RadioQuiz wrote:

Agree. This may be the worst line up in the history of CFRB. To be fair they are playing with half a team now and no clear leadership.

Here's what I don't get?

The only success they have on TSN is Overdrive. The model works. Why do they not carbon copy that to 1010?

Find a good anchor with 2 good cohosts. Do it on the radio and simulcast on CP 24 for an hour or two? Seems like a no brainer.

TV audio on Radio is not a winner.   It's cost containment.    Sports you can get away with more of this.... News Talk and News?  Not so much.   Look at CTV NEWS AT 6 AND CTV NATIONAL NEWS ratings on 1010.   Not a win...  Only is cheap to do.   

paterson1 wrote:

I don't know if they can actually regulate change.  Bell and Rogers are not going to give their technology and networks away to the smaller upstarts, and why should they.  It would be like building a new in ground swimming pool in your backyard, and the city telling you that you must give 24/7 access to your pool to the tenants of the low rental apartments down the street. 

The real change will come from competition.  And hopefully it has started... more from Global News..
https://globalnews.ca/news/9723632/freedom-mobile-rogers-shaw-nationwide-plan/

but i have a bit of an issue here...   MVNO's are doing very well in the USA, which use one of the big players networks to reach their customers.  They also jointly work together on tower sites, via a 3rd party tower owner, or renting space from the other company.   The big players get paid for the use, and really act as a win for all involved.   In Canada, unless forced, the big 3 fight to keep any new competitor out.    They are not willing to work together on a business deal with most new startups because frankly, they want the market for themselves.   A MVNO start up could in fact keep money flowing to one of the big 3 companies based on a deal in place OR even tower space they rent over getting nothing.   It's very short term thinking to run like you are a monopoly, not to mention you are limited business deals when you have to be forced to do things, that you could have worked out jointly in the meeting room.     The big 3 will scream they are being freeloaded on, but facts are they are getting cost plus deals and are being paid well for MVNO's to use their networks.    

tvguy wrote:

.  And, HD transmission in Toronto is not cheap.   Brookfield which controls the roof rights at First Canadian place  probably charging $20,000 per year/per HD subchannel -  in additional rent to stations who utilize HD2, 3 and 4's. Plus they take a revenue share, if the channel is being leased out.  The main HD channel at First Canadian Place does not spike a rent increase.  Scott Fybush told me that he knows of no U.S. tower rental companies that charge a premium for HD2, 3 or 4 use.

  Toronto is a bad example because of the way it's setup for rental on FCP, but normal cases, you can add HD to an existing plant for much less on FM than you can on AM.    I do know the CN tower is going through an upgrade and not sure how they will handle HD via their existing tenants and the new master antenna system.   The point of the upgrade on top of getting equipment modernized, is to allow stations on the CN tower add HD if they want.   I'm willing to bet we see most jump on board. 99.9 only has HD because they are using their own antenna and space left from CFTO analog on the CN Tower.   I also wonder if most on FCP have been able to make deals because majority on FCP are in HD, some with 4 HD signals.     

I have long argued, that only exclusive content that people want will ever make people care about subchannels.  Putting something already available on another signal that requires a new radio, will not work.   Durham is one that does this with WAVE for Smooth Jazz.  And in the USA, there is options that are not available on regular broadcasts.    Sadly without promo, you will NEVER know they exist for most if they have to press 5 buttons to make it work vs 1.    The industry has to jump in with 2 feet, promo the HD and actually provide content.  Work with the makers of the radios to make the experience easy.      In Canada with limited options to move an AM to FM in major centers, i think they need to start now if they h

680 never actually stops broadcasting all news..   It just drops the am 680 audio for whatever game they take.  Digital platforms still stream their normal all news format.   The game is still 590s, so I do see the logic of 680 not taking ownership. Not to mention in PPM it doesn't matter, 680 will get credit for 680 regardless. 

 

Radiowiz wrote:

mace wrote:

When the switch finally comes, I wonder if some/all of 102.5's listeners will migrate to 96.1?

I wonder if Star will move to 98.5  
If 107.7 is such a weak signal...too weak for top 40 radio to be successful, why did did Entercom (at the time) pay way too much money for it rather than consider it to be too weak a signal to be a threat to WKSE?

Now WKSE can move to 107.7 and be an actual top 40 there freely without being a threat to any other station. 



 

I doubt WKSE will move.   Kiss 98.5 is a heritage format/station and moving it would only harm things more.    I can see them flipping 107.7 to a Hot AC perhaps under the Star brand.   It could be more successful than the current country.   They also could decide to go more adult leaning CHR with Kiss 98.5 to fill the void left.  This could split audiences between 96.1 and Kiss.   They could also sell off the rest of the stations they own in Buffalo.   I sure wouldn't feel good working in the building currently... way to many unknowns. 

I can see putting a label on something like RT... but NPR with only 1% of grants coming from the us government, it feels a little heavy handed by Twitter to discredit.  If it was state run, they would never state anything against Trump which they have many times during his leadership.    NPR is nothing but a public broadcaster that runs as a non-profit. Has their own board, and zero control from any government agency. 

So the basics I have seen with this.

Rogers gets Shaw Cable and Dish services.  (Cable isn't even in any Rogers areas, so I don't see a real issue here)  Dish perhaps has some competitive areas that will be lost, but most people don't get Dish if they can get Fibre or Cable now. 

The Mobile parts of Shaw completely leave for others.. Quebecor and Videotron.     No change in media ownership other than Corus doesn't have Shaw to fall back on. 

Do I like the idea of losing a company?  No..    But I think this is exactly how I figured it would play out, because handing it over as originally planned would have for sure caused prices to increase on mobile.    With Cable and Dish?   There is less push because it really wasn't a competition based on geographics.   Rogers now just has more footprint for cable and a Dish choice to play ball with the local phone company.   That's all I see here...  

The Milton one really is the one that loses.    You can hardly get the signal in Milton due to CJSA.   CJSA has height vs Milton's station being very low to the ground. CJSA also broadcasts in HD, and Milton does not.    (they should actually consider it, as radios with HD flip over to CJSA where the signals get mixed).    The Milton station really should have found a different frequency. Even one frequency up or down would fix a lot of the issue within Milton itself..   Financially it has to be very limited for them to make money from their own home base. 
 

Only big difference with this, from track record it's doubtful you will see huge price hikes, and even the Mint brand will likely stay around because of their popularity and approach that is different.    Here they typically buy a company and move everyone to their own existing brands and wipe the former brand off the face of the earth, while jacking prices sky high. 

These should NOT be on "Skinny Basic" in all of Canada but available for those who choose or perhaps on an upper tier package.    That's my 2 cents.   

Tomas Barlow wrote:

Did the station violate its condition of license?  Yes.
Case closed.

He's getting awfully smug.  It's time for the CRTC to send some denials his way for a while.  Maybe all of his stations should be audited for other noncompliance like Cancon levels. Maybe the commission should issue short renewals due to the blatant wilful noncompliance by this owner.

His "local" radio stations feature out of market voice tracks, networked news and employ virtually no one.  He can swipe at others but he uses the identical bare bones, corner cutting business model in smaller markets than Bell and Rogers so everyone thinks he doing something heroic. I see the same arrogance as the big guys, just on a smaller scale.

Personally, CRTC needs to get out of the format business and worry about what matters.   The fact they are running music vs sports is doing what is need to be done to ensure the financial survival of the station.   The fact you have to apply to switch to a spoken word format or music format for a commercial license is ridiculous.    The CRTC's job shouldn't be protecting another commercial stations business.   It should be to ensure fees are paid/can be paid, Cancon is played (if we are going to keep going with that), legal requirements are met and any technical compliance is adhered to.    If the CRTC comes back demanding they flip to sports full time, they will hand the license back, and the community will in fact lose a voice.  That market is not going to have a line up of people wanting a 206 watt station.     Reality is, the world has changed, and the market has changed.   Decisions had to be made.   Sports on radio across North America has not recovered outside play by play.    Bell knows this and to say other wise is totally a lie.   The bigger issue for me, is how is running TV audio OR pre-recorded comedy with no local hosts on radio providing a local service worthy of taking up a signal?    Bell now has a

arc23 wrote:

https://hackaday.com/2023/03/06/whats-going-to-happen-to-legacy-broadcast-bands-when-the-lights-go-out


WHAT’S GOING TO HAPPEN TO LEGACY BROADCAST BANDS WHEN THE LIGHTS GO OUT? 

So in years to come, what will happen to these bands? We very much doubt they’ll become a free-for-all, as a badly made AM pirate spewing kilowatts of harmonics audible in the gigahertz is not a desirable outcome for anyone. Instead we’re guessing they’ll languish, forgotten by all but a few enthusiasts polishing their vintage Philco tabletop radios. It’s sad, because we could imagine a vibrant future for an AM band in a world where limited power unlicensed microbroadcast transmissions were legal. This is to some extent already the case in some parts of the world, but if that were to become a more general thing with permissible power in the region of a watt or two then we could see large numbers of short-range stations co-existing across the dial.


 

If a tree falls in the forest with no one around... Does it make a sound?   Does anyone hear it?      I would say in this case, by this point no one will be around to hear it, so "pirates" will not be driven to broadcast anything.    And a few who do and cause issues for anyone will be treated the same as they do currently.    

km93 wrote:

Kingston used to have The Drive which was a lot like Toronto's 'The Edge' or 'Sonic' in Alberta and B.C., and it did very well in the ratings, Bell changed it to 'Pure Country' as a cost-cutting move. Alternative is the main hole, that even Queen's campus radio fails to fill. If Alternative can work in Peterborough and Orillia, it will do very well in Kingston.

Exactly my thoughts..   Always an issue with today though... can it be sold to advertisers to buy on the station.   "The Pole" I can't see staying due to the limited advertisers who would feel comfortable on a station like that, but alt rock? I think there could be room to make that work, and offer enough difference between the others already in the market.   Kids in college/university are a hard sell to regular radio in 2023 on any station but streaming, but those Gen X's could give then a sellable audience base. 

As 1010 doesn't have a newsroom anymore and uses TV people to do radio news... I don't think quality with radio news is the focus right now.

Cheap only works with experienced oversite and coaching if you expect a level of quality.   I doubt time is spend on such things.  

Radiowiz wrote:

Sooooo...Scott and Kat are just a repeater of the Kitchener station on 95.3 now?

Repeater may be a strong word with the stations running different formats/music/brand and target markets.      Energy 953 screams to me as this was a cost containment approach, as ratings wise Energy has not been what they had hoped for in the Toronto Market.  Their adult leaning chr/hot ac is really covered and way too may in the market especially for a rim shot.     I do wonder what the future brings.   Another change coming down the road should this not see any growth?   640 Toronto or CHML coming to FM on 95.3?

We will see.