Courtesy of Hicks on Six
Edmontonsun.com
April 11th, 2007

K-ROCK SQUISHED

Radio has this evil finger of fate.

With every ratings report, it looks around, and with next to no warning squishes some poor innocent radio station, squirts away half its listenership.

The fickle finger spreads the pain.

Last fall, the finger squished CFCW, with a 50% drop in (Greater Edmonton) listeners.

With the new spring 2007 ratings book out, CFCW has made a nice recovery.

Now it's K-Rock's turn.

K-Rock has gone into a death spiral. Once always in the top four stations, it has fallen to ninth place. From fourth two years ago to seventh last year ... to ninth. OUCH.

Wha' happened? Heard Stairway to Heaven once too often? Was Terry Evans's departure too noticeable? Too many comedians on the morning show (three)? Heck, I like the K-Rock morning show. It's funny!

Where did the K-Rock army go? Well, The Bear had its best ratings in five years. Joe-FM, arguably the "new" classic-rock station, did some smart personnel shuffling and has great numbers.

Other ongoing radio stories: Newcap Radio poured energy and effort into Big Earl, but it's just not making headway against country FM giant CISN, with three times the listeners.

Nobody gives CHED much credit, but it's ruled Edmonton's airwaves since adopting the news, talk and sports format around 1993.

CBC-AM has its best ratings in years - good to see Edmontonians discovering the excellent ALL-LOCAL morning and afternoon talk/news shows.

Magic 99 is disappointed with a ratings dip ... but the new station is making a dent in the public consciousness.

Given the competition, Sonic (aimed at guys 18 to 25) and Bounce (kids 12 to 21) must be pleased. Both have carved out healthy niches and continue to grow.

* The spring '07 Bureau of Broadcast Measurement ratings - the number is a percentage of the total Edmonton listeners and hours listened.


In brackets is the station's rating a year ago.
1. CHED 11.9 (11.7);
2. The Bear 9.3 (8.7);
3. Joe-FM 9.1 (7.0);
4. CISN-FM 8.9 (10.5);
5. EZ Rock 8.0 (7.0);
6. (tie) CBC-AM 6.9 (5.4) and Sonic-FM 6.9 (6.1);
8. CFCW 6.7 (8.2);
9. K-Rock 4.7 (6.2);
10. Cool 880 3.6 (3.2);
11. (three-way tie) Magic 99 2.8 (2.9), CBC-FM 2.8 (2.9) and Big Earl 2.8 (2.7);
14. The Team 1260 0.9 (1.3).

Stations not listed do not subscribe to the BBM service.

http://www.edmontonsun.com/News/Columnists/Hicks_Graham/2007/04/11/3980776.html

Quoted from SoundAroundMee

K-Rock has gone into a death spiral.

And there folks is the quote of the day.  Ouch!  

The Bear plain and simply outworked every other station. The once community minded K-Rock is lost without leadship. For K-Rock to be beaten by CBC AM is embarassing. K-Rock has done NOTHING to make up for the loss of previous morning host. No community work, no street talk, terrible billboards, a morning show with no direction, a tired mid day show and a drive show that has no zip. If Newcap was smart, they would beg the former PD/Morning guy back to fix it, no matter what the cost.

Quoted from trtc

The Bear plain and simply outworked every other station. The once community minded K-Rock is lost without leadship. For K-Rock to be beaten by CBC AM is embarassing. K-Rock has done NOTHING to make up for the loss of previous morning host. No community work, no street talk, terrible billboards, a morning show with no direction, a tired mid day show and a drive show that has no zip. If Newcap was smart, they would beg the former PD/Morning guy back to fix it, no matter what the cost.

I agree with much of the above posting.  K-Rock seems like a very tired station.  I think some listeners have gone to Joe-FM, which plays a good share of Classic Rock.  It's time to tweak the staffing and format at K-Rock.