Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Corus Cuts Leave a Sour Sound

Bill Tieleman is gone from the Bill Good Show … the result of a pay dispute with Corus radio, just the latest cut in a bloodletting the massive media conglomerate has inflicted on CKNW in recent months.

A few months ago, Corus killed off the jobs of a number of behind-the-scenes staff at ‘NW, and they weren’t the first: the ‘NW newsroom is but a shadow of what it used to be; and there have been recent reports that they’re taking the knife to the air time of ever-popular home improvement maven Shel Busey

Toronto Radio

Many radio stations can be heard in Toronto. The greatest number are stations from Toronto itself, but there are others from the surrounding regions. Some US stations are also listenable. Canadian Stations of the Greater Toronto Area.

What the Broadcasters Really Want

In the weeks leading to the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission hearing on broadcasting licences, Canadians were inundated with splashy advertising campaigns claiming that new fees for local signals were either a TV tax or would save local television. With all of the major broadcasters and cable companies appearing before the commission, the fee-for-carriage (or value-for-signal) issue unsurprisingly took centre stage at last week's hearing

Protect, restore Canadian content, local rep tells CRTC

Amid a barrage of broadcast, cable and satellite heavyweights appearing before the CRTC as it ponders the future of Canadian TV, a sole grass-roots voice gained a measure of applause Tuesday.

The voice was that of Pam Astbury, president of Save Our CBC Kamloops (SOCK), a Lilliputian of a lobby group out to defend and shore up Canadian content on the box.

“I don’t think I’ve ever been more intimidated in my life,” Astbury said from Ottawa.

Astbury urged the commission to apply a technology known as multiplexing to the Kamloops transmitter to return CBC-TV to local airwaves. She also called on the CRTC to mandate the CBC to include Kamloops on its list of digital conversions for 2011.

How they’re billing the Billings radio sale

Radio Business Report.

There is a lot more than meets the eye when it comes to the sale of three stations in the Billings MT market from Cherry Creek Radio to Connoisseur Media. We now know the price, and we also know the immediate fate of CCR’s fourth station, the orphaned KYYA-FM.

For starters, the price for the Kalil & Co.-brokered deal is $1.1M. For that, Connoisseur will get Rock KRZN-FM, Classic Rock KRKX-FM and News-Talk-Sports KBLG-AM. Connoisseur, using licensee-name Mini Me Media, will plunk $50K into escrow, pay an additional $250K cash at closing and strike a promissory note for the remaining $800K.

The stations will cluster up with CM’s Country KPBR-FM and CHR KPLN-FM.

Now here comes the fun part. CM’s LMA with KWMY-FM will cease to exist as of 12/1/09, and it will take over the care and feeding of CCR’s Lite Rocker KYYA-FM. CM will also attempt to sell the station to a third party, and will get to keep up to $300K of net proceeds. Anything over and above will go to CCR as prepayment on the note.

If the station remains unsold after a year, CM will be able to apply to take it dark or continue to LMA it at a nominal fee.

CHUM shakes up Ottawa radio

OTTAWA — The city's radio listeners will notice changes in the programming lineups of CFRA and other CHUM Radio stations as the company gets ready to battle new competitors in the city’s radio market.

Richard Gray, CHUM Radio’s vice-president and general manager, confirmed Tuesday that CFRA’s entire Sunday schedule had been dropped, as well as the weekday evening show of Ron Corbett.

Adam Mckale Bounces Himself Out

Airchecker audio from January 2007 Adam Mckale


Drive host Adam Mckale from Edmontont's 91.7 The Bounce. Has vacated the air chair for the new Rawlco. CIAB-FM will be targeting 25-34 females with a hot adult contemporary at 102.3 FM.

The Bounce has dominated the radio airwaves Edmonton for many years. Newcomers HOT 107 & Rawlco wanting a piece of the pie. Hot 107 will be introducing the air talent shortly. Now with an empty air chair The Bounce & the battle for air talent makes for great radio.

Tuesday, November 24, 2009

BREAKING: WIRED 96.3 WITH RYDER

Aircheck: Ryder's first break on Wired November 25, 2009.






When the Airchecker works a story we don't stop until it's in the can. We can report tomorrow morning on Wired Saskatoon they will announce former Wolf 99.7 FM." Bonnyville " Ryder" gets WIRED MORNINGS. "RYDER PRIDE"

Vancouver Radio Ratings Review

by Robert Ouimet

Vancouver Are you listening to a winner or a loser ?

Here’s a graphic look at the latest Vancouver radio ratings.

The big winner is CKNW, putting some distance between them and QM -FM and CBC who are tied for 2nd place.

The HOT 107 iPhone app

The HOT 107 iPhone app proved to be an excellent marketing tool for the radio station, at a fraction of the cost of traditional marketing methods. With more than 1,000 downloads in the first couple days

Gary Slaight, President & CEO of Slaight Communications,

Canadian Music Week is pleased to announce that Gary Slaight, President & CEO of Slaight Communications, will be lauded for his longstanding commitment to charitable initiatives as the recipient of the Humanitarian Spirit Award.

He will be recognized for his achievement at the Canadian Music and Broadcast Industry Awards on Thursday, March 11, 2010, at the Fairmont Royal York Hotel, during Canadian Music Week, March 10-14, 2010, in Toronto.

CKGM Celebrates 50 Years in the Biz

Radio sure has changed in Montreal since I was a kid. I remember meeting the Legendary Ralph Lockwood while working in the Arctic in the 80’s and of course listening to real local radio growing up in Montreal.

NEWS1130


Developing:

Jacquie Donaldson out as News Director at Vancouver's News1130. Was at the helm for 8 of the station's 14 years under the all-news format.

CKXL/CHFM-FM Calgary early 1980s; CFFR Calgary; morning co-host CISS-FM Toronto 1998; news director CKWX - NWB.

Layoffs at CHUM Radio

Ten staff members at CHUM Radio were laid off Tuesday as part of “adjustments” to the company’s management structure and creative, technical and operations departments.

Cammy, Alan Fleming and Jim Hurcomb — were laid off along with Dave Mitchell, CFRA’s program director.

An engineer, two copywriters and Drew Corley, an announcer on Majic 100, were also let go.

Five other employees were told they will see shift reductions.

Monday, November 23, 2009

Best Free Internet Radio Sites for Christmas Music

‘Tis the season to search out the best internet sites for streaming Christmas music. With hundreds of stations playing Christmas music over the internet, trying to find a station suited to you presents quite a challenge, particularly if you would rather not keep hearing “Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer,” “Santa Clause is Coming to Town”, and others that reflect the ever-increasing non-religious bent too often associated with Christmas.

Talk 1410 gone, Brindle vows return

It’s been a weeks since Talk 1410 went off the air. I’m still trying to figure out who to be annoyed at on weekday mornings.

CHUM Radio threw in the towel on the news-talk format last Thursday, and converted the AM station to a sports format. “Team 1410” now replays Canucks games that were earlier aired on sister station Team 1040. All of the Talk 1410 employees were laid off.

Bill Tieleman out @ CKNW AM 980

I am sorry to report that I will no longer be appearing on the Bill Good Show on CKNW AM 980 and stations of the Corus Radio Network.

16-yr old launches Another Napster?

With the help of close friends and family, 16-year-old Charles Allatt, has launched Vye Music, an online meta search app for music files around the Net.

The site pulls search results from other music sites — including Skreemr, MP3Codes, and 4Shared Music, sites which in turn index hundreds of thousands of sites, blogs and artist pages.

Astral Media Inc

Astral Media Inc. makes no secret of its interest in acquiring the specialty television arm of CanWest Global Communications Corp. if the lucrative, 18-channel network comes up for sale.

While rivals downplay their desire to pick up pieces of troubled CanWest, Astral chief executive officer Ian Greenberg said in a recent conference call with analysts that if the division was to “become available, it certainly is of interest to us. They certainly strategically fit into our plans.”

The Vibe put in a bid for a community licence

The vibes aren’t good at a Reading youth radio station after its bid for a broadcasting licence was turned down.

Organisers behind The Vibe say they are gutted their dream of giving young people a real voice on the airwaves had not become reality.