Appalachian Echoes launched on August 23, 2025 based on a hypothesis Americana music aficionado Jason Falls had. It was this:
Commercial country music radio programming is vastly popular, but leaves out a vast sea of amazing songs, albums and artists that people want to hear. Consumers are turning more to streaming services and social media to hear original, authentic voices found in Americana, Folk, Alt-Country and Bluegrass genres from independent artists and labels.
AAA format and public radio stations often fill this void, but there are few of these in most rural areas and smaller DMAs. Commercial country stations often lack the staffing to have original shows beyond the weekday morning and evening drive times and those that do are tied to the Top-40 formats country stations seem to always have.
The growing popularity of Americana music, fueled by independent artists breaking from the traditional Nashville pathways to country radio like Tyler Childers, Sturgill Simpson, Sierra Ferrell and 49 Winchester, has created an opportunity for small and mid-market stations to quench the thirst of listeners longing to hear more, different and diverse music than Top-40 country or Adult Contemporary programming provides.
It was here that Appalachian Echoes was born.
Provide radio listeners outside of major markets, whose stations may not have the resources to invest in building original programming for Americana or other sub-genres, with a show just for them. The added highlight of focusing on Appalachian artists was Falls’s way of saying, “I play favorites!”
About The Host
Jason Falls grew up spinning records from his mother and step-father’s collection which included artists that would have been labeled Americana if it existed back then. John Prine led the way. A singer-songwriter with an anti-establishment bend and a taste for trouble.
Inspired by his musical heroes, Falls marched into his local radio station at age 14 and declared, “I want to be a deejay.” It helped the management team knew his mother, once editor of the local newspaper, so they hired him and taught him how to spin records on the radio.
Falls spent many years in sports broadcasting, then public relations and marketing, before revisiting his love of music as his children grew up. In 2023, he had a notion it would be fun to talk about Tyler Childers’s evolution as an artist on a podcast. He reached out to friend and former travel blogger Francesca Folinazzo with the idea. Folinazzo once had a music-focused travel blog called Roots Music Rambler. The pair decided to bring it back as a podcast which launched in September of that year.
As Falls grew into the role of interviewing Americana and roots music artists, he began to see the need for more and better ways for independent artists to get in front of wider audiences. Michael Young, the long-time host of “Roots-N-Boots” on Louisville’s public station WFPK, tabbed Falls to fill-in on his program – the longest-running Americana show in the world.
Being back behind the mic at a real radio station brought back the fun and passion for Falls and the ideas that became Appalachian Echoes were born.
The Berth of a Show
It isn’t ironic or coincidence that Falls first approached Cindy May Johnson at Mountain Top Media with the idea for a syndicated radio program focused on Americana Music. Mountain Top Media is the ancestor of WDHR-FM and WPKE-AM which were the stations Falls debuted on in 1987 as a 14-year-old weekend disc jockey. The company now operates nine stand-alone AM or FM radio stations with 14 total AM or FM frequencies.
Johnson and MTM executive Ted Meadows partnered with Falls to bring Appalachian Echoes to life, first on WXCC – 96.5 FM.