The Southern Ontario/WNY Radio-TV Forum » And The Format For 820 CHAM Is...

RadioActive · August 19, 2024 4:46 am

It's ethnic and it sounds like an odd combo of Bollywood/reggae, a partial clone of owner Neeti Ray's CINA-AM in Toronto. Either way, there's no longer anything funny about Funny 820.

The dog woke me up at 3:45 AM Monday and I couldn't get back to sleep, so I turned on my old stand-by, the comedy on CHAM. It was gone, replaced by all ethnic music, although I'm having trouble nailing down exactly what they're playing.

The iHeart website for Funny 820 is gone, replaced by a page not found 404 error message. It appears they're calling themselves Big AM 820 and and they have a short jingle between songs that IDs the station as CHAM 820. A heavily accented announer intones it's "your favourite music and nothing more." So far, I haven't been able to find a site.

The one thing I can confirm for sure is it's not country.

I already miss the old format!

Radiowiz · August 19, 2024 8:44 am

RadioActive wrote:
I already miss the old format!

I don't. The station was a joke. There was nobody there. Lights were on, but nobody was home.
No local input at all. What a joke the station was....no pun intended.
It could have been much better managed.

Shorty Wave · August 19, 2024 8:54 am

RadioActive wrote:
It's ethnic and it sounds like an odd combo of Bollywood/reggae, a partial clone of owner Neeti Ray's CINA-AM in Toronto. Either way, there's no longer anything funny about Funny 820.

The dog woke me up at 3:45 AM Monday and I couldn't get back to sleep, so I turned on my old stand-by, the comedy on CHAM. It was gone, replaced by all ethnic music, although I'm having trouble nailing down exactly what they're playing.

I already miss the old format!

I tuned into Funny 820 shortly after they launched and stuck with them over the years, only station like it in
my neck of the woods! I remember when there was a debate as to whether to announce the comedian’s name before or after their piece, either worked for me. Sad, one less AM preset for me.

RadioAaron · August 19, 2024 9:10 am

paterson1 · August 19, 2024 9:10 am

I wonder if this actually is the format or is the ethnic programming only for part of the day. Wouldn't Neeti need to apply for a category change if CHAM was to schedule all ethnic programming? CHAM is licensed as an English language radio station, but can program a certain amount of programming in another language. And all night wouldn't count.

If they and CKOC aren't running any commercials, and essentially are new stations programming out of new studios in a different location, are they considered to be in test mode right now? Maybe the two Hamilton stations and CKWW are in test mode for the next few weeks and are planning the launch around Labour Day or that long weekend.

Anyone know?

andysradio · August 19, 2024 9:19 am

paterson1 wrote:
are they considered to be in test mode right now?

I would think not. There is nothing to test. The transmit facilities are established.

RadioActive · August 19, 2024 9:34 am

paterson1 wrote:
I wonder if this actually is the format or is the ethnic programming only for part of the day. Wouldn't Neeti need to apply for a category change if CHAM was to schedule all ethnic programming? CHAM is licensed as an English language radio station, but can program a certain amount of programming in another language. And all night wouldn't count.

I have been listening off and on this morning (I can only take so much of what they're playing - not my demo) but it appears a lot of it is reggae. And while it's heavily accented, much of it is in English. So they may not be out of compliance with the rules. There are no announcers that I can hear, only pre-recorded IDs - all of which are in English. What they'll do about CanCon is another matter.

paterson1 wrote:
Maybe the two Hamilton stations and CKWW are in test mode for the next few weeks and are planning the launch around Labour Day or that long weekend.

CKWW still appears to be in the iHeart corral. It's still on their website and it's still feeding its signal through iHeart. The other two are gone from the platform. So my guess - and it's only that - is that the new owner has his hands full with the Hamilton duo and will get to Windsor soon. Until then, it's still technically running as a Bell station. I expect that will change soon.

RadioActive · August 19, 2024 10:25 am

Radiowiz wrote:
RadioActive wrote:
I already miss the old format!
I don't. The station was a joke. There was nobody there. Lights were on, but nobody was home.
No local input at all. What a joke the station was....no pun intended.
It could have been much better managed.

You're not wrong about it being a night light, run totally off a computer. But the reason I liked it was twofold:

a) It was something to listen to when everyone else had rerolls - like in the middle of the night and

b) It was my go-to choice when the stations I listened to went to their overly long 5 minute spot breaks, all at the exact same time. It was amusing and by the time a few jokes went by, my show was back without hearing Fiona prattling on and on about Spence Diamonds.

That's why I'll miss it. And I have no idea where to go to get that "don't want to hear the break" break now.

mace · August 19, 2024 10:36 am

For years, WBZ and WGN had live overnight phone-in shows. I haven't listened to either station at night for decades. Do they still have live programming overnights? Although with all the increased electrical interference now, reception could be less than reliable. I do miss Larry Glick, Norm Nathan and Bob Raleigh.

RadioAaron · August 19, 2024 11:29 am

RadioActive wrote:
CKWW still appears to be in the iHeart corral. It's still on their website and it's still feeding its signal through iHeart. The other two are gone from the platform. So my guess - and it's only that - is that the new owner has his hands full with the Hamilton duo and will get to Windsor soon. Until then, it's still technically running as a Bell station. I expect that will change soon.

They launched this morning with a local morning show:
https://www.am580ckww.com/

RadioActive · August 19, 2024 11:35 am

Still on the iHeart website as of this posting, although the graphic has changed.

RadioAaron · August 19, 2024 11:36 am

RadioActive wrote:
Still on the iHeart website as of this posting, although the graphic has changed.

They will be staying on the iHeart platform in the same way Corus and Stingray stations are.

Marc1178 · August 19, 2024 11:38 am

To hear CHAM 820 I have been using the London, ON Kiwi SDR

http://99.244.14.12:8073/

RadioActive · August 19, 2024 11:40 am

RadioAaron wrote:
RadioActive wrote:
Still on the iHeart website as of this posting, although the graphic has changed.
They will be staying on the iHeart platform in the same way Corus and Stingray stations are.

But CKOC & CHAM are gone from that platform. Why did they keep CKWW?

By the way, worth noting again that Kara Ro is doing mornings in Windsor and 10AM-2PM on CKOC. So she gets off one and immediately goes on the other, although I suspect there's some voice tracking going on here.

Radiowiz · August 19, 2024 12:02 pm

RadioActive wrote:
Still on the iHeart website as of this posting, although the graphic has changed.

Unless one stream is running a little behind, the two sites seem to be playing different music.
(for the iHeart site, wait for the ad to finish airing before comparing songs that air...)

eladb · August 19, 2024 1:59 pm

RadioActive wrote:
But CKOC & CHAM are gone from that platform. Why did they keep CKWW?

Interesting that CKOC is gone from there, as the station has been running jingles encouraging listeners to tune in via the iHeart app.

RadioActive · August 19, 2024 2:04 pm

I just heard that, too. Perhaps it's there on a new page that I can't seem to find yet or it's coming.

But no sign at all of 820. Can anyone put a finger on exactly what it is they're playing? Other than ethnic, I can't quite seem to find a definition that fits.

RadioAaron · August 19, 2024 6:31 pm

RadioActive wrote:
I just heard that, too. Perhaps it's there on a new page that I can't seem to find yet or it's coming.

But no sign at all of 820. Can anyone put a finger on exactly what it is they're playing? Other than ethnic, I can't quite seem to find a definition that fits.

I'll take a wild stab at it: Punjabi Contemporary. The required english songs are quite well chosen and fit in well. Currently playing a song with a Punjabi corus with Snoop Dogg on the verses

I'm thinking 820 was the real prize and 1150 was a package deal.

RadioAaron · August 19, 2024 6:49 pm

This station is way more well put-together than CKOC. Mixes between IDs and songs are tight, whereas a lot of the songs on CKOC haven't been trimmed and fade out to nothing.

It also has a variety of IDs and jingles, one of which said (I think) "From Kingston to London Ontario". This station will cover a large population that can't get the Toronto FMs. This one might work.