1 of 1- RadioActive
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Whatever Happened To Weekend Specials On Radio?
The source for this post comes from my favourite radio writer, who is based in L.A. He asks a question I haven’t thought of in a long time. Some of the stations on the west coast used to air special (some might call it gimmicky) programming almost every weekend, whether it was a holiday or not.
He cites the case of several Top 40 formatted outlets that used to run a ‘music contest’ of sorts, in which the DJ would play two songs, ask listeners to call in and vote for their favourite, then launch that same record against another competitor. It resulted in the same song getting played a lot, to the irritation of some, but it drove listener involvement.
CHUM used to do a limited version of this called “The Battle Of The New Sounds,” pitting two new tunes against the other and asking the teen audience to phone in their vote. (I won two 45s from 1050 this way and I still have them both.)
I remember when CKFH did this. They called their special weekend “The Million Dollar Battle” and when all was said and done, the winner was “Born To Be Wild,” by Steppenwolf, which survived endless match-ups against other tunes, and wound up winning the competition - and they played it every other song for hours.
As a kid, I loved it. Not so sure I would now.
His main point is that weekends used to be special on radio. Not anymore.
“Why do stations today not have special weekends, outside of special events and holidays? It’s an unfortunate victim of modern radio economics; stations no longer have a weekend staff, so there is no one to orchestrate it. Almost every station in town is basically a jukebox with commercials on the weekend. It just costs too much for those “throwaway” hours.”
I think Boom may be the exception to this “take the weekend off” programming but I do remember a time when nearly every weekend on the rock stations were special. And it was great.
- Shorty Wave
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Re: Whatever Happened To Weekend Specials On Radio?
RadioActive wrote:
…..weekends used to be special on radio. Not anymore.
I think Boom may be the exception to this “take the weekend off” programming but I do remember a time when nearly every weekend on the rock stations were special. And it was great.
The weekend has become a dumping ground for paid programming and reroll programs, however, much like Boom, AM740 has a pretty healthy roster of weekend programming. Sure, there’s some paid programming involved, but shows like Vintage Favourites with Gene Stevens, The Immortals and Big Band Sunday Night are all fairly decent shows, I listen to Zoomer a fair bit then. CFRB used to have a handful of weekend shows I would listen to, now the only thing they have is Sunday Morning Trivia, which I will tune into if not busy, even won the grand prize once!
- Scarboroughbluffsradiof99
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Re: Whatever Happened To Weekend Specials On Radio?
What ever happened to weekend specialty programming and interesting weekend programming on commercial, cbc, and even chry and ciut?
There used to be shows such as a little breth of scottland, the grand ole opry on CHAM, wolfman jack, the vinal cafe, DNTO on cbc radio 1 at the same time as the opera show on radio 2, and some documentary shows on satturday evenings on radio 1.
Also, shows on chin such as radio sumadija, the sunday church service, 1 that came back and I'm glad it did was caribian connection, amung others.
On CHFI, you had satturday night oldies and sunday oldies, on 740 and 103.9 you had brodway and musical shows, on EZ rock you had studio 97.3, and on 105.1, you had energy 105 which I used to just listen to for there station ids and how interesting it was to have an english station on a french station opperating as a full-fledged station.
Now, weekends are the same as weekdays and just so boring with infomersials, reruns, the same music as weekdays, and on chin and other ethnic stations, mostly talk-heavy programs serving the same large ethnic groups with little english-language content to learn about smaller ethnic groups.
- Scarboroughbluffsradiof99
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Re: Whatever Happened To Weekend Specials On Radio?
…..weekends used to be special on radio. Not anymore.
I think Boom may be the exception to this “take the weekend off” programming but I do remember a time when nearly every weekend on the rock stations were special. And it was great.
The weekend has become a dumping ground for paid programming and reroll programs, however, much like Boom, AM740 has a pretty healthy roster of weekend programming. Sure, there’s some paid programming involved, but shows like Vintage Favourites with Gene Stevens, The Immortals and Big Band Sunday Night are all fairly decent shows, I listen to Zoomer a fair bit then. CFRB used to have a handful of weekend shows I would listen to, now the only thing they have is Sunday Morning Trivia, which I will tune into if not busy, even won the grand prize once!
If you want some interesting weekend programming, You have to listen to rural radio or newfoundland radio.
I wish we had stations like VOCM, oz fm, and VOWR here in toronto.
Our radio is so boring compaired to kitchener, rural areas, and newfoundland.