{"id":333248,"date":"2025-12-06T03:43:07","date_gmt":"2025-12-06T03:43:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/333248\/"},"modified":"2025-12-06T03:43:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-06T03:43:07","slug":"drew-walker-rises-to-free-country-98-3-102-3-program-director-leah-anderson-joins-for-afternoons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/333248\/","title":{"rendered":"Drew Walker Rises To Free Country 98.3\/102.3 Program Director &#038; Morning Host; Leah Anderson Joins For Afternoons"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" data-od-removed-loading=\"lazy\" data-od-replaced- data-od-xpath=\"\/HTML\/BODY\/DIV[@class='jeg_viewport']\/*[5][self::DIV]\/*[1][self::DIV]\/*[1][self::DIV]\/*[1][self::DIV]\/*[1][self::DIV]\/*[1][self::DIV]\/*[5][self::DIV]\/*[1][self::DIV]\/*[1][self::DIV]\/*[1][self::DIV]\/*[2][self::DIV]\/*[1][self::DIV]\/*[2][self::DIV]\/*[1][self::P]\/*[1][self::IMG]\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/drewwalker.jpg\" alt=\"Drew Walker US99 WUSN Chicago\" width=\"200\" height=\"200\" class=\"alignright size-thumbnail wp-image-268244\"  \/>Connoisseur Media Country \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.freecountrychicago.com\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Free Country 98.3\/102.3<\/a>\u201d WCCQ Crest Hill\/WXLC Waukegan IL is revamping its lineup.<\/p>\n<p>Drew Walker has been promoted from APD\/afternoon host to Program Director and morning host. Walker joined the stations <a href=\"https:\/\/radioinsight.com\/headlines\/269757\/format-change-coming-to-wxlc-today\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">when it debuted<\/a> the \u201cFree Country\u201d brand in May 2024 following a 20 year run at Audacy Country \u201cUS 99\u201d WUSN Chicago. Walker fills the programming role that had been held by consultant Tim Richards and replaces Premiere Networks\u2019 Bobby Bones Show in mornings.<\/p>\n<p>Walker commented, \u201cMoving into mornings and the Program Director seat feels a little surreal. This station has been my passion project from day one, and I\u2019m grateful for the chance to help lead its next chapter. We\u2019ve built something really special here, a team I love, communities I care about, fantastic partners, a creative environment that\u2019s actually fun, and a station that truly sounds and feels like home. Super thanks to Gordon Mays, Karl Wertzler, Brian Foster, Keith Dakin and Jeff Warshaw for this amazing opportunity!\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" data-od-added-fetchpriority=\"\" data-od-removed-loading=\"lazy\" data-od-replaced- data-od-xpath=\"\/HTML\/BODY\/DIV[@class='jeg_viewport']\/*[5][self::DIV]\/*[1][self::DIV]\/*[1][self::DIV]\/*[1][self::DIV]\/*[1][self::DIV]\/*[1][self::DIV]\/*[5][self::DIV]\/*[1][self::DIV]\/*[1][self::DIV]\/*[1][self::DIV]\/*[2][self::DIV]\/*[1][self::DIV]\/*[2][self::DIV]\/*[4][self::P]\/*[1][self::IMG]\" fetchpriority=\"low\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/leahanderson.jpeg\" alt=\"Leah Anderson Free Country 98.3 102.3 95.1 WIIL\" width=\"159\" height=\"200\" class=\"alignright size-thumbnail wp-image-324643\"  \/>Succeeding Walker in afternoons will be Leah Anderson. Anderson had been hosting weekends on the station in addition to co-hosting mornings on sister Rock <a href=\"https:\/\/www.95wiilrock.com\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">95.1 WIIL<\/a> Union Grove\/Kenosha WI. She has been with the cluster since 2012 first in sales and weekends on WIIL until 2019. After a four year run co-hosting mornings at then Hot AC WXLC, she moved back to WIIL <a href=\"https:\/\/radioinsight.com\/headlines\/250068\/leah-anderson-returns-to-wiil-as-morning-co-host\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">in March 2023<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>She said, \u201cAs a lifelong country fan, a mom of three, and a wife juggling the same day-to-day as our listeners, I\u2019m thrilled for this new role. Connecting with this community is one of my favorite parts of the job, and I can\u2019t wait to bring that to afternoons.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Operations Manager Gordon Mays added, \u201cDrew\u2019s experience and decades-long connection with the Chicagoland country music audience make this a very exciting time to be in FREE Country. We have a unique opportunity to continue evolving with authentic local voices, and that\u2019s a big win for our listeners and every community we\u2019re connected with.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Connoisseur Media Country \u201cFree Country 98.3\/102.3\u201d WCCQ Crest Hill\/WXLC Waukegan IL is revamping its lineup. Drew Walker has&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":333249,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[88,216],"class_list":{"0":"post-333248","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-music"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/333248","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=333248"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/333248\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/333249"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=333248"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=333248"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=333248"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}