The Southern Ontario/WNY Radio-TV Forum / Conversation radio stations seem to be dying

**Posted by brian451** October 31, 2024 2:01 am

In Edmonton Now radio is king, That is the original conversation station, and the owner of it Pattison Media, expanded the conversation station to Calgary (known and Today Radio) and then launched in Winnipeg and later Vancouver. Also Stingray did the Today radio experiment in Toronto. Well this year we saw The Peak return to regular FM Radio after being moved to HD2, 2 years ago in Vancouver. Then Today radio Toronto became Country and at midnight October 30, going into the 31st Now radio Winnipeg flipped to Alt 94.3
It seems as though the only places the conversation station format is working is Alberta and more so Edmonton. Today Radio has decent ratings but the lineup shuffled a little bit this year that did lead to a decline in listeners and because of that they had to tweak the lineup again, but it seems like now the station is gaining again in terms of listeners. But if not maybe The Peak returns to Calgary and they bring their version of Alternative rock back. Although before the Peak was at 95.3 in Calgary not 101.5

**Posted by Radiowiz** October 31, 2024 4:06 am

You'll notice Boom 97.3 still does a mild version of conversation radio on various shifts where the radio announcer asks a simple question and callers call in in between songs, responding to that question.

Sometimes it's just a riddle though, which is still fun. I actually like hearing the responses some of the callers come up with. Great radio!

**Posted by RadioActive** October 31, 2024 7:27 am

Here's the Broadcast Dialogue article on the format flip and what to expect next.

Pattison Media drops NOW! radio format in Winnipeg

**Posted by km93** October 31, 2024 11:02 am

Hmmm. Whereas this very safe version of "Alternative" is expanding.-2 per major market.