The sorry state of FM radio in Toronto

[james t kirk]

Has anyone else noticed that FM seems to have gone down hill big time in toronto in the last year.

By that i mean, the DJ's never shut up anymore. Yack Yack yack, and then commercial after commercial. The dj's seem to feel it necessary to give their commentary on everything.

And they all seem to play commercials at the same time. You can no longer pan to another station when the one you were just listening to decides to play 3 minutes of solid commercials.

It's like they all have some sort of agreement to play commercials at the same time, so you are dead in the water with no choice but to listen to the damn commercials.

Q107 is playing the so called "classic rock", but it's more like classic crap.

CFNY is now totally main stream, and the morning show without humble and fred, I have tried, lord how i have tried to get used to it, but I can't.

Derringer in the mornings on q107 is good, but then they play the tired crap music and you just can't take it.

99.9, more crap all the time.

I have started to listen to the CBC these days. They have some pretty unusual stuff, but once you get into it, it's pretty good.

Sometimes i am driving home at the end of the day and it's one dj after the other spouting off, then a bout of commercials, then more spouting off.

I just shut the thing off and enjoy the peace and quiet.

 

[The Bandit]

Q107 is playing classic rock from the 60's 70's and 80's. If this is classic crap, then what do YOU refer to as classic rock????? CBC, give me a break!!!!

 

[WhaWhaWha]

It took three years for the stations to modify their formats and compete with Howard Stern, a few more for us to get tired of it, and now it may take one or two more to revert back. I was excited when derringer returned. I had some old tapes off the radio with tidbits of his wit that left me wanting more. Now I wish he would just go away.

 

[gramage]

I wouldn't know, I havent listened to the radio since moving to Toronto about two years ago.

 

[Garrett]

I used to love radio... and dx'ing late at night used to be a great thing to do. Used to love listening to KOA out of Denver late at night. Now there is little point... virtually every station you pull in sounds the same... same songs... same syndicated hosts (though I did like Curtis Sliwa out of NYC). As for the state of Toronto FM, the morning hosts are pathetic. the music choices are stale, and thankfully we can still get Stern out of Buffalo (and he is very hit and miss). My favourite Toronto station is 91.1... they have some nights when they play excellent/inspired stuff. Then again... I love to catch Prairie Home Companion too... so my tastes may not match yours.

G.

 

[powerballs]

blame the crtc

Please point the blame for crappy radio at the Crtc. I worked in the Toronto radio industry, behind the mic for 13 years. I left the industry 3 years ago mainly because I did not like the way radio was going and my pocketbook could not take it anymore. The Crtc, the government body that overlooks radio and television regulations, tried to protect AM radio by limiting what FM stations were allowed to play. They had a 30% Canadian music content regutation, they were only allowed to play a 30% hit to 70% non hit music ratio per hour and they inforced these regulations imposing stiff penalties to those who did not follow them(just ask Mix 99.9). 4 years ago they realized they could do no more for AM radio and eliminated the hit to non hit ratio and increased the amount of Canadian content radio stations were required to play to 45% meaning they had to play 4.5 Canadian songs per hour but could play as many hit songs in an hour as they wanted to. Since music directors follow US music charts like "Billboard" our radio stations started sounding like US radio stations playing the same hits songs in 1 1/2 to 2 hour rotation with a 4.5 Canadian songs placed in each hour just to screw things up. Not that good music does not come from Canada but 4.5 songs out of 10 per hour is pretty tough for a program director to find as hit Canadian songs every hour. How many times can you listen to Celine Dion or Nickelback in a day? the radio stations say on average 17 times a day. Praise the Crtc for Canadian hit radio, (as if).

Now about the commercial fiasco the Crtc allows 12 minutes of commercials per hour thats 3 commercial breaks of 4 minutes each hour. Radio stations have consultants that tell the program director when "Joe Public" listens to the radio the most and the concensus is no more than 20 minutes at a time from the top of the hour so you will find most radio stations do commercials and stop sets at 20, 40, and 50 minutes past the hour so that when you get into your car at 7:03 in the morning you are usually hearing music on the radio for at least 20 minutes and they can get a larger marketshare (cume) of listeners and charge top dollar for advertising. When they go to commercials most of the other stations are also doing commercials so the listeners don't change stations, a very well thought of plan to keep the listener tuned in. some stations try to grab the listener buy doing news and commercials "5 minutes" sooner but there is no proof that this works. If you have further questions or I forgot to answer something you may have mentioned let me know i'll be glad to answer them.

 

[james t kirk]

I dunno.

I used to listen to Humble and Fred on CFNY in the mornings and Allan Cross in the afternoons.

It's all gone now.

CFNY i think is owned by the same company that owns q107 and mojo 640 (spare me this talk radio for guys crap please)

Humble and Fred (especially Fred) with Sandra and Danger Boy thrown in were truly brilliant. Now CFNY in the morning is painfull to listen to. I realize that change some times takes getting used to, but i have tried, I can't do it. I think even Sandra finds this Dean guy truly annoying.

Allan Cross ended up in Hamilton for some god knows why reason on y108, formerly y95 playing tired "classic crap" music.

If anyone knows what happened there, i would be interested.

As to the music Q107 plays, they seem to play some pretty awful music to me now. I am not refering the likes of the Beatles, Stones, Who, Led Zeplin, but those stale 70's acts that were all just crap - David Wilcox, George Thouroughgood, April Wine, ZZ top, Leonard Skynard, Ted Nugent. Good ole boy music.

Derringer in the morning on Q is still good, but he tends to get a little preachie sometimes and won't let things go. I find that he is a master of observation and he makes brilliant comments on those observations that you go, "ya, i know what you mean, everyone has to ride in an old F150 in December with no heat" I have been in that truck. On the otherhand, he tends to subject us to the world according to Derringer. Kind of like his way is the only way. He's very conservative politically and i find him a wee bit too judgemental sometimes.

By far though, it's the talking djs that are just mindless that are the worst, and by that i mean the non morning show guys who just go on and on.

The worst "talker" out there has to be the guys on q107 on the drive home and the early evenings. They sound like those two obnoxious dj's at Wiskey a go go.

I don't know if any of you ever watched northern exposure, but we could use a DJ like Chris.

As to the CBC, once you get into it, it's pretty good (albeit a talk format) They are not commercial that's for sure.

When you are driving in the remote areas of Canada, the CBC is a welcome sound along the way. Drive out of one limit, tune into the next.

I used to by a CFNY man first, q107 second, 99.9 third guy.

Now, Cfny is totally hits driven. They were slowly getting worse, now they are just like any other.

What happened to the spirit of radio??

Did it disappear when they went "downtown"

 

[SDFeuerzauber]

I like to catch 102.1 when I'm in range. But if you don't like FM radio, then why not invest in XM or just buy a CD changer?

 

[Jay_toronto]

I think that what makes radio in TO so mediocre is the number of Canadian bands milking the Canadian content law. There are a number of bands that have no business getting air time.

I tend to listen to 97.7 since it has a harder edge than the mainstream classic pop/rock offered up by Q107. However they do have their moments of outright stupidity. This is what I heard on Sunday:

"This is the sound of Alanis Morrisette being dipped in a vat of acid. Keeping whiny bitches off the air 97.7"

...and then they play Our Lady Peace.

Talk about an oxymoron,"idiots" I thought to myself and switched to Andy Frost.

 

[Romeo]

Radio

I've been loyal to my Toronto FM rock station for almost 20 years. They used to play a lot of Culture Club but now its Linkin Park. They basically own me.

There is a TERB reader who plans to quit his Bay street job for a career in radio. He is young bright and has no fear. Hopefully he will kcik some serious butt soon.

Note: Many radio stations today use programming from a US company. Everything is automated and centrally controlled by management. This way a DJ can't play anything exciting or new without going through many layers of chain-of-command.

Its like punk never happened

 

[shack]

Radio stations are like political parties. It doesn't matter who you're listening to, all you get is crap.

Even the oldies stations are programmed to death. While driving back from Myrtle last summer we had the radio on and listened to some oldies. I was enjoying it as they were playing some songs that I hadn't heard in 20 or 30 years. Unfortunately, we got out of range and had to find another station. As it turns out, there are loads of oldies stations in the States and even they all play the same damn songs. So, after not hearing a song for decades, I got to hear it 4,5,or 6 times in a 10 hour time frame. It just totally killed any joy I had previously experienced since there was no spontaneity or creativity on the part of the station. With all the hits of all time to choose from these stations could only play the same songs that all the other stations across the country were playing.

What a bunch of lemmings.

 

[luckyjackson]

What a coincidence. I was just talking to the wife about this very topic on the way to work.

I used to love CBC and still listen to it in the morning. However that morning show with Shelagh Rogers.....ugh!! Bring back Gzowski, even his corpse would be better to listen to than that woman.

Commercial Radio is for the brain dead. Is it possible that DJ are really the same assholes in real life that they come across as on the radio? Unbelievable. The Simpsons are dead on with their caricatures of radio personalities.

Though I know it's incredibly popular, (for now), Mojo Radio has to be one of the most moronic stations. I love the leaf coverage, but holy shit are the regular DJs, with their 'put on' manly voices ever dumb. And people go for every lame stereotype these idiots perpetuate.

Ah well, no one ever went broke by marketing to the lowest common denominator.

 

[gramage]

Ah well, no one ever went broke by marketing to the lowest common denominator. [/B]

XFL

 

[Hepcat]

I'm considering alternatives to Q107 in the mornings. What would you suggest? Are 99.9 or 102.1 credible alternatives?

"I wouldn't know, I haven't listened to the radio since moving to Toronto about two years ago." - Gramage

You know your credibility will be zilch if you're still watching the even more mindless idiot box!

 

[garibaldi]

whatever happened to pete and geets? ha ha, there i go, dating myself......stern was pure crap, toilet humour.....my fave a.m. show now is 97.7 out of st. kitts. hit and miss, but they can be pretty funny sometimes. can't stand the worn out djs on q107, and that idiot with the stupid laugh, i just can't take it and did anyone tell them that bob dylan died 20 years ago?....

what goes around comes around

 

[Cloud]

Does the U of T have a radio station ?

Here in Winnipeg, Manitoba both the U of M (U of Manitoba) and the U of W (U of Winnipeg) have radio stations that are broadcast across the entire city.

They don't play mainstream stuff. but it's still not for me.

Thanks,
Cloud

 

[powerballs]

u of t radio

U of T radio is located at CIUT 100.7 FM

 

[james t kirk]

there's an idea, maybe cfny could get pete and geets back on the air.

By jove, i think i will email them.

Every once in a while, pete and geets would do a guest spot on cfny.

Anything, please.

I need a bit of wit and a bit of music in the morning, and dean blundell aint it.