The race is on. Will some other station flip to country before the approval for this happens and Big Earl launches in Cowtown? A half or even a third of Country 105's audience probably looks pretty good to the folks at California.
Flip fuel to Earl, then bring California in as Fuel.
If they can lose the restrictions. (or the license). Just because they can't make a go of the format, doesn't mean someone else wouldn't be able to with a little effort and elbow grease.
Might Rawlco sneek in first by tweeking their "Folk" station with lots of Nashville? ex: Mike Ness, Ray Lamontagne, Allison Moorer with Tim, Keith, Reba
It's too bad that NewCap wants to go this direction. I really enjoyed the Breeze when it was on the air, California 103 is okay but they're too much like a cookie-cutter Soft Rock/Smooth Jazz format. There's no "Sun" on California 103, as far as I'm concerned.
Might Rawlco sneek in first by making their station more "Folk" station tweeked with lots of Nashville? ex: Mike Ness, Ray Lamontagne, Allison Moorer with Tim, Keith, Reba
Yeah, probably. And that's why somebody else might jump the gun to get there first, even if the station in question has only had one book.
Made an impressive debut in Calgary until the 'Jack' monolith hit town, and never recovered after that. How hard did the station's handlers promote the station over its short life? Not so much, imho. Rather than carve out its own niche, NewCap now pleads poverty to the CRTC at its licence renewal. It robs the Calgary market of a unique music format, and makes the whole 'specialty licence' process useless and redundant. The Commission should play hardball with NewCap, forcing the company to "strenuously" prove that the format truly doesn't work.
Go back a few years to the beginning and you'll find that when the Breeze actually pulled some numbers (I believe they had over a 6 share at one point) Paul Larsen was the PD. When he left the nosedive started and they just couldn't find someone who could do it as well. Then they brought in their current management and... well.. the results speak for themselves.
If Newcap wants to be honest in their CRTC request, it should read something like... "we're just too inept to be successful".
Flip fuel to Earl, then bring California in as Fuel.
If they can lose the restrictions. (or the license). Just because they can't make a go of the format, doesn't mean someone else wouldn't be able to with a little effort and elbow grease.
Didn't BJ Wilson take part in the original Big Earl? That didn't go so well, hence Fuel.
First Breeze book was a healthy 4-something. Second book was their best; 5.6 sticks in my mind but I could be slightly off. Then the bottom fell out. I never really bought into the "Jack-done-'em-in" excuse. traveller is probably closer to the truth. After listening to a couple of Larsen's radio stations, I think he was the guy with the magic touch.
As an afterthought, is Newcap not opening itself up to the possibility that the CRTC may decide to revisit the bidding process for the license? These are major changes. To simply cave to the request would encourage others to promise anything just to get a license, secure in the knowledge that they can get what they *really* want five years down the road. "It didn't work. Who knew?"
CRTC are rubber stampers. This one's gonna pass without trouble. In fact, I'd say that Newcap has been priming the Commission for a long while. Forseeing the request, could it not be the reason the Commissioners only licenced four instead of five new licences for Calgary? Click on this and scroll down to "Dissenting opinion of Commissioner Helen Ray del Val".
By not handing out the 5th licence (which analyzed by CRTC workers could be financially feasible), the Commissioners kept the window open to "help out" their buds at NCC. In other words, the Commissioners will be able to substanciate that the city can afford to have another non-specialty commercial licence, opening the door for CIQX-FM to drop its requirements.
For those who say that Newcap has to demonstrate a bigger WHY: the application states that Newcap has invested nearly $20 mil and has lost $3 mil. Whether or not it was intentional to lose money for the sake of getting the requirement dropped, the CRTC have the numbers on file and will be sympathetic to the non-Jazz cause in Calgary.
I really think there should be an intervention process at the time a company's license comes up. Even more than that. Your 5 year window is up? You re-apply for your license and can have competition for it at the same time. Could make the terms longer to give you time to implement a business plan and see it through, but every 10 years or so stations would have to drop the VT, up their CanTalent commitments and spoken word to save their ass.
It's sad that Newcap will in essence be rewarded for ineptitude when there are countless companies out there who could do it better if only given the chance.
Intentional to lose the money?? That doesn't add up, as it's not a guarantee the CRTC will approve the licence revision.
Remember, it was Newcap that inherited this licence from Telemedia's P.O.P., and obviously the research in the niche format for Calgary or Canada for that matter didn't exactly work out.
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