I haven't been a Top 40 guy for many decades. Several years ago, Itried. Would look up the current Hot 100 top 10 and listen online. In my  humble opinion, absolutely appalling what passes for "Hit" music today. Definitely showing my age  here. Looking back, I can hear my parents having similar opinions [They call that music?] in the late 1960's. I have rarely listened to Z103.5, but have always had the feeling their format was almost totally dance/club music, which I have never really liked.

markow202 wrote:

Havent listened to them in awhile but when I do come across Z103 and hear Tony Monaco and hearing music of my high school/college days still being played I dont care for feeling nostalgic, but thats me.  
For that id rather hear Boom 97.3.   

Apples and oranges. Boom is true hits of 70's 80's and 90's while Z 103 leans more heavy on 90's and today.
Boom will play the original version of a song while Z plays the cover (dance) version. 
A great example of that would be the logical song. Don't expect Z to play the original and don't expect Boom to play the dance cover version.  
Two very different radio stations and there is more than enough room for both. 

 

radiokid wrote:

Currently very Caucasian for a multi-cultural city,   It's a fault of many stations in Toronto, but even CHUM and CHFI have slowly adjusted.  Z will likely keep their audience they already have which is not horrible... but I do think they could do better if they wanted to..  It also could help get them more advertisers to make up the losses from clubs no longer being around.

93.5 had that chance to do as you suggest. (or very similar)
They threw it away. They must have seen something that just won't work.
Not that Today radio was any smarter, but they continued to stay away, going Country instead. 
The more important fact is, your ideas are not a threat to Boom, yet it's absent in favour of a Country format. 

 

The music changes are good. Not so sure about Ronnie Stanton on the morning show with Melanie. He sounds awkward and they don’t seem to gel together.

'KTU 103.5 does it in New York City with over 2 million listeners.  I suggest that in a large market like that or Toronto, the concept is that if you tune to 103.5 you know you'll get that type of music; and it doesn't necessarily aim to keep you tuned in for hours and hours which is something of radio past.  I also wonder how much 'tune in at work' really exists anymore even for A/C stations considering Spotify, commercial satellite radio and so on; not to mention that a significant portion of office workers don't even go in 5 days a week anymore.

What 93.5 should have done is gone back to a form of Hip Hop and just left it to grow.  Toronto's 98.7 and 105.5 are so low power that it barely comes in on my car stereo as I drive thru the city's regions. At-least 93.5 is stronger signal based. 

I've got family in New Jersey and have been there with my car many times. WBLS 107.5 is very well produced.  Add in Power 105.1 hip hop and of course Hot 97 which is primarily Hip hop (not CHR/R as indicated) plus 94.7 the Block WXBK and you add those up to over 5 million regular listeners in that area.
US NYC Ratings link: https://radioinsight.com/ratings/new-york/
Locally WBLK would still have a significant Toronto audience if it weren't for 93.5fm and  CKOU 93.7 K-country. 

'CBLK' 93.5 would do well I'm convinced if they just 'clone' BLK's format.

Anyways, Good luck to Z103.5; my favorite CHR for years now for being different and playing music that all others barely touch.

 

Last edited by dmcjeff (January 20, 2026 10:59 am)

High energy rthymic music is a more relevant term.

RadioActive wrote:

I'm not in the demo who enjoys dance music, so I've always wondered. Why in the world would you want to listen to that genre of music in your car - the one place you absolutely can't dance to it? I guess it works for some stations, but I can't quite figure out why. 

Music is a personal thing and ,I disagree,  dance music (mostly due to the beat) can totally work in a car.  Doesnt have to mean you need to physically dance....  

Last edited by markow202 (January 20, 2026 1:04 pm)

dmcjeff wrote:

'KTU 103.5 does it in New York City with over 2 million listeners.

dmcjeff wrote:

Add in Power 105.1 hip hop and of course Hot 97 which is primarily Hip hop (not CHR/R as indicated) plus 94.7 the Block WXBK and you add those up to over 5 million regular listeners in that area.
US NYC Ratings link: https://radioinsight.com/ratings/new-york/

Just so you're aware..... "share of tuning" does not mean percentage of the population that listened, it means percentage of the population that listened to radio during the time of measurement who listened. These stations do not have millions of listeners, but maybe six figures if they're lucky

torontostan wrote:

markow202 wrote:

Their positioning of the transmitter location knowing that I can listen to the station from downtown Toronto (in a car) all the way up to the south end of Muskoka is pretty darn good.  Much better than that of something from the CN Tower (again, due to positioning of transmitter)

I concur . The CIDC antenna is only a few meters lower than the CN tower stations. Plus, ever since the station went HD and they killed 103.9, the CIDC signal has been really strong into the city of toronto..... the signal is not the problem, it's the programming and poor saleability 

I noticed this aswell in terms of the signal strength even though im listening to the analog signal.  The power and height didnt increase and it appears they did not change the actual antenna.  What could have made it more reliable?

I hope this means more Euuuuuuurrrrrrrroooooooo

And DJ Danny DDDDDDD

Honk honk

Well this went pants-on-head pretty quickly.