I would love to take the credit... but our programming team of York, Dave, Mark and Rob should get the high fives.

If I was, I wouldn't be able to answer that question.

torontostan wrote:

JON POLE wrote:

From what I see -

The answer is - it was taken from an email we sent the advertisers + a bit of writing.

I would be more than happy to answer any of his questions

I don't understand something.... you asked the public for input on the naming of the Brockville stations, yet it has already been named MyFM? Care to elaborate?
 

The short answer is the research was already done.   The current survey is to invite the audience to be part of the process - and also confirm everything is still on track.    The problem was the iheart switched our stuff way faster than we expected which was fine... but it let the "cat out the bag"

That all the average listener likely isn't that tuned into these "radio" things.   They just know whether they like it or don't.   Based on the responses - they like it, and all the things we've planned will be very popular.

For the record - I agree with Radio Aaron about the frequency.   99 is not an actual frequency.  98.9 is. Why confuse it?   Lower the friction as much as possible for people to find you, remember you and to listen to you.  Of course, you don't have to... just my 2 cents.

torontostan wrote:

Performative and gimmicky. They should actually do something to help. Or..... if you're going to do this.. don't do it at noon.....

I will jump on in on this.

Toronto Stan - no idea who you are, or your experience. Hope you're well. 

Here's what I can tell you.   In my 30 years of radio (and I've done ok) - playing the National Anthem at noon is one of the BEST decisions we've ever made.   The audience reaction has been nothing but positive since we started years ago.   Obviously today's political environment has increased the positive response, but it has always existed since we started.  In rated and non-rated markets.   Pembroke has been doing it through surveys the longest and 104.9 myFM is #1 in every day part 25-54... so it's not hurting us.

Also - You're wayyyyyyyy overthinking it. It's 90 seconds before the news.  If I'm being honest - if a listener doesn't like us taking 90 seconds to pay tribute to our country... I'm not sure I want them as a listener?  We've had exactly ZERO complaints.  This board is the only place I've seen anything negative about playing our Anthem.


Now you know.

P.S - if asked I would recommend every station in the country add it immediately.  I would encourage Canadian artists to send custom versions that stations can play for variety.  There is no down side.

P.S.S - I posted this 6 days ago.

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/jonpole_this-is-a-text-exchange-with-my-19-year-old-activity-7306711992818442240-EhV0?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_android&rcm=ACoAAAIFQzEB3ZQQ4lq75dv9JWuKHVz_Pr_0YeQ

Scarboroughbluffsradiof99 wrote:

Hope they get the stations out of Rogers hands soon.
John, I know your on this forum, If rogers gives up CJCL or CHFI could you by it?
Why did rogers even by CKOT, they were doing a great job on a great undersurved format.
Even young people like me like the soft AC/easy listening format.

I would love to own CHFI. (We don't own any AM stations - but I love sports radio - but would say no to CJCL).   I'm not sure I would have enough in the piggy bank if CHFI was available.   It is an amazing station with an incredible history.

If I'm being honest, our strength is in medium and small markets. We know that business very well and enjoy working in those size of communities.  I don't see a day where we run stations in major markets.   That said - it would be fun!

I can only speak for MBC.

We don't have a single station in the red.

Many of our stations just finished a record year including our first/oldest market.  Last fiscal we hit our 10 year target - 3 years early and having gone through the pandemic.   I do not share RadioAaron's opinion from my point of view.

I don't stick my nose in other operators businesses, but my observation would be, the independent operators that I admire have lots of sales people, and generally 3-5X or more the performance of their competitors who are doing whatever it is they do.

My final thought is radio enjoyed pretty hefty margins for many years.  Since we started in 2004 - we've always done really well.  Our margins are not the good old days of radio (we never experienced it anyway) BUT - they are usually better than most businesses in our size of markets.  You just have to work hard no different than our customers work hard in their categories.

Radio ran (what I would call) properly is still a very good business.

In 20 years - will people still want local news in their community.  Yes.

In 20 years - will people still want to attend cool events in their community.  Yes

In 20 years - will people still want to support charity events in their community - Yes.

In 20 Years - will businesses still need help with marketing, ideas, community connection.  Yes.

That's what we do.  It's possible our towers may be replaced by streams, or our digital news sites... that's fine - we earn our living by helping others succeed via our platforms.   So our runway is long as long as we deliver.

My 2 cents.   Now we can all patiently wait for RadioAaron to tell me I'm wrong ;)

No.  It will not be a myFM repeater.  Both stations will operate under their own brands.

Thank you.
Time will tell I guess.

You're in a very large group a radio folks that have bet against me my entire career.   I'm used to it.  I'm cool with it.

Ya,  I'm good, but thanks.

I mean this in the nicest possible way... but brother you're 7 steps behind how the market is going to shift.  Gotta see to where the puck is going.

They'll be something else for you to armchair quarterback soon enough.

RadioAaron -

The stunt was more or less to clear out the old audience.  The reality was the transmitter site was a mess and needed more attention than originally expected...so the stunt went on a little longer than we intended and people loved it.  We didn't see that coming to be honest. Part 2 of that story is that other things including the Bell deal came along which altered our original plans and lead to us putting 102.7 into a bit of holding pattern.  So... we never implemented our original plans as the game changed.  Which made the process interesting. It's a great "over a beer story"

As for Big G and Matty... I have yet to meet someone IN Kingston who doesn't love them AND highly anticipate their return.  They're great community guys and I'm willing to bet on them.

Will it work?  No idea. We're just out here doing it in real life, not on a message board   If it doesn't work... we have a country station coming that may suit them better.  Who knows?  Stay tuned.

The only thing we did wrong with the Pole was we didn't film a documentary.   It was a great learning experience.  Listener response was amazing and they shared some incredible feedback on "radio".

The FREQ 90.5 music library today is pretty close to what the Pole was.

Forward Power wrote:

The CRTC were sure to mention the fact that My Broadcasting Corp. already owns a station in Gananoque, CJGM-FM 99.9, which shares tower space with CJPT-FM 103.7 near Lansdowne. Which station will MBC give up in order to stay within ownership limits? CFLY-FM 98.3 and CJPT have massive signals, while CKLC-FM 98.9 and CFJR-FM 104.9 are smaller, originating from their respective ex-AM sites. CJGM is also a smaller signal.

Also worth noting is that the incorrect address is given for MBC - earlier this year the company HQ moved to new studio and office space at the expanded recreation complex in Renfrew, the "myFM Centre". The address given is in the process of becoming a restaurant.

Fun fact:

It's the right address as Canada Post hasn't identified a proper address for our new office.   I know that sounds crazy.

RadioAaron wrote:

Yeah, yeah. Everything anyone at Bell does is bad, and the company that VTs mornings in Peterborough is going to fix it.

RadioAaron

I'm not sure your point is?   Radio stations across the planet use VTs.  Some VT the news and the announcers are live.  It this case we do the reverse. Not because I like it.  Not because you don't like it.  We do it because the audience prioritizes news first.  The minute they tell me something else - I will do that.   It's really that simple.  My friend you are over thinking it.

BTW - We're not trying to fix anything - nothing in our company is broken.  Our staff have secure jobs.  We're serving our communities.   We're having fun.   We're growing.

I appreciate your passion for radio.

RadioActive wrote:

Just want to thank Jon Pole for joining our little slice of Internet heaven. It's great that he would take the time to answer questions since I'm pretty sure given the growing size of his station group, he has a lot of other things to do. So my thanks. (Or should that be "MyFM" thanks?) 

Enjoy the Super Bowl Mr. Pole!

I should note that he's the second radio owner to grace us with his presence. He doesn't post often and hasn't in a long while, but WECK owner Buddy Shula has made his opinions known here in the past as well. 

We're really glad to have them both. 

You're welcome.  I've enjoyed the questions.   I love the radio passion here.