my apologies to my readers - was I up early today?
Znaimer takes control of Toronto's AM 740
GAYLE MACDONALD
From Wednesday's Globe and Mail
September 19, 2007 at 4:11 AM EDT
Former CITY-TV czar Moses Znaimer rolled out the red carpet yesterday at a Toronto press conference where he announced that he has bought radio's golden-oldies gem, AM 740.
Znaimer told a crowd in the lobby of his other Toronto radio station, Classical 96.3 FM, that he will bring the two stations under one roof but operate each independently.
The deal was eight months in the works, with Znaimer (through his MZMedia) approaching Prime Time Radio, controlled by the Caine family of Oakville, Ont. No dollar figure was disclosed, but the feisty, 65-year-old Znaimer said the marriage of the two cements his goal to cater to the 50-plus radio market.
"Society has tended to devalue the mature person," he said. "Youth is overvalued. What the hell is [youth] anyway? Hell, they have no money and they're living in the basement. The world is ruled by 50-to-70-year-olds, and it's time we got a little respect."
Znaimer added that the two stations are a good fit because both are proudly - and unabashedly - all about catering to the 50-to-70-year-old crowd, a high-spending demographic, which nevertheless gets the short end of the stick when it comes to arts/entertainment offerings.
News of the acquisition capped a speech Znaimer delivered at an all-day party he hosted to celebrate the changes he has made to 96.3 since taking over the station in August, 2006, from Martin and Truus Rosenthal (Trumar Communications). He paid $12-million for Classical 96.3 FM, whose programming slate in the past 12 months has been injected with more spunk.
The takeover of AM 740 will require approval from the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission.
Yesterday, Znaimer coined a new word - zoomer - to describe the demographic he is after with both stations: boomers who still have loads of zip.
Just over six years old, AM 740 boasts one of the largest coverage areas of any station in Canada, reaching from Maine to Minnesota and the Carolinas north to Thunder Bay, and is ranked as the No. 1 age-50-plus station in Canada and second in North America. Its program is a wide range of everything from fifties crooners to folk singers.
At the press conference, Michael Caine, AM 740's president and general manager, congratulated Znaimer. "I look forward to you looking after my baby and taking the zoomers out of the wilderness and into the light," said Caine, who described himself as a "reluctant vendor."