It’s kind of the vibe we give off, and we like to receive back.”
The Talent Is From Here
Here’s where Marci’s strategy becomes tangible. She didn’t just talk about being local — she built it into the DNA of the station. Notably, three out of four local on-air personalities are actually from the Chicago area. Melissa McGurren, who’s been doing morning radio for over 20 years, is from Northwest Indiana. Kyle Milnamow, the executive producer of the morning show, is from Elgin. Additionally, Scotty Kay is from the northwest suburbs. Marci herself is a suburban Chicago native.
Austin Huff, the morning co-host, arrived from outside the area five years ago. However, according to Marci, he became “an adopted Chicagoan just because he fell right away.” The morning show clicks — Melissa and Austin came from different radio worlds (she from morning radio, he from sports talk), yet that marriage works. It works because they know what they’re talking about, and they know what’s bullshit.
“If you live here, you know that nobody eats deep dish pizza. That’s for the tourists,” Marci explained when we talked about the trap of fake localism. “Sometimes you’ll hear people try to be local, and they’ll go right for that. We just know what’s up and when to talk about it, not to make it sound cheesy.”
The afternoon show, with Scotty Kay, is apparently the most-listened-to daypart on the station. Katie Neal handles middays and brings her own regional connection — she’s from Peoria, went to Illinois State, so she knows the territory. Similarly, the evening show features Rob and Holly, based out of Detroit, though Marci emphasized they “sound as Midwest as anybody else, so they fit the brand and the sound so well.”
When I listened to the morning show before the interview, what struck me wasn’t the format — it was the energy. Positive, upbeat, genuinely engaged. I asked Marci about that directly.
“We’re very lucky here to have some of the best people I’ve ever worked with in my career,” she said. “They know what it takes to get it done. They inherently know that their job is to be the escape for people from our lives for the day. Because Lord knows we could absolutely use some escape these days.”
Live Music as a Strategy
Country music has a built-in advantage when it comes to artist relationships. The artists care about the fans. The fans care about the artists. Therefore, radio becomes a medium for that connection, not a sideshow to it. But Marci had a specific insight about how to weaponize that advantage in Chicago.
She mentioned a partnership with Joe’s Bar and Ed Warm, who also runs Joe’s Live and Carol’s Pub. “Ed believes in building artists,” she explained. “The first time I saw Miranda Lambert was at Joe’s Bar, and there were 40 people there. First time I saw Eric Church, there were 65 people there.”
Notably, this partnership gives US 99 a seat at the ground floor of artist development. When the stars align and somebody that Ed has believed in from the beginning becomes a headliner, the station gets to point to its role in that journey. “It’s magic,” Marci said simply. “You feel invested and you feel like you’re a part of a small part of helping build their career. That itty bitty bit, you take a little bit of pride, and you’re like, oh yeah, and you root for that person.”
I asked her about the tightrope between major tours and smaller shows — Morgan Wallen filling stadiums versus up and coming acts in smaller venues. The answer was refreshingly honest. “They don’t get punished; they get love, but it’s more on the front end,” she explained. When there’s a massive show, the station gravitates toward being on-site. Yet smaller shows get support too — giveaways two weeks before, on-air love, the works.
The personalities actually want to be there. “With our personalities, they not only want to be part of the live music experience, but they really want to get to know these up and coming artists,” Marci said. The payoff, she argued, comes years down the line. “When they’re now headlining the stadiums, we’re still all here. We’re hanging out backstage, and they know them by name. They don’t need to be prepped on them for anything.”
The Secret Sauce
I pressed her on whether artist accessibility was the real differentiator for country radio. Her answer cut to it directly.
“I’ve had two program directors that came directly from pop radio that freaked out when they started programming US 99,” she said. “They’re like, ‘Thomas Rhett would like to go to dinner with you. Okay, now that’s different.'” The accessibility is real. The radio rooms backstage at shows, the way artists treat radio people — it’s woven into the fabric of the format in a way you don’t find in pop or rock.
“The hang time you get with artists is definitely part of the secret sauce because you feel invested,” Marci concluded. “You feel like you’re a part of a small part of helping build their career. That makes you root for that person. It’s great.”
What Comes Next?
When I asked Marci about the next chapter for US 99, she talked about consistency and staying true to what’s built. But you could tell there’s ambition underneath. She’s not satisfied with just maintaining. The station has to keep growing, keep innovating, keep being the one place in Chicago where country feels inevitable rather than borrowed.
Twenty-two years in one market is a rarity in modern radio. Typically, it means one of two things: either the person has given up, or they’ve built something they actually believe in. In Marci’s case, it’s clearly the latter. US 99 isn’t just a radio station — it’s a hub. It’s woven into the community in a way that can’t be replicated by parachuting in consultants or recycling format clocks. It takes time. It takes people who actually know the market. And it takes a program director who had a childhood dream and never lost sight of it.
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