Stingray cuts in BC and Alberta

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Stingray cuts in BC and Alberta

Postby radiofan » Tue Mar 30, 2021 2:01 pm

Stingray Radio restructures on-air talent, management in Alberta & BC
By Connie Thiessen -March 30, 2021


Stingray has restructured on-air talent and management at several of its radio stations in Alberta and B.C., following a round of layoffs last week in its East Coast markets.

In Calgary, Al Tompson, Director of FM Programming for Calgary and Edmonton, is stepping away from his day-to-day role and moving into a special projects post reporting to corporate in Toronto. Heather Prosak steps into the role of Program Director for XL 103 (CFXL-FM). Prosak has hosted the XL 103 morning show for the last four years, in addition to handling APD duties. Zach Bedford, who has been PD at 90.3 AMP Radio (CKMP-FM) since 2016, will take on the Director of Programming role for Calgary overall.

In Edmonton, Lindsay Jackson, PD at 96.3 The Breeze (CKRA-FM), and morning show host Sean Burke are no longer with the station. K-97 (CIRK-FM) Program Director Jeff Murray is stepping into a dual role looking after both of Stingray’s FM stations in Edmonton with a new morning show announcement forthcoming.

In Vancouver, veteran morning show host Kelly Latremouille is no longer with 104.3 The Breeze (CHLG-FM). Latremouille had been with the station since 2014, prior to The Breeze rebrand. The company says a new morning show announcement is also forthcoming.

In Kelowna, Rickie Tyler, APD and afternoon host at K96.3 (CKKO-FM), is a casualty. Todd James, the longtime drive announcer at K-97 Edmonton will now handle afternoons for both that market and Kelowna.

“Obviously decisions like this are immensely difficult. I hold all of the people affected in tremendously high regard, both personally and professionally. But our industry has been dramatically impacted by revenue declines over the past year and we are faced with no choice other than to recalibrate our structure to meet the new reality,” said Steve Jones, SVP, Brands & Content, Radio, in an email to Broadcast Dialogue.

Jones said no other personnel changes are planned at Stingray stations.

Last week, the company restructured a number of staff in Charlottetown, Halifax and several smaller Nova Scotia markets, as it continues to look for efficiencies in a slow to rebound pandemic advertising market.

Thanks to Connie Thiessen at Broadcast Dialogue! https://broadcastdialogue.com/stingray- ... lberta-bc/
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Re: Stingray cuts in BC and Alberta

Postby Howaboutthat » Tue Mar 30, 2021 4:58 pm

Another PMD show in Kelowna being done by an outta towner. (Power is the other)
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Re: Stingray cuts in BC and Alberta

Postby sparky » Fri Apr 02, 2021 8:57 am

So, other than the morning show, is there anything local on K-96.3 in Kelowna? Mid days appear to come from Toronto, afternoon drive from Edmonton and evenings from Red Deer. A bunch of local jobs are eliminated to cut your overhead but at the same time you expect advertisers to spend their dollars on your second rate product? If times are so tough and your poor shareholders are reduced to having to live on KD, like your former staff members, perhaps you should turn in your license and call it a day. What is being done here is not what was promised when the license for the station was granted.
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Re: Stingray cuts in BC and Alberta

Postby the-real-deal » Sun Apr 04, 2021 4:36 pm

sparky wrote:So, other than the morning show, is there anything local on K-96.3 in Kelowna? Mid days appear to come from Toronto, afternoon drive from Edmonton and evenings from Red Deer. A bunch of local jobs are eliminated to cut your overhead but at the same time you expect advertisers to spend their dollars on your second rate product? If times are so tough and your poor shareholders are reduced to having to live on KD, like your former staff members, perhaps you should turn in your license and call it a day. What is being done here is not what was promised when the license for the station was granted.


Commercial radio stations in Kelowna have notoriously "stopped giving a damn" about local advertisers, long ago...It's all about them ?

You might as well take How about That's sarcastic stat meter (about giving a damn) and post it in the front lobby of these stations ? LOL

Kelownians have watched sadly K96 (CKKO) (Walter Gray's initial startup) go into the dumpster, mostly through a gazillion ownership and personnel changes, with Mr. Gray cashing out, very early in the game (as I recall) and tossing the football to Newcap. They are now working on their third owner since 2007 !

(Maybe the formulatic, 800 song playlist just isn't working, anymore, after 13 years of listening to the same old stuff ?)

Mr. Gray, a long time, well respected Kelowna broadcaster and owner in these parts, (plus, three time Kelowna mayor) is still very much missed in this community and he retired way too soon (in my view) as he brought both integrity and stability to a business that is horribly lacking in both ?

I think that the current group of owners could learn lot about the radio business from a guy like Walter. He demonstrated in Kelowna this old fashioned sense of treating his employees, well, in a now long gone era where radio people WERE ONCE treated with respect and human dignity.

Part of it was, Walter was previously, one of us?; a well known, long time radio morning man and radio deejay with the original CKOV, himself, so he really understood what radio was all about and the struggle and immense buckets of cash required to attract and build an audience.

What has replaced Walter in his retirement, since, are these big shot, younger "punks" and "suits?" with business degrees who haven't worked an on air role an effing day in their lives?

Many of them have never been to Kelowna, either, ! So, not surprised to see that two of Kelowna's major radio stations are lacking a traditional drive home show ! Disgraceful would be the word and yes, a sham for the local advertisers who thought these stations were staffed by local deejays.

After the ending of the rather pompous David and Tony morning show, some time ago, people at K96 came and went like toilet paper, but there were a few glimmers of hope: Joel Jeffries, Rob Balsdon (the so called "comedian" who never once cracked a joke while on K96, now THAT'S FUNNY LOL) but whom I found likeable nonetheless, Dave Pears, whom I once worked with and, a very nice man by all accounts who once worked for Walter at CKIQ, and last, but not least, Chris Cleaver, a very credible, well trained broadcaster and news desker who served this community well and the "last mohican" with the fabulously talented Cleaver family from Kelowna, and who all got their start with CKOV Kelowna back in the 1960's.

The last straw was the recent layoff of Ricki Tyler, whose afternoon drive show I did happen to enjoy (and one of the few Kelowna radio shows still worth listening to), in my view. Now, I wont listen to out of town radio deejays, at all, as they are like those called transients sleeping in tents on Recreation Avenue and, I think, management at Stringray can do much better than import an out of province deejay in a so called medium market like Kelowna ?

The main reason, of course, is that they are "cheap." Too many corporations, right now, are hiding behind the skirt of Covid 19 when justifying these cutbacks. The late Mike Cleaver, (rip) when he last commented on this site, actually called it "cheapdom."
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Re: Stingray cuts in BC and Alberta

Postby oldnewsie » Sun Apr 04, 2021 9:11 pm

While everything you say may be true, the fact remains Kelowna has 8 commercial radio stations, 2 more than Victoria or Saskatoon (both bigger communities). A check of the CRTC financial reports for Kelowna will show the market lost 1.8 million in the 12 months ending Aug 2019. I suspect Covid made that worse. A tough radio market no matter what you think of the current crop of operators.
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Re: Stingray cuts in BC and Alberta

Postby the-real-deal » Wed Apr 07, 2021 1:27 am

oldnewsie wrote:While everything you say may be true, the fact remains Kelowna has 8 commercial radio stations, 2 more than Victoria or Saskatoon (both bigger communities). A check of the CRTC financial reports for Kelowna will show the market lost 1.8 million in the 12 months ending Aug 2019. I suspect Covid made that worse. A tough radio market no matter what you think of the current crop of operators.


"Too little, too late", my friend, to cry the blues about too many radio stations in "K town" !

The commercial radio station owners in kelowna have been laying that shit on the public, for far too long, going back to Nick Frost''s application of Silk Fm in 1982.

Nobody is buying it, anymore. Certainly, the CRTC isn't buying it, either.

You (and others) had your chance to "bitch and complain" about the amount of radio licence holders in Kelowna, relative to its size ?

When Paul Larson recently applied for the acquisition of CKOO, news of it broke on this site (and on Easton's site) and NONE of you complained at all !

You people were all for it ! The CRTC also addressed your concerns and they felt that launching an already established radio licence "would have no significant negative impact on this community."

You're the only one who's complaining. Why do you think that is ?

Regarding Mr. Larson's new startup, I congratulate him for it and I think that it has great potential, as long as he and his friends are in it for the long haul.

Put it this way, Larson has about 1000 times more integrity than people like Matthew McBride, so you know he is going to do great things with Lake FM.

The other thing about The Lake is that it SOUNDS splendid. In the digital era, that is extremely important. The bass and treble on that station is top notch, you cannot make it sound better, so whoever he hired as the engineer is kick butt !

The other great sounding station in this town is the new MOVE-FM, which is engineered by Larry King. Each station has a unique sound. Move-Fm has better bass, while Anyhow, I predict that those two great sounding stations will essentially take over the Kelowna ratings at some point

Meanwhile, those who think that eight stations in a market like Kelowna (Canada's fourth fastest growing city) is too much, you need to go outside of your box and see what others do.

I just went on the internet, just now, and picked two cities out of the hat, roughly the same size as Kelowna (150,000 population) In Australia, the city of Cairns and also, in the USA (Springfield, mass).

In the USA and in the United States, federal regulators, there, issue TWICE as many radio licences as they do here in Canada.

Cairns, Australia. a remote community in the middle of effing nowhere, has 17 RADIO STATIONS, while Springfield, MASS has 35 radio stations !

Cairns, as you can see, even has THREE community radio stations. while Kelowna and West Kelowna have NONE !

Therefore, this area is the largest community in Canada... without a community radio licence.

So, those who complain that eight radio stations is "too much" are living in the dark ages !



Region: Far North Qld


Station kHz/MHz Location Format/Slogan

National

ABC Far North 801 Cairns ABC local
ABC News Radio 101.1 Cairns ABC news & parliament
Radio National 105.1 Cairns ABC national
ABC Classic FM 105.9 Cairns ABC classical
ABC Far North 106.7 Cairns ABC local
Triple J 107.5 Cairns ABC new music

Commercial

4CA AM 846 846 Cairns Easy music oldies commercial
Triple M 99.5 Cairns Commercial
Star 102.7 102.7 Cairns Commercial
Hit FM 103.5 Cairns Commercial

Community

Cairns FM 89.1 89.1 Cairns Community
Bumma Bippera Media 98.7 Cairns Indigenous community
Coast FM 101.9 Cairns Youth community

Narrowcast

Vision Radio Network 87.6 Cairns Christian narrowcast
Kiss FM 87.8 Cairns Music narrowcast
Kiss FM 88.0 Cairns Music narrowcast
4TAB 104.3 Cairns Racing narrowcast


There are 35 radio stations within close listening range of
Springfield, Massachusetts. (42̊ 06' 45" N, 72̊ 32' 51" W)


[Info] Info: Click to get more information about a station or to submit a change.
[BC] Bitcaster: Indicates that the station broadcasts its audio on the Internet.
Distances show the distance between the station and your location in Springfield, Massachusetts.


Call Sign Freq. Dist./Signal City School Format
[BC] [Info] WFCR 88.5 FM 18.5 mi.Signal Strength 4 Amherst, MA University of Massachusetts Public Radio
[Info] WSCB 89.9 FM 1.0 mi.Signal Strength 5 Springfield, MA Springfield College College
[BC] [Info] WTCC 90.7 FM 1.6 mi.Signal Strength 5 Springfield, MA Springfield Technical Community College College
[BC] [Info] WAIC 91.9 FM 0.5 mi.Signal Strength 5 Springfield, MA American International College Public Radio
[BC] [Info] WHYN 93.1 FM 10.3 mi.Signal Strength 5 Springfield, MA Hot AC
[BC] [Info] WMAS 94.7 FM 3.3 mi.Signal Strength 5 Enfield, CT Adult Contemporary
[BC] [Info] WTIC 96.5 FM 26.9 mi.Signal Strength 4 Hartford, CT Hot AC
[BC] [Info] W247DL (WHYN-HD2) (CP) 97.3 FM 8.2 mi.Signal Strength 4 Westfield, MA Hip Hop
[Info] W249DP (WARE-AM) 97.7 FM 10.4 mi.Signal Strength 4 Springfield, MA Classic Hits
[BC] [Info] W251CT (WHLL-AM) 98.1 FM 3.3 mi.Signal Strength 2 Springfield, MA Country
[BC] [Info] W253CD (WLZX-AM) 98.5 FM 2.9 mi.Signal Strength 4 East Longmeadow, MA Rock
[BC] [Info] W255DL (WHYN-AM) 98.9 FM 10.3 mi.Signal Strength 3 Springfield, MA News/Talk
[BC] [Info] WLZX 99.3 FM 19.2 mi.Signal Strength 4 Northampton, MA Rock
[Info] WLCQ (LPFM) 99.7 FM 5.5 mi.Signal Strength 3 Feeding Hills, MA Christian Contemporary
[BC] [Info] W261DD (WACM-AM) 100.1 FM 4.3 mi.Signal Strength 4 Springfield, MA Oldies
[BC] [Info] WRCH 100.5 FM 31.8 mi.Signal Strength 3 New Britain, CT Adult Contemporary
[BC] [Info] WRNX 100.9 FM 10.8 mi.Signal Strength 4 Amherst, MA Country
[Info] WIOM (LPFM) 101.7 FM 4.0 mi.Signal Strength 4 Springfield, MA Adult Contemporary
[BC] [Info] WAQY 102.1 FM 8.3 mi.Signal Strength 5 Springfield, MA Classic Rock
[Info] WZCS (LPFM) 102.5 FM 3.7 mi.Signal Strength 4 Springfield, MA Spanish Christian
[BC] [Info] W283CK (WSPR-AM) 104.5 FM 3.7 mi.Signal Strength 4 West Springfield, MA Tropical
[Info] WREA (LPFM) 104.9 FM 7.1 mi.Signal Strength 2 Holyoke, MA Spanish Christian
[BC] [Info] WWEI 105.5 FM 10.3 mi.Signal Strength 4 Easthampton, MA Sports
[BC] [Info] WEIB 106.3 FM 19.2 mi.Signal Strength 3 Northampton, MA Smooth Jazz
[Info] WCCC 106.9 FM 25.3 mi.Signal Strength 4 Hartford, CT Christian Contemporary

[BC] [Info] WHYN 560 AM 9.0 mi.Signal Strength 5 Springfield, MA News/Talk
[BC] [Info] WNNZ 640 AM 11.4 mi.Signal Strength 4 Westfield, MA Public Radio
[Info] WACE 730 AM 5.5 mi.Signal Strength 5 Chicopee, MA Religious
[Info] WVNE 760 AM 25.8 mi.Signal Strength 3 Leicester, MA Religious
[BC] [Info] WTIC 1080 AM 26.6 mi.Signal Strength 3 Hartford, CT News/Talk
[Info] WARE 1250 AM 19.6 mi.Signal Strength 3 Ware, MA Classic Hits
[BC] [Info] WACM 1270 AM 3.2 mi.Signal Strength 5 Springfield, MA Oldies
[BC] [Info] WHLL 1450 AM 3.3 mi.Signal Strength 4 Springfield, MA Country
[BC] [Info] WSPR 1490 AM 4.3 mi.Signal Strength 4 West Springfield, MA Tropical
[BC] [Info] WLZX 1600 AM 2.9 mi.Signal Strength 5 East Longmeadow, MA Rock
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Re: Stingray cuts in BC and Alberta

Postby Aaron » Wed Apr 07, 2021 11:21 am

"oldnewsie" wasn't COMPLAINING about there being too many commercial stations, he was merely pointing it out. And the fact is there are more radio stations in Kelowna than there are ad dollars to support them all.

And yes, the US licenses way more station per population, but guess what....they VT from out-of-market or across clusters far more often than Canadian stations do because of that. For example, Syracuse NY has a similar population to Kelowna, and across iHeart's 5 radio stations they have ONE local announcer.
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Re: Stingray cuts in BC and Alberta

Postby the-real-deal » Thu Apr 08, 2021 1:48 pm

Aaron wrote: And the fact is there are more radio stations in Kelowna than there are ad dollars to support them all.



That's your opinion, Aaron, and I do respect it, especially with your rather impressive background in broadcast sales.

I take it, though, that you and Old Newsie are NOT supporters of Paul Larson's latest start up (103.9 The Lake), even though, the CRTC made it clear in their licensing decision that the return of CKO0-FM would not cause an undue economic hardship to existing Kelowna commercial radio stations.

Further to this, I will refer you to section 45 of that decision

https://crtc.gc.ca/eng/archive/2020/2020-383.htm

"While the Commission acknowledges that the Kelowna market has seen a significant loss in revenue in the months following the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, it is of the view that approval of the acquisition of CKOO-FM by Radius is unlikely to further exacerbate the situation. The Commission also notes that the interveners are part of large broadcasting groups with significant resources and synergies while CKOO-FM under Radius would be an independent player. Further, the station’s projected revenue share is consistent with historical levels and the lowest among radio broadcasters in the market."

So, in spite of all this, you're still against "103.9 The Lake," then ? LOL
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Re: Stingray cuts in BC and Alberta

Postby DirkSteele » Fri Apr 09, 2021 8:26 am

the-real-deal wrote:"Further, the station’s projected revenue share is consistent with historical levels and the lowest among radio broadcasters in the market."


How perfectly does that line sum up the business sense of the CRTC?

Translation: since the revenue projections are the same as the last fellow that went bankrupt....everything should be fine

Could be a smart investment considering the pocket change price paid. If the CAB gets what they want in relief of common ownership restrictions...might be a good payday in a few years. Like buying a chunk of land someone may build on later. Just keep the grass mowed and taxes paid until you can sell.
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Re: Stingray cuts in BC and Alberta

Postby Willywood » Sat Jan 01, 2022 11:37 am

Sorry to resurrect an old thread, but I’m taking the time during the holiday to catch up.
I didn’t see the application from Paul Larson, but maybe, just maybe, someone is playing something not in the Kelowna market, and theyre adopting a more local approach to information; a refreshing change.
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Re: Stingray cuts in BC and Alberta

Postby xwdcatvb » Thu Oct 27, 2022 6:07 pm

the-real-deal wrote:
oldnewsie wrote:While everything you say may be true, the fact remains Kelowna has 8 commercial radio stations, 2 more than Victoria or Saskatoon (both bigger communities). A check of the CRTC financial reports for Kelowna will show the market lost 1.8 million in the 12 months ending Aug 2019. I suspect Covid made that worse. A tough radio market no matter what you think of the current crop of operators.


"Too little, too late", my friend, to cry the blues about too many radio stations in "K town" !

Meanwhile, those who think that eight stations in a market like Kelowna (Canada's fourth fastest growing city) is too much, you need to go outside of your box and see what others do.

I just went on the internet, just now, and picked two cities out of the hat, roughly the same size as Kelowna (150,000 population) In Australia, the city of Cairns. a remote community in the middle of effing nowhere, has 17 RADIO STATIONS

National

ABC Far North 801 Cairns ABC local
ABC News Radio 101.1 Cairns ABC news & parliament
Radio National 105.1 Cairns ABC national
ABC Classic FM 105.9 Cairns ABC classical
ABC Far North 106.7 Cairns ABC local
Triple J 107.5 Cairns ABC new music

Commercial

4CA AM 846 846 Cairns Easy music oldies commercial
Triple M 99.5 Cairns Commercial
Star 102.7 102.7 Cairns Commercial
Hit FM 103.5 Cairns Commercial



This response is w-a-y after the sort-of fact, but...

First, Cairns ain't somewhere in the middle of nowhere, and 17 transmitters don't translate (oops) into 17 stations, though local listeners might treat them as such.

In general terms, there are only four commercial stations in Cairns; two -- 4CA/846 and Star 102.7 -- are owned by the same company, Grant Broadcasters -- and are the only commercial outlets AFAIK which originate programming. And even that is limited... 4CA carries considerable networking feeds from as far as 2GB/Sydney, as a carry-on from the olde Macquarie Radio days (now Nine Radio). Star is an FM-only regional brand in northern Queensland, but for this posting, I'm not gonna try to match up what programming is shared amongst sister-station reach, Townsville and the West appear to add their share.

As for the other two -- Southern Cross Media's Triple M and Hit FM -- have fun trying to penetrate/figure out what is which -- and how is why -- and where is from:

<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_Cross_Media_Group>

Also note that the Cairns tx listing has "six", yes s-i-x, outlets from the federally-funded public broadcaster ABC (and those in English only, before we go down the traditional Canadian rabbit hole/trou de lapin of Mother Corp/SRC having four). Of those, only ABC Far North -- simulcast on 801/106.7 -- has any local input, and that's limited. The ABC has two basic traditional networks, Radio National (which is just that; imagine CBC Radio One anywhere/everywhere with no local input)... and ABC Local Radio, with state/regional breakouts.

All the Aussie set-up dates from the days of AM only, where state capitals had two ABC stations/six private commercials... "country" areas had one of each.

Aotearoa New Zealand followed a similar pattern, though with the public broadcaster du jour till the mid-90's also being commercial. In ANZ now, the variety of radio services transmitted to even small communities is phenomenal... but as either public/major commercial, it's all networked with almost zilch local programming content.

Commercial operations are under the control of two conglomerates (NZME and Mediaworks) with their various brands, and extremely limited local programming. The only private commercial station still totally independent is One-Double-X/1242 in Whakatāne, pop. would be gasping to reach 15,000,,, and dates from 1971 as the fourth of the revived private broadcasters.

The only pre-nationalisation private station from the mid-1930's still exists as the only conglomerate-owned single-transmitter brand... R. Dunedin/1305, with pedigree back to 4XD in 1922.
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