I have mixed feelings about Corus radio in Edmonton.  On one hand, the recent depletion of and lack of talent makes me sick every time I flip through one of their channels.  On the other hand, I give Corus full credit for being able to make money with their mediocre product.

In surfing the radio the other day, I heard nothing but bumbling, mumbling, poor diction and a new degree of illiteracy not to mention butchery of the English language on iNews880.  Skipping onto 630CHED I heard a senile Bryan Hall trying to convince himself outloud that "despite not having any medals, Canada is REALLY doing well at the Olympics.  Sad that Kris Burkholder is no longer his sidekick, but without Gord Whitehead, CHED would be freakin' terrible (they'd better hope winter comes soon so that the Oilers broadcasts will bring back some listeners).  Heard Rhubarb on JoeFM trying to carry the morning show, but it was awful.  Only channel I didn't make it to was CISN, but I suspect the same quality of resources.

I limit my listening time of free-radio now to weather and traffic reports only.  

Sad thing what's happened to radio talent in this town.

With all that has been going on in Edmonton...CISN has remained good quality

wow... way to champion the industry... makes me wanna put the ipod away in no time flat..

how about pointing out somehting positive? here's hoping ppl with strive to be seen as something to be talked about... I think Pepper and Dylan have one of THE best morning shows in canada. How about Layne Mitchell's sense humor just has something about it, the subtleties make me come back every day. Scott Mccord is fantasticly random. And my day just doesn't go right if i don't catch yukon's big yap at some point. Mike D on k97 is real and i can really relate to him.  chris sheetz is a staple and always will be.

anyone wanna do calgary? ...van? ...(jeff 'neil kills me   ) ...any other city in canada?

Pepper and Dylan?  Really?

I'm going to have to tune in and give them another shot.  Last time I was through they were doing some outdoor stunt that they were not pulling off on-air at all.  But that was the one and only time I'd heard them.

I don't think that pointing out bad talent is wrong - in fact it might have the opposite effect and help these people step up their game. No doubt they've been hearing it from family and friends that they are the best at what they do and deserve to be where they are, when the reality of it is - they are cheep. Step up.

McCord is awesome.

McCord is no Fearless, but he's got some chops.

Quoted from thatotherguy

Pepper and Dylan?  Really?

To each one's own...

I'm just trying to point out the positive rather than always dwelling on the negative. whats your fav morning show? why not say who you like rather than who you think sucks? I'm a jock. and if someone (a peer especially) ever took time to say something nice about me that would make me want to work harder than if some random bitter on an anonymous message board bashed me...and as people in the biz why not champion the good rather than the bad??? shouldnt that be a given? who works for good year and says "hover cars is where its at"?

Quoted from newsjunkie

With all that has been going on in Edmonton...CISN has remained good quality

I still don't understand why they have real live announcers in the middle of the night. I was listening to them because I was tuning my audio processor and was using CISN as a reference (and seeing how far I could push my FM transmitter before it would start overmodulating) and I was just kind of wishing that he would stop talking about random things and move along with the music. None of the Newcap stations running hot country do this. (CFCW does, but they're not hot country.)
Also, advertisements. Way more than CKGY and definitely more than the small town stations. (I need to stop complaining about this.)

Don't you think that it's terrific that a station actually has a live all night person, who might actually use that gig as a stepping stone once they've honed some skills?
I say cheers to CISN! Some Corus country stations don't even have a live evening person.

Quoted from binzer

Some Corus country stations don't even have a live evening person.

CISN doesn't either. it's Casey Clark, just like most country stations in this country now.

For my money, CISN and CFCW are Edmonton's two best radio stations. They're both country, they have talented and intelligent people, and they know their audience. I prefer CFCW's morning show, CISN at other times during the day, CFCW at nights when I'm listening to local radio.

Quoted from krazycanuck85

CISN doesn't either. it's Casey Clark, just like most country stations in this country now.

Which, while slightly better than "Lia" from the US, still makes me physically ill.  I have no doubts that Casey is a nice guy, but he's taking jobs away from actual people, and his "I'm a dork so I'm cool" gimmick got old at least 5 years ago.  It's bad enough that it clogs up CMT, but now it's taking over radio stations too.  When our station got the email about picking it up, we literally laughed out loud and hit delete immediately.

Great discussion folks.

My original point was that Corus, one of the bigs in Edmonton, has been able to keep its operation running and make money despite the lack of depth in talent.  I'm a believer that there comes a point when you can have too little talent and it WILL begin to affect your bottom line.  

For now though, it's interesting to watch them sell, sell, sell while offering very little quality.

It's basically my never ending nightmare, that radio stations will no longer require any kind of talent at any positions because they'll find a way to make every station a 24/7 Infomercial, where commercials are the only thing that matters.

Interestingly, GWB has been working toward this goal for a long time, and is getting closer.  It's truly a frightening prospect for all jocks/newsies out there.  I long to have worked in the glory days of the 90s.........and earlier, of course....