The Southern Ontario/WNY Radio-TV Forum » Mike Bendixen Back In T.O. Radio & You'll Never Believe Where

RadioActive · August 30, 2023 12:02 pm

An anonymous source tells me that Mike Bendixen, the former Brand Director of CFRB, is back in Toronto Radio. And he's apparently landed at the competition. My report says Bendixen will take over programming at Corus' AM 640, leaving Amanda Cupido's fate up in the air.

I have yet to 100% confirm this story, but if anyone can, please post it here.

RadioAaron · August 30, 2023 12:44 pm

Great move if true

RadioAaron · August 30, 2023 1:00 pm

Confirmed:

https://broadcastdialogue.com/talk-radio-veteran-mike-bendixen-joins-corus-entertainment/

RadioActive · August 30, 2023 1:08 pm

Can Ryan Doyle's return to the airwaves be far behind?

BowmanvilleBob · August 30, 2023 1:10 pm

A shame really. Amanda's background is podcasting and she and her company are leaders in their field. She regularly appears in the media and at conferences to speak on the future of podcasts in today's media landscape. Her goal at 640 was to bring new people and points of view to the air, but Corus management only allowed that to happen around the edge of the broadcast schedule, primarily on the weekends. I wish her the best in her next chapter.

The problem is that 640 is never going to out-rage-farm the rage farmers down the dial at 1010 and win the dwindling number of 55+ males who seem to eat this dreck up. The return of MB indicates that Corus is poised to continue this non-winnable war for the foreseeable future, or until the next bright idea comes down the pipeline to try and salvage what has been Toronto's unluckiest radio spot (remember Toxic 40 anyone?)

RadioAaron · August 30, 2023 1:13 pm

BowmanvilleBob wrote:
A shame really. Amanda's background is podcasting and she and her company are leaders in their field. She regularly appears in the media and at conferences to speak on the future of podcasts in today's media landscape. Her goal at 640 was to bring new people and points of view to the air, but Corus management only allowed that to happen around the edge of the broadcast schedule, primarily on the weekends. I wish her the best in her next chapter.

The problem is that 640 is never going to out-rage-farm the rage farmers down the dial at 1010 and win the dwindling number of 55+ males who seem to eat this dreck up. The return of MB indicates that Corus is poised to continue this non-winnable war for the foreseeable future, or until the next bright idea comes down the pipeline to try and salvage what has been Toronto's unluckiest radio spot (remember Toxic 40 anyone?)

Couldn't agree more. 640 is likely an impossible task and I don't know why they keep trying.

Their Western stations sill have some life in them though, and Mike will be good for them.

betaylored · August 30, 2023 8:00 pm

RadioActive wrote:
Can Ryan Doyle's return to the airwaves be far behind?

I miss the good old days of Ryan and Jay on 1010. I'd like to be able to listen to more radio than I currently do because of the lack of choice.

Also, it feels like Amanda Cupido was kind of the Kyle Dubas of Toronto radio, possessing a good title with very little actual autonomy or major decision-making powers. I wish her well.

Go Mike Bendixen, show em how it's done!

cash · August 30, 2023 9:25 pm

Good luck to him.

RadioQuiz · August 30, 2023 10:14 pm

End of the day - AM640 is going to get better. Some of the changes Amanda made were cool ideas, and worth a try. The bottomline is that good radio station is like a strip mall- you need really strong anchors. Greg Brady and Oakley are pretty solid, and the news dept does a nice job. If Mike can get them all clicking better together - it could be a winner. Mike has access to a pretty nice talent pool of well known radio entertainers that will immediately improve 640's biggest weakness - the depth of their bench. It will be fun to watch. I wish everyone success.

g121 · August 31, 2023 7:19 am

Newstalk 1010/CFRB is certainly vulnerable. Only John Moore & Vassy Kapelos are strong hosts; the rest are basically various levels of dreck.

RadioActive · August 31, 2023 7:21 am

I will be very curious to see what he does with 640 and if the changes will be major or just tweaks. Will all the current personalities survive or will he bring in people he prefers? That will be interesting to watch, as well.

RadioActive · August 31, 2023 4:28 pm

I'm told Bendixen will start by concentrating on 640 before moving on to the other Corus stations in October. He officially starts on Tuesday.

I'm wondering if this will somehow involve more consolidation. Alex Pierson and Kelly Cutrara have both gone strictly from airing only in Toronto to being carried on CHML and CFPL. I hope that isn't the future but it's definitely a money saver - one host for three stations. If that's the case, I fear it will only hurt an already struggling 640.

RadioAaron · August 31, 2023 5:36 pm

He'll have more to work with when they bump it up to 95.3

BowmanvilleBob · August 31, 2023 6:38 pm

RadioActive wrote:
I'm told Bendixen will start by concentrating on 640 before moving on to the other Corus stations in October. He officially starts on Tuesday.

I'm wondering if this will somehow involve more consolidation. Alex Pierson and Kelly Cutrara have both gone strictly from airing only in Toronto to being carried on CHML and CFPL. I hope that isn't the future but it's definitely a money saver - one host for three stations. If that's the case, I fear it will only hurt an already struggling 640.

g121 · September 1, 2023 5:59 am

Interesting .. is Newstalk 1010/CFRB already countering?

Announced today .. the Moore in the Morning start time moves from 5am to 6am but will still be a 4 hour show now running 6am to 10am. Agar's show shrinks by an hour & will now run from 10am to noon.

Hansa · September 1, 2023 7:08 am

Does anyone know what happened to 640's ratings during Amanda's tenure? Did they fall or were they just stagnant? (I'm assuming she wouldn't have been let go if they'd improved)

AspectRatio · September 1, 2023 7:26 am

Hansa wrote:
Does anyone know what happened to 640's ratings during Amanda's tenure? Did they fall or were they just stagnant? (I'm assuming she wouldn't have been let go if they'd improved)

Cupido's hiring announcement was at the top of December 2021. At https://radioinsight.com/numeris-ratings/toronto/ , you can see

Winter 22 (11/29/21-2/27/22): 1.6
Spring 22 (2/28/22-5/29/22): 1.5
Summer 22 (5/30/22-8/28/22): 1.4

To be fair, immediate competition 1010's ratings fell each period as well (6.6, 6.4, 5.4), and that's hardly enough time for Cupido to have made any changes that would really have time to gain traction. I couldn't immediately find newer numbers but I'd be curious to see that too, if anyone had them.

Hansa · September 1, 2023 9:19 am

Interesting - shame we don't have the 2023 numbers so we can see a year over year comparison. AM's in a long-term decline and it would have taken a real magician to stem that tide, let alone reverse it. Let's see if Bendixen is the Hail Mary move that can make a difference - my guess is the AM talkers are just rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic at this point. At this point, it looks like AM is becoming the domain of multilingual stations and oldies and it could become the home of niche formats. Ironically, Amanda could be ahead of the curve here - I could easily see AM stations being used to play podcasts as a way of promoting online podcasts and directing people there.

RadioAaron · September 1, 2023 12:04 pm

It's not going to be stuck on AM for long.

paterson1 · September 1, 2023 1:34 pm

RadioAaron wrote:
It's not going to be stuck on AM for long.

Sounds like someone is going to pull a Calgary Q 107 and go talk on FM? Soon after the long weekend?

AspectRatio · September 2, 2023 11:59 am

Incidentally, I thought Amanda Cupido's posts on Twitter (sorry, "X") referencing her departure were classy. Wishing her the best in some travel/recharge time, a wedding, and whatever challenges are next.

Stinand · September 4, 2023 12:51 pm

Bendixen can make all the changes all he wants, but without advertising $$$ to bring mew listeners in, it's pointless just a shell game.Between both stations they have about a 3 share while CBC is over 12 and 680 over 7. 1010 or 640 cant compete , they need to rethink the whole model.

RadioActive · September 5, 2023 8:52 am

Greg Brady noted that Tuesday is the third anniversary of his officially taking over the morning show. He asked listeners to phone in with "suggestions" about how the program could be improved.

It also marks the first day of Mike Bendixen taking over 640 and presumably making his own alterations to the format.

I find it almost impossible to believe the timing was a coincidence!

Rune · September 5, 2023 8:57 am

Bendixen is a smart guy. I know what concerns he has had about the Talk format on FM but I think if it's true that Corus will find or flip an FM signal to Talk, he'll make it work.

67GreenRambler · September 5, 2023 10:34 am

Anyone know if Jason Chapman still has his Executive Producer job down at Queens Quay ? The idea of putting an intermediary between PD and the production/technical staff never made much sense particularly in a fiscally thin environment.

RadioAaron · September 5, 2023 12:11 pm

Rune wrote:
Bendixen is a smart guy. I know what concerns he has had about the Talk format on FM but I think if it's true that Corus will find or flip an FM signal to Talk, he'll make it work.

Like it's a bad thing?

PwrSurge · September 8, 2023 4:31 am

RadioAaron wrote:
He'll have more to work with when they bump it up to 95.3

If you are suggesting that 95.3 is being flipped to simulcast 640 then this would be a BIG mistake causing a severe impact on 900 CHML which ranks at the #3 position in Hamilton's 2022 ratings with a 4.3 share. Most importantly, Corus would certainly get in trouble with the CRTC as doing this would be a backdoor entry by abandoning their market of license from Toronto to Hamilton. This was not the case with their Q107 flip in Calgary as both CFGQ-FM and CHQR are in the same market.

Due to its signal, 95.3 is the only Hamilton station which ranks in the Toronto ratings but for some reason, Corus is not taking advantage of this. Rather than fighting a losing battle competing against CHUM, Virgin and KiSS, they need to go against weaker signal stations Flow 98.7 and Z103.5 (which now has a 7.1 share) by changing their format from Hot AC to Rhythmic CHR and come back to their true Energy 108 roots with a mix of Dance/Pop and Hip hop/R&B.

Ever since 93.5 flipped away from Urban CHR, there has been a void for Hip hop/R&B music in the Toronto market. 98.7 did somewhat adapt to this change but does suffer from an impaired signal in the east GTA with interference from CBC Peterborough also on 98.7 where 95.3 still has an excellent signal.

Last edited by PwrSurge (September 8, 2023 4:33 am)

Hansa · September 8, 2023 12:48 pm

Inicidentally, Ferguson has a new podcast and he recently had Josh Robert Thompson (who performed Geoff Peterson and other characters) on as a guest - the first time they've appeared together since shortly after Late Late Show ended its run.

Last edited by Hansa (September 8, 2023 12:48 pm)

RadioAaron · September 8, 2023 12:54 pm

PwrSurge wrote:
RadioAaron wrote:
He'll have more to work with when they bump it up to 95.3
If you are suggesting that 95.3 is being flipped to simulcast 640 then this would be a BIG mistake causing a severe impact on 900 CHML which ranks at the #3 position in Hamilton's 2022 ratings with a 4.3 share. Most importantly, Corus would certainly get in trouble with the CRTC as doing this would be a backdoor entry by abandoning their market of license from Toronto to Hamilton. This was not the case with their Q107 flip in Calgary as both CFGQ-FM and CHQR are in the same market.

CHML has a one-share in 25-54. Shut it down and integrate some Hamilton content into a merged 95.3.

As for not being the city of license, Rogers is getting away with that just fine in Ottawa. Also, the CRTC is completely irrelevant for at least two years.

PwrSurge · September 8, 2023 6:46 pm

RadioAaron wrote:
PwrSurge wrote:
RadioAaron wrote:
He'll have more to work with when they bump it up to 95.3
If you are suggesting that 95.3 is being flipped to simulcast 640 then this would be a BIG mistake causing a severe impact on 900 CHML which ranks at the #3 position in Hamilton's 2022 ratings with a 4.3 share. Most importantly, Corus would certainly get in trouble with the CRTC as doing this would be a backdoor entry by abandoning their market of license from Toronto to Hamilton. This was not the case with their Q107 flip in Calgary as both CFGQ-FM and CHQR are in the same market.
CHML has a one-share in 25-54. Shut it down and integrate some Hamilton content into a merged 95.3.

As for not being the city of license, Rogers is getting away with that just fine in Ottawa. Also, the CRTC is completely irrelevant for at least two years.

Not sure about 2023 but in 2022, CHML had a 2.7 share for W25-54, 1.2 for M25.54 and 4.3 for A12+
On the other hand, CING had a 4.4 share for W25-54, 1.9 for M25-54 and 1.8 for A12+

Big difference with Ottawa is that unlike Hamilton, Smith Falls is not considered as a distinct radio market by Numeris while both Toronto and Hamilton are separate distinct markets. CJET (CityNews 101.1) is simply listed as a spill station in the Ottawa-Gatineau market and even then, their ratings in Ottawa are almost non-existent at only 0.4 share while CIWW (CityNews 1310) has more than triple that amount at 1.3 share. We can clearly see that there's no tangible benefit simulcasting CityNews on 101.1FM.

Last edited by PwrSurge (September 8, 2023 6:46 pm)