Cliff Smithers is back in the saddle again.
Smithers, a deejay for 32 years who last month left the country morning show on WKKO-FM 99.9 (K100) in Toledo, returns Monday morning to play his favorite music for River Rat Country, an online station geared to northwest Ohio.
“I had so many great listeners and so many great people that became friends,” Smithers told The Blade. “They were loyal listeners. Some I never met face to face. But to have them come back and listen to me here would be absolutely awesome.”
Smithers will broadcast weekdays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. in a studio at his home in Temperance, Mich.
River Rat Country is the creative project of Josh David, whose first website broadcast venture was Towpath Radio, an oldies music station that’s also based in Grand Rapids, Ohio.
“It’s owned by a good friend of mine that I used to work with on Arlington Avenue,” Smithers said of David and their days together at K100. “He invited me to be a part of this, and I think it’s really a cool thing. It covers all the genres of classic country, outlaw country, and country of today — even some bluegrass as well. So, I love it all.
“Country has always been my thing.”
Smithers also has worked for rock ‘n’ roll oldies channels such as WRQN-FM 93.5 in Bowling Green between 2016 and 2018, and WOMC-FM 104.3 in Detroit between 2010 and 2016. He spent 21 years at K100 over different stints.
He did the morning show at WRQN with Lyn Casye before they both moved to K100 in December 2018 with Gary Shores, who retired in May 2019. Casye and Smithers did the show there together until last month.
His favorite classic artists are Waylon Jennings and Merle Haggard, and his current favorites are Keith Urban and Travis Tritt.
“Cliff is a great guy,” David, owner of Towpath Media, LLC, said in a press release. “The fact he’s not on the air in Toledo is a crime, but I’m incredibly excited we’re able to use River Rat Country to keep him connected to the northwest Ohio listeners who have come to love him for the last 32 years.”
What does Smithers enjoy about being a deejay?
“My biggest love is the music,” he said, “and this River Rat Country covers all parts of country music that I love.
“It seems like this internet thing is becoming more and more of a thing, and I can do it from home, and still have a blast with it. So, it’s going to be fun.”
He’s set to be joined Monday at River Rat Country — named after northwest Ohio residents who spend their summers by the Maumee River — by London Mitchell, a 53-year reporting veteran who will provide morning news updates at the top and bottom of every hour.
Smithers graduated from Emanuel Christian School in Toledo and was a business major at Liberty University in Lynchburg, Va. He was a youth pastor at Toledo Baptist Temple for five years before going into radio.
“I’m now working a full-time [sales] job at Toledo Door and Window,” Smithers said. “But I’ll be able to do this on the side, and have a lot of fun with it.”
The station, which had 580 unique listeners in the last 30 days, according to David, can be accessed at RiverRatCountry.com or with the River Rat Country app for Apple and Android. Towpath has 2,000 unique listeners.
“This is an exciting time for internet radio,” David said. “There are a ton of good people who are moving away from these huge corporate companies to exercise their craft on an independent level. Since the big companies own all the FM towers and are cutting staff like crazy, internet radio continues to get better.”
First Published July 8, 2022, 6:44 p.m.
