We are getting reports that Clear FM Vancouver is going to flip @ 2:00 pm.
We are really sad to report Charlee Morgan was let go from mornings. Radio can be a cruel industry. We wish you well Charlee. AC understand no others were let go.




FM 104.9 - the Greatest Hits of All Time.
http://www.1049greatesthits.com/

Harsh.  I know Charlee from BCIT days, hope she lands on her feet.  Sucks to leave a gig in another city to move back, only to be let go scant months later.

Not even a month into the book and the suits in Toronto feel like flipping the format again! Jeebus, does anyone have patience in this day and age? Charlee, my fellow Burnaby North alum, I feel for you. Take a holiday where its warm for a month or so, and gather yourself..you're one of the good guys/gals in this biz and if you feel like doing it again, there is bound to be another gig awaiting. If not, you've had a heck of a run and made some real friends who care about you.

Unless they're going to flagrantly ignore non-hit, this is going to sound a lot like JACK.

What a joke! They move her from a sucessful gig in Calgary and then turn around and dump her. I hope Karma catches up with the person who pulled this one.

Why the sudden format flip?  Were ratings really that bad?  Maybe the braintrust saw what NewCap was doing in Alberta with Capital FM and XL103 and thought there was an opportunity?

Is there a date for the flip yet?

5 minutes from now.

From News1130:

News1130's sister station, Clear FM, has become 'FM 104.9 - The Greatest Hits of All Time'.

Program Director David Larsen tells us what kind of music we can expect to hear.

"Very familiar, very uptempo, a sing-along, fun kind of station and the music will be familiar immediately. I think it's going to be good."

He says we will hear hits from the 60's, 70's and 80's from the Beatles, Beach Boys, Supremes and Earth Wind and Fire.

The station officially flipped formats at 2:00 o'clock this afternoon.

First song: Beatles "Twist and Shout". I only tuned in as the change sequence was taking place (thanks Michael!) so hopefully someone had the wherewithall to roll tape.
Surprised to see Charlee let go, she'd be a shoe-in for this type of format. Will Red come out of retirement for a second (or is it third time to host mornings? A second tour of duty at Ash Street for Tom Lucas?

They stole our stations format!

Sorry to hear that Charlee but hey it was Lucas that told me the day I got fired from that same building that "you're nobody in radio until you get canned from a station.  Congratulations."

Last hour of CLEAR FM and first hour of FM 104.9... on air playlist


2 PM
2:54 PM ROY ORBISON Oh! Pretty Woman 1964 G
2:47 PM SUPREMES Someday We'll Be Together 1969 G
2:44 PM SISTER SLEDGE We Are Family 1979 G
2:41 PM WILSON PICKETT Mustang Sally 1966 G
2:35 PM BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN Hungry Heart 1980 G
2:30 PM BEACH BOYS California Girls 1965 G
2:27 PM KC & SUNSHINE BAND Get Down Tonight 1975 G
2:25 PM RASCALS Groovin' 1967 G
2:21 PM MANFRED MANN Blinded By The Light 1976 G
2:18 PM FOUR TOPS It's The Same Old Song 1965 G
2:12 PM CREEDENCE CLEARWATER REVIVAL Down On The Corner 1969 G
2:08 PM ARETHA FRANKLIN Freeway Of Love 1985 G
2:05 PM GRAND FUNK The Loco-Motion 1974 G
2:03 PM BEATLES Twist And Shout 1964 G
1 PM
1:56 PM SARAH MCLACHLAN I Will Remember You 1995 G
1:52 PM JEFF HEALEY BAND Angel Eyes 1989 G
1:44 PM BARENAKED LADIES Lovers In A Dangerous Time 1998 G
1:40 PM VANESSA CARLTON A Thousand Miles 2002 G
1:37 PM JANN ARDEN Son Of A Preacher Man 2007 R
1:33 PM ROD STEWART Forever Young 1988 G
1:29 PM MARC JORDAN Rockets 2000 G
1:25 PM COMMODORES Lady (You Bring Me Up) 1981 G
1:18 PM BEATLES Nowhere Man 1966 G
1:15 PM J.BRICKMAN/M.WRIGHT Your Love 1999 G
1:11 PM SANTANA Smooth f/Rob Thomas 1999 G
1:06 PM ROBBIE ROBERTSON Somewhere Down The Crazy River 1988 G
1:01 PM JOURNEY Faithfully 1983 G

.

Gerry and the folks over on Horseshoe Way must be s**ting themselves this afternoon. They finally Throw a little money/talent into a choking AM only to be blown out of the water by FM. gotta love this bizz!

I'm surprised they didn't call the station JILL-FM, coz it certainly sounds like a sis-tuh station to JACK.  How many format changes for the ORIGINAL STAR-FM now Tommy?  

Not being a fan of CLEAR in the first place, I hardly heard Charlee Morgan, but from the posts I've seen on this board it sounds like another class act has been shown the door by Corporate Radio.     WTG!

Hmm.. the music so far has been great. Finally an Fm station that is different. Kiss 650 good-bye!
As for name and logo? Looks like a 4 year old made it. What a pile of crap. No identity or catchy name. Who's the moron who decided on this I wonder?

I once suggested this very move to a little puke at Rogers (who's not there anymore) and he scoffed saying "they would never do that".   Well, it makes perfect sense.  Even though the signal has to be careful about its non-hit situation, Oldies sound good on FM...and if they can ever get a decent enough morning show, maybe they'll push for a 5-6 share.  With AM 600 going dark, and CISL all over the oldies map, there's an opportunity.

As for Charlee, I'm sorry...but that show was tragic.  Curse of being featured on "Airchecker".  

on the way to the RV show Friday nite, it sounded great.

Best wishes to Rogers.

Station sounds pretty good.  Bring back Fred and Cathy!

Quoted from CRS

I'm surprised they didn't call the station JILL-FM, coz it certainly sounds like a sis-tuh station to JACK.  How many format changes for the ORIGINAL STAR-FM now Tommy?  

Ah yes STAR FM.  Could almost use that name again?  Bring back Barry McMaster.  

I remember the day that Bill and Bob got the approval to place the transmitter on Seymour and all the Vancouver stations crying foul.  

104.9 Trivia:  Did you know that two ladies have been morning hosts on that frequency?  

Retread and Crappy?  You've GOT to be joking???  Only if the studio is built in Maui...maybe McRae could drop by and do the sports!!!  If Rogers were smart, they'd take the opportunity to promote from within...they must have a dynamite morning host(s) that's been languishing in middle-market radio long enough that they're ready for some Major Market exposure.

Say I wonder if Red had already tracked his weekend "Red Rock Diner" show or was he given advance notice not to bother coming in?  Reminds me of the launch of XFM on the very same frequency New Years Eve 2000.  All the on-air hosts had VTd their shows through the long weekend...and the VTs never made it to air.   More than a few FORMER STAR-FM hosts were peeved about being left in the dark.  Isn't Corporate Radio a joke?

I'm surprised they didn't hang on and make this station Christmas FM again!  

Quoted from TommyD

104.9 Trivia:  Did you know that two ladies have been morning hosts on that frequency?  

Yes, she was there when I first started but I can't, for the life of me, remember her name.  Margaret...?  You'd be my best friend if you could tell me.

Quoted from DJ Specs

Hmm.. the music so far has been great. Finally an Fm station that is different. Kiss 650 good-bye!
As for name and logo? Looks like a 4 year old made it. What a pile of crap. No identity or catchy name. Who's the moron who decided on this I wonder?

My guess would be strategy. There are a lot of uppers/middles/and slaves within companies that continue to complain about the success of satelite radio, and other new mediums that give all us all new competition... sort of. (whole new topic again)

But in comparison to that form of competition, sure the "channels" have names, but its kept very simple...... channel 31 on Sirius.... channel 212 on XM..... or in this case...... Fm 104.9 - The Greatest Hits Of All Time. I think its genius.... simple.... gives the frequency and what they are. Problem being, following the current trend will "date" this name/logo.... I give it 2 years max.

A lot of it has to do with American stations starting to use more generic branding in light of PPM, and the diminished importance of recall. The frequency becomes the most important identifier.

Tie this in with the recent success of these Oldies2 formats, and "104.9" is born.

Quoted from hard sell

Yes, she was there when I first started but I can't, for the life of me, remember her name.  Margaret...?  You'd be my best friend if you could tell me.

That would be Margaret Brown.  She started with us at CKGO in Hope and then moved to Chilliwack to be the first morning host on STAR.  

This 104.9 frequency must have a bad omen. The poor freq has been kicked around turned upside down with no winning results. The new flip should have happened at the same time Charlee was brought in from Calgary. Say hello to radio automation with no personality. Maybe Dave Larsen should get the boot if he is this flippant. I heard Larsen promoting a new time slot for Red NEXT week. Going to be a jock less station with a lot more big Red in your face.

Also heard several Red splitters tonight which still identified the station as Clear FM! C'mon Rogers, get with the program!

Maybe they will forget to change the Clear FM logo outside the entrance. Bad, Bad Bad when you have Red still saying CLEAR on the new format.  Why don't you just let Red do all the new station imaging and run it to the ground.  The 60's rotation is a hard listen. Terry Chan MD will have to work on his music rotation mixes get a better mix from year to year rather than 2 60's, 1 70's.  

I see over the weekend the website has had the new logo impeded where the old logo was. Goes to show you how lazy corporate radio is. The Clear logo was up until last night and they still have the same CLEAR air staff plus all the old CLEAR rewards log in crap, UP. No passion at all to come out the gate as a winner is RED still saying join me on CLEAR.

Lets thank online radio (plus ipod) for changing the radio industry upside down. If not for Cadillac Jack who "Playing What We Want" JACK,  had he not come to the rescue in the name of Variety you would not get the following.

Montreal’s newest radio station delivers the biggest hits of the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s

96.3 Capital FM, Edmonton’s Greatest Hits!

" THE GREATEST & LATEST HITS"

"1460 CJOY - The Royal City's Greatest Hits"

The AM radio station is switching from news, traffic and talk to a greatest hits format"

"The lost Greatest Hits have been found we are about to change"

"Variety"


“Classic Hits 102.7” plays hit songs from the 70s and 80s without a lot of talk. “Classic Hits 102.7” is more than just music; it’s a time machine featuring the greatest songs by the greatest artists. The Rolling Stones, Journey, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Bad Company, CCR, Billy Joel, Eagles and more.


"We know Variety just listen"

"More Variety with 5 in a row"  

"Jill - FM" etc etc etc..

I had a listen over the weekend and while I like the music being played, I cannot help but wonder what drove this switch.  A couple of thoughts - 104.9 seems to have been overhauled numerous times over the past years - which I believe does nothing for listener loyalty.  

Charlee Morgan was brought in from Calgary - and then summarily dismissed.  Shame!  Was this format flip done simply on a whim?  I guess there is no employee loyalty in radio.  One cannot but feel a little sympathy for someone who leaves a job and a city, to come to a new job and city, only to be released a few short months later.  Yes, yes, I know, that is radio, and it is driven by the numbers, but still.....

Did CISL try to get an FM license?  While I know the music being played is not EXACTLY from the CISL playlist, is sure is amazingly close.  Somewhere on this board, I thought I read that the CRTC would not license FM stations to play Oldies.  I guess there is a fine line between what passes for Greatest Hits of the 60's and Oldies from the 60's.

And yes, right in the middle of the Saturday night "launch" of the new 104.9 there was Red, with his Red Rock Diner from Clear FM.  

I tuned out and went over the check on the Lions and the Canucks on good old AM Radio...........

For as long as I can remember 1460 CJOY has been oldies - "Oldies 1460" and have just tweaked things to "The Greatest Hits of All Time".  They've applied for a move to the FM band at 95.7.  If they get the CRTC OK, they'll likely re-launch as something else.

I think 104.9 FM will get a novelty bounce much like Jack did when it started, but the bounce this time will be smaller for Rogers.  Unless Rogers gets some great personalities to go with the new format, listeners will tire of hearing the same old songs  after a few months and tune out.   In the longer term 104.9 FM will probably hard pressed to do as well as Clear FM.

  

This seems to have been done very rushed to me.  Why do it mid-book?

I would have waited until the books came in re-evaluated and if they want to do a flip do it, but this seemed insanely rushed.

"This seems to have been done very rushed to me.  Why do it mid-book?"

could have something to do with the fact that there will be another 3 stations poping on the air soon. Although those stations are Triple A, it might be better to switch sooner than later and capture some listeners before more choices hit the air....

I can understand that but to me it just seems like a pretty weak flip..not Crave or 1410 weak but still fairly weak.

They could have done this flip before the books went out, or after the results came in, I just don't see why you would do it mid-book.  And I just don't see "oldies" being the format that is going to give the 104.9 frequency legs.

Great.. lets all sit around and pat each other on the back and praise to the stars yet ANOTHER radio station that does nothing but find a less-tired way of spoon-feeding us the same tired crap we have been spoon-fed for decades...

How about bringing something new to the table?.. sheesh!

I was checking the stations playlist on mediabase over the weekend.. They've got a solid format to work with, now they just need to talent to back it up.

The reality is, flipping Clear was a no-brainer after the CRTC licences were announced. I believe the wheels were in motion that morning - it just took time to do the research and find out what the best format would be. With two new stations (skewing adult female) poised to take a chunk out of Clear's massive 3.5 share   - it wasn't a matter of if, only when.

With the darkening of AM 600, theres some nostalgia fans there, and the CISL crowd may discover that music does sound better on FM.   I think the new format will do well for Rogers, but it is a shame that the talent is always cast aside, when really, CLEAR was a poorly concieved, poorly executed, and poorly marketed radio station.  

I've been hearing a "live" voice this afternoon on 104.9, who isn't giving his name. Any idea as to who he could be? He sounds familiar.

Bob Magee...afternoon driver at CHFI in Toronto.

Quoted from Andy

Bob Magee...afternoon driver at CHFI in Toronto.

If memory serves, Bob was at CFUN for a time in the mid '70s.

Quoted from Donovan

If memory serves, Bob was at CFUN for a time in the mid '70s.

that's right Donovan, here's the scoop from Gord Lansdell's VancouverBroadcasters.com

Bob Magee - CHUM Toronto early 1970s; morning drive CFUN Vancouver 1973-77; CHUM 1979-97 (morning host 1989-97); CHFI-FM Toronto morning co-host 1999-2003 and p.m. drive 2003-current

http://members.shaw.ca/vancouverbroadcasters3/M.htm

I understand long-time broadcaster Jim Fraser is no longer on the Sunshine Coast's CKAY, having been replaced by Mark Morris on the 6am to 12noon, with dad Bob doing noon to six pm      Jim's a solid broadcaster, wonder if he could/maybe show up on the 104.9 Greatest Hits?

"Jim's a solid broadcaster, wonder if he could/maybe show up on the 104.9 Greatest Hits'

yup, another veteran on a journey

he might even show up on that new triple A Shore FM (by Roy Hens).  word on the street is Shore is on a hiring binge and they've been targeting the unemployed (the desperate work for less....)

"Word on the street is Shore is on a hiring binge and they've been targeting the unemployed the desperate work for less...."

That may be true, but you get what you pay for.  And when you're battling established stations, and a rival AAA that launches months before you, AND you sacrifice music research for "rarities, B-sides, and 40% CANCON" then, those unemployed folks will be unemployed again when the 3. share station doesn't sell advertising.

Besides, the folks at Astral are already loading up the Armoured car to buy that station, and it hasn't even signed on yet!   So, one way or another...the folks who are hired for that station are doomed.

Anybody hear rumblings out of Winnipeg if Clear FM is on its way out there, too?

Not likely...much different situation....Clear Winnipeg's #1 F25-54 and all signs point to top 4 A 25-54 in the very near future. Things there have seemed to turn around in the past couple of years for Rogers Winnipeg. Not bad considering there's very little marketing for Clear - too bad 'cuz in my opinion, they've got a pretty good mix of music and one of the best on air talent lineups in the market.
Q switching to Curve should move a bunch of females over to Clear in the next couple of books too.

"Besides, the folks at Astral are already loading up the Armoured car to buy that station, and it hasn't even signed on yet!   So, one way or another...the folks who are hired for that station are doomed."

you either have the same source or word has really hit the streets! That license been "bought" with the high Cancon and Canadian Talent requirements just to flip.  Smart move for the owner.... pick a crappy format to win the license.. that way they can make sure it fails in the first year or two before they have to dust off their "quadraphonic" music library comprised of 8 tracks and reeltoreels.

once it fails, they bs the CRTC into letting them sell out to Astral.  at least it'l provide some jobs.

funny thing is does the CRTC really think an independent triple AAA will survive?

The AAA won't survive at all. After 3 years it will bounce to mainstream/rock n roll format going head to head with the Fox. CFOX has never really had any competition to worry about over the years. I say in years to come Vancouver will rock with album cuts with Sam Feldman top music  mogul and manager to the stars. I see 104.9 moving up the ratings ranks but will the station have any personality? The music is refreshing for Vancouver. Will Rogers this time  take it to the next level?

Quoted from Digicart

Besides, the folks at Astral are already loading up the Armoured car to buy that station, and it hasn't even signed on yet!   So, one way or another...the folks who are hired for that station are doomed.

that might be a little heavy.  I don't think you are any more doomed at the Shore then any other station.

You *could* maybe do mornings for Rogers?   is that a safer blue chip broadcasting bet than taking on a challenge at Shore?

Will Shore get sold to Astral, will they flip?  maybe, taking on CFOX would be harder than trying a sophisticated triple AAA IMHO, fighting for Jeff O'Neil Show's minor share of the unemployed and stoned would be a harder way to make a living.

Not that I don't think there are some opportunites to out Active rock the CFOX, I would think it more prudent to force CFOX into that box of Active Rock, by doing Modern or Triple A (if you even want to progrma *another* rock station in Vancouver).

Mark Ramsay gave a talk on broadcasting to NPR Producers... but man, he had some good ideas.

http://www.prpd.org/Files/conference_docs/Ramsey.m3u

he says the biggest hole in most markets is smart entertainment... talking all quadrants and what-not (I think it was the 10 minute markish of the talk).  Dumb entertainment and information is easy... but crowded in commercial radio.

Quoted from Flamethrower

he says the biggest hole in most markets is smart entertainment...

Agreed and agreed.  I love this kind of thinking.  Smart doesn't have to be dry, political disection and interviews with poets.  John Stewart, Colbert and, to some extent, Strombo have proven this in television.  So, where do you go to find smart and entertaining talent for radio?

Offine:

Look in the mirror!