There are ~700 commercial radio stations in Canada. 200 of them shutting down would be 28%. That seems extremely unlikely. Likewise, they emphasize "small-market AM stations" which barely even exist in the first place at this point. If you were to drive from Toronto to Montreal on the 401 - once you leave the GTA you will encounter ONE commercial AM station from a smaller market: CJBQ Belleville.

Last edited by RadioAaron (August 26, 2020 9:52 am)

Kosmos Kagool wrote:

RadioAaron wrote:

   If you were to drive from Toronto to Montreal on the 401 - once you leave the GTA you will encounter ONE commercial AM station from a smaller market: CJBQ Belleville.

Belleville's answer to Red Robinson & Roger Ashby is Freddy Vette; he's worth the drive to Belleville
 

Right On!

CJBQ and Freddy Vette are one of the two Canadian stations I regularly listen to. They also have a nice show on Sunday afternoon with Jim Wright. CJBQ steams in good quality stereo too. 

Cancon and the same 20 songs is not really the problem in my opinion.  Poor programming and laziness is the issue.  If a station keeps playing the same artists and songs (cancon or otherwise) that is an internal situation and not because of a lack of material. 

There is a lot of cancon gold that never gets played any longer and a lot of good new material that never sees the light of day.  Blaming lower revenue on Canadian music is not dealing with the real issue.  It is just an excuse that many radio people like to use to hide the big elephant in the room.  Lack of creativity, laziness and incompetence in many cases would be the real issue. 

I have met and worked with radio program directors/music directors in the past that actually didn't like most of the music they played.   A few put almost no effort in selection of music for the station, and it showed.
 
 Another case from a few years ago was a young lady in mid 20's that was programming an all gold station and her knowledge of artists and music from the 70's, 80's and early 90's was not great. She even implied to me that she wasn't really into this type of music.  Great...

This is not to take away from the radio groups and stations that do a good job of their music and pay attention to what they are actually doing and playing.  There are good programmers,  who know how to use the software as a necessary tool and properly manage and stay on top of the technology.

Those of us in radio or formerly in, who are bored with "radio" music or repetition don't really matter as much since we listen differently and tend to flip around the dial a lot more.  So we will always likely hear more of the same songs since we listen to more stations.  I hear Rick Springfield Jessie's Girl at least three times per week, The Proclaimers 10,000 Miles, and You Turn Me Round by Dead or Alive 2 or 3 times every week and many others.  This is largely because I listen to 8 or 9 stations that play a lot of the same songs.

There has never been any proof that cancon has hurt radio ratings or revenue anywhere.  But what does hurt radio ratings is lousy programming.  However I do agree with you that the regs should be updated and in some cases changed and let's look for some modifications hopefully later in the year or early 2021 in all media including radio.

Last edited by paterson1 (August 26, 2020 6:57 pm)

darcyh wrote:

How about reducing the 'contributions' the stations must make to the 'fund' for Canadian talent?

I thought I read somewhere that the CRTC did give stations a break or waive the fee on this back in the spring or something similar.  I agree with you darcyh, and if they haven't they should, and make it permanent.