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AM640's Format: What Else They Considered Before Mojo Radio
Most here probably remember Mojo Radio, the grand experiment on Corus' AM 640, which launched on April 23, 2001. But did you ever wonder what else they thought of before opting for the new "Talk Radio For Guys?"
In going through an old copy of Broadcast Dialogue from Jan. 25, 2001, I stumbled upon this curious little notice. It shows that someone at the station had considered several other formats - including, apparently, country. How they eventually decided on Mojo isn't clear, but take a look at what else they may have been looking at 23 years ago. What do you suppose "Zone 640" would have been?
- RadioAaron
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Re: AM640's Format: What Else They Considered Before Mojo Radio
It was pretty common practice at the time to register multiple domains to obscure the one you were actually going to use.
- RadioActive
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Re: AM640's Format: What Else They Considered Before Mojo Radio
Yes, I thought that, too. But country certainly was wide open back then.
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Thread Starter- RadioAaron
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Re: AM640's Format: What Else They Considered Before Mojo Radio
RadioActive wrote:
Yes, I thought that, too. But country certainly was wide open back then.
Right, so a perfect mis-direction.
- Radiowiz
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Re: AM640's Format: What Else They Considered Before Mojo Radio
I agree with RadioAaron on this one. It was just as important then as it is today to not leak the future of a radio station until the right time to do so...
RadioWiz & RadioQuiz are NOT the same person.
RadioWiz & THE Wiz are NOT the same person.
- newsguy1
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Re: AM640's Format: What Else They Considered Before Mojo Radio
I still can't imagine what they were thinking when they went MOJO.
Talk radio for guys?
What?
You alienate 50 per cent of the audience.
Did they think advertisers would flock to them, thinking, "great we've always wanted to dissuade women from buying our product."
I tried to listen to mojo back then, but I gave up.
I remember the day I was trying to listen to a talk show when the guy on air was talking about some legislation in Ottawa and eventually said, he he not know what he was talking about because he really didn't understand politics.
Thud.
- AspectRatio
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Re: AM640's Format: What Else They Considered Before Mojo Radio
I still can't imagine what they were thinking when they went MOJO.
Talk radio for guys?
What?
You alienate 50 per cent of the audience.
I have heard in retrospect that for that format, the station was actually somewhat effective at generating curiosity in the female listener - "What are 'guy topics'? What are guys being told there? What's this 'secret club'?" and that they DID have a female share of the audience. I liken it maybe to a "The View" (or "Oprah") scenario; "The View" clearly is targeted towards women, but I've heard of any number of boyfriends/husbands watching it because their female partner thought the segment would interest them, or simply being in the room - or liked the personality of the hosts. "The Other Half" was an experiment of a male version "The View" that didn't last long, however.
- Holliday
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Re: AM640's Format: What Else They Considered Before Mojo Radio
I still can't imagine what they were thinking when they went MOJO.
Talk radio for guys?
What?
You alienate 50 per cent of the audience.
It's actually the way talk radio is trending today - away from news and politics. It was basically a dressed up version of Hot Talk or FM Talk. AM radio is pretty much a guy domain to begin with, so alienating women listeners wasn't a huge problem. I think leaning hard into the "For Guys" thing got them decent publicity.
Here's an example of an FM station doing guy talk, getting great ratings in a very competitive market (Tampa.) They also get a decent share of women. Carry the Tampa Bay Lightning Games too. Station website is geoblocked, but can listen here: