It appears almost two decades later, the attitude at the two big rock stations in the city hadn't changed much. Both of these articles are from Dec. 1985.

I remember CanCon Sunday mornings on 1050 CHUM in the early 1980's. CHUM would try and squeeze in as many K-tel versions of Canadian tunes (usually whittled down to about 2 minutes each) between the 6 - 9am hours. I'm guessing the CRTC wasn't terribly amused by that.


PJ

RadioAaron wrote:

Paul Jeffries wrote:

I remember CanCon Sunday mornings on 1050 CHUM in the early 1980's. CHUM would try and squeeze in as many K-tel versions of Canadian tunes (usually whittled down to about 2 minutes each) between the 6 - 9am hours. I'm guessing the CRTC wasn't terribly amused by that.


PJ

The Sunday morning stack is still alive and well. Boom 97.3 and Indie 88 do it, and likely others.

I've also noticed that Boom (and a few other stations) spin almost exclusively CanCon during the 6 - 7am hours on Saturdays and Sundays, but they're playing complete songs (for the most part). I think 1050 CHUM may have been trying to fulfill most of their weekly CanCon obligations in one big fell swoop with their exercise.


PJ

Last edited by Paul Jeffries (March 24, 2023 10:13 pm)

And I didn't say it then RadioActive.  I've been misquoted a couple of times in my career.  Not bad for over 50 years.  Yikes.

Last edited by John D (March 24, 2023 11:30 pm)

paterson1 wrote:

 Weekends don't matter much for ratings but weekdays do.  Goes to show that stacking or not, doesn't appear to make any difference in the ratings.

So I guess stacking is really done by some broadcasters to make them feel more in charge and important, sort of sticking it to the CRTC.  Wonder if this minority will ever actually put the toys away and grow up a little.  Funny how it appears the listener, the people who again actually matter could care less.  And through the years the ratings have confirmed this. 

Weekends do matter, just not the early mornings. And of course stacking makes a difference for ratings.

paterson1 wrote:

Weekends matter, just not very much.  Hard to prove that stacking makes any difference at all.  It doesn't  matter through the week when there is hardly any.  The increases and decreases in numbers through the day would happen anyway.  I have nothing against stations playing more cancon during certain hours especially stations like Boom that play all gold.  Does it really make a difference?  Not likely, and especially to listeners who don't really seem to care. 

Weekends matter a lot. The tuning from around 10am-5p is huge. Playing more popular songs in that window will absolutely help ratings....why wouldn't it?

Of course listeners don't "care"...none of them know about any of this. They just want to hear songs they like, which stacking makes more likely.

Boom stacks. Perhaps send Wayne Webster a note to help him understand optimizing playlists to improve ratings.

RadioAaron wrote:

paterson1 wrote:

Weekends matter, just not very much.  Hard to prove that stacking makes any difference at all.  It doesn't  matter through the week when there is hardly any.  The increases and decreases in numbers through the day would happen anyway.  I have nothing against stations playing more cancon during certain hours especially stations like Boom that play all gold.  Does it really make a difference?  Not likely, and especially to listeners who don't really seem to care. 

Weekends matter a lot. The tuning from around 10am-5p is huge. Playing more popular songs in that window will absolutely help ratings....why wouldn't it?

Of course listeners don't "care"...none of them know about any of this. They just want to hear songs they like, which stacking makes more likely.

Boom stacks. Perhaps send Wayne Webster a note to help him understand optimizing playlists to improve ratings.

Hahaha, no I don't think I would be telling Wayne how to do things.  He and Boom are doing just fine.  However, they really aren't stacking that much. 

 March 22 Wednesday morning 6-9am, 24 songs and 8 cancon  (33%)
Mid Day 11am-2pm  33 songs and 13 cancon (39%)
Wednesday afternoon/evening 3-7pm  45 songs, 15 cancon (33%)
Wednesday evening 9-midnight, 33 songs 13 cancon  (39%) 

Today Saturday morning  6-9am  34 songs and 12 cancon  (35%)  
Mid morning/afternoon today 10 to 5pm a total of 77 songs with 21 cancon- (27%) which is 1 song per hour under
 

Last edited by paterson1 (March 25, 2023 10:33 pm)

Stinand wrote:

pinto wrote:

I remember attending a panel at CMW (when radio mattered to Neil Dixon) and Jim Waters was asked what he thought about CanCon.. this was in the 90's.  He said.. and I paraphrase.. it's great.  It should be 30% in the winter and 20% in the summer.  I looked at the person from the CRTC who was also on the panel just to see if they would have a stroke...
 

Pinto as the producer of Canadian Music Week, Neill Dixon has always had a radio stream at the convention in fact it has grown this year to include North America.. Radio Days North America is the partner of Radio Days Europe.
https://cmw.net/radiodays/



Seems like facts always will be facts. You should attend.


 

I've hardly missed any since 1990
 

Last edited by pinto (March 29, 2023 2:42 pm)

Stinand wrote:

=12pxI've hardly missed any since 1990

So I'm confused why you would say that radio does not matter to CMW you have attended every year. Last year's lineup was stellar and this year's lineup is dynamic. 

Because it seemed there was a period of time where the conference seemed to have drifted away and radio appeared to have a smaller role and focus.  I admit it has turned around some and covid sure didn't help.
 

"Not stacking that much"


 

paterson1 wrote:

90 minutes on Saturday and Sunday morning to play all Canadian music is fine for a station like BOOM which is all gold. Does it hurt or help the ratings?  I have my doubts.  Early morning ratings on weekends would be more or less the same with or without all the cancon. 

 

Exactly. That's why it's done.

You can have all the doubts in the world about its effectiveness, but the best programmers on the continent are doing it and don't need to "grow up and put their toys away"

RadioAaron wrote:

paterson1 wrote:

Through the week, when the numbers matter most,  BOOM doesn't appear to be stacking much at all early morning or late evening.
 

50% Cancon weekdays 6-7am.

Yes four out of eight songs 6-7am, not a big deal that would have any impact.  For the morning show from 6-9am this morning BOOM ran 9 cancon out of 25 songs or slightly more than 35%.  So for the weekday morning show, the most important daypart, the stacking is minimal.  And weekends averaging one cancon selection per hour under, for six of the seven hours from 10-5pm wouldn't make any difference.

So we will agree to disagree but I fail to see how this massaging of cancon really would make any difference at all. It's a thing for those in the business that dislike cancon and the regs, but the audience doesn't appear to care and even notice. 
 

BOOM played 17 in a row on Saturday and 18 on Sunday 6am-7:30am or a few minutes later.  You must have counted some songs prior to 6am for your 22 total. This "significant stacking" for 90 minutes early Saturday and Sunday is only important to radio people, and more or less reshuffling the deck chairs.

Looking at the 18 hour day, and the different dayparts, the stacking is not significant. Playing 4 cancon cuts in the first hour weekday mornings only looks impressive as a percent, but not the actual number of songs.  For the morning show 6-9am BOOM played 35% cancon, 9 out of 25 that is what is significant.  

 You may disagree but BOOM is also a popular station because of the cancon they play, not only the non cancon hits.  This is why at noon hour it is interesting to hear the number of cancon songs that are requested on air by listeners.

And we can't forget the top 100 Canadian songs that the station plays twice every Canada Day Weekend.  The feature must be popular judging by the number of commercials during the usually 7 hour show.  That would be significant stacking I believe, and even runs in prime time 10am to 5:30 pm over the weekend.

For the last two years I have requested Africa by Thundermug.  I don't believe it has ever been played but should be on Canada Day Weekend.  Mr. Ashby has played this classic song however.    

paterson1 wrote:

 You may disagree but BOOM is also a popular station because of the cancon they play, not only the non cancon hits.  This is why at noon hour it is interesting to hear the number of cancon songs that are requested on air by listeners.
   

Boom is popular because it is well programmed, and that includes a significant and strategic minimizing of Cancon where possible. 

paterson1 wrote:

And 6am weekdays would still be the least listened to hour with or without playing 4 cancon

You're getting this completely backwards! I'm not claiming the Cancon is making 6am the least listened to -- it's put there because that's where it does the least damage.

In no circumstance where people choose their own music does Cancon come close to 35%. If it did, the rule wouldn't exist in the first place!

And of course radio will see higher tuning when they're able to better reflect their listeners' tastes; it's absurd to argue otherwise.