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June 8, 2020 5:24 pm  #1


Dunford Toronto Radio Ratings - June 14, 1996

Friday, June 14, 1996
Ratings you can dance to 
By GARY DUNFORD

The Toronto Sun Music, Music, Toonz. That's what people want when they hit the radio switch. FM continues its growth at the expense of AM, and music formats have a far stronger hold on audience.Congrats to CHFI, CFNY, CHUM-FM and MIX99.9.

Sympathy cards to TALk640, Q107 and the FAN.,

Fresh from the BBM ratings number cruncher, the stats...

Station    Share   Total Ears 
CHFI FM    13.6  1,062,000
Best share in two years. Top quarter hour Don & Erin morning show pulls 197,000, up substantialy from fall.

CFRB 1O1O  10.3    924,000
Off from a year ago, flat to last faIL Wally Crouter still top morning man with 233,000 listeners in best quarter hour.

CHUM-FM     7.9    895,000
Up from last spring and fall. Roger, Rick & Marilyn peak at 156,000 listeners, up from the fall.

MIX 99.9    6.4    815,000
Share and listeners up from last fall and spring. Rob Christie clocks 89,000 ears, off 10% from fall.

CISS-FM     5.4    601,000
Audience up from last spring & fall. Share off a tad. Dunus & Co draw peak of 90,000; that's up.

CFNY-FM     4.9    765,000
Share & audience up, best numbers in three years. Humble & Fred peak audience is 102,000 - up.

Q107-FM     4.7    732,000
Share and audience down to a year ago & fall. Brother Jake's peak audience is 74,000; that's Off too.

CBC 740     4.4    668,OOO
Off from a year ago, flat to fall ratings. Top quarter hour during Andie Barrie morning show is up 180,000

EZ 97       4.4    418,000
Share and audience off from last year. Audience peak of 41,000 at 10 AM comes after morning show's over.

CFMX        4.3    347,000
The station's best share and audience numbers ever Fewer ears than CBC Stereo, but they stay.

CHUM 1050   3.9    467,000
Share and audience Off. Bob McGee's top quarter hour is 69,000; was 85,000 last fall.

Energyl08   2.9    634,000
Audience up, share off to fall. Morning show peaks at 51,000 listeners.

680 News    2.6    559,000
Share flat to last fall, up from last spring; audience off to fall. All-news station claims its best Eever morning show numbers: audience peaks at 64,000.

CBC Stereo  2.4    402,000
Up from fall, off from a year ago. Morning show peak audience of 45,000.

Fan 590     2.4    396,000
down from last spring and fall. But John Derringer's peak audience is 57,000, up 25% from fall.

Hot lO3     2.1    450,000
Ahout same numbers as last fall But morning nan Jesse Dylan must grin that his new station has double the share and audience of his old stand. Dylan's peak quarter hour is 32,000. Compare that to...

TALK 640    1.1    203,000
Quite simply, the fledgling talk station's worst numbers in three years. You wonder how a morning show that peaks at an audience of 19,000 souls is even possible. All bands to the life-boats. Surely owner Westeom is gonna clean house.

RADIO WHEELS: "What about the ratings of those who aren't morning folk?" asked a Page Sixer a few weeks ago. You can't have a successful station without a performing morning show, which piles up the biggest audience (and bucks) of the day. But since you ask, let's look at the peak quarter hour audience for...* Mid morning talkers.


  • John Oakley draws 165,000 for 'RB.
  • CBC's Peter Gzowski has an audience of 95,000 for Morningside.
  • AM640's Roy Green peaks at... 14,000.

* Evening talkers.

  • Michael Enright tops out at 55,000 listeners on CBC's "As it Happens"
  • Michael Coren draws a peak audience of about 50,000 on CFRB.
  • Evening talk on AM640 draws 8 peak of 4,000.

* Weekend Talkers.Fans of Ted Woloshyn as 'RB's next wake-up man may be encouraged he's got top weekend talk numbers. His peak Saturday afternoon audience of 55,000 dwarfs CBC's costly "Definately Not The Opera" at 30,000-plus. AM 640's talk pulls 4,000.


Madness takes its toll.  Please have exact change.
 
 

June 8, 2020 7:08 pm  #2


Re: Dunford Toronto Radio Ratings - June 14, 1996

This is exactly what one of the Toronto dailies should do now when the ratings are released. I think the average reader would be quite interested. This can't be that hard to put together.  The Sun and even the Star in the 80's and 90's would have the BBM's a day or two after release with some commentary explaining the information. 

Why would newspapers stop doing this?  Laziness, entertainment/news editor doesn't like commercial radio, cutbacks,  someone in advertising or management doesn't think the paper should be giving free exposure and promotion to competing media that shows how popular they are.  Or all of the above. When I worked at a newspaper years ago, someone in sales or middle management would always whine whenever local radio ratings were in the paper.

Interesting how Wally Crouter on CFRB was still king in the morning by a healthy margin in 1996. Wally retired from 1010 later in the year on November 1st,  50 years to the day when he started at CFRB.   Also we see how FM had completely taken over music and this was almost one year before the hit/non hit reg was changed.  FM really started to become the main music source for radio in Toronto in the mid to late 80's.

 

June 8, 2020 7:17 pm  #3


Re: Dunford Toronto Radio Ratings - June 14, 1996

Sadly, it appears most newspaper companies now rely on wire copy for their entertainment sections/pages

 

 

June 8, 2020 7:25 pm  #4


Re: Dunford Toronto Radio Ratings - June 14, 1996

Broodcaster wrote:

Sadly, it appears most newspaper companies now rely on wire copy for their entertainment sections/pages 

Correct. The Star fired (or voluntarily retired, depending on how you want to phrase it) most of their entertainment reporters a few months ago and the section that used to be so robust is now a shadow of its former self. On Saturdays, for example, it's now combined with the former Life and Travel sections into one thin amalgamation, and there's not much there to read at all - especially if you're looking for local entertainment updates. 

I'm not sure how many here know that the Star and the Globe, along with an entity in Quebec, collectively purchased The Canadian Press a few years ago, so they would have access to a lot more filler material with fewer local reporters.

If memory serves, Greg Quill was once assigned the radio beat for The Star, although he used to infuriate me because almost every column seemed to be about the CBC, as if there was nothing else to report. Still, at least they had someone who concentrated on the medium. 

There may be a number of reasons most newspapers ignore radio. One of them is there's no one left to follow the imdustry or write stories on it. It's a sad reality but those Dunford Days are long gone. 

 

June 8, 2020 7:48 pm  #5


Re: Dunford Toronto Radio Ratings - June 14, 1996

Buffalo News still covers local television and radio, and they include ratings info often. They have had as many cutbacks as the Star, Sun, Globe and Post.  Somehow they manage.   Toronto is a big media town, 4th largest in North America and yet for years local newspapers seem to ignore local TV and radio. I say they are lazy.

Last year, even with the cutbacks, all the papers managed to cover TIFF, so they do have access to freelance writers and reporters. And putting in the Numeris ratings 4 times per year is not that hard or labour intensive. 

All the Toronto papers still cover local entertainment, granted there hasn't been much to cover with the pandemic.  Even last Saturday the Star had four "local" stories in Entertainment with almost nothing going on in the city.  Besides ratings information could go in the local news section as well, or even business. It doesn't necessarily need to be in Arts or Entertainment.

Last edited by paterson1 (June 8, 2020 7:53 pm)

 

June 8, 2020 8:03 pm  #6


Re: Dunford Toronto Radio Ratings - June 14, 1996

Interesting.  I guess CBC's numbers were down because "nobody could hear them on 740"

And what about CKNT?  

 

June 8, 2020 9:04 pm  #7


Re: Dunford Toronto Radio Ratings - June 14, 1996

NW wrote:

Interesting.  I guess CBC's numbers were down because "nobody could hear them on 740"
 

There's a really strong correlation with CBC's ratings increases and moving/repeating to FM through the 90s and 2000s.
 

 

June 8, 2020 10:44 pm  #8


Re: Dunford Toronto Radio Ratings - June 14, 1996

Growing up in the '60s and '70s, I was disappointed by the radio coverage in the local papers. Many great stories went untold, and personalities came and went with nary a mention by the local scribes.


"Life without echo is really no life at all." - Dan Ingram
 

June 9, 2020 7:09 am  #9


Re: Dunford Toronto Radio Ratings - June 14, 1996

I love the fact that several members have access to and post the ratings information for 12+ and 25-54. Would these folks also have access to the AM/PM drive and mid-day numbers? I would be quite interested in that. The average person, probably not so much. But then. I am, and always have been, a radio geek.

 

June 9, 2020 10:48 pm  #10


Re: Dunford Toronto Radio Ratings - June 14, 1996

=12pxMace wrote " I am, and always have been, a radio geek."

Me too. Used to look forward to Dunford's ratings columns. Still follow ratings for the stations I listen to and any market that interests me.  I will say, I hope this spring's ratings are an anomally. The number of people listening is way down and some of the stations I really enjoy did not do well. Don't want them changing formats one me. That would really irk me. 

 

June 9, 2020 10:53 pm  #11


Re: Dunford Toronto Radio Ratings - June 14, 1996

I do miss Gary Dunford.  Thanks for this Iain.

 

June 10, 2020 12:30 pm  #12


Re: Dunford Toronto Radio Ratings - June 14, 1996

John D wrote:

I do miss Gary Dunford.  Thanks for this Iain.

FYI, Gary Dunford is still blogging.       Dunf in Space

 

June 10, 2020 1:44 pm  #13


Re: Dunford Toronto Radio Ratings - June 14, 1996

Storm wrote:

I will say, I hope this spring's ratings are an anomally. The number of people listening is way down

Believe it was somewhere on this board recently that the ratings for TV news, especially cable news, are up because of everything that's going on. That may be where everybody's gone. We usually just listen to the radio in the car and we're doing much less driving these days.