I admit that I'm unusual in that I have the radio on much of the day while I do other things. So I get exposed to it more than most. Perhaps that's why I notice it so much. When I'm involved in something and I suddenly realize that the spot break has been going on for what seems like an eternity, I finally come to my senses and turn the station.

I think most would agree that 5 1/2 minutes of commercials is not exactly an inducement to stay tuned. One of the other issues is that they all go for their over-long breaks at the exact same time - generally the quarter hour mark, which makes perfect sense from a ratings point of view.

I think back to the Rick Sklar days when he was programming WABC-AM, at the time the most listened to station in New York if not all of the U.S. He would deliberately schedule the news at 5 to the hour, knowing most of the kids would quickly tune to Top 40 competitor WMCA to keep hearing music. But they'd all come back when MCA went to their news at the top of the hour and ABC was back rocking. It was a simple move, but it worked. 

If I were one of the competitors, I'd go slightly earlier to the break, let people turn off to another station if that's what they were going to do anyway, and then catch those same people tuning back when CFRB inevitably went for their five minute commercial cluster. I don't know how much difference it would make in the long run, but it might increase Time Spent Listening. 

Maybe pie in the sky, but I can't tell you how discouraging it is to tune from one station to another to another and they're all in commercial breaks at the exact same time.

paterson1 wrote:

   People don't listen to CFRB for hours on end like they did years ago   

Could it be that the data of a few years ago was incorrect?      Or that the most recent data is incorrect?     For 1010 listenership to have almost totally collapsed in just a few reporting periods seems unlikely
 

Moore has grown on me over the years and I actually like his show now.  Yes, he leans left, but unlike some here, I enjoy getting all points of view. But having listened I can also say I think he's mostly fair with his guests and that's all you can really ask in a host. 

I do agree with paterson1 on one point - CFRB's line-up is suspect. After Vassy Kapelos is done for the day at 2 PM, I'm gone and I don't really come back to 1010 until the next morning.

The moment 1010 killed their newsroom and replaced them with tv people trying to do radio as a side job, it was game over for 1010.     Their newsroom supported the shows very well.   Their newsroom really held the station together.   Now without that support, and a budget that can't support talent, afternoon drive and evenings having a revolving door, the place is a sitting in ruff shape.   Unless Bell is going to get serious and throw some money to fix the mess they made, I think they have yet to see the bottom.    The mighty have fallen.   The bigger question...will Bell pull the plug?

Last edited by radiokid (June 2, 2023 9:30 am)

1983:

 

A bunch of things....

-The audience is literally dying off and not being replaced. And they won't be, so long as there's...

-No marketing. In Ottawa, you can't watch CTV for five minutes without seeing a CFRA logo. Not here

-The technical decline of AM & Increase in urbanization. I couldn't listen to AM at home or on my commute if I wanted to. It's now almost a car-only medium, and those are getting worse as automakers reduce frequency response to avoid electrical interference.

-The rise of the CBC, especially with younger audiences. FM, solid digital strategy, more reflective of the population. They're the dominant talk outlet in many markets.

-The political whiplash. "Different points of view" is all well and good, but not when it's in the form of a host ranting or arguing. It's like if a music station played country in the morning and alternative in the afternoon.

I turn on 1010 at noon and there it was the worst show ever in the history of radio - Chatter That Don't Matter. 

A while back I was listening to that horrible chatter show and what's his name was interviewing a woman who he introduced as one of the most brilliant and innovative media consultants and artists he had ever met.
She was apparently a famous musician in her earlier years, though I had never heard of her.
As the show progressed it was slowly revealed the woman, who praised what's his name, profusely was actually once his PR trainee and was actually a relative nobody who just happened to run a successful PR business.
But he interviewed her like she was a deep intellectual and spiritual inspiration.
One I realized all that I turned the dial.

 

RadioActive wrote: I think back to the Rick Sklar days when he was programming WABC-AM, at the time the most listened to station in New York if not all of the U.S. He would deliberately schedule the news at 5 to the hour, knowing most of the kids would quickly tune to Top 40 competitor WMCA to keep hearing music. But they'd all come back when MCA went to their news at the top of the hour and ABC was back rocking. It was a simple move, but it worked. 

RA - Allan Slaight had CHUM News at :55 BEFORE Rick Sklar at WABC. CHUM News was "5 minutes before the hour - First News...first" starting in 1960 (it might have even been slightly earlier).  Sklar didn't get to WABC until 1962 and didn't become Program Director until '63.

Last edited by Doug Thompson (June 2, 2023 3:19 pm)

I never knew that. Yet another innovation from a radio station that was full of them back then. I also remember a very quick CHUM feature called "Split Second Sports" in which they very quickly give the latest scores and then moved on. 

RadioAaron wrote:

A bunch of things....

-The audience is literally dying off and not being replaced. And they won't be, so long as there's...

-No marketing. In Ottawa, you can't watch CTV for five minutes without seeing a CFRA logo. Not here

-The technical decline of AM & Increase in urbanization. I couldn't listen to AM at home or on my commute if I wanted to. It's now almost a car-only medium, and those are getting worse as automakers reduce frequency response to avoid electrical interference.

-The rise of the CBC, especially with younger audiences. FM, solid digital strategy, more reflective of the population. They're the dominant talk outlet in many markets.

-The political whiplash. "Different points of view" is all well and good, but not when it's in the form of a host ranting or arguing. It's like if a music station played country in the morning and alternative in the afternoon.

... and I think you missed another significant point.....  Smartphones

The audience (certainly the younger generations), have migrated away from traditional "radio" and TV, to consume content on their smartphones.  With so much choice available, the notion of a talk show, at a locked-in time-slot, on "the radio", doesn't even enter the minds of many.






 

In Phase wrote:

RadioAaron wrote:

A bunch of things....

-The audience is literally dying off and not being replaced. And they won't be, so long as there's...

-No marketing. In Ottawa, you can't watch CTV for five minutes without seeing a CFRA logo. Not here

-The technical decline of AM & Increase in urbanization. I couldn't listen to AM at home or on my commute if I wanted to. It's now almost a car-only medium, and those are getting worse as automakers reduce frequency response to avoid electrical interference.

-The rise of the CBC, especially with younger audiences. FM, solid digital strategy, more reflective of the population. They're the dominant talk outlet in many markets.

-The political whiplash. "Different points of view" is all well and good, but not when it's in the form of a host ranting or arguing. It's like if a music station played country in the morning and alternative in the afternoon.

... and I think you missed another significant point.....  Smartphones

The audience (certainly the younger generations), have migrated away from traditional "radio" and TV, to consume content on their smartphones.  With so much choice available, the notion of a talk show, at a locked-in time-slot, on "the radio", doesn't even enter the minds of many.






 

For sure, but I was looking for things that have affected CFRB specifically, as the ratings posted are market share, not overall listener numbers.

SpinningWheel wrote:

I lose confidence quickly in organizations that do this.   How can they claim to be a legitimate information hub when they can't get iHeart or their own staff to keep something this simple and important up-to-date?

That's an old link (the "events" in the URL) - current site presents https://www.iheartradio.ca/newstalk-1010/shows and is accurate. You're correct in that they should keep that up-to-date, but in content management systems if it's often considered "enough" to delink them from a main or otherwise navigateable page so nobody will organically hit them up (i.e. no reference), though search engines may still have crawled them. 

I used the iHeart app a few times and found it to be useless.    Until sometime in 2022 their online stream interrupted every 15 minutes causing it to disconnect on apps like TuneIn and was often doing the same with iHeart's.   I tried it with PC desktop and Android (TV & phone) with the same results.   Made it tough to listen that way.

I found the same. Much better results with a third-party site like https://onlineradiobox.com/ca/cfrb/?cs=ca.cfrb&played=1 where you can get hours uninterrupted.

Chrisphen wrote:

JackofAll wrote:

I started listening to CFRB about 25 years ago and what brought me to the station was that it provided all the information a person required for the day.  The hosts were insightful, intelligent and mostly tried to present balanced views. 

Ah, yes.The Motts railing against migrant Gypsies. Coren raging against <minority du jour>. Adler steaming at anyone who wasn't rich. So much more civilised than now.
Edit - I'm sure there are some on this board who can attest to this golden age of public discourse on CFRB. Don't be shy!

Yep, and that's yet another reason they can't attract new listeners. That is 100% the perception of people who know about the station but don't listen to it.