It seems like just yesterday that Bell turned CHAM into Funny 820, an all comedy format. It felt for all the world like a placeholder while they decided what to do with yet another moribund AM signal. And frankly, when they flipped CKOC to TSN, I couldn’t figure out why they didn’t use their 820 frequency, which has far better propagation, especially at night when most sports actually take place.
 
That and the fact CKOC’s oldies were regularly getting between a 2 and 4 rating, far from the 0.1 or so they managed in the last book. 
 
So it was with real surprise that I heard one of those interstitials on CHAM the other day that noted the station was celebrating its 7th year as an all comedy outlet.
 
Don’t get me wrong. I actually like what they’re doing, if only because it was one format that simply wasn’t being duplicated anywhere else. And I tune in from time to time, mostly when all the other stations go to a long commercial block all at the same time (generally 15 after the hour, the bottom of the hour and :45 – why one of them doesn’t alter their clock to take advantage of this is beyond me.)
 
Funny 820 doesn’t do all that well in the ratings. In the Spring book for Hamilton, it managed just 0.5, just behind CKOC and its disastrous 0.1. Still, I guess unlike its counterpart at 1150, it costs almost nothing to run, is a turnkey operation and beats anything else they can put there. (TSN, on the other hand, is very expensive and can’t possibly get any return for the buck with those numbers.)
 
So happy anniversary to Funny 820. When it comes to longevity for a format I thought couldn’t last, it’s no laughing matter.