The Southern Ontario/WNY Radio-TV Forum » There's No "Yacht Rock" Format In The GTA. What Would One Sound Like?

RadioActive · June 28, 2026 6:13 am

There are a lot of stations in the Toronto area, from talk to rock, and country to all news and ethnic. But so far, there's no one that plays so-called Yacht Rock. It's kind of a soft rock off-shoot, and has some parameters that define the genre.

I'm not entirely sure if such a concept is sustainable in the long term, simply because there may not be enough music that fits the definition to provide enough variety. That said, there's a "Yacht Rock" channel on SiriusXM and its listeners have picked their Top 25 favourite songs.

It's also a good way to see exactly what would be played on such a station if someone in the GTA decided to take their outlet in that direction. You definitely know most of these titles. But would it tempt you to tune in?

The Top 25 Yacht-Rock Songs of the ’80s, According to Yacht Rock Radio

g121 · June 28, 2026 7:42 am

RadioActive wrote:
.. But would it tempt you to tune in?

Just canNOT stomach Toto or Michael McDonald ..

Shorty Wave · June 28, 2026 8:20 am

AM740 plays pretty much this whole playlist! Yacht Rock isn’t for me, a bit too close to soft rock. I heard that for the Yacht Rock doc, which aired on Netflix, they wanted to interview Steely Dan. When the band learned about being pigeonholed they refused to have any part of it, too bad, as they lead the pack!

Last edited by Shorty Wave (June 28, 2026 10:01 pm)

mic'em · June 28, 2026 8:23 am

Pablo Cruise anyone ?

paterson1 · June 28, 2026 1:30 pm

Even though it is somewhat more upbeat than Yacht Rock, Lite 92.1 plays all of the songs listed. What is the difference musically between Yacht Rock and Breeze stations?

Scarboroughbluffsradiof99 · June 28, 2026 4:04 pm

Is there even any cancon for a yacht rock station to play?
1150 Ckoc aired a yacht rock block on sunday mornings, and I think boom also plays some yacht rock, but would a 24/7 fm station in the format work?
I think it would work better on an hd subchannel.

Last edited by Scarboroughbluffsradiof99 (June 28, 2026 4:06 pm)

Ale Ont · June 28, 2026 4:44 pm

I Think Yacht Rock is a synonym for soft rock.

Radiowiz · June 28, 2026 4:58 pm

Ale Ont wrote:
I Think Yacht Rock is a synonym for soft rock.

As far as I know, the Yacht Rock format does not have any currents.

Radiowiz · June 28, 2026 5:19 pm

RadioActive wrote:
But so far, there's no one that plays so-called Yacht Rock. It's kind of a soft rock off-shoot, and has some parameters that define the genre.

The problem with Yacht Rock is that it might not have enough Can Con to do a full 24/7 format.
Plus also, is it a threat to a sister station? What if 93.5 were to give it a go? Wouldn't that take too much attention away from Boom 97.3?
Perhaps they already feel this way,
making Country music the best option for a format that does not compete with Boom in any way.
The only other station I can think of off hand that could (if possible) benefit from switching to Yacht Rock is 88.5 FM.
It's a station with no other place to go but up.
All while other stations in the Toronto/GTA market might believe that what they have is not broke.
(if it ain't broke, don't fix it, right?)

jughead jones · June 28, 2026 5:19 pm

Do you like Pina Coladas?

boom boy · June 28, 2026 5:22 pm

boom does a whole day of Yacht Rock, every August on a random Saturday.

RadioAaron · June 28, 2026 6:54 pm

paterson1 wrote:
Even though it is somewhat more upbeat than Yacht Rock, Lite 92.1 plays all of the songs listed. What is the difference musically between Yacht Rock and Breeze stations?

Lite plays 4 of them.

The difference is Yacht Rock is Late 70s/Early 80s based (half that chart is 1980 itself), more Rock based, and almost entirely male in artists and listeners.

Breeze is more 80s-2000s based, mostly pop, aimed at women.

No terrestrial station has proven it to be a viable format on any kind of scale.

You could easily find enough Cancon to launch it, but it would burn FAST.

Last edited by RadioAaron (June 28, 2026 6:54 pm)

paterson1 · June 29, 2026 8:03 am

Thanks for explaining the differences.

markow202 · June 29, 2026 8:21 am

Ya a full yacht rock format daily would be way too much - I love that "genre" of specific soft rock but couldnt stomach that all the time. Funny, because that type of music was literally the CHFI of back in the day when it was current.

Radiowiz · June 29, 2026 9:30 am

markow202 wrote:
Ya a full yacht rock format daily would be way too much - I love that "genre" of specific soft rock but couldnt stomach that all the time. Funny, because that type of music was literally the CHFI of back in the day when it was current.

Beautiful!

mace · June 29, 2026 10:00 am

!980's WBUF.

Jody Thornton · June 29, 2026 10:23 am

mace wrote:
!980's WBUF.

Especially when they went to WFXZ Foxy 93 for a couple of years. Heavy on Dr Hook, Ambrosia, Jim Photoglo, the Doobies and Kenny Loggins.

km93 · June 29, 2026 10:43 am

Radiowiz wrote:
RadioActive wrote:
But so far, there's no one that plays so-called Yacht Rock. It's kind of a soft rock off-shoot, and has some parameters that define the genre.

The problem with Yacht Rock is that it might not have enough Can Con to do a full 24/7 format.
Plus also, is it a threat to a sister station? What if 93.5 were to give it a go? Wouldn't that take too much attention away from Boom 97.3?
Perhaps they already feel this way,
making Country music the best option for a format that does not compete with Boom in any way.
The only other station I can think of off hand that could (if possible) benefit from switching to Yacht Rock is 88.5 FM.
It's a station with no other place to go but up.
All while other stations in the Toronto/GTA market might believe that what they have is not broke.
(if it ain't broke, don't fix it, right?)

Actually there's one other with no other place to go and that's 95.3.

km93 · June 29, 2026 10:45 am

Radiowiz wrote:
Ale Ont wrote:
I Think Yacht Rock is a synonym for soft rock.
As far as I know, the Yacht Rock format does not have any currents.

There still is current 'Yacht Rock': https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OqF3qmPF2Ic&vl=en

km93 · June 29, 2026 10:48 am

Scarboroughbluffsradiof99 wrote:
Is there even any cancon for a yacht rock station to play?
1150 Ckoc aired a yacht rock block on sunday mornings, and I think boom also plays some yacht rock, but would a 24/7 fm station in the format work?
I think it would work better on an hd subchannel.

In terms of CanCon there's "Leaving For Maui" by Footloose, or "Leaving LA" by Deliverance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=umWEAh-pwxM

also arguably 'Marina Del Rey' by Marc Jordan, 'All I Wanna Do' by Doucette, and some of Christopher Ward's stuff but true there isn't much if you're sticking literally to what classifies.

Does CKOC still do the Yacht Rock show? After they went jockless I stopped listening.

DX · June 29, 2026 11:07 am

Scarboroughbluffsradiof99 wrote:
Is there even any cancon for a yacht rock station to play?
1150 Ckoc aired a yacht rock block on sunday mornings, and I think boom also plays some yacht rock, but would a 24/7 fm station in the format work?
I think it would work better on an hd subchannel.

Into The Mystic by Jackson Hawke qualifies

km93 · June 29, 2026 11:26 am

DX wrote:
Scarboroughbluffsradiof99 wrote:
Is there even any cancon for a yacht rock station to play?
1150 Ckoc aired a yacht rock block on sunday mornings, and I think boom also plays some yacht rock, but would a 24/7 fm station in the format work?
I think it would work better on an hd subchannel.
Into The Mystic by Jackson Hawke qualifies

Yes definitely- I forgot about that one. Now that I think about it, many of Ian Thomas' songs would also fit and even Jerry Doucette "All I Wanna Do," "Brother and Me" by Fludd, even "Make Me Do Anything You Want" by A Foot In ColdWater would kinda work too. Ah also some of Chilliwack's material would qualify.

Last edited by km93 (June 29, 2026 11:29 am)

cash · June 29, 2026 5:52 pm

Rainy Day People and Carefree Highway would qualify

km93 · June 30, 2026 10:38 am

cash wrote:
Rainy Day People and Carefree Highway would qualify

Carefree Highway perhaps, Rainy Day People-I don't quite hear it. What about Summer Side of Life?

gwgm · June 30, 2026 2:30 pm

Officially old for saying this, but I'd go for a CHAY-FM 1990s style radio station. It was a huge part of the cottage with Gordon Lightfoot and soft rock on permanently in the background.

Dale Patterson · June 30, 2026 2:52 pm

SiriusXM has a Yacht Rock channel. It reminds me of WGR in the '70s and '80s, minus the jocks of course. I'm a regular listener.

kevjo · June 30, 2026 10:11 pm

Radiowiz wrote:
Ale Ont wrote:
I Think Yacht Rock is a synonym for soft rock.
As far as I know, the Yacht Rock format does not have any currents.

I believe that's true. It is soft rock but apparently there is an elite group of artists who encompass the format.
A couple summers ago BOOM did a Yacht Rock Saturday which was quite a departure for them. Usually their music favours the 80's but this one was very 70's oriented and largely made up of tunes not on their regular playlist. If someone wanted to take on such a format on a fulltime basis they would soon have to expand the definition of the genre.

RadioActive · July 23, 2026 6:12 am

SiriusXM has issued a countdown of the Top 25 Yacht Rock songs of the 80s. The tunes were submitted by listeners to its Yacht Rock channel and the number of submissions determined what's at #1.

If you've ever wondered what might make up a playlist for such a station, this is pretty good indication.

The Top 25 Yacht-Rock Songs of the ’80s, According to Yacht Rock Radio

RonaldS · July 23, 2026 5:38 pm

I just happened see the yacht rock "dockumentary" today on a flight home from Vancouver. One of the people interviewed makes a point of calling our Hall & Oates as *not* being yacht rock as they hail from Philadelphia and their sound reflects that, i.e. that it's not part of the Southern California sound.

RadioActive wrote:
SiriusXM has issued a countdown of the Top 25 Yacht Rock songs of the 80s. The tunes were submitted by listeners to its Yacht Rock channel and the number of submissions determined what's at #1.

If you've ever wondered what might make up a playlist for such a station, this is pretty good indication.

The Top 25 Yacht-Rock Songs of the ’80s, According to Yacht Rock Radio

Radiowiz · July 23, 2026 6:18 pm

Dale Patterson wrote:
SiriusXM has a Yacht Rock channel. It reminds me of WGR in the '70s and '80s, minus the jocks of course. I'm a regular listener.

Currently, there is a Yacht Rock Country format also on Sirius XM.
That says a lot about the freedom Sirius XM has vs radio.

Last edited by Radiowiz (July 23, 2026 6:18 pm)