105.3 has a much larger coverage area than 99.5.  I guess it does make sense,  Virgin Kitchener at 105.3 has a good signal into the London area.  And London has it own Virgin station.  They aren't wasting any time for the flip.

paterson1 wrote:

  Virgin Kitchener at 105.3 has a good signal into the London area.  And London has it own Virgin station.  They aren't wasting any time for the flip.

They also have the same on-air lineup.

km93 wrote:

So in a way 105.3 will sound like KOOL used to and will cover most of Southern Ontario.

The KOOL they should have left alone in the first place.

It makes sense that they do this. Before when Bell owned 102.9 it was also Bounce radio. The signal comes in to Kitchener and Waterloo. Now they don’t own it and from my understanding Bell promised 12 months non compete with the stations they sold. So they couldn’t move Bounce to the stronger signal to compete with Legend 102.9. Putting Virgin on a crappier signal is fine considering the London station comes in well to KW and the Toronto station comes in to Cambridge somewhat and obviously into Guelph. The KW and London stations are basically the same programming and playlist. So it makes sense. Use 99.5 as a local repeater and everyone can use 97.5 or 99. Or even 99.9. It’s no big loss. By moving Bounce to a stronger signal it strengthens the station and potential advertising revenue.

There is probably something to consider that Bounce listeners are more likely to tune in on FM and virgin listeners on the iheart radio app anyway? So putting bounce on the better FM is a winner for that reason?
 

Wasn't 99.5 formerly CKKW known as k-fun? I remember losing k-fun to a Buffalo NY station which I think was WDCX. I was only a few miles west of Kitchener. 

Yep, it was K-Fun until about five years ago.

WDCX is the Buffalo/WNY Christian station at 99.5. It's the reason that you couldn't pick up K-Fun/Bounce much past Morriston on Hwy. 6 at the 401. 

darcyh wrote:

Wasn't 99.5 formerly CKKW known as k-fun? I remember losing k-fun to a Buffalo NY station which I think was WDCX. I was only a few miles west of Kitchener. 

Are the callsighns changing to?
Is CFCA becoming CKKW and CKKW becoming CFCA?
Maybe, they should have launched a entirelily new format, maybe a rock format because dave fm has a week signal, or maybe bring move to kitchener to compeet with CHYM fm.

RadioAaron wrote:

Scarboroughbluffsradiof99 wrote:

Are the callsighns changing to?
Is CFCA becoming CKKW and CKKW becoming CFCA?
Maybe, they should have launched a entirelily new format, maybe a rock format because dave fm has a week signal, or maybe bring move to kitchener to compeet with CHYM fm.

There is absolutely no reason to change the call signs.

Someone forgot to tell CING and CJXY that.

Jody Thornton wrote:

@Radiwiz, They didn't swap call letters.  CING was 107.9 and is now 95.3.  CJXY was 95.3 and is now 107.9,  Just the frequencies were swapped.

So the calls were swapped. CING was 107.9. At time of switch from 107.9 CING moved to 95.3, so the calls are no longer on 107.9  I am not sure what you are trying to say... It's not CING Y 108 It's CJXY.  Y 108. 

Yes, they swapped frequencies, but they also swapped calls, as in, not leaving CING @ 108.
 

Just because someone did something once doesn't mean there's good reason to do it in this case.

Which isn't to say they won't; the call letters are irrelevant to the brands, but it may simplify things internally (billing, ratings trending, database labeling, etc.)  Will sales or engineering win?

Jody Thornton wrote:

Radiowiz wrote:

Yes, they swapped frequencies, but they also swapped calls, as in, not leaving CING @ 108.
 

But that's not a call swap.  CING is STILL CING, just on a different frequency.  The format, calls and style go with it.

From a listener perspective, yes.

From a regulatory perspective, no. As far as Industry Canada and the CRTC are concerned, the 107.9 Burlington license that's now CJXY is the same license that was issued in 1976 to then-CING, and the 95.3 Hamilton license that's now CING is the same license that was CJXY, CKDS and CHML-FM going all the way back.

Which, if you think about it, makes a lot of sense. In order to actually move the CING license from 107.9 to 95.3, they'd have had to file a whole extensive (and expensive) set of technical briefs and make a case for swapping the larger 95.3 signal from Hamilton to Burlington and vice versa.

Behind the scenes, it's much easier to just swap the calls and formats, neither of which requires extensive CRTC filings.

We've seen this before, back when 590 and 1430 "swapped." If you go back through the actual filings from the era, you'll see that Telemedia, which then owned CJCL on 1430, bought the license of CKEY 590 from Rogers, then sold the 1430 license to Fairchild.

While CJCL traces the history of its intellectual property back through 1430 and CKFH, the license under which it operates on 590 is the old CKEY license.

paterson1 wrote:

radiokid wrote:

Virgin in KW has done very well ratings wise... It seems like a huge downgrade as 99.5 is a horrible signal. Bounce will benefit for sure at 105.3. I'm more interested to see if this move hands the ratings crown back to 91.5. Corus did this move between 107.9 and 95.3 with little notice as well and it never recovered. It does make you wonder how long Virgin will remain in KW. I also argue this is expensive to pull off as logos have to change everywhere.

Last I heard The Beat 91.5 was still more popular than Virgin 105.3 in Waterloo Region.  And you need to compare central market and not full coverage since 105.3 has a much larger pattern than 91.5.  If Virgin is more popular than The Beat it must be very recently. 

Virgin has been edging out the beat in the last couple years, but only slightly. But you're right, it took a LONG time. For many years, not many people were listening to virgin... even with that huge signal. Probably because the beat (which I personally prefer over Virgin) had been the long established CHR in the market.

The switch makes sense for so many reasons. 1. Bounce had always pulled in decent ratings on such a small signal, imagine what they'll pull in on that huge 105.3 signal. 2. Bounce has a more unique format in the K-W area, many stations have a CHR or Hot AC format and therefore are largely playing similar music. So get the more unique format out to a larger area. 3. There's so much duplication between Virgin London and K-W, they're both playing the same set lists with the same on-air line-up. And both stations had HUGE signals.
 

The iheart app did not switch over yet. Top hour id still said Virgin 105.3.

*Okay, I hit the refresh key. The logo is still reading 105.3, but it does now read "Virgin radio 99.5" next to that.
One thing at a time, I suppose.

I LOVE what was said. "This is Virgin radio 99.5, not Virgin Mary 99.5 for those having some trouble hearing us now in areas where some religious station of some sort wants to kick in..."  Priceless...

Last edited by Radiowiz (Yesterday 9:15 am)

gch wrote:

I was surprised when they first went with the 99.5 signal........WDCX sure is a powerhouse, and can be heard in London sometimes....   (WDCX took over AM 970 to simulcast to get some of the lost listeners)

Waterloo Region is in a tough spot for radio... literally. With signals coming in from Toronto, Hamilton and London (which at one point, had the most radio stations per capita in the country), there are very few usable frequencies. Country 106.7 was originally on 99.5 and they vacated it for this exact reason. WDCX has such a huge signal.

The one good thing about the 99.5 signal is it's HD, the only one in the market. So for those who know what it is and how to access it, Virgin will sound great. Of course you can stream it, but quite frankly, I find all of Bell's streaming radio stations sound terrible. They must be using a lower bitrate.

Radiowiz wrote:

I LOVE what was said. "This is Virgin radio 99.5, not Virgin Mary 99.5 for those having some trouble hearing us now in areas where some religious station of some sort wants to kick in..."  Priceless...

And on the Bounce side they Played "Losing My Religion" just before the switch. Not sure if it was planned that way but they had a big laugh.