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SOWNY » “New Music” - For how long? » November 4, 2020 10:26 pm |
Tonight I was listening to CHUM and, at around 7:30pm, a great little “new music” stinger over part of the song (akin to a sung intro) came on.
Immediately, my ears perked up. “Have I heard this yet,” I thought to myself.
Imagine my surprise, then, when I identified the song in question:
Mackenzie Porter - These Days
A great, upbeat pop song with a catchy hook - no doubt. But to describe it as “New”? Seems a bit odd, in my opinion.
After all, the song was released in 2019 and has been in active rotation on the CHR and AC charts since at least the beginning of the summer.
So my question to those in the know: how long can a station realistically get away with calling something “new”?
SOWNY » Postmedia latest to catch Covid19 » April 28, 2020 6:01 pm |
I'm not surprised at all. I recently tried the very simple function of downloading monthly invoices for my past year's National Post subscription (our fiscal year ends March 31st). Their horribly-outdated website was not even technologically capable of doing this! (though, to be fair, neither the Star nor Globe & Mail's websites were any better).
It continues to amaze me how great "heritage" brands like newspapers - but also also other public institutions - continue to be run into the ground by poor management unwilling and/or incapable of "keeping up with the times". Funny how there seems to be plenty of taxpayer bailout money for executive compensation & sweetheart consultant deals (Star Touch, anyone?) - but very little available for actual R&D, automation, market research, and technically savvy front-line STAFF.
In a world where any joe with a keyboard can monetize their content by curating a community using freely-available tools, there is absolutely no reason (beyond incompetence) that behemoths like legacy newspapers can't find a way to leverage their brands.
SOWNY » Another Bizarre Moment From The Toronto Star » January 2, 2020 3:36 pm |
AspectRatio wrote:
What's amusing is that although they did fix the headline, the URL still reads "2019" ( ) - I assume to keep compatibility with links internally elsewhere on Thestar.com and externally. Most content management systems will maintain a static URL as an option - years ago many would have it rewritten when a story's headline is updated which for a "breaking news" story meant throughout the day any links to it would break.
...and the amateur show continues on full display over at the Star. A simple URL redirection for that particular article could have pushed folks to the correctly-labeled URL while maintaining the relevancy of existing links placed elsewhere.
It's amazing that even with the taxpayer-paid "bailout" (aka buy-off) from Trudeau, the Star still can't seem to get its act together. Just look at the stock price!
SOWNY » Why doesn't Toronto media do a better job of covering "the media" » September 15, 2019 2:09 am |
SOWNY » Rogers media names a new head to their media dvision » August 8, 2019 4:39 pm |
Muffaraw Joe wrote:
Time will tell, but this could be a game changer...
I doubt it. The culture at Rogers is so stale, corporate, and seemingly "anti-customer" that you'd be hard pressed to find anyone that can turn that ship around. (And I say this not as someone who has ever worked for Rogers - but as a frustrated consumer of its various services...)
SOWNY » Newstalk 1010 Guest Co-host Spends Most of Show Disagreeing With Doyle » August 8, 2019 4:38 pm |
RadioActive wrote:
Doyle is a Conservative while Scott Reid is, frankly, an outright Liberal shill. The former at least can admit fault with the Ford government while the latter can never say anything negative about his precious Big Red Machine.
Frankly, I find them both tiresome and increasingly, I find myself tuning out of CFRB after 4 PM and not coming back until the next morning.
I tend to like Doyle - particularly when he's paired with Jay (who moderates the show and provides comic relief). Reid, on the other hand, is a downright embarrassment. Even Liberal Party talking points aren't so blatantly partisan...
SOWNY » Bell says it now has 2.7 million Crave subscribers » August 8, 2019 4:26 pm |
I tried Crave a fews years back (specifically to watch The Wire). Unfortunately, I kept having streaming issues and both Crave (the content provider) and Bell (my ISP at the time) couldn't figure it out. Hours and hours wasted "blaming" the the other guy (which, ironically, is them!)
Just another example why content creators and infrastructure providers should be broken up...
SOWNY » Whatever Happened To Station I.D. Jingles? » August 7, 2019 3:49 pm |
I believe Virgin Radio still uses a form of jingle.
Newstalk 1010 uses a 4-note "audio logo" (though it's not sung).
Up in Barrie, Life 100.3 still uses full-fledged singing ID jingles.
SOWNY » Energy 95.3 mornings » March 26, 2019 1:54 pm |
SOWNY » Well, this will spark debate...Who has the best voice? Men or Women? » March 15, 2019 6:23 pm |
I think it all depends on the context.
When listening to the news, I want the big, authoritative “leader among men” pipes to instil confidence that the story being told is the full truth - that the reporter had the balls to ask tough question and move past rhetoric and spin (think Dave McKee on 1010 or the late Mark Dailey)
When it comes to my digital device, I like a warmer, friendlier female tone to assist with whatever it is I’m working on.
And I when it comes to comedy, I want the aloof / funny “beta male” sound that isn’t taking the situation too seriously (ie: Jamie Watts voicing Comedy Network promos)
No one voice is better “overall” - just better suited to the situation at hand.
SOWNY » Bell Keeps Interfering with News Reporting » January 18, 2017 7:28 pm |
I was quite concerned to hear Newstalk 1010 use their "newscast" to promote partisan corporate activities by parent company Bell Canada. On both the 5:30pm and 6:00pm newscasts earlier today (January 18th), stories about Bell Canada's "investment in infrastructure" were promoted as if they were legitimate news stories.
One has to seriously question the influence of Bell corporate on CFRB's news reporting based upon the preferential coverage this story is being afforded. I recall Bell executive Kevin Crull was taken to task over this very type of undue influence over sister property, CTV:
Is it really worth destroying the credibility of a heritage brand like CFRB for cheap and "free" advertising? Do they honestly think listeners are too stupid to realize this is simply a public relations exercise by head office?
SOWNY » Billie returns to Toronto airwaves » June 21, 2016 3:56 am |
You mean 93.5 "The Move"? Not a bad idea.... Though I stand by my assertion that their imaging is crap (you can't have Peter Kash both hosting *AND* being used as the station voice in the evening)...
For the record, they ignored my suggestions
SOWNY » Sam the Record Man Sign Set to Light Up Toronto Once Again » June 2, 2016 3:33 pm |
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