What Age Did You Become a Country Music Fan? [POLL]

With the CMA Awards taking place recently, we've been talking a lot about country music among ourselves here at the station; Artists and songs we like or don't like, concerts, stuff like that. It got me thinking: When did I really start getting in to country music?

When I was little, I didn't even know other radio stations existed besides the oldies station, because that's all my Dad listened too. I grew up on the Beatles, Beach Boys, Doors and Motown. Then I got a little older and started discovering other kinds of music for myself, and got into hard rock like most kids do. Eventually I settled in as an alternative rock guy for the most part.

I actually never really liked country until I started working in country radio. At my old job in Michigan, I started working weekends at a Top 40 station. Eventually an opening came up on it's country sister station, and even though I didn't like or know anything about country music, I wanted a full time radio job, so I took it.

It was pretty rough in the beginning. I NEVER listened to country, and really was not a fan. But listening to it for 40 hours a week, and since it was my job to know about the artists, I learned a lot pretty quick. I don't know when it was exactly, but eventually, country won me over. It took 20 years and a job that was all about it, but I can honestly say I enjoy country now.

I think there's a lot of depth to country music that you don't get at first, but as you get older and have more life experiences, you start to appreciate it more. country fans come from all over, so it's not necessarily a geographical thing. Some people grow up on it while others discover it later, I think it really varies.

If you're reading this blog right now on a country radio station website, you're obviously a fan. So when did you first really start getting into country music?