When local country music station WKLB launched nearly 20 years ago, music director Ginny Rogers had a very difficult job.

“I remember back in the ’90s trying to get George Strait to play up here and his booking agent said, ‘Well, there aren’t that many country music fans in the Boston and New England area, so we don’t like to come up there too often,’ ” she recalls. “And I was scratching my head and saying, ‘You’re wrong, they’re here. We need the acts to come up because we know our listeners are out there.’ ”