1 of 1- paterson1
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It's About The Music and Storytellers On The New ICON Radio
CKAY, Vista Radio's Coast FM 91.7 as of last Friday became ICON Radio. The station is on Vancouver Island's Sunshine Coast in the Nanaimo area and has a classic hits format. Brought back are some veteran announcers which they call Storytellers in the name of Brother Jake Edwards, Gerry O'Day, Gentlemen Jim Jackson and Barb Montgomery.
Here are the last few minutes of Coast FM and the changeover to ICON Radio, courtesy of RadioWest.ca. .
More on the changeover from Broadcast Dialogue..
- RadioAaron
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Re: It's About The Music and Storytellers On The New ICON Radio
This is such an interesting and creative project.
The announcers don't do shifts, but rather have pre-taped stories set to play in front of certain songs or artists. The challenge will be keeping that fresh over time.
Also, much of the audience is going to be older than radio's silly ceiling of 54. Good for them; most will be in unrated market anyway.
And by "most" I mean this is obviously going to be rolled out to more of their stations, most likely Bell's BOUNCE stations in the BC interior that they've recently applied to purchase.
Last edited by RadioAaron (March 17, 2024 2:16 pm)
- RadioQuiz
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Re: It's About The Music and Storytellers On The New ICON Radio
I checked it out for an hour.
Would he ok for a weekend show - but 24/7? I don't see the value for the local audience?
I'm guessing it will be cheap to run.
- RadioAaron
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Re: It's About The Music and Storytellers On The New ICON Radio
I'd wait to see what the full product sounds like. There was local news this afternoon.
For a 50+ audience, I think a peer talking about the music with passion is better than a "local" 25 year old making his age in salary talking about "national pizza day."
- km93
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Re: It's About The Music and Storytellers On The New ICON Radio
Hmmmm., so more like YouTube or Instagram stories then? Quick stories leading into songs, but no one actually there live in studio. I could see Corus doing this with Alan Cross, and RadioAaron it's not just 25 year old's talking "National Pizza Day"
- paterson1
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Re: It's About The Music and Storytellers On The New ICON Radio
It is interesting how they do mix up the talk about music between the hosts and audio from the artist. I heard a break with Robert Plant speaking about Stairway To Heaven. This song doesn't get much airplay anymore but it was interesting hearing Plants thoughts many years later. His break was maybe a minute and then of course into Stairway.
I find this interesting since so many so called music stations say almost nothing about the music they play or even what they have just played. Some of this is because of VT but other than occasional Hollywood gossip about the artist, usually nothing about the actual song, artist or any background.
As long as they have some news (as indicated above) and any important weather and traffic information this station could have some success, especially with more mature listeners and earthy folks that live in Nanaimo and the island. Valdy's music has a new home.
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Thread Starter- RadioActive
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Re: It's About The Music and Storytellers On The New ICON Radio
Not all the residents of the area are happy about the change, noting the station was a beacon of local news and weather, which seems to have gone away. They feel "ICON" has become "I Can't."
As for the plans for Vista's other stations that they bought from Bell? The company's "[Robin] Ram said it’s too early to tell, but the Sechelt/Nanaimo station is the only station currently being rebranded."
What is happening to Coast FM?