I confess, despite the inflated price of shipping and everything else, I splurged on a WNBC Radio t-shirt from them. Always wanted one of those with that logo. In the mid-70s, it was my favourite station of all time. I actually won one from them a long time ago (pictured below), but it wasn't the official logo. 

mace wrote:

Can you post a photo of the WNBC t-shirt that you purchased?

With luck, it will look like this, featuring a very old "NBC" logo:

But they weren't on FM, which is the point. Thus the low ratings, which in the end is all that really counts. If the station had decent numbers and was making money, Corus would never have changed the format. No radio ownership would abandon something that works. It's just common sense. 

I'm not arguing the Hog didn't do what it did well. It just came at a time when listeners were abandoning AM for its stereo counterpart. I wish they had been given a shot at some time on FM. It would have been interesting to see what might have been. I guess we'll never know.

But unscientific anecdotal statements from people saying 'they would have listened if it had been on somewhere else' doesn't change the fact that those same people didn't listen - or at least not enough of them. 

I personally love classic Top 40 on AM. But there aren't enough of me to go around to make it viable. And unfortunately, that's what led this Hog to the slaughter. 

RadioActive wrote:

Yes, WIC. (Sorry, force of habit to think of Corus.) But the point stands that stations don't abandon a successful format for an untested one. Sadly, 640 has never really been able to make a huge dent in the ratings, despite trying various permutations of talk. (Book after book, it seems to be stuck around the "2" mark.) I thought Mojo was an interesting idea, but ultimately it, too, was doomed to failure. 

Right, so CFGM was failing? Based on your input, they should have gone all talk immediately after abandoning Country music radio?

The idea was to get the kids to grow up with Hog High and graduate to Q. U.  but the kids...well, some were smart enough to hook up cable radio, but that didn't do any good for those who choose to leave their home to go listen in the car or some other place...or a walkman or something.

The format change did not help them until 680 decided to go all news.
Even then, the beat of Toronto was a struggle to succeed...competing with WKSE.  

I still believe a Rock 40 Hog on FM in Toronto would work today, but I'd even accept a Maximum grunt Variety rock Hog FM in Toronto.

One thing for sure that you DO NOT DO is keep Jack when going rock. I hope Rogers learned a valuable lesson from that. 
(& no, I don't expect a Rogers Hog either...they should have used the Sonic name to better compete with Q...or any of their other successful rock driven cookie cutters of theirs from any other market...)