They were going to go with ABC Country Coast to Coast (Satellite). There was an internal memo supposedly. They managed to convince them not to change the format at the last minute, within hours of the supposed change.

WMAQ gave up Country (Except for Fred Sanders) because of US99 in the early 80s, although it as not unusual to hear a Country station on AM well into the 90s

WKXK's launch package specifically mentioned US99 as a "Friendly competition" instead of a rival which was pretty awkward.

As for Brian, he brought a few things they did in Chicago to Milwaukee, like I was saying the jingle packages and one of WKXK's jocks was their first morning show. I figure he had been job hunting since WKXK had flipped to Classic Rock not long before. He got hired in Milwaukee in 1996. The infamous Macarena parody (Packarena) that WMYX' morning show recorded was actually recorded at WTMX, because they had digital equipment at the time. They didn't flip to CHR until 1998 when Sinclair bought the cluster. His MD was brought in from WXLC.