95 Crave is now "Vancouver's All-Hit Music Fix" with new imaging and jingles. The music mix is essentially Hot AC, and Rick Dees' Weekly Top 40 has been added to the weekend lineup. It appears that the changes took effect today.

soooooooooooooooooooo...it's basically Z again.   brilliant.  

They might as well go back to zed, better name.

I had to double check my dash freq display in my car today. Huge difference  more punch. New features !

Crave on Demand - It's where YOU control the sound of a 50,000 watt radio station. Vote for the one YOU want  to hear next.  If it wins - They play it next.

The Canadian Top 20 - Sunday 6 - 8pm !

Retro in the Metro, hosted by Sarah Bartok, weekdays at noon.

The 6 O'Clock Secret - Play three songs how are they the same.

Crave Music Council Login

Crave Music Counsellor - Log in required on website.

I notice Astral ID'S running.

Nice direction !

The first three of those features were a part of the old Crave. Standard has a history of this sort of "tweaking", not just in this market. I expected more from astral. But only time will tell...

Same sh*t, same station. This is nothing but a joke now. How many tweaks and format changes in the last 4 years? And they honestly think THIS will work??!! Not only did they manage to destroy the Z name in Vancouver, now the frequency is ruined. They will need to go to a completely different format to get out of the crapper. And "Crave on Demand"? That's very original. Not that anything is all that original in radio, but c'mon!!

If Crave manages to last into 2009 I will be shocked...And with how badly they have handled their "formats"  and I use that term very lightly, they will have to do a complete change, not just a shift.  They can't have AC anywhere near their name, nor Top 40.  They would have to go Country or Rock (either, active, modern, or classic, it doesn't really matter), in order to even attempt to do anything with the frequency.

I dont want to get into a pissing contest with your critiques, criticisms of the sound, tweak etc - I'll leave you to anonymously beak off, but I did want to make a correction in regards to Crave on Demand.

It is indeed a very innovative and groundbreaking feature in radio.  Have a listen to it.  If you visit the web at 95crave.com between 2p and 3p, there is a live vote system tracking your choice of 3 songs to be played next in rotation.  This is not your traditional request program.  If you've seen Much on Demand on TV, then you know how Crave on Demand works on radio.

The staff at 95.3, whichever it was called, have long been groundbreaking when it comes to combining the web and radio.  We were the first radio station in Canada to have a website (thanks to Joe Nicholls in 1995), our announcers have regular and informative blogs, I use Ustream to webcast what happens in the control room between songs and chat with listeners in a live chatroom, and now we have this - another first in the industry.

Spout off about sounds, and tweaks and music mix and brand names, that's easy enough to do without being informed, but really you should look a little deeper before just reacting to what's on the surface.

As you were.
bz.

I don't think anybody was arguing about your website Buzz. They were talking about yet another tweak that will do nothing to get 95.3 out of the 3 share point hell it's in now. I could be wrong but after 5 years of watching the ship sink lower and lower, I wouldn't be surprised if much bigger changes are to come in `08. Best of luck with that.

Crave on Demand will work so long as it's not the same 10 or 12 people requesting the same schlock each day.  Playing what the listeners want is a refreshing change from another station that plays what they want, bunch of songs in a row, etc.  

To be frank...3 songs in one hour of a day is nothing to be proud of/make a big deal of. And the one time I checked out the Crave Cam (great idea btw)...there was another user called "Frenchie" so I was scared away.

i'm sure it's the next 3 songs coming up, if they were only to play 3 songs in an hour that would be too much like another station in the morning.

Quoted from 463

The staff at 95.3, whichever it was called, have long been groundbreaking when it comes to combining the web and radio.  We were the first radio station in Canada to have a website (thanks to Joe Nicholls in 1995), our announcers have regular and informative blogs, I use Ustream to webcast what happens in the control room between songs and chat with listeners in a live chatroom, and now we have this - another first in the industry.

This is an agreeable point. The station has always been up on the new technological innovations, and, for the most part, has done a good job exploiting these features. However, as a frequent radio listener, the sound, music, image, attitude, name, etc. are the "face" of the station, and all of these groundbreaking innovations are just tools for delivering the "face" in a new way. Although important, they are secondary.

Having said that, I am glad to hear Crave's new sound. A sound that puts up a bigger fight, rather than, giving up. However, I'd still much prefer the late 90's Zed.  

Listening all morning the 2008 Crave is a way better package that 2007. Crave was a soft roll out not sure if today's Crave packaging and new jingles/music was in the forecast from launch. After all they did kill a Z station that many grew up with.  We are all radio nerds. I appreciate what Buzz said hope they do well. " Vancouver's All Hit Music Fix" Lets see what programming can do.

CLEAR FM February should be interesting....  

Listening all morning the 2008 Crave is a way better package that 2007. Crave was a soft roll out not sure if today's Crave packaging and new jingles/music was in the forecast from launch. After all they did kill a Z station that many grew up with.  We are all radio nerds. I appreciate what Buzz said hope they do well. " Vancouver's All Hit Music Fix" Lets see what programming can do.

Judging by your posts, you work in programming there on Horseshoe Way!

I hate to be negative about the changes in music/programming/web content etc, but Crave has LOST the hit music position in this town, and they'll never get it back from the BEAT.  They've also confused the audience they did finally get by changing names, and now they're tweaking again.   They've got to figure out WHO they want listening, because honestly, it seems like they change their mind every book.