R-S-T-L-N-E wrote:

What about the thousands of long-term, faithful Funny and Bloomberg listeners?     Does this situation have potential to turn ugly?  

What about the fact that 820 Cham's last words as a Country station were "Finally a Country station you can count on"
Then poof! It was Funny 820. 
There is hardly any audience as Funny 820. They had a stronger audience as Legend 820 and could still go that route, but then it may mean splurging on an American network evenings and overnights. 
(I'd say 24/7, but Can Con has to be considered)

andysradio wrote:

Saul wrote:

I wonder if the new owner ultimately wants the frequencies and has contingency plans to relocate to new premises with much simpler systems. They already have a site in Windsor, though I have no idea if they own it or if it's feasible to also accommodate an AM.
 

If they want to move the transmitter site, I think that would have to be part of the application

... or a future one should the site become unavailable. Contingency plan...

Skywave wrote:

Relocating any of these stations would be prohibitively expensive, in the millions, taking into account land, towers, antennas, ground system, transmitter and buildings. The only new directional AM station built in the last 15 years from scratch was CJLI AM 700 in Calgary.  All the others were co-located with existing AM stations.
 

Any room on the 1220 AM tower site? 

Is there a possibility we could see a return to Oldies 1150 and 820 CHAM Country or something similar to that? According to this article in today's Hamilton Spectator, the new owner says maybe:


Change in the works for Hamilton radio landscape as Toronto broadcaster looks to buy AM 1150 and 820



PJ



 

RadioActive wrote:

I'm not entirely sure I believe what Mr. Ray says, but it's a lot better than yet a 17th and 18th pair of more ethnic stations here in the GTHA. If he can make a go of it, I would be happy to have CKOC go back to its oldies roots. Although with CFAJ and the Grand in the mix, it's going to have to have a lot more going for it than just those legendary calls. 

CHAM tried talk for a little while, roughly as long as a cup of coffee as they say, and while I enjoyed it, it had a lot of syndicated programming and too many sponsored shows on the weekend like "Purity Products." I may be the only one who will miss the unique novelty of the comedy format, even if it does get a bit repetitive. 

These are decent enough signals. There's people on this board who should be letting Ray know they know radio...

Too bad for him that CKDX just went all country, although I'm not sure if it comes in well in Hamilton. 

Saul wrote:

Isn't 94.7 the problem in that regard?

Nope. There is still demand for Country music that 94.7 doesn't play. 
(or a variety Country format with 94.7's music in lite rotation)

 

RadioActive wrote:

Too bad for him that CKDX just went all country, although I'm not sure if it comes in well in Hamilton. 

Yes as Saul mentioned KX 94.7 is the issue and the station has been doing well.  So CHAM would absolutely need to be different or as the new owner implied a mix of something else that could include country with talk. 

Every single one of these is a recipe to lose money. Lots of it.

Saul wrote:

IMO at least, the recipe to succeed is to focus on the community, hire a couple locally minded journalists who understand radio, and have programs that are an upper. Embed yourself with people and community events and such. Be out there, visible. And be Hamilton. I'd program music with that which would suit general broad tastes, and definitely promote local talent and such.

It doesn't matter what you program. 

Any ratings will be 55+ so national sales are a no-go.

The local media sales pie in Hamilton is very small, and you'd be depending on a business owner who
-is 55+ themselves
-actually makes their own marketing decisions
-has a clientele who is also 55+
-has heard of and believes in the stations

It doesn't add up

The top-rated station in Hamilton is often Boom 97.3, despite Hamilton having its own local station with similar music and a morning show with two of the city's best known personalities. 

These three stations won't be caring about national sales.  Other than major markets, national sales have become less and less important to radio.   That's why many medium and small markets have dropped Numeris.  Why pay for ratings info that agencies want and have national continue to plummet?   As we are seeing with prime time TV ratings the actual numbers seem to be less important as well. 

The only chance that CKOC, CHAM, and CKWW have to hang on, or to prolong the inevitable is to be local.  Cater advertising packages to local and regional businesses especially those with co-op advertising dollars available.  There is sizable money available with large regional operations and co-op advertising that radio doesn't go after.

Important for both CHAM and CKOC that they develop relations with The Spectator and CHCH with contra advertising and cross promotion of personalities.  The two AM stations, newspaper and TV all have the same goal and that is to be local.  

   

Last edited by paterson1 (November 26, 2023 1:29 pm)

Broodcaster wrote:

You can get music anywhere
I was thinking  more about news and information that is local and live with a bit of promotion.
 

That would still be a 55+ demo.

You are not going to bring anyone new to the AM band with ANY type of programming. Period.

The local ad dollars are simply not there. Those that are not already advertising on radio are not going to flock to a station they themselves would never listen to.

This is a pipe-dream.

paterson1 wrote:

Important for both CHAM and CKOC that they develop relations with The Spectator and CHCH with contra advertising and cross promotion of personalities.  The two AM stations, newspaper and TV all have the same goal and that is to be local.  

   

These are their competitors, especially CHCH! CHCH has more in common with a radio station than a TV station, focusing all their money and effort on radio's prime-time shifts and charging radio-level rates for local spots.
 

RadioAaron wrote:

paterson1 wrote:

Important for both CHAM and CKOC that they develop relations with The Spectator and CHCH with contra advertising and cross promotion of personalities.  The two AM stations, newspaper and TV all have the same goal and that is to be local.  

   

These are their competitors, especially CHCH! CHCH has more in common with a radio station than a TV station, focusing all their money and effort on radio's prime-time shifts and charging radio-level rates for local spots.
 

The biggest competitor for CHCH, The Spec, CHAM and CKOC would be Toronto media and hog town is only 61 km  away. These Hamilton media outlets are struggling, but luckily they all have a sizable footprint beyond Hamilton.  The four of them are also independent which has some big advantages over conglomerates, if they cooperate and work together with personalities and cross promotion.  Possibly even a few advertising promotions.
 
There are still local dollars in the Hamilton area, they just need to recognize and exploit them.  Again all media  should be exploring co-op advertising, even with rural farm implement dealers who have access to large co-op money with their suppliers.  Foolishly radio, even country music stations does almost zero with this.

It is hard work, but with coop advertising, once you're in, you're in.