On July 1, 2026, Great Eastern Radio launched Backroads Country 104.3 (WJKS-FM), a new country radio station serving the Champlain Valley with a simple promise: play the country people know, love, and want to hear again.

Backroads Country is a broad mix of country favorites spanning decades. From George Strait, Alan Jackson and Reba McEntire to Brooks & Dunn, Toby Keith, Tim McGraw, Faith Hill and countless others. Backroads Country is built for listeners who still love the songs they grew up with and wouldn’t mind hearing a few they haven’t heard on the radio in years.

“There are so many incredible country songs that have almost disappeared from the radio,” said Matt Houseman, Vice President of Programming for Great Eastern Radio. “We kept coming back to the same idea: what if we built a station for people who love country music and simply miss hearing those songs? Not just the obvious hits, either. The songs that make you say, ‘Wow, I haven’t heard this in forever.’ That’s Backroads Country.”

But the station’s name represents more than its music. Backroads Country is being built as a hometown radio station, with a particular focus on the communities along the northern Champlain Valley. Local events, community organizations, fairs, fundraisers and hometown happenings will all be part of the station’s identity. “We want Backroads to sound like where we live,” Houseman said. “The country music is a huge part of that, but so are the towns, the people, the fairs, the farms, the back roads and everything else that makes this part of Vermont special. We don’t want to just broadcast into these communities. We want to be part of them.”

Backroads Country also features Kim Ashley weekday mornings from 6–10 a.m., Dayna Dee from 10a.m.-3p.m., and House 3p.m.-7p.m., with a music library intentionally built deeper than the typical country radio playlist. The station’s music philosophy can be summed up in one phrase that listeners will hear regularly: “Country Throwbacks.” “If you haven’t heard a song in 10 or 15 years and suddenly it comes out of your speakers, there’s an immediate reaction,” Houseman said. “You remember where you were, who you were with, maybe what you were driving. Great songs do that. We want Backroads to do that all day long.”

Backroads Country 104.3 can be heard over the air throughout its Vermont coverage area and streamed online at backroads1043.com