Graham Hicks Hicks on Six EdmontonSun.com June 14th, 2007
So the Citytv folks in town at least know their fate. Thanks to the machinations of government regulators and the market, they'll soon be Rogers Broadcasting employees rather than joining the CTV fold.
Rogers, one of Canada's multimedia giants (cell- phones, cable, video stores, radio, TV), has been moving in on Edmonton. It bought the last locally owned radio stations in town, Sonic FM and World FM (formerly CKER-FM) from the OK Radio Group.
Rumour has it Rogers wants to purchase CJCA The Light from Chuck Allard, to be the Edmonton outlet for a nationwide all-news radio chain.
it's hard to believe, but it's almost 14 years since CJCA went off the air as a talk station, then came back as a religious station a few months later. If you ask me, the station was a far better talk station thahn CHED has ever been, and they had mostly local programming. It would be nice to have an all news station in Edmonton.
I can't see Chuck Allard selling to Rogers especially when rumor has it they've been chatting it up with another media group. Word on the street is Roger's will be flipping World FM to talk, hence the changes behind the scenes (PD and Promo)
I was going to say that if there was a demand for all-news in Edmonton that Corus could flip 880 to that format. Then again, if they did they would lose money for the first few years and that probably would not fit well with big bosses and the shareholders.
My second post on this thread. I could be wrong, but doesn't the licence for CKER (World FM) require them to carry ethnic programming until August 31, 2010? If so, that would mean the station couldn't be flipped to a news or talk format for three years.
I can't see Corus flipping Cool 880 to an all-news format. If anything, they'd revamp CHED into all-news - the morning show now is practically that, with news every 15 and traffic every 10. If 880 were all-news they'd compete directly with CHED for the same listener base. Mind you, 880 could go talk and take on the same shows CHED runs now...
Pity that CHED didn't get their FM application approved... that's where the all-news belongs. Right now my morning drive finds me flipping back and forth between CHED and CBC Radio One's new FM frequency (93.9).
It would be nice to see unbiased news on the air. CBC leans so far to the left, while CHED is as right wing as FOX at times. An objective news/talk station would be great.
> been rumblings of the 930 buyout since first word of Rogers in Edmonton - would be nice to see some competition for CHED, although CBC is really not doing that bad. It's really no surprise that there's even more chatter after Rogers gets a new licence for TV and acquires a local station.
> for World FM to flip, they would have to re-apply as a new station since their format is a specialty licence. If you look into it, they're listed as a community service - not a station. It would be very uncool, but it would be easier to flip SONiC than World FM.
> World FM didn't have a PD (per say) to begin with, promotions was not really there either. It's nice to see Rogers take the initiative to fill these gaps.
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