Thanks, albertaboy4, for sending a clip of the CKIS-FM launch in Calgary.  Made me wonder what has happened along the way to the Calgary market.  Some evolution, of course, is not unique to C-town -- the industry has become more fragmented and there are many more choices for people everywhere.  AM stations gave way to FM counterparts ... but I have questions about Calgary's evolution.

a. Why didn't AM operators "protect the turf" by moving over to FM?  When I was in town, Moffatt was only one with combo (CKXL/CHFM), and they used the FM to try to appeal smack down the middle (lite AC) because it was only FM stick.  Then came CFCN's CJAY ... and they wanted a piece of CKXL's younger in-town audience.  CKRY was licensed and picked off the obvious next choice ... CFAC.  Was all this luck of the draw ... that is, CRTC licensing the new properties to a competitor that allowed the original stations to die? (Moffatt obviously couldn't change CHFM to protect 'XL and CJAY was not a direct assault on the format; CFCN got "lucky" by applying for something new; CFAC wanted to get that license for FM contemporary country but was denied ... why did these players not get the opportunity when new FM's were licensed ... had they just "expired" by the time opportunity happened?)

b. Why did CKIS fail?  At one time CKXL owned the metro market, so I would assume the rebirth of that target on FM should have had a decent shot.  At the time, they even BET the license on it ... trading CFXL license to get the FM one; but it didn't last.  Why not?  

c. CFR sounded great when it launched...but died over time.  Much of that I attribute to lack of care and feeding ... with each visit I'd hear a station that was a shadow of the version I heard a year earlier; and after awhile it sounded tired enough that it WANTED to be put to sleep.  I would think it could have sustained ... even being on the AM band as a music station (1060 still doing "OK" as a music service on AM).  Had they kept it energetic and live, it could have still sounded great...but that is costly, I guess.

Reason I ask some of these is with all the new signals I wonder if anyone has looked at the past very much, or just jumped into the market proclaiming "we need another Rock ... a new HOT AC, etc.".  Obviously in some cases you can't control the evolution (if CRTC deals you a bad blow ... hard to fight that one); but I note this past week that the hints are CRTC intentds to be a little more "lax" in their licensing and regulation.  FCC already did that down here and we've had hell to pay ever since ... the "favorite species" operators get whatever they want, and those without a lobbying voice near the FCC office essentially get trounced.  Programming has followed by being driven with whatever helps the "favorite species" corporation players most and the whole thing has evolved into a couple of big bands of "so what".  

I always looked forward to going to C-town to listen to radio ... seemed like it had not been screwed up yet compared to U.S.   Don't feel that way any more --- and I'm curious about others' perspectives on how it got there.

The easy - and really not all that cynical - response is: The people who made all those good things happen had pay-cheques attached.

Those people are gone; their costs are gone and the Radio is.... well... pretty much what we hear.

My most recent conversation was with a local station, on-air type who mentions how the PD was continuously whining about not being able to find any "good people".

This person responded with: "Have you looked at your format and your budgets?"

It's not rocket-surgery. At least, not off the top.