STILL KICKIN'-Despite the loss of the last country music station in the Los Angeles market, area fans are still showing their support for the genre at places like Borderline in Thousand Oaks, where two-step lessons are offered every Wednesday night. Here, instructor Rob Thornhill shows the basics to Ali Rosen. Kristina Klug, an 18-year-old Simi Valley resident, was left asking, "Where have all the cowboys gone?" when her favorite country music station, KZLA, suddenly morphed into a hip-hop venue this August.

The station, which comes in at 93.9 FM, shocked listeners when it gave its DJ the opportunity to choose one last country song and then proceeded to fire him and change the station format.

"It was 10 in the morning on a Thursday when they gave the DJ his last song and immediately switched to hip-hop music," said an unhappy Klug. "The local country music community is appalled not only at the incident itself, but the motives the company had in making that switch."

Klug, who's studying math at California Lutheran University, has been a lifelong fan of country music, Garth Brooks and Rascal Flats in particular.

"The major issue is the fact that country music is the sort of music where whole families can listen to it; it's really wholesome music," Klug said.

The lifetime resident of Simi Valley has been able to get her country fix by cycling through her old CDs. Other country music fans in the area have purchased HD radios or satellite radio receivers to listen to their favorite genre. KZLA still streams country music from their website, but Klug and others have complained that the quality is spotty, even with a DSL connection.

Although the airwaves in Simi Valley may be absent of country music, the country scene in Ventura County still has a vibrant following, according to Jeff Klein, an owner of Borderline Bar and Grill.

The Thousand Oaks-based bar holds country-themed events every Monday, Thursday and Saturday nights.

"We have four or five hundred people show up to our weekend country events," Klein said.

Klein believes country music stations are becoming less popular because of shifting demographics in the Los Angeles area.

"The radio station wants to go after a larger market and compete for higher demographics," Klein said.

But, according to Klein, the country music scene has become more culturally diverse in recent years due to the genre's borrowing sounds from various spectrums of music.

"You have a lot of genres, from classic rock to rap, mixed in with country music-it's a whole new crowd," Klein said.

Borderline advertises with KHAY, a Ventura-based country music station. Unfortunately, the station doesn't come in clearly in the Simi Valley area.

Klug has a simple message for station owners who believe the heyday of country has passed: "People are still really interested in this genre of music. Just because we're a younger generation doesn't mean that we aren't country fans."