1 of 1- RadioAaron
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FLOW cancels Breakfast Club
First delayed, now cancelled. FLOW 93.5 had ended the syndicated "Breakfast Club" morning show and returned Blake Carter and Peter Kash to morning drive.
That show has never attempted to change their content to make them syndication friendly in the US, nevermind Canada. And when you're fighting for ratings in NYC, why would you?
- paterson1
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Re: FLOW cancels Breakfast Club
RadioAaron wrote:
First delayed, now cancelled. FLOW 93.5 had ended the syndicated "Breakfast Club" morning show and returned Blake Carter and Peter Kash to morning drive.
That show has never attempted to change their content to make them syndication friendly in the US, nevermind Canada. And when you're fighting for ratings in NYC, why would you?
Well good, Flow 93.5 is doing the right thing and returning to a local morning show. Nice that they returned Carter and Kash who deserve the morning timeslot.
Any market or station in Canada that would run a morning show that is so NY oriented is lost. Besides regardless what the ratings say stateside, the show when I listened in my opinion was just ok, nothing special. Technically the Breakfast Club breaks were over modulated almost distorted at times, not live, music seemed to be just dropped in and not really part of the show.
Flow should get back to acting like a Toronto black music station and play more local new hip hop and urban artists that are getting noticed with airplay elsewhere but not in their home town. As mentioned before, Flow should be all over new GTA and Canadian urban artists. Get them in studio for interviews and last but not least, stop tweaking and changing the format every six months!!
Be proud of your town and the music you are playing! Toronto, the home of two of the world's biggest urban artists in Drake and The Weeknd, with many more to come!!
- RadioActive
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Re: FLOW cancels Breakfast Club
NOW Magazine outlines why they made the decision, but these are the key sentences in the article to me:
"It didn’t match up with the culture of Toronto so we decided to make the change,” [G.M. Steve] Parsons explains. “A couple days ago they were talking for 40 minutes about how to vote in Florida as an ex-felon. It’s not relevant to Toronto.”
All of this was a no-brainer and was quite predictable. In fact, in a thread announcing this move last March, several posters here (including yours truly) openly wondered about where this would go.
I don't know if this will work unless it's edited down. US politics come up pretty often on the local New York version of the show.
Won’t a U.S. show, even one that concentrates on hip hop or other forms of music, eventually have to talk about the Orange One in the White House? How will that play on a regular basis with Toronto teens or whoever the target audience might be for the imported show?
I have to wonder why, if a know-nothing non-programmer like me could see it coming, Stingray management couldn't.
Now Magazine: Toronto’s FLOW 93-5 says goodbye to The Breakfast Club
- RadioAaron
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Re: FLOW cancels Breakfast Club
Two questions linger for me:
1. Did anyone at Stingray actually listen to the show before deciding to air it, or just the sizzle reel.
and/or
2. They signed up for this right before the pandemic. Did that cause the content of the show to change? I know they were known for big-name in-studio interviews.
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Thread Starter- Radiowiz
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Re: FLOW cancels Breakfast Club
Two questions linger for me:
1. Did anyone at Stingray actually listen to the show before deciding to air it, or just the sizzle reel.
and/or
2. They signed up for this right before the pandemic. Did that cause the content of the show to change? I know they were known for big-name in-studio interviews.
Is there a reason why they didn't pick up the Steve Harvey show?
It's on Buffalo's 93.7 FM, but it's two different markets, so getting the show should not be a problem.
RadioWiz & RadioQuiz are NOT the same person.
RadioWiz & THE Wiz are NOT the same person.
- radiokid
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Re: FLOW cancels Breakfast Club
Two questions linger for me:
1. Did anyone at Stingray actually listen to the show before deciding to air it, or just the sizzle reel.
and/or
2. They signed up for this right before the pandemic. Did that cause the content of the show to change? I know they were known for big-name in-studio interviews.Is there a reason why they didn't pick up the Steve Harvey show?
It's on Buffalo's 93.7 FM, but it's two different markets, so getting the show should not be a problem.
I think the decision was 100% financial at the start... now learned the hard way that it harmed the product too much to continue. At least they learned and dealt with the issue now instead of when it would be too late.
As for Steve Harvey... he's a bit too old for Flow's format to be honest. He's an urban ac based host, that does well on those stations (like WBLK). Flow being urban contemporary, the breakfast club would be more relevant had they not focused so hard on US political issues. If G987 wanted to run Steve, that would be a better fit as they tend to run more urban ac at times.
Last edited by radiokid (October 13, 2020 1:13 pm)
- RadioAaron
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Re: FLOW cancels Breakfast Club
Agreed, Harvey targets too old, and even then I don't think he'd work in a market where he's not already a known commodity.
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Thread Starter
- RadioActive
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Re: FLOW cancels Breakfast Club
It appears the move to remove the U.S show is having an immediate payoff, although it's surely too soon to say this is a trend.
From Broadcast Dialogue:
Flow 93.5 streams up 33 per cent as Carter and Kash return to mornings
Still, according to the article, it appears Stingray has still not learned the lesson this was trying to teach them.
"[G.M. Steve] Parsons said while morning show syndication on this side of the border continues to be met with lukewarm results, “the goal of putting a show on the air that hits with your specific audience is something we’re constantly trying to make happen.”
“The haters did enjoy hitting me up to let me know that they thought an American show in Toronto was an outrage, but I would imagine they weren’t going home that night to watch Anne of Green Gables on Netflix.
"Challenging norms and trying to find an innovation that moves the ball down the field is something we’ll continue to strive for,” said Parsons.
But really, the sentence he should be listening to is this one, that came out of his mouth. "It all just sounded really out of place in Toronto.”
Exactly.
- RadioActive
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Re: FLOW cancels Breakfast Club
I don't believe there's a single case where a U.S. import in the mornings on Canadian radio has improved ratings. Not even Howard Stern could do it on Q107. Later in the daypart, maybe. (Like Coast-To-Coast for example.)
But a morning show almost by definition needs to be highly local or listeners will flee in droves.