I was listening to the radio this morning as always, flipping between stations while I drank my coffee and try to get my eyes functional, mostly looking for music I would like to listen to. Mornings are a bad time to be listening for music- especially anything new, but that's beside the point. I stopped on one station to get their gossip report and the subject of Prince Andrew came up and his expulsion by King Charles. The host doing the reporting actually confessed on air that she knew nothing about the controversy surrounding Andrew and his association with Jeffrey Epstein and possible sexual misconduct. Where has this radio personality been and where does she get her news to report? This has been going on for several years. I was stunned. How could someone in radio, doing featured gossip and related reporting, not know what has been an ongoing significant news item?

I am so sorry. Pets become part of the family - a big part. We had both a dog and a cat which came into our home a year apart and both left a year apart, in each case after 18 years. There is no question, the loss is real and it hurts, but you will always have the memories. Our thoughts are with you.

A couple of weeks ago on a Saturday night there was nothing interesting to watch and we landed on Bill Maher on CNN and he used the "F" word multiple times. The first time it came out was a surprise, maybe an accident, but after several times, it was no accident.

I never listen to commercials on radio. I listen to the radio at home in the morning with my coffee and feet up in my lazy boy. I have a remote and as soon as an ad break comes on I am searching other stations for music. same in the car. So, I don't recall hearing these annoying radio commercials. A couple that do bother me is the current Fowler Tire tv ad when the guy pulls his beard off. I cannot stand that and it certainly turns me off of Fowler Tire. Another is the Meridian ad referring to people as numbers. That one shows up regularly on YouTube so I can't ignore it if I want to play the music video I have selected, but it does not make me feel good about Meridian.

What about communities like mine - Guelph. There is no local news on the weekend, except 570 Kitchener which has local coverage from 7AM to noon Saturday & Sunday. if the power is off, we're dead. we do have one radio that will function without power, but it's reach is only local.

CJOY no longer has a morning show or an afternoon drive drive show. They do have traffic reports. According to their website Dan Allaire covers weekday mid-days (10AM-2PM), but it will be voice tracked I expect. He does mornings on Boom in Cornwall. They still cover the Guelph Storm games.

Yes Magic 106 does have a morning show. Lisa & Brent. Lisa Richards has been at Magic for years - on her own and as co-host of the morning show with Kevin Kelly (also the PD) , until he disappeared. A couple of others partnered with her for a while but they did not work out. Brent Richards used to do fill in but became the permanent co-host of the morning show several years ago.     

been that way since Mike Devine was dropped from his morning show (plus his mid day shift on Dave-FM and evening shift on Magic 106.1). Dan Allaire is listed as doing mid days Mon - Fri from 10Am-2PM. Otherwise non stop music/commercials/traffic updates/ news weekday mornings. They also broadcast Guelph Storm and Hamilton Tiger Cat games. They would not fit in with the Magic 106 format. It will be really too bad if CJOY disappears. It has a great oldies playlist - broader than other oldies stations.

I think the Bell Let's Talk ads this year are absolutely disgusting and disgraceful. 

TheWiz wrote:

Storm wrote:

I am wondering if the Hamilton management positions will be taken over by someone else, or do they also fall under the umbrella of the "Kitchener/Guelph Cluster".

I've heard rumblings that the Hamilton cluster will be shut down. 95.3 will be run out of Toronto and 107.9 is moving to London.

Storm wrote:

And last, what happened to Scott Fox?

According to the last sentence of this article, he was let go: https://nwbroadcasters.com/2024/12/19/corus-making-changes-within-ontario-radio/

The last paragraph in this article was not in the one I read yesterday. I wonder why Scott Fox was let go? Scott & Kat have been together for several years and left Z103.5 for the Beat where their show seemed to be a hit and they were simulcast on Energy 95.3 plus they were also on other Corus CHR stations. Dave Blezard did a great job filling in while Fox was off and he and Kat seemed to have a great rapport. Maybe Corus decided he could handle co-hosting the morning show along with his PD responsibilities which would eliminate one paycheck and save Corus some money.

If you go way back, Scott Fox and Dave Blezard co-hosted the morning show on Z103.5 along with Melanie Martin and later Josie Fenech (Guerra) and then Ashley Greco. 

Magic 106 and Energy 95.3 have the exact same playlist, including past hits, except during the morning show and right now while Magic is all Christmas music. 

I don't think the morning show on Virgin 105.3 is close to the Beat and I don't think Dave Blezard replacing Scott Fox will make a difference.  Virgin 105.3 and Virgin 97.5 London are the same station. Same hosts - same music - round the clock. The morning show is hosted from London and PM drive in Kitchener. The rest of the programing is from Toronto.

 

Does Chum-FM even play Kendrick Lamar? 

My wife watches Cooking Channel & Food Network Canada and we both watch HGTV, so if Rogers dumps them we won't be happy. I understand they are planning their own "Food" channel and "Home & Garden" channel with some, but not all, of the programs being carried on the proposed to be cancelled channels. This after increasing our monthly tv charge by $7 - yes, we are one of them. However, we are month to month so I suppose we can leave anytime.

RadioActive wrote:

It's totally baffling to me why anyone would want to watch a station dedicated to cooking and eating, but it's a popular station in North America. I just have no idea why. I cannot think of anything more boring. 

Not boring at all. My wife and I have been watching it regularly (but not exclusively) for years. If you are into food and food preparation, it is both fun and interesting to watch. There are too many reality and competition shows on now, but the actual cooking shows are great and educational to someone who is cooking challenged (me - not my wife).
 

I noticed that this morning as well, but here their volume was much louder than it has been and much louder than the other two AM music stations I listen to: CJOY and AM740

mojo55 wrote:

As ffar back as 1954, I recall that WKBW 1520  was playing rock and roll (mostly R&B) each night at 8:00PM with The Hound  George Lorenz.  I used to listen to The Lone Ranger on Mon Wed & Fri at 7:30PM and immediately afterwards you would hear the sound of a hound  thereby signaling the start of George's show. It was definitely ahead of its time.

There was also a guy known as Lucky Pierre on a Buffalo radio station (I don't remember which one) who was on week nights at 8PM for an hour who played new pop music. That would be late 1956 early 1957.