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CityNews Radio In Ottawa Undergoing Some Major Changes On Monday
They include a new morning show and a few other shifts in, well, their shifts.
I haven't heard the Ottawa station since it went all news under the new branding, but it sounds like it's less headline-oriented than its Toronto counterpart, with talk shows on in place of the newswheel in key dayparts.
The changes are outlined here.
- Radiowiz
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Re: CityNews Radio In Ottawa Undergoing Some Major Changes On Monday
I thought this was going to be an RIP 1310 announcement!
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- RadioAaron
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Re: CityNews Radio In Ottawa Undergoing Some Major Changes On Monday
RadioActive wrote:
They include a new morning show and a few other shifts in, well, their shifts.
I haven't heard the Ottawa station since it went all news under the new branding, but it sounds like it's less headline-oriented than its Toronto counterpart, with talk shows on in place of the newswheel in key dayparts.
The changes are outlined here.
And this moves the newswheel out of morning drive, too.
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Re: CityNews Radio In Ottawa Undergoing Some Major Changes On Monday
I thought this was going to be an RIP 1310 announcement!
Like most original AM stations that simulcast on FM, the other band is rarely, if ever, even mentioned. Their logo doesn't even refer to 1310. 
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Thread Starter- RadioActive
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Re: CityNews Radio In Ottawa Undergoing Some Major Changes On Monday
They include a new morning show and a few other shifts in, well, their shifts.
I haven't heard the Ottawa station since it went all news under the new branding, but it sounds like it's less headline-oriented than its Toronto counterpart, with talk shows on in place of the newswheel in key dayparts.
The changes are outlined here.And this moves the newswheel out of morning drive, too.
It kind of takes the whole point of the format away. If you look at the schedule they've just announced, there's no "all news" from 6 AM - 1 PM. That's a long time for a station that started out promising listeners headlines any time they tune in. It looks like they're going after Bill Carroll on CFRA.
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Thread Starter- Radiowiz
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Re: CityNews Radio In Ottawa Undergoing Some Major Changes On Monday
Their logo doesn't even refer to 1310.
Yes, I know. That's why I mentioned it.
It's been discussed already here:
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Re: CityNews Radio In Ottawa Undergoing Some Major Changes On Monday
They include a new morning show and a few other shifts in, well, their shifts.
I haven't heard the Ottawa station since it went all news under the new branding, but it sounds like it's less headline-oriented than its Toronto counterpart, with talk shows on in place of the newswheel in key dayparts.
The changes are outlined here.And this moves the newswheel out of morning drive, too.
Quite the interesting move from Rogers whom until now has put all their eggs in the "Newswheel" basket as opposed to "NewsTalk".
This could be interrupted as. a.) More cutbacks at Rogers as the All -News format is quite expensive to run. Or b.) A change in programming strategy.
Quite frankly, I think the All-News format has run it's course. It was revolutionary when it was introduced 35 years ago, promising not having to wait for the information you want. But all of that information (news, sports, weather and even traffic) is available instantly now on your phone.
If this doesn't work, it will be interesting to see what happens next. In my years working in radio, my impression was that 1310/101.1 had always struggled with making money since flipping to News in 2010.
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Re: CityNews Radio In Ottawa Undergoing Some Major Changes On Monday
CFTR here does fairly well in the ratings for an AM station. I wonder if this works in the Nation's Capital whether they would ponder trying anything similar here. But there are already two full time talkers in Toronto (three if you count CBC Radio 1's morning drive show) so why mess with success? It seems unlikely.
Still, the other CityNews stations seem chatter heavy. Halifax's CityNews 95.7 also has a talk show on in the morning drive shift, a guy named Todd Veinotte. Afternoons feature the Jeff Marek Show. So it appears "all news" is more of a brand in some markets than a reality.
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Thread Starter- RadioAaron
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Re: CityNews Radio In Ottawa Undergoing Some Major Changes On Monday
Ottawa launched as all-news and switch to the hybrid to cut costs. It never really worked -- I think they launched too late for a new AM station of any format to get traction.
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Re: CityNews Radio In Ottawa Undergoing Some Major Changes On Monday
For now CityNews Kitchener is all news morning and afternoon drive with talk shows from 9am to 3pm. Haven't heard if they are making a similar change, but I don't listen to them much. They also carry some sports with baseball, and OHL Hockey's Kitchener Rangers, and the odd NFL game. CityNews does fairly well in the ratings in Waterloo Region coming in 4th in a 12 station market. Audience share they are tied with Lite FM and Country 106.7 with a 5.7 share but have a higher central cume numbers.
CityNews Ottawa certainly has their work cut out for them going up against CFRA. CBC Radio French and English clobbers everyone in Ottawa/Gatineau and even CFGO TSN Radio currently does a bit better than CityNews. Maybe the FM simulcast will help them in the months ahead with the updated format. Something that CFRA doesn't have.
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Re: CityNews Radio In Ottawa Undergoing Some Major Changes On Monday
Maybe the FM simulcast will help them in the months ahead with the updated format. Something that CFRA doesn't have.
If Bell can't get an FM repeater for CFRA to level out the playing field, maybe they should go to the CRTC and cry foul over the idea that FM 101.1 is a Smith Falls licence not an Ottawa licence. (?)
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Re: CityNews Radio In Ottawa Undergoing Some Major Changes On Monday
Maybe the FM simulcast will help them in the months ahead with the updated format. Something that CFRA doesn't have.
If Bell can't get an FM repeater for CFRA to level out the playing field, maybe they should go to the CRTC and cry foul over the idea that FM 101.1 is a Smith Falls licence not an Ottawa licence. (?)
They can't rock that boat because they're running CHRO Pembroke as an Ottawa station.
CFRA will get on FM eventually, be in on 93.9 or when the CRTC allows a third FM, Corus gets piecemealed, and it ends up on 106.9
Last edited by RadioAaron (October 16, 2022 5:59 pm)