Windsor and Canadian Radio Ratings from Numeris

[Marcus]

https://numeris.ca/wp-content/uploads/2 ... ev%201.pdf

Like last time Windsor is listed past London and before Sudbury (page 17). I will make one comment/suggestion for Bell regarding 88.7 CIMX-FM. Flip it to Bounce which is an Adults Hits format playing 80's, 90's, and 00's. This is what CKLH-FM in Hamilton became and they are number one in that market. I understand that this is not the same as what Cool FM and WOMC are right now. They are both Classic Hits.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CKLH-FM

[ChrisWL1980]

Some may recall when 88.7 called itself "The Mix" circa 1990 when there was already a Mix (92.3) across the river.
Not sure there's room for another mainstream AC. To an extent, Mix 96.7 is already doing that - they're no longer the Adult CHR they were several years ago, but now sound like a slightly hotter version of WNIC, lots of gold going back to the '80s and maybe one current an hour. A softer approach to AC might work for 88.7, but Bell's corporate AC brands (Move in English and Rouge in French) are both on the hotter side so soft AC is not likely to happen. It would seem that the Adult Hits approach (or moving CKWW to FM, or a combination of both) would be the smartest format choice, whatever they call it. If CKWW moves to FM I'd expect 580 to become TSN Radio.

[fairbankshockeypuck]

Windsor does not have a sports station do they? Anywhere with a 50 mile radius of Windsor? Not counting Detroit...or Ohio

[edj]

I think closest Canadian sports station is Toronto. Hamilton dump theirs a few years ago. A Windsor sports station would just relay Toronto, except maybe the Spitfires get sent there from CKLW. They may have issues airing Toronto live games, not sure how radio rights works if coming from another country. Sarnia has no problem but that’s a distance from Detroit. St. Clair County doesn’t matter much apparently.

CKWW costs next to nothing to run, just electricity and music rights. If it did move to 88.7 they’d likely add more 80s tunes and phase out 60s. They have a few 80s tunes now but not many.

[Marcus]

If Bell Media pulls the plug on 580 CKWW the next thing in line will be Comedy and it will become Funny 580. That doesn't mean it's the best idea in the world. It just what Bell would do.

I'm not sure if Blue Jays baseball will be added to one of the Windsor stations in the future or not. One reason that Sarnia airs the Jays is that 1070 CHOK was locally owned in the 1980's when they started carrying them so when Blackburn bought CHOK in the 90's, the Ball games were included with the radio station.

As for 88.7 FM two things I would not do is stay Pure Country and I would avoid Classic Rock because two Detroit stations are playing it and a high percentage of the music on Cool FM is Classic Rock.

[windsorjoe]

580 would never become TSN radio. TSN had stations in all Canadian nhl and cfl cities. As mentioned already, placed like Hamilton failed. Now, would Iove a tsn radio repeat in Windsor? Absolutely. I just don’t know how tan would make money with that.

Back to 88.7. Why they dumped a great format that they had a stranger hold of years is beyond me. Cut cut cut - that’s all bell does. I’m not sure what comes of next for 88.7

[Chrocket87]

Chronically horrible ratings are what eventually tanked 89X. IIRC, their (Windsor) ratings were only about a half share higher than they are now. Not sellable numbers then using a unique format. The numbers are not sellable now either, but at least the national format makes the unsellable format less expensive.

The shame was flipping The River, as they were consistently getting 5+ shares. Then again, they couldn’t sell it as a national package being a unique station, so that’s why Bell had no issue giving them the axe, too.

[radioandtventhusiast]

Flip 88.7 to variety hits or move CKWW's format there too. Keep a lot of CKWW's 60's and 70's songs so as to still remember the heritage of the Big 8.

[dennis10]

I agree with this and am sure 89x with CKWW's format would get a good size audience from the Toledo area where I am. I hear people here occasionally say they wish 580 had a stronger signal here because they love that format. Been hearing this for a long, long time.

[Marcus]

If someone from Bell Media reads this I say a Canada Day debut Bounce 88.7 is the way to go.

[radioandtventhusiast]

Bring back 89X, but do it right this time.

If the station isn't going to fix its constant technical issues, then don't bother.

What should be done right with 89X? I thought it was decent in its last year.

[Mega Hertz]

Let's see:
- Put programming on the air in mornings (and in multiple dayparts) that is actually entertaining, not boring. Nate sucked and so did Kim Scott. Mark McKenzie is good but had no business handling mornings.
- Purchase and deploy equipment that functions better than the average high school radio station.
- Greatly ramp up on-air listener involvement. Why were People's Choice and the Hit List cancelled?
- A different imaging voice would be nice.
- Play some vintage tracks from the 90's & early 00's that were signature songs for 89X that receive little to zero airplay on other FM radio station.

The "New Rock" positioner is a liability. "The Original Alternative" would be a nice positioner if 89X were to ever be rebooted.

I'll drink to that.

Alt 98.7 has certainly improved in some aspects, but it FEELS like a corporate format, whereas 89x was grassroots.

I still say there is a massive hole for 25-49 alternative fans. Just like "AOR Gold" became "classic rock", let's see if that can be figured out.