Rock radio fight bruises CJAY 92
Heath McCoy
CalgaryHerald.com
Tuesday, July 17, 2007
With three new rock radio stations on Calgary's airwaves, the city's rock audience -- long championed by
CJAY 92 -- is being severely divided, according to spring radio ratings released Monday.
As a result,
Country 105 is shaping up to be the real winner in Calgary commercial radio. With the competing stations battling hard, the country mainstay has plowed ahead, again emerging as Calgary's No. 1 station.
The BBM radio ratings -- the standard used to measure radio listeners in Canada -- reveals that, among radio listeners aged 12 and older, Country 105 was the top station from April 16 to June 10, with an 11.4 per cent share of the market. JACK 96.9, which blends pop hits from the '80s and '90s with modern hits, was second with a 10.7 share while VIBE 98.5, with its modern hits, hooked 8.5 per cent of the audience. CJAY 92.9, which dominated Calgary radio for years, finished fourth with a 7.9 share.
As for the three new stations,
alternative rocker X92.9 came out on top with 4.1 per cent, securing them the No. 9 position in the ratings.
They were followed by
Energy 101.5 which has been playing modern pop and rock, with a 3.7 per cent share.
Fuel 90.3, with a format playing a hybrid of the classic rock and alternative formats, ranked 12th, with 1.7 per cent.
But according to
Christian Hall, program director for
X92.9, it's too early in the race for anybody to be breaking out the champagne.
"You really don't where you stand right now," he said. "As good or as bad as these numbers are for the new kids on the block, the dust won't officially settle for about another six months, when the fall (ratings) come out, just before Christmas. Energy and Fuel were only in the market for two or three weeks before the ratings began, so it's tough to take these numbers (too seriously)." But Hall does have one sure cause for celebration and that's the fact that his station, and the other newbies, have taken a bite out of their biggest competitor, CJAY.
"I think it was about three years ago that (CJAY) got their first big wallop, when JACK came into the market," says Hall. "Then
Q107 (ranked seventh) came along and took another portion of their audience. And now of course we've come along and they're obviously our direct competition. You've got to think that at least eight out of 10 of our listeners are probably coming directly from CJAY. So that's the station we're doing the most damage to." Fuel's program director Murray Brookshaw agrees that CJAY is taking a beating because of the new rock stations.
"When you're No. 1, and they were No. 1 for a long time, you've got the most to lose," he says.
At press time nobody from CJAY 92 had returned calls for comment.
As for the hierarchy in the ratings among the new rock stations, with X92.9 coming out on top and Fuel finishing below it and Energy 101.5, Fuel's general manager Stephen Peck says he's not concerned. He notes that X92.9 got a head start, launching at the end of 2006, while the other two stations didn't hit the air until March.
And Fuel, he says, offers a product that Calgarians aren't used to.
"We've mixed things up a bit so it will take people a bit longer to embrace it," Peck says. "But once they do, they'll be dedicated to it. We're not a flash-in-the -pan type station."
hmccoy@theherald.canwest.comhttp://www.canada.com/calgaryh.....26-8451-6bf8bdd43208
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