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The Best Produced Radio Station In The GTA
When I worked for CFTR in its rock days, a critic once called the place "the most produced radio station in Toronto." I think they meant it as an insult but everybody there took it as a compliment. It meant the on air sound was tight, the format was well carried out and there were very few mistakes.
Those days of the compressed AM sound are long gone, of course, but there's at least one station I can think of that deserves the title now. It's CHBM-FM, aka Boom 97.3. The on air sound is always hot and the production is generally flawless - including the top of the clock "Here's what you'll hear this hour on Boom 97.3" montage of upcoming hits. That's a lot of pre-production work to prepare every 60 minutes, but it's worth it.
The on air sound is very slick and the station overall sounds very good. Stingray has its Toronto outlet firing on all cylinders and even its website has some great content. Among them: specially produced bite-sized features with artists called "Behind The Vinyl" which explores stories about hits from the people who made them, and "The First Time," which talks to hitmakers about the first time they ever heard their record on the radio.
Overall, a great station really hitting it out of the park every time I tune in. As a former CFTR producer, I gladly hand over the title of "most produced" to them. They've earned it!
- Tomas Barlow
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Re: The Best Produced Radio Station In The GTA
Well, I agree with you that they do sound very good, those top of the hour intros are easier to put together than it sounds. You produce the intro and extro, but then the hooks are often provided by a service or you can create them yourself, but then they are simply scheduled the same way you would schedule a song and the automation system puts it all together. There isn’t a person producing 24 of those for every day.
- newsguy1
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Yes, Boom is great sounding, and smoothly done. I listen to them in the car, and I also like the feature that tells me what song is playing.
Of course, the only thing that's missing is a good old-fashioned DJ, with real personality, great jokes or clever comments, etc. I wonder if those days will ever come back. As Stevie Wonder says "why did those days ever have to go?"
- Binson Echorec
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Re: The Best Produced Radio Station In The GTA
Tomas Barlow wrote:
Well, I agree with you that they do sound very good, those top of the hour intros are easier to put together than it sounds. You produce the intro and extro, but then the hooks are often provided by a service or you can create them yourself, but then they are simply scheduled the same way you would schedule a song and the automation system puts it all together. There isn’t a person producing 24 of those for every day.
The real skill is making sure the proper intro is scheduled to reflect the songs scheduled that hour. The only downside is if the three or four songs highlighted (highlit?) as coming up this hour are songs I don't need to hear again.
And as an avowed "album cut" kinda person, those odds are high for me. But I do agree, the station sounds slick.
- ckg927
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Re: The Best Produced Radio Station In The GTA
As someone who resides in the Buffalo market, Boom has earned a place on my car radio preset for all the reasons mentioned and more
- ckg927
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Re: The Best Produced Radio Station In The GTA
Yes, Boom is great sounding, and smoothly done. I listen to them in the car, and I also like the feature that tells me what song is playing.
Of course, the only thing that's missing is a good old-fashioned DJ, with real personality, great jokes or clever comments, etc. I wonder if those days will ever come back. As Stevie Wonder says "why did those days ever have to go?"
Uh....you mean Stu Jeffries doesn't count? Maie Pauts? KJ?
- boom boy
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Re: The Best Produced Radio Station In The GTA
Well, I agree with you that they do sound very good, those top of the hour intros are easier to put together than it sounds. You produce the intro and extro, but then the hooks are often provided by a service or you can create them yourself, but then they are simply scheduled the same way you would schedule a song and the automation system puts it all together. There isn’t a person producing 24 of those for every day.
We edited the clips years ago for these. However, they are all picked manually (currently), by the amazing Mr. Wayne Webster.