MR. ROGERS NEIGHBOURHOOD


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.

http://www.edmontonsun.com/News/Columnists/Hicks_Graham/2007/06/14/4259142.html

"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. "

930 News.   Kind of has a nice ring to it, eh?

I just hope they don't hire Bryan Hall to do their infomercial-sports features.

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).

Corus has dropped the ball big time on news-talk.  I hope 930 News blows them out of the water.  They could have been doing 880 News for years!

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.

I think they'd go with News930 over 930News.  The latter is confusing and sounds like a time, rather than a frequency.

Meh... I still come across people that think News1130 in Van refers to an 11:30 newcast.

i agree... 930News sounds hot.

Coupl'a things...

> 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.

Quoted from Jeremy_Crittenden

Meh... I still come across people that think News1130 in Van refers to an 11:30 newcast.

That's probably why they didn't go with 1130News to match Toronto....would have been even worse. 930News poses the same problem.

Duh-why would corus flip 880 to all news and fragment the audience of a number 1 radio station?

Why doesn't Roger's flip Sonic to news?  Roger's has done it before in the east with signals on the FM band

Quoted from newsjunkie

Why doesn't Roger's flip Sonic to news?  Roger's has done it before in the east with signals on the FM band

Because that would be a bad idea....
If Sonic flips it will not flip to news.

Quoted from trtc

Duh-why would corus flip 880 to all news and fragment the audience of a number 1 radio station?

Because if the format's inevitable, you want to be in control of it. You can make sure the stations compliment each other rather than cannibalize each other. Corus also has the efficiencies to do it much cheaper than Rogers.

Heck, CBS radio in NYC runs 2 newshweels.

Quoted from ADG

Because if the format's inevitable, you want to be in control of it. You can make sure the stations compliment each other rather than cannibalize each other. Corus also has the efficiencies to do it much cheaper than Rogers.

Heck, CBS radio in NYC runs 2 newshweels.

And Corus has such a proven track record with all news.... anyone remember NW2 in Vancouver  

Quoted from trtc

Duh-why would corus flip 880 to all news and fragment the audience of a number 1 radio station?

same reason Starbucks puts up a coffee shop kitty-corner to each other on Robson @ Thurlow.

So Blenz doesn't.

Here is what Stabucks did.  They had a nice corner on Thurlow and Robson doing $40,000 a week in coffee.

They got a better property across the street and openned their doors just before they shut down the old spot.  Curious thing happend.  The store old store continued to do $40,000 a week and the new store just started printing money as well and matched the $40,000 a week.  So they kept both store open.

So...

You have the number one news/talk station in town and the comp. is about to roll into town and open up an all news station.  There is obviously a market for all-news that isn't catered to by a Talker.  The hope would be, to open an all news before Rogers and try to maiintain your top-talker while finding a new audience for the News while at the same time, putting the hoop on Rogers and forcing them to gutter it out in the ratings basement with an oldies or something worse on AM.

Or better yet, make 880 a sport focused news station.  Take the Oilers & Eskimo games and move them over to 880.  Get the rights to any other sports francise, The WHL Oil Kings, The Rush and make 880 a absolute full service sports station with news on the side.

You continue to stop 1260 from ever getting anywhere ('cause the moment they get the rights to either the Oilers or Esks, there fortunes just might turn around) and you also stop this possible Rogers move everyone thinks might or should happen.

Then CHED could get back to some pure 100% news/talk.  No more distractions from the Oilers, Esks, etc.  Also, hopefully they would also carry less infomercials and less of that wind bag Halsey sellin' his ribs, cars and whatever else he's endorsing this week.  Ahhhhhhhh yeah, lemme tell you about the best ribs in town!  I purposely DON'T shop anywhere he endorses just because it's so damn annoying.

You know what, I might actually start listening to CHED again if there was some descent changes over there.  But from Corus, not holding my breath.

Then again, I'd really like to see a FM talkie ala 97.1 Free FM out of LA.  You know, I just may actually spend time with radio again if I had that option.

Quoted Text

Then CHED could get back to some pure 100% news/talk.  No more distractions from the Oilers, Esks, etc.  

And watch your demographic fade to almost entirely 55 plus. The Oilers and Esks seriously help CHED keep their demo numbers in the younger genre.  

As for them switiching to a newswheel at 880, I can't see them doing it, as its Corus, to run it properly, you'd need to hire at least 20 people, and pay them half decent to make the station listenable....