Fagstein » CFQR

The Beat is on – but is 92.5FM* any different?

Fagstein — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 20:43:00 +0000

New logo for CFQR "The Beat"

Commercial radio stations spend all sorts of money on focus groups, surveys, branding specialists, PR firms, promotions and consultants to find ways to connect with audiences, target demographics and maximize their ratings (and, hence, advertising revenue).

But as CFQR* general manager Mark Dickie tells it, The Beat owes much of its new brand's success to random thoughts from Program Director Leo Da Estrela.

"We were in a budget meeting in early May, and Leo was doodling," Dickie told me by phone today. Da Estrela wrote down "nine two five" spelled out. It wasn't brainstorming or planning, just doodling. But the station's management quickly realized it was brilliant.

CFQR, which was popular under the light rock format under Q92 brand and since April 2009 has been called "The Q", has always been sort of a default at-work station. It's energetic, but not dance music. I don't want to call it background music, because it's not quite that, but it's the kind of thing that can be put on in a workplace or a store and not be too distracting.

So nine-two-five was a cute little way of tying the station's frequency to its vocation, a 9-to-5 work station.

The new name - The Beat - was also Da Estrela's idea, Dickie said. "We searched across the globe, and we picked names. We came up with 30 names, like blue, heart, kiss. We shortlisted it to 10, and at the last minute Leo said let's throw in The Beat. And it scored phenomenally well (in surveys)." Dickie said women in particular are responding well to the new name.

I asked Dickie if Da Estrela is getting a bonus for all this. He pointed out that Da Estrela just celebrated his 40th birthday, "so his birthday present is a new radio station!"

I'm not sure if they accept that at as payment at Loblaws.

Leo Da Estrela: Secret genius?

The Beat is, of course, a very generic name. Just as "The Q" was. How generic? Here's a clue: It's not the only station calling itself "92.5 the Beat". WQYZ in Biloxi, Miss., also has that name and frequency.

Legacy brand

So why the change in the first place? "The Q brand is a legacy brand," Dickie said, like CHOM and CJAD. "The Q has been a very popular station in the city for two decades or more, but we've been finding in today's landscape that the Q was at its mature (stage) in its product life cycle, and perceptions of the Q and Q92 brand are basically a lot of people in their 30s felt that it was their mothers' radio station. And when you're running a business that's purchased by ad agencies on a 25-54 demo, you need to be appealing to that 35-year-old. We were just finding ourselves aging too much."

So there were changes in the music to appeal to a younger - but not too young - demographic. Out the door were the Michael Bolton-style songs, and in was the "more music variety" tag line. "But it still wasn't resonating," Dickie said. "We're a strong number 2, but we felt it wasn't going to put us back in first place. So we said let's be bold."

"Research showed that there's a hole for women, there's a lot of women who are disenchanted by the product offering."

When CJFM changed from being Mix 96 to Virgin Radio in 2009, they started going younger in the style of music and their audience. Less of the classic hits, more of Katy Perry and Lady Gaga. That should have naturally led the 30 and 40-year-olds to CFQR, which was still targetting the older demo that is becoming larger as the population ages. But surveys showed that women in this 35-54 age group considered Q92 and The Q to be their mothers' music station.

Just changing the music - and even updating the brand from Q92 to The Q - wasn't enough to alter the perception, so they went all out and created what Dickie says is a "complete new station." It still has the same frequency, ~~the same rarely-referred-to callsign,~~ the same offices and much of the same staff, but it's a whole new brand. Whether that will work is up to the listener.

From a layman's perspective, Dickie said the music will be more current, with less stuff from the 70s, but still a lot from the 90s. Whether they're willing to admit it or not, The Beat's target demo are fans of the Backstreet Boys.

The announcement

I have to admit, the announcement kind of disappointed me. I'd heard a similar thing when The Q launched, and when Virgin Radio launched. It just kind of sounded generic, like out of some rebranding-a-radio-station playbook. The full-page ads in the newspaper (though, as a Gazette employee, I'm grateful for the surge in ad spending), the faux secrecy, even the applause and cheering in the studio just after the announcement.

Audio of the 4pm magic has been posted online. You can hear a somewhat vague description of what the station is trying to become (the word "variety" comes up), and some women talk about how they want a station that "will get me through my work day" and plays "music I want to hear" - statements that could be recycled for just about any rebranding of a station targetted to women.

Cat Spencer - who was the first live voice after the announcement at 4pm Tuesday, began his stint on the morning show on Wednesday. You can listen to a couple of clips of Spencer's morning debut at CFQR here (MP3, about 3 minutes).

The station caused a bit of a ruckus among listeners because Tuesday's morning show was automated. No DJs, no news, no traffic. That was particularly annoying to some who expressed themselves via Facebook, because Tuesday was billed as the biggest traffic day of the year.

"It was a calculated risk," Dickie said. "We knew people would be upset." But the decision was made to end the Q branding on Friday, and that meant nothing but music, (fewer) commercials and promos for the launch.

Besides, Dickie said, this may have contributed to the buzz. And he'll take the good or the bad if it means people are talking about it and spreading the word. (Dickie seemed to take particular delight in some of the misinformation that was spreading on forums like Radio in Montreal, like how The Beat would be trying to copy Virgin and going super-young. "Keep it coming," he said with a somewhat-evil-genius laugh.)

Dickie said he didn't want to upset too many people by denying them their usual morning info, but he maintains that "it was the right thing to do."

A revamped lineup

You can see the complete schedule here.

The biggest news in staffing is the addition of Spencer to the morning team. He left CJFM when Aaron Rand announced he was leaving CFQR back in February, and Astral told him to sit out his contract at home while they established their new morning show with Freeway Frank. As Spencer told The Suburban's Mike Cohen, the break was a chance for him to play Mr. Mom to his kids - perfect training for a station aimed at young parents.

(Spencer also echoed Dickie's comments about the demo targets of CFQR and CJFM, telling Cohen he was being pushed to go younger and talk about things that didn't interest him - making the switch even better in terms of timing. A video interview between Cohen and Spencer is also online)

The rest of the morning team stays the same. Sarah Bartok, who was Rand's unofficial co-host and has been keeping the seat warm since he left, gets a much-deserved top billing. Natasha Hall stays on traffic and Murray Sherriffs (who worked with Spencer at CJFM and was sacked when it became Virgin, later joining CFQR) continues the newscasts.

As I learned from Dickie, it's not actually the morning show that has the biggest audience in this format. That honour goes to daytime, and Donna Saker has that shift from 9 to 4.

"Donna made a connection with the at-work crowd," Dickie said. "You should see the emails she gets. She's resonating, people love her."

That connection led to the decision to have her on throughout the work day instead of starting after noon and going through the drive-time hours. AJ Reynolds does a show during Saker's lunch break from 12-1, and then takes over at 4pm with Claudia Marques doing traffic (you might recognize her as a former weather presenter for MétéoMédia and TVA, and a personality at VOX).

Ken Connors, Saker's former drive-time co-host, is moving to weekends. But it's hardly a demotion, Dickie said.

"We decided our weekends on this radio station are going to be local and important to us. A full-fledged breakfast show. Nine songs an hour, not 13. We approached Ken, told him 'we're not sending you to Siberia, we want a breakfast show.' He thought about it, came back and said 'love it, I'm on board.'"

Connors will be paired with a newscaster to be announced later who will act as an unofficial co-host.

The other big change is Paul Hayes, a Brit who was working in Dubai and has been hired to do a weeknight show from 8-11pm focusing on love songs (he'll be doing it from the U.K. at first, until he gets his work visa in a few weeks). This replaces the John Tesh syndicated show, which is a victory for locally-produced radio, but has upset some fans.

And 24-year-old Adam Greenberg of Dollard des Ormeaux, aka "TB1", hosts a Friday and Saturday night party-music show called Beatmix.

Other stuff is unchanged. Anne-Marie Withenshaw keeps her Saturday show, and Christin Jerome (CJ) does the overnight shift with Thom Drew.

Nat Lauzon, who left Virgin Radio recently, starts doing a weekend 12-5 shift on Oct. 15. She can't work until then for contractual reasons. Like with Spencer, Dickie said the acquisition of Lauzon was a blessing of perfect timing.

"She had just signed her renewal contract with Virgin," Dickie said. Da Estrela met with her anyway. As Dickie tells it, Lauzon said she was looking for a lifestyle change and wanted to do weekends, which shocked Da Estrela. When he told Dickie, Dickie jumped at it. Not only could he get the biggest name at the No. 1 station (like with CFQR, daytime is the biggest draw at CJFM), but he can slot her in weekends and not have to blow up the schedule like CJAD did when it brought in Aaron Rand.

Dickie said he's spending a lot more on Lauzon than he had planned to spend for weekend afternoons, but it's more than worth it.

With Connors, Withenshaw and Lauzon, Dickie thinks he has a pretty killer weekend lineup, and hopes that translates into strong weekend ratings.

The Beat's lineup in their new threads. Top (from left): Murray Sherriffs, Sarah Bartok, Cat Spencer, Natasha Hall, Donna Saker. Bottom (from left): AJ Reynolds, Claudia Marques, Christin Jerome, Ken Connors, Anne-Marie Withenshaw

Dressed to the silvers

I asked Dickie about the photos of the personalities and why they're all wearing silver/grey (at least, all the ones they could take new photos of). That was a decision of their art people, he said. The photos were taken in July and August, before the staff were told that the station would be rebranding. Dickie said a lot of them were confused about why they were taking photos in a style and colours that didn't seem to fit the Q brand.

Don't worry, they won't have to be so stylish when they're in the studio. If there aren't any cameras or listeners present, they can do the shows in sweatpants if they want, Dickie said.

UPDATE: Photos from the launch party - where purple, their other big colour, is very present.

Changes being what they are, the Facebook page for The Q is "no longer active", and a new one has been started in its place. They're also on Twitter, and YouTube, and of course they have a new website too. The station is running commercial-free until Thursday.

* UPDATE (Sept. 8): According to Industry Canada's broadcast station database, The Beat has even gone so far as to change the station's callsign, from CFQR-FM (which has been in use for decades) to CKBE-FM ("BEat"). I tag my broadcast stations by callsign because they tend to be more constant than brand names. Now that's dated. But I won't retag previous posts because I don't want to break links. So I'll tag this post with both callsigns.

The decision to go through the trouble is curious because the station hasn't really used its callsign for brand purposes in ages, and doesn't appear to be ready to start now.

Aaron Rand moves to CJAD afternoons

Fagstein — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 03:22:00 +0000

Aaron Rand's ID card from 30 years ago, unearthed by Rob Braide in May. (I've blurred out his social insurance number so you don't identity-theft him)

When your goal is to get a job as a radio host at a commercial English-language radio station in Montreal, your choices are rather limited.

Aaron Rand left CFQR (the Q) in May after more than 20 years when it became clear management wasn't eager to renew their contract with him. At the time he wasn't sure where he would go, but he knew he wanted to stay in Montreal, he wanted to stay in radio, he didn't want to work at a station like K103 and he wanted to have some editorial freedom wherever he ended up. With the Cogeco door slammed pretty tight behind him, the only game left in town was Astral, and he was hoping for something at either CHOM or CJAD (the latter being the better choice because it would mean more talk time and less of being a DJ).

Now it seems Rand has gotten his wish. He won't be reunited with his former partner Paul (Tasso) Zakaib, but he will have a show on a popular radio station. Rand announced on Facebook and The Gazette published an article about the same time, both saying he is taking the weekday afternoon slot at CJAD, 3 to 7 p.m., starting Sept. 6 (the day after Labour Day). Note that this puts him directly opposite Mitch Melnick on Team 990.

The CJAD timeslot Rand is taking over is currently held by Ric Peterson, and there's a bit of musical chairs as people are shuffled into new slots. The details, according to The Gazette and other sources:

Ric Peterson moves to 12-3pm, the latter two hours of which will be with Rand's former cohost Suzanne Desautels. This replaces Kim Fraser's show and the first hour of Dan Laxer.
Kim Fraser moves to weekends, 1-4pm, which replaces Anne Lagacé Dowson on Saturdays and a few shows on Sundays.
Dan Laxer loses his weekday afternoons gig but keeps his Sunday trivia show from 9am-12pm. He writes on Facebook that "I won't lie, I am disappointed, and I will miss weekday afternoons. Having my own radio show on CJAD has changed my life in so many ways, and opened so many doors. I'm hoping to nudge them open just a little bit wider and see where they lead." But he says he isn't leaving CJAD.
Barry Morgan gets a new show 7-10pm weekdays, bumping Dan Delmar. He'll also contribute sports news to Rand's show.
Dan Delmar writes on his blog that he'll stay at CJAD as a daytime programming producer, and says the change is bittersweet, because he loses a show he's worked very hard on, but at the same time he's not "a radio guy" and will enjoy having more free time. He also writes that he'll be hosting two weekly shows, details to come later.
Anne Lagacé Dowson, the former CBC radio host and one-time NDP candidate, loses her weekly gig. She still has a column in the new Hour magazine, and will be on the Tommy Schnurmacher show's Gang of Four, plus other stuff, she tells The Gazette's Bill Brownstein.
Legal Lounge with Christopher Dimakos, Ann Shatilla's Hollywood Trend Report and the Dr. Schwarcz Show, which are on Sunday afternoons and being displaced by Kim Fraser, will find new homes on the schedule. "All those shows will remain part of our line-up", says Brand Director Chris Bury. A final schedule is expected within a few days.

Rand's Facebook fans are thrilled, and the positive reaction to his return to the airwaves easily drowns out those who are disappointed by Laxer, Delmar and Dowson losing their shows. (On the Radio in Montreal discussion group, moderator Sheldon Harvey is a bit skeptical, suggesting that people might not be sufficiently prepared for a switch from music to news/talk programming)

It's disappointing that young talent has to suffer to bring back a star, but as many people in the industry have told me: That's the business of radio.

UPDATE: Video of Rand's interview with CJAD's Andrew Carter is online.

Meanwhile, at Rand's old home at 92.5, changes are afoot for the same day. Cat Spencer takes his job as Rand's morning-show replacement, and the station is rebranding itself "The Beat", less than two and a half years after rebranding itself from "Q92" to "92.5 the Q". It's unclear what kind of format change will come along with the rebranding, but there's speculation that the station will try to be more like CJFM (Virgin Radio 96) in order to steal some of the No. 1 station's audience and give Montrealers even less choice in music selection on the radio.

John Bartlett to be voice of Habs for Team 990

It's probably a coincidence, but competing AM station Team 990 also has a Thursday announcement that was leaked to The Gazette. John Bartlett, formerly the announcer for the Toronto Marlies (the Leafs' farm team) will join CKGM as play-by-play man for the Canadiens. The station won the rights to Canadiens games away from CJAD this summer.

Bell Media says colour analysts (they used the plural) will be announced in the coming weeks. The Gazette's Hockeyinsideout.com has an interview with Bartlett, which appears in Thursday's paper.

Nat Lauzon jumps to the Q

Fagstein — Mon, 27 Jun 2011 19:21:40 +0000

Nat Lauzon is too cool for weekdays

It won't get the same attention as Terry DiMonte, but another veteran Montreal radio personality is on the move. Nat Lauzon, who has been at CJFM since 1999 (though it seems like forever) is moving to CFQR to take over a weekend gig there.

She'll be doing the noon to 5 p.m. shift starting in October. She remains at Virgin Radio until then, where she does the weekday late morning show that is No. 1 in its timeslot with a 38% commercial market share, far ahead of its competitors.

So why leave a No. 1 weekday show at the No. 1 station to do a weekend shift?

Lauzon says she's heading in "a new direction" and wants to focus on her other two passions - her freelance voice-over work and her Montreal Dog Blog (she's got a thing for the puppies).

As for why this new schedule requires switching stations, well, she won't comment. So let's speculate irresponsibly. I'm thinking she just can't bear to be at a station that doesn't have Cat Spencer.

Meanwhile, Astral has posted her former job, weekdays 9am to 1pm. Minimum three years experience.

UPDATE (July 25): Virgin has hired Andrea Collins of 99.9 BOB FM in Winnipeg (a Bell Media station), to replace Lauzon in the 9am to 1pm slot. She starts Aug. 15.

Lauzon has written a blog post about her departure, in which she states that "my departure is all on good terms".

Aaron Rand moves on

Fagstein — Fri, 27 May 2011 08:33:25 +0000

As it turns out, knowing about it for months didn't soften the blow too much.

Aaron Rand, who announced in February he would be leaving CFQR/Q92/The Q after more than 20 years as a morning host, spent his last day at the microphone on Thursday.

And when he finally said goodbye, there weren't too many dry eyes in the room.

I managed to score an all-access pass to this moment in Montreal radio history. I got up before the crack of dawn and spent the entire show as a silent observer in the studio, camera and video camera in hand. I got more than 200 photos and more than an hour of video. It's going to take me a few days to sort through all of it, but the money shot, as it were, is here.

The show included Paul (Tasso) Zakaib and Suzanne Desautels as special guests, along with a parade of fans and former coworkers including Patrick Charles and Rob Braide. Rand also got phone calls from such figures as Jean Charest and Gérald Tremblay (the real ones, not Tasso imitations) and Andrew Carter at CJAD.

Listeners got to hear most of the fun talk. But what they couldn't see was at the very end, as Rand was giving his goodbye speech, when Tasso and Suzanne (who never got the chance to really say goodbye after they were booted in 2009) buried their faces in tissues.

There was also Natasha Hall's final traffic report, which Andy Nulman at least thought was inspiring.

I found it a bit odd that I was the only journalist present for this. Rand's departure has gotten coverage, both when he announced he was leaving and this week. The latter includes:

But the only visual records of this event, besides my own, are those taken by Q staff and by unofficial photographer and bus driver by day Daniel Rochon.

I've already written about Rand, why there are few people like him nowadays on the radio, and his views on how clueless managers are ruining this art form. I don't like repeating myself, so you can just read those posts.

Suffice it to say it was a classy sendoff. The station let him say his goodbyes properly, even choosing his own music for his last show. They let him invite his old friends. (CJAD also showed class, letting Desautels and Charles spend part of the morning at a rival station). And they put a full-page ad in The Gazette, signed by his coworkers (secretly - he didn't see it until after the show):

Aaron Rand ad in The Gazette (Page A5, May 26)

Maybe it doesn't make up for having forced this talent to leave in the first place, but it was still nice to see.

Fans of the show are reacting on the Q's Facebook page and Rand's. If the number of comments are any indication, Rand will be missed.

Sarah Bartok takes over the big chair while the Q waits for Cat Spencer to become available in the fall.

UPDATE: From Rand's Facebook page:

Thanks for all the kind comments everyone.. The last hour of yesterday's final show was tougher than I thought it would be, but it was made easier, and it felt right to have Tasso and Suzanne both there. So today ... I slept in till 8:30 !!!! Spending time with my daughter and friends this weekend, and then ... joining Oprah on her yacht for a couple of weeks of R&R. (Please don't say anything to her though. She doesn't know yet.)

UPDATE (June 1): Another clip from my videos from that day, this one of Suzanne Desautels and Murray Sherriffs:

Ted Bird also writes for his Gazette blog about Rand and how radio stations ditching their best talent doesn't make business sense to him.

And in case you were wondering, Rand's attempt to set a ridiculous world record was ... eventually ... successful.

No way to treat your listeners

Fagstein — Fri, 25 Mar 2011 19:32:00 +0000

"Freeway" Frank Depalo was introduced to Montreal at the St. Patrick's parade with co-host Lisa Player the day before he debuted as morning co-host on CJFM

The past month has seen a lot of staff changes in the Montreal radio scene. All three anglo FM music stations are seeing morning hosts leave, and at least two are introducing new faces to replace them.

Aaron Rand got the ball rolling by announcing he would be leaving CFQR's Q Mornings show at the end of April. Rand has been hosting this show for two decades, so you can imagine how listeners reacted to the news. He's got a lot of new Facebook friends and a lot of people posted messages to the Q's Facebook page.

Though Rand himself reached out to listeners and communicated with them, the station's management was silent. Mark Dickie, its general manager, didn't return my phone calls or emails, and provided The Gazette's Bill Brownstein with a pathetic quote that sounds like it came out of a fill-in-the-name-here press release.

As if to underscore a lack of respect for this dean of local radio, Rand's seat wasn't even cold before it was announced that Cat Spencer would be leaving CJFM to take his place ... in September. (Maybe before, if the two stations can work out a deal on his contract.) This is still months away, yet for some reason they couldn't wait 24 hours to make the announcement. What little coverage of this story appeared in local media had to be about both Spencer and Rand instead of just the latter.

Cat vs. Freeway

Learning that Spencer would be leaving, some Virgin Radio listeners also spoke up on its Facebook page. At least there, a few brief replies from the nameless Facebook page administrator saying Spencer had decided to leave. But otherwise, the station has been pretty silent about it. Program Director Mark Bergman hasn't made any public statements that I'm aware of.

That contrasts, of course, to all the publicity it's generating about its new star, "Freeway" Frank Depalo, who debuted on Monday as Lisa Player's cohost. (You can read an interview Depalo did with Mike Cohen on his blog, and a story in The Gazette by Kathryn Greenaway.)

The same day "Freeway" started on Virgin Radio, the Q launched a new contest where it gives away $1,000 daily to people who listen to the morning show. It promoted it like crazy, including an ad wrap around the front section of Monday's Gazette (hope some of that ad money trickles down to me).

PJ who?

And then there's CHOM, who yanked PJ Stock and Merv Williams from their morning show. Perhaps it was unrelated to the other changes, or perhaps the station decided it needed to freshen up while its competitors are changing things up. We don't know, because CHOM Program Director Daniel Tremblay isn't talking.

Again, fans complained. Not on the station's official Facebook page because it doesn't have a wall. But there were comments here and elsewhere, most more upset at the loss of Williams than the part-timer Stock.

The same day the news became public, there was a flurry of activity from the morning show's social media outlets, its Twitter feed (which had been dormant for more than two weeks) and its blog. Neither had any mention of Stock or Williams. Instead, we heard about Alouettes cheerleader tryouts and other ridiculousness.

As far as CHOM was concerned, it was easier to pretend these people never existed than to even briefly acknowledge and explain its reason for terminating them.

Listeners deserve better

Program directors aren't under any obligation to talk to me. I'm just some guy on the Internet. But their own listeners deserve explanations of these kinds of changes.

Radio stations go through a lot of effort to build familiarity with their hosts. Just look at what Virgin Radio is doing with Freeway Frank. Listeners become attached to them and, if the branding effort is really successful, they become loyal to those hosts, even if they've never met them in person or heard them off the air.

And then, when the usual turnover in radio causes that familiar voice to leave, the station expects listeners to instantly forget about them, to not ask questions.

It's a giant insult to the intelligence of those listeners. They understand how broadcasting works. They understand that people leave jobs that are no longer fulfilling for them (Rand), leave for better-paying competitors (Spencer), or leave because they've been fired (Stock and Williams). Simply coming forward and explaining yourselves to listeners would be a simple, albeit uncomfortable, experience.

I don't have 24/7 logs of these stations, so I can't say for sure about what statements have and haven't been made on air, but if the social media sphere, the websites and the lack of communication with media is any indication, the strategy seems to be to sweep bad news under the rug and hope nobody notices it, even though it's beyond obvious that they are.

Each of these three radio stations has gotten on the social media bandwagon, highlighting their Twitter and Facebook pages, and putting blogs on their websites. Listeners are using those forms of communication to try to seek answers.

They won't get answers, because CHOM, Virgin Radio and the Q are being antisocial.

That's a shame.

Cat Spencer to replace Aaron Rand at CFQR

Fagstein — Fri, 25 Feb 2011 11:11:42 +0000

Aaron Rand

Mere hours after veteran host Aaron Rand announced during Friday's morning show that he will be leaving CFQR (92.5 the Q), news emerged that CJFM (Virgin Radio 96) morning host Cat Spencer has been tapped to replace him.

Staff at CFQR were informed of Rand's decision on Thursday after the morning show was over. On Friday at 10am, a meeting was reportedly convened at Astral Media to announce that Cat Spencer would be leaving CJFM and moving to CFQR in September.

Rand says he was completely unaware of his employer's decision to hire Spencer until he was called into his boss's office after Friday's show. During the show, Rand said he would stay on for a few more weeks (officially until the end of April) so his station could find a replacement, but now that it seems they've found that replacement, Rand says he's not sure how long he'll still be there.

Reached by telephone on Friday afternoon, Rand was clearly unhappy about how his bosses handled the situation, concealing from him their decision to hire Spencer and allowing him to give a statement in which he "looked like an idiot" by saying the station hadn't found someone to replace him when in fact it had.

Still, the decision to leave is Rand's, both technically and realistically. He says he met with his bosses last week as negotiations were set to begin for his contract renewal (his contract ends Sept. 1), and it seemed immediately apparent that management was not particularly excited about improving his contract, nor was he particularly excited about staying.

He said he was trying to be as honourable as he could, a stark contrast to his former co-hosts Suzanne Desautels and Paul "Tasso" Zakaib, who were fired without being given a chance to say goodbye on air (though Rand put Zakaib on air via telephone and a few months later hosted a party in their honour). It all went fine until he found out about Spencer. Not that he has a problem with Spencer, or the hiring, or even the timing of such. It's the fact that he wasn't told that's left him pissed.

Rand's enjoyment of the morning job went down significantly after long-time partner Zakaib was turfed in 2009 (they had been hosting the morning show at CFQR for almost 20 years, and had co-hosted together before that for other stations since 1984). He told The Gazette in 2009 that he felt "survivor's guilt" afterward.

The format change that came with the firings also didn't work so well for Rand. The station wanted "more music" in an effort to boost ratings, so Rand's time at the mike was significantly reduced as the station began to sound more like a juke box than live radio. "I'm not a DJ," Rand told me.

In all, Rand's career on the Montreal airwaves spans 26 years, notably with CKGM, CFCF and CFQR, but during his early years he had jobs with CJFM, CHOM and CJAD.

The announcement of Rand's departure comes less than a month after CFQR was officially acquired by Cogeco Diffusion as part of the huge purchase of Corus Quebec, though there's no indication of any direct link between this decision and the change in ownership. Rand himself says linking the two is "pure speculation."

My attempts to reach management at CJFM and CFQR for comment have so far proved unsuccessful. Spencer also hasn't gotten back to me yet. But Mark Dickie, the Q's general manager, took time out of not returning my calls to tell The Gazette's Bill Brownstein that "Aaron Rand has been the cornerstone of this station for years and has consistently delivered us great radio. We wish him only the best."

The announcement

The following was said on air by Rand shortly before 7:30 Friday morning:

I have decided that I'm going to be leaving the radio station and my job here as host of the morning show. After almost 26 years of sitting down to start my day by telling a couple of stories and sharing some laughs with you, my time here is coming to an end. It's never an easy decision to make, but as the expression goes "when it's time, it's time." And now is that time.

It's been a great run. I've been blessed to work with some really talented people, not the least of whom was my partner for most of those years, Tasso, who I told about my decision yesterday. And I'm also proud of the fact that as a native Montrealer I was lucky enough to work at a job I love in a city I love for my entire career. That's truly special to me.

As far as what's next, I don't really know. I do know I'm not ready to retire yet, so I'm going to spend the next little while thinking about what I'm going to do next, and sleeping in. But I promise to keep you updated through my Facebook page and let you know when I know exactly what's next. In the meantime, I'll still be here for the next few weeks while the station goes about the business of finding someone new to fill my seat.

I want to sincerely thank everyone I've ever worked with on the show over the years. Talented people like Patrick Charles, Leo Da Estrela, Murray Sherriffs, Suzanne Desautels, Glenn Repas, Melody Pierson, Sandy Weigens and Pierre Arcand. And most of all, I want to thank you. You who listen every morning, especially those of you who have been loyal listeners for longer than I care to remember.

Thank you for allowing me the privilege of entertaining you for so many years. Please believe me when I say the pleasure has been all mine.

Thank you.

You can listen to audio of this announcement in MP3 format here.

Rand said the text of the announcement was given to management beforehand, and had he known about Spencer's impending hiring he would have deleted the sentence about sticking around as the station finds someone new.

Shortly after the announcement aired, Rand got a call from his mother (in reality, it was Zakaib, performing one of the many popular characters he brought to the morning show). Rand said the bit was a way to take the tension away after such a serious announcement.

It was good thinking. He just surprised thousands of people by telling them he's breaking up with them after 20 years together.

Last of his era

If this seems like more than just a simple case of a long-time radio personality hanging up the mike (he's pushing 60, but he said he's "not ready to retire"), it's because Rand is one of the few remaining people in commercial music radio in Montreal's anglo market who isn't afraid not to sound like a marketer sometimes. Where the standard procedure might have been to pretend his departed co-hosts never existed, Rand granted interview requests, spoke highly of them, gave Zakaib a chance to say goodbye on air and even organized a party in their honour for long-time listeners to attend.

Talk radio still has some true personalities, people like Mitch Melnick and Tommy Schnurmacher. Maybe it's inevitable that the music side can no longer afford the same kind of broadcasters, and hosts across the schedule at CHOM, CFQR and CJFM (Virgin Radio 96) will all become interchangeable parts without real personalities or even last names. If people are constantly pushing for "more music", maybe they don't care what voice tells them what song was just played and what time it is.

If that's true, you can hardly blame the stations for moving in this direction.

Stopped being fun

Though Rand's departure was clearly more amicable than was Ted Bird's from CHOM last year (Bird has since taken a job at K103 Kahnawake), there are similarities in the motivations, as hinted by Rand himself shortly after Bird's departure:

When I read about Ted Bird (who I know only in passing) and his reasons for leaving, I was struck by one central theme. Not the fact that big corporations now control the business (it's been that way for awhile), not that they seek to, as he said, take the craft out of the hands of the craftsmen (which naively maybe I choose not to believe) but by the fact that it stopped being fun for him. And in a business where translating that fun you feel into fun an audience can share, once you've lost that feeling, it's time to move on, I respect Ted for that.

I still get up every morning (at 4 not 3) and look forward to going to work. Yes, I miss seeing the faces and hearing the voices of the friends I shared that studio with for what seems like forever, but I'm a realist. You can't help but see and feel the business changing, and the choice is to either embrace that change, or be left behind by it.

Is it the right thing to do, am I still being true to myself as a performer by staying? Honestly, I don't know, but I'm willing to at least give it a shot and then make that decision with a bit of perspective to reflect on. The truth is, I still have fun doing what I do on the radio every morning. The only difference is now I'm working with other talented people who offer new perspectives, a different outlook, and maybe, a glimpse into what the future of this business will become.

It's not better, it's not worse, it's just different, But it's still fun. The day it no longer is, I'll walk away too.

On Friday, Rand agreed that a lack of fun was a big reason for leaving. "It became more and more obvious that there was less and less for me to do," he said. "You feel at some point that you're just spinning your wheels. It's time for a new challenge."

So what's next? Rand says he would like to stay in Montreal, and would like to stay in radio, but even though having creative freedom is more important to him than money right now, obviously his options are limited. K103 already has a big-name morning man (besides, Rand jokes, he doesn't smoke, and doesn't want to cross the Mercier every day). Like Bird, he highly doubts the CBC would be interested in his talents. So that leaves the Astral-owned stations: CHOM, CJFM and CJAD.

Rand said he has had some discussions with Astral, but nothing has been set yet. CJAD might be a good fit for a radio host with a talent for humour, but CHOM would also work if it would be willing to give him enough freedom. The question is whether either of them is in a hiring mood.

One thing is for sure, Rand doesn't want to retire. "I'm not for a second thinking I'm done," he said. "I can't imagine sitting around all day doing nothing."

Coverage

The Gazette posted a brief based on information above, and Bill Brownstein wrote a story for Saturday's city section.

CTV Montreal takes the story a step further and reports about a source saying Cat Spencer is quitting Virgin Radio and coming to the Q. Christine Long mentions the news during the noon newscast almost as an aside to a CHOM FM bikini parade.

Reaction

It didn't take long for Rand's colleagues in the Montreal radio industry to comment.

Friend of the blog Terry DiMonte comments via Facebook and Twitter that Rand, a competitor for many years, is "a class act". DiMonte, you'll remember, also left Montreal's music radio market after finding it wasn't fun anymore.

From CHOM's Rob Kemp: "The Montreal radio landscape will never be the same. ... Good luck Aaron...you are an original pro."

From co-host Murray Sherriffs: "I sitting not 2 feet from you and my resistance to get off my chair and go over an hug is waning, you big lug."

From former Q92 program director Ted Silver: "Aaron, You are the man. The best revenge will be the big numbers you put up at your next station. All the best my friend!. ... Aaron, You had a long run as the TOP morning show. This was not by accident. The station declined and you became a scapegoat. I don't know how things would have been if I was still there, but I do know that I would not have dismantled an iconic morning show. Keep in touch!"

From radio listener Sheldon Harvey: "I personally believe that when the history book is written on Montreal English
radio, Aaron Rand will probably deserve a chapter of his own. I feel that his ground-breaking afternoon drive show on the old CFCF/CIQC 600 is still one of Montreal radio's shining moments in broadcasting."

From the public, the reaction so far is supportive, but sad. Though there are some who are still ticked off that Tasso was given the boot.

Those wanting to express themselves to the Q about Rand's departure can do so on their Facebook page (though the station has shut that down in the past to clamp down on negative commentary becoming public) or by calling or emailing management. There's also Rand's own Facebook page, which he plans to keep using.

Meanwhile, in other radio staffing news

The Rand and Spencer show obscured another shifting of personalities in the anglo radio sphere on Friday. Sonali Karnick, a longtime member of the CBC Daybreak team - most recently as its sports reporter - is leaving for Toronto to be a national sports reporter for CBC. Friday was her last day on Daybreak.

And similarly, it didn't take long for a replacement to be announced. Mitch Melnick announced on his Team 990 show on Friday afternoon that his colleague Andie Bennett is heading to Daybreak to fill that void.

UPDATE: Mike Cohen reports that Freeway Frank, who used to be the morning guy at CHUM's Kool 101.5 in Calgary, will be Spencer's replacement at CJFM and will cohost the Virgin Radio morning show with Lisa Player.

Welcome to the Cogeco radioverse

Fagstein — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 19:29:08 +0000

It's official. Despite an after-the-fact plea from Astral to overturn CRTC approval and block the purchase, Corus Quebec's radio stations officially became part of the Cogeco family on Feb. 1.

The new owners wasted no time imposing the new order, escorting previous bosses out the door (assuming they didn't quit) and appointing a new executive team.

As part of the agreement with the CRTC, Cogeco can continue to own three francophone FM stations in Montreal (98.5FM, Rythme FM 105.7 and CKOI 96.9), but has to sell some stations in other regions:

CKOY-FM 104.5 (since renamed CJTS-FM) in Sherbrooke, which operated under the CKOI brand
CFEL-FM 102.1 in Quebec City, also a CKOI-branded station
CJEC-FM 91.9 in Quebec City, under the Rythme FM brand

If you're interested, feel free to bid. It's unclear what will happen after the sales are complete (will they be able to keep the same brand? Will they want to?), but for now it's business as usual.

Another station that was part of the Corus network, CKRS in Saguenay, was sold separately to local investors.

On the anglo side, the only affected station is CFQR 92.5 "the Q", which switches from Corus to Cogeco. Astral Media owns the other stations, CHOM, CJFM "Virgin Radio" and CJAD. There's no word on any changes to management or programming or anything else at that station so far.

CRTC caves in to Cogeco

Fagstein — Mon, 20 Dec 2010 08:22:38 +0000

The CRTC, which sets rules regarding concentration of ownership in broadcast media, decided it could simply ignore them in a ruling on Friday that gave Cogeco the right to buy almost all the assets of Corus Quebec.

Specifically, Cogeco would buy 11 stations for $80 million, including Montreal's 92.5 the Q (formerly Q92), CFQR-FM.

In Montreal:

Elsewhere:

CJRC-FM Souvenirs Garantis 104.7 in Gatineau
CIME-FM 103.9 in St-Jerome
CHLT-FM Souvenirs Garantis 107.7 in Sherbrooke
CKOY-FM 104.5 in Sherbrooke
CHLN-FM Souvenirs Garantis 106.9 in Trois-Rivières
CFOM-FM Souvenirs Garantis 102.9 in Quebec City
CFEL-FM ("CKOI") 102.1 in Quebec City

The biggest problem with the acquisition is that it would violate a CRTC rule that says one company can't own more than two stations in each language on each band in each market. Cogeco was willing to get around this by selling stations in Quebec City and converting one in Sherbrooke into a retransmitter of Montreal's CKAC sports station.

But it wanted an exception in Montreal. CHMP 98.5 is the flagship station of the Corus talk radio network, and Rythme FM (CFGL) and CKOI are the No. 1 and No. 2 music stations, making them a whole lot of money. Cogeco said that a requirement to sell one of those stations would torpedo the whole deal (CKOI alone represents half the cost of the acquisition), and promised that in exchange for this special consideration they would hire journalists throughout Quebec and create a talk-radio news agency.

And the CRTC caved. Well, mostly.

They didn't buy the idea of turning Sherbrooke's CKOY FM into a retransmitter of Montreal's CKAC sports station, and gave Cogeco a year to find a buyer for it. They also made a strict condition that Cogeco's plan for a news agency continue, so they can't pull a bait and switch.

That part is good news. The idea of Cogeco Nouvelles sounds good. At least the part about them hiring 33 full-time journalists and spending $3 million a year on news sounds good. The part about sharing content sounds a lot like the regional stations will all take the majority of their content from Montreal and insert a bare minimum of local stories just to justify their license.

But still, considering how little actual journalism comes out of private radio in Quebec, on the whole this is good.

There are also a few additional incentives to sweeten the deal, like this: Cogeco will "provide its services free-of-charge to groups operating fewer than three French-language radio stations in Quebec’s small markets as long as they agree to supply COGECO Nouvelles with news from their markets. The service’s content will also be available free-of-charge to community radio stations."

Oligopoly

But as nice as all that is, and I hope Cogeco Nouvelles succeeds, the problem of radio competition remains. Instead of three players in the Quebec francophone (popular) music scene in Montreal, there would be two, representing an astonishing 95% of advertising revenue in the biggest market in Quebec. And that's true for both the French and English-language markets in Montreal. If you discount jazz, classical and CBC/Radio-Canada's stations, the two will own all seven music stations (four francophone, three anglophone) in Montreal.

Much of the debate at the CRTC seemed to be about Astral Media, which owns the NRJ and Rock Détente networks and is seen as a major player in the regions. But rather than acknowledge that there's a serious problem with Astral Media owning stations that should be competing with each other (this is particularly true in Montreal's anglophone market, where Astral owns CHOM 97.7, CJFM 95.9 Virgin Radio and CJAD 800), the CRTC decided that the best response was to create an even bigger behemoth in Cogeco.

With the acquisition, Cogeco stations would have an astounding 46.6% market share in the Montreal francophone market and 22.4% in the anglophone market, or 41.3% total. Astral, meanwhile, has a 31.4% share in the francophone market and a 55.4% share in the anglophone market. Note that all these numbers don't exclude CBC/Radio-Canada stations. When you consider just commercial stations, or as a share of ad revenues, those numbers are even higher.

The suggestion that this would somehow "restore a competitive balance" is silly.

The Montreal-less network

There's also a problem that isn't being considered very well here: While Cogeco argues that regional talk-radio stations need the resources and "expertise" of Montreal's 98.5 FM, it also plans to sell stations in the regions to a third party that won't be able to setup a Montreal station if they want to build a network.

For example, CKOI is a brand network in Montreal, Sherbrooke and Quebec City. As part of the acquisition, Cogeco will have to sell the Sherbrooke and Quebec City stations in this network, but not the Montreal one. And there isn't exactly a lot of extra space on the dial for someone to setup a new francophone music station in Montreal. So not only would anyone who wants to buy these stations have to change their brands (along with the Rythme FM station in Quebec City), but they wouldn't be able to take advantage of whatever efficiencies Astral and Corus/Cogeco think they have found with multi-region brands.

Personally, I think music radio stations can do fine without needing to belong to a Montreal-network (some names are already popping up as potential buyers). But it's funny that Cogeco puts such a strong emphasis on the need for a Montreal flagship station for its talk radio network but has no problem with other people having radio stations in the regions without a Montreal-based moneymaker to keep them afloat.

In conclusion: Good for radio, bad for radio choice

I'm happy that the CRTC handled some of the issues I brought up in my criticism of Cogeco's plan. And I'm happy that Cogeco is planning to setup a regional radio news network and hire journalists.

But this is a step backwards for radio diversity in Montreal, at a time when the city desperately needs more competition in commercial radio.

The CRTC should review its rules for media concentration, particularly because the public seems to be abandoning the AM band and because Montreal's numbers suggest that commercial music stations aren't strictly segregated on the basis of language.

Montreal has seven commercial radio stations that all play popular music that sounds a lot alike. It should have more than two companies running them.

More coverage in:

UPDATE (Jan. 12): Almost a month after the CRTC's decision, and weeks before the transaction is set to close, Astral decides to appeal to the federal court to overturn it, saying it was "arbitrary and unreasonable" to change the rules at the last minute just for Cogeco. VP Claude Laflamme makes the point in the statement that "the sudden lack of predictability in the application of the CRTC policy penalizes all broadcasters which in the past decided not to pursue business opportunities in order to abide by the policy as formulated and as consistently applied."

La Presse quotes Cogeco as counter-arguing that Astral controls 75% of the anglophone market (they own CJAD, CHOM and CJFM, but that doesn't violate the CRTC's rules), and they shouldn't be pointing fingers about media concentration.

Note that while Astral suggests that Cogeco should have been forced to sell one of the music stations, it doesn't have its eyes on them because it already owns two francophone FM stations in Montreal (CITE Rock Détente 107.3 and CKMF NRJ 94.3)

UPDATE (Jan. 14): Corus says it will, of course, fight this appeal, and that the Cogeco deal is still set to close on Feb. 1.

CFQR gets license renewal – and a slap on the wrist

Fagstein — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 21:04:10 +0000

This week, the CRTC gave approval for a license renewal to CFQR-FM, commonly known as Q92 (but who prefer to refer to themselves now as "92.5 the Q"). They can keep broadcasting until Aug. 31, 2014.

The approval is considered "short-term" because CFQR was in violation of one of its conditions of license, a minor one that requires that 20% of music from the jazz and blues category be Canadian. (The station exceeded its requirements for Canadian content overall.)

The station blamed this on improper labelling involving a new program:

Our non-compliance related solely to the introduction of a new three-hour program on Sunday evenings called Chill. This program is a showcase for Canadian smooth jazz. We experienced a problem with the labelling of songs in this three hour program block. The result was that we could not correctly identify individual selections as to whether they did or did not qualify as Canadian content. This in turn led directly to the compliance question raised by the Commission.

We deeply regret our failure to comply with the category 34 requirement. We take our responsibilities seriously and understand the importance of meeting our regulatory obligations. The non-compliance was not intentional and it was for a short duration. It only related to this program feature. We want to assure the Commission that it will not happen again.

This isn't the first time CFQR has gotten a slap from the national regulator. The last time their license was up for renewal, the commission noted that the station was not in compliance with a condition of license requiring no more than 49.9% of music broadcast be hits. (You know, so it doesn't sound too much like ~~CJFM~~ AM radio.)

The CRTC has also renewed the license of CKLX-FM, Planète Jazz 91.9, even though the station was in non-compliance on its financial obligations.

Cogeco to buy Corus Quebec radio stations

Fagstein — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 18:58:13 +0000

Pierre Trudel thought it was Quebecor, but Quebecor had it right: Cogeco, a cable provider in Ontario and parts of Quebec, which also owns the Rythme FM radio network and used to own TQS before that went into bankruptcy, has announced that it will acquire Corus Quebec's radio network, pending CRTC approval.

The transaction, valued at about $80 million, includes:

In Montreal:

Elsewhere:

CJRC-FM Souvenirs Garantis 104.7 in Gatineau
CIME-FM 103.9 in St-Jerome
CHLT-FM Souvenirs Garantis 107.7 in Sherbrooke
CKOY-FM 104.5 in Sherbrooke
CHLN-FM Souvenirs Garantis 106.9 in Trois-Rivieres
CFOM-FM Souvenirs Garantis 102.9 in Quebec City
CFEL-FM ("CKOI") 102.1 in Quebec City

It's hard to tell from a simple press release what this all means. Cogeco has experience in radio, so I wouldn't expect any major overhauls immediately (except, I guess, having to rename "Corus Nouvelles"). But CFQR would be Cogeco's first anglophone radio station, for what that's worth.

On the francophone side, this would mean a loss of competition. Instead of three major players (Astral Media is the other, owning the NRJ and Rock Détente networks), there would be two. CKOI and CFGL would come under the same owner, working together instead of competing with each other for music listeners.

In Sherbrooke, it's worse: Three of the four five commercial music stations, CKOY, CHLT and CFGE, would all be owned by Cogeco, leaving CITE-FM-1 Rock Détente 102.7 and CIMO-FM 106.1 NRJ in nearby Magog as the only competition.

In Trois Rivières, it would be two for Cogeco, two for Astral. Same for Quebec City, though there's more competition there from independents.

It's also worth noting that this sale comes mere months after Corus cut local programming at Souvenirs Garantis stations CJRC, CHLT and CHLN.

What about CKRS?

CKRS 98.3FM in Saguenay, the fourth Souvenirs Garantis station that got its morning show cut to be replaced with Paul Arcand, is not part of the transaction. Corus has been looking to get rid of that station, and the deadline for bids was yesterday, and the new owner (if there is one) should be known soon.

UPDATE: Nathalie Collard also has some thoughts on the matter.

Podcast Plan B: David Tyler Unleashed

Fagstein — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 10:16:07 +0000

Podcast Plan B is a blog series about four Montreal radio personalities that have begun independent podcasts over the past few months. It's an expansion of a Gazette article I wrote on the topic, explained here.

Name: David Tyler
Radio job: Former daytime host, now occasional fill-in host at CFQR "92.5 the Q"
Podcast: David Tyler Unleashed
Podcast URL: http://www.davidtyler.com/podcast/
Podcast feed URL: http://www.davidtyler.com/podcast/unleashed.xml (or by iTunes)
Length: Varies, 15-30 minutes
Format: MP4
Frequency: Occasional
Subject: Interviews and jokes

David Tyler

I'll start this series with an apology: Sorry David Tyler, I had to cut you out of my story. I thought I could fit in a lot more in the 750 words I was assigned, and I just couldn't fit everyone in. The story was about podcasts as independent business ventures, and David Tyler Unleashed was more of a just-for-fun thing. It isn't as regular as the other ones, and it's only guaranteed four episodes so far, while the others have long-term plans for the new year.

Still, I feel bad not only because I spent an hour on the phone with Tyler, but because he has the best story about being fired from radio.

"The program director at the time, Chris Kennedy, called me into his office," Tyler told me. "I was showing him the renovations on my house that I just started. I was showing him the pictures on my brand new iPhone. And suddenly he had this look on his face."

While Tyler was dreaming of home renovation in August 2008, Kennedy and management at Corus's Q92 were thinking of going in a new direction, doing something different (and other similar euphemisms). They're be redoing the weekday midday, and David Tyler wasn't part of their plans.

Failed experiment

What was part of their plans was Terry DiMonte, the long-time Montreal morning man who left CHOM for a Corus station in Calgary after a contract dispute. Corus suggested he do a noon-hour music show on Q92 from his Q107 studio in Calgary, right after his morning show there. He accepted, and Corus marketed his return, but the project lasted less than a year.

Despite the fact that DiMonte took over Tyler's timeslot, Tyler doesn't see it as a direct link between the two. He says CFQR was redoing the entire day - not just the noon hour - and it was more than just replacing a local host with an out-of-town one.

Tyler talked about his departure from the station on his blog, and I linked to that post, both prompting a few comments, especially from his colleagues. But there wasn't anywhere near the outcry that came with DiMonte's departure from CHOM or various radio firings since. Though Tyler said he was #1 among the coveted adult women demographic (probably because of his deep, soothing voice), that apparently wasn't good enough to prevent him from being axed.

The real career

Being dumped from CFQR was a mixed blessing, in a way, for Tyler. It wasn't like he was out of a career.

"One of the first things I learned about radio is that it's not secure," Tyler said. "I learned that from Pete Marier. He was doing freelance work around the city, and I said I got to do that too. By the time I left radio, I had a sideline business. In fact, I was making more money on the sideline business than in radio."

That sideline business is behind-the-scenes radio stuff on a freelance basis. He does radio imaging, which is audio branding for a radio station - those 10-15-second sound bite station IDs you hear. He has a dozen radio stations as clients, including ones in Trinidad, Martinique, France, Ireland, Bangkok, and a handful in the United States and Canada.

"I was pissed because I was doing (radio) for more than 20 years, and I wouldn't be doing it anymore," Tyler said. "Once it was up to that I got down to business, literally."

He also does television promos, narration, v0ice acting and other voice stuff out of his home studio. "You know, it pays the bills, but it's not as exciting as the radio show," he said.

So this guy, who spent two decades in local radio (more if you include his time at John Abbott College and Concordia University radio stations) decided he needed an outlet for self-expression, whether it was on the air or not.

"At the core, I believe that I'm an entertainer," he said. "I've been an entertainer since I was a small kid. Like a magician. I like to get on the stage and perform for people."

The podcast

On Oct. 29, Tyler uploaded the first edition of David Tyler Unleashed, a podcast of interviews and funny stories and jokes.

"It's a chance for me to do some of the bits I always wanted to do on the radio but just wasn't allowed to," he said in his premiere episode. These include risqué, "suggestive jokes," though not necessarily dirty jokes. "It's 14-and-over jokes," he said. He also wants to promote local music and talk to local musicians, and give the podcast "a Montreal flavour."

He put Episode 2 up in November, but he's been behind on getting other episodes up. He said he's planning to do at least four episodes, and then will re-evaluate how successful the show has been when he decides if he wants to continue it.

While raw listeners is a good way to evaluate popularity, "success would be ... reaction is what I'm looking for, listener reaction," Tyler said. "For me, the experiment isn't 'can I make money out of it?' It's 'can I do it and have fun and not take too much money out of my money-maker, which is the voice business?' We'll see."

The podcast isn't in MP3 format. It's actually MP4, which is an "enhanced" format that allows each episode to contain audio, pictures and links. He exploits this for the benefit of people using iTunes or iPods to listen to his podcast, showing them pictures of interview subjects, websites, album covers and other things he's talking about, timed to appear when he's talking about them.

"It's pure fun," he said. He's not planning to make money off it. It's just something he wants to do. He likens it to what he did in college. "The podcast is the same thing. We're not trying to impress anybody. Just having fun."

David Tyler shows off what it's like in the Q92 studio, shortly before he was let go in August 2008.

Back on the radio

It was around Yom Kippur - the day of atonement, Tyler notes - that he got a call from CFQR, the station that fired him, asking him if he wanted to come back as a fill-in host.

Though Tyler would have loved nothing better than to return to Montreal radio, he hesitated. His "side business" was now his main business, and it was paying the salary he's using to support his family.

"I got kids, so I'm not going to work Saturday and Sunday," he told them. "They said we want to have you back on the air as a fill-in guy or a guest host. The only hesitation was how it would affect my main income stream. There's no better way of putting it than they weren't paying me enough."

So with conditions, he accepted. He'd fill in occasionally on weekdays on what is now called "the Q", provided it didn't take him away from his family or his other business.

"Radio as an industry has lost the balance"

Asked about the future of the radio industry, Tyler wasn't shy about expressing his views.

"I believe that radio is show and business, it's showbusiness. It's a balancing act," he said. "Right now, I think that business has become too important, and the show in showbusiness is lacking. They're so focused on business, they're losing the show. Radio as an industry has lost the balance."

Not to say he's ungrateful about all he's learned from the industry.

"Radio has given me a lot of stuff," he said. "Maybe radio has given me more stuff than I have given it. There's a lot to learn about showbusiness."

And technology. Tyler predicts that iPods and wireless devices will take over from FM and AM within the next decade.

"I'm giving terrestrial radio stations 10 years to bring down all of their towers," he explains, clarifying that he's talking about the technology and not the industry. "Terrestrial radio will be dead in 10 years. In 10 years from now, there won't be broadcasting over the air."

Free advice

For those looking to get into radio - even in this era of cutbacks in traditional media - Tyler says the most important thing is dedication to the craft.

"Ask them why they want to get on the radio. I met lots of people who went into radio because they wanted a lot of free stuff. Movie passes, concert tickets." Those people, he says, aren't fit for radio.

And even if you do get in, you should have a backup plan. As Tyler learned, even if you've been in radio for 20 years, it doesn't mean you're not going to get kicked to the curb tomorrow.

"My son wants to be an NHL hockey player," he explained by example. "Good, but you have to do something else too. If he doesn't have a backup plan, McDonald's is hiring."

Fagstein's review

The good: A program with a Montreal flavour is most welcome, especially when the big media crunch means less and less of local broadcasting. Tyler has a smooth radio voice, and the jokes he recounts are actually funny.

The bad: Maybe I'm just not partial to radio interviews, but I find myself skipping past them in this podcast. My portable media player also doesn't like MP4 files, so I can't listen to it on the go.

The ugly: A podcast that's this short and this infrequent by a lesser-known local radio personality simply isn't going to attract enough audience to make it worthwhile unless it's got killer content, and this podcast doesn't have that yet.

Also in this series:

CFQR adds to website

Fagstein — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 08:18:15 +0000

925theq.com

Only eight months after they rebranded themselves from "Q92" to "The Q", CFQR has opened up its website to more interesting content.

New features include:

A "recently played" list (which right now includes a bunch of Christmas songs)
A page of local news headlines and a movie guide both "powered by The Gazette"
A community calendar
And a bunch of other crap I won't bother linking to

There's also a schedule, which has scrubbed the name of Tammy Moyer from her late-morning show. She hasn't been fired, says Program Director Brian DePoe. Rather, she's "taken a leave from the Q to deal with some personal life issues."

As they await more "clarity" on the situation, the show is being hosted temporarily by Chris Reiser.

Murray Sherriffs joins CFQR morning show

Fagstein — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 22:12:52 +0000

Murray Sherriffs

Proving once again that when you leave Corus, you join Astral, and when you leave Astral, you join Corus*, Murray Sherriffs, the popular morning man on Mix 96, who was canned from the station when it rebranded as Virgin Radio in January, will return Monday as the morning news anchor on CFQR 92.5 the Q (formerly Q92). (via RadioInMontreal)

Sherriffs's departure caused a lot of negative reaction from listeners, who saw it as the biggest mistake of the rebranding.

Sherriffs will join morning host Aaron Rand, who has been riding solo since fellow hosts Paul "Tasso" Zakaib and Suzanne Desautels were ditched in August. Another move that caused a lot of protest from listeners.

Also joining the team is fellow Astral castoff Sarah Bartok, whose previous job was at Astral's CISL AM 650 in Vancouver. She'll be the traffic reporter. She replaces Shaun McMahon, who moves from traffic to show producer.

*See DiMonte, Terry; Charles, Patrick

UPDATE: The Gazette has a story, with reader comments.

Aaron Rand, the last DJ

Fagstein — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 08:16:42 +0000

The days when commercial radio DJs were given the freedom to program their own shows has long passed. Playlists are set by corporate bigwigs who are more interested in what's popular than what's good. The DJs, if you can still call them that, sit in the studio and fill the space in between songs with light banter, trying to seem personable without having too much of a personality.

If you listen to them, it seems their attitude has shifted from being music critics to being publicists. The hosts (a better term for them than DJ) deliver advertising messages, plug upcoming shows or contests, and they do so seeming as happy and excited as they could possibly be.

This happiness extends to major changes. When Mix 96 became Virgin Radio 96, that resulted in more syndicated programming and less local voice. But the employees put on an excited face about their new station, wearing T-shirts bearing its logo and plugging it in any way they could on Facebook.

This everything-is-happy-no-matter-what philosophy doesn't mesh well with inevitable firings. Nobody likes to see people lose their jobs, and listeners rarely like to see hosts get booted to the street, especially when there's nobody to replace them. So what tends to happen is that the on-air personalities will do their best to minimize these staff changes, emphasizing the new arrivals and hoping listeners forget about the departures. Beyond a short goodbye, in many cases their names are never spoken again. Their blogs and bios are quietly deleted from the station's website, and it waits until the recently departed become the not-so-recently departed so they can be fully forgotten.

Aaron Rand

Aaron Rand is not this type of on-air personality.

When Rand learned (along with the rest of us) in August that his morning co-hosts on CFQR, Paul (Tasso) Zakaib and Suzanne Desautels, were being dismissed, he was devastated. Aaron and Tasso had been a fixture on Montreal radio for decades, and now they were being split up. And for some reason, Aaron had been left as the sole survivor.

Most people in this situation would have laid low for a while, refused requests to talk to the media, and done everything in their power to not join his friends on the unemployment line. You don't want to rock the boat, to bite the hand that feeds you, to let the world know that your boss was an asshole for what he did. You want to keep your job, and that means staying quiet about your feelings.

Rand didn't do that. Instead, he talked to his listeners, talked to The Gazette, and even answered critics online. While Tasso and Suzanne kept quiet (to this day they haven't said anything publicly), Rand had to speak for them.

And yet, he had to speak for the station as well, which made everything awkward. He couldn't trash-talk the station or its decision, but he couldn't hide his feelings either. He talked about how sad he was, how hard it was to get through his first solo show, and yet how these kinds of on-air changes are how commercial radio works now. He didn't like the decision, but it wasn't his call. So he had to live with it and accept it.

A month later, the public outrage has died down. The Q has reopened its Facebook page to discussion after shutting it down to prevent the flood of negative comments. The station apparently believes enough time has passed for people to forget.

Not Rand. He's organizing a party, inviting fans of the show to join him (and presumably Tasso and Suzanne) at the Mount Stephen Club downtown on Oct. 20. It's not a gathering to protest CFQR's decision to fire them, but a thank-you gathering to celebrate their careers and give listeners a chance to say a proper goodbye.

The Mount Stephen Club is a classy joint, which only seems appropriate for this classy move. (Admission is free, but space is limited, so reservations are requested at aaron@925theq.com, first come first served.)

In a post on the Radio in Montreal group online, Rand explained his attitude thusly:

I felt the textbook approach should give way, to a real, human, caring approach. People, especially long time listeners, have been calling and e-mailing, voicing their opinions on what happened, and now, asking if both Tasso and Suzanne are okay. That's not a question for management to answer.

I felt it would be cold, callous, and disrespectful of me to ignore their queries, especially given the fact that we were a team. This was not just a situation where someone had left after a year or two for greener pastures, this was about the breakup of the heritage morning show in their market. Listeners, in my estimation, are owed an explanation, an update, call it what you will, and that explanation can only come from me. I think management understands and accepts that.

I hope they do. And I hope they understand that if local radio had more people like Aaron Rand, they might care a bit more about local radio and fewer of them would be leaving in droves for iTunes and podcasts.

Tasso, Suzanne leave CFQR morning show

Fagstein — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 07:31:18 +0000

Paul "Tasso" Zakaib

After 20 years in morning radio in Montreal, Aaron and Tasso is just Aaron.

CFQR a.k.a. 92.5 the Q a.k.a. Q92 Program Director Brian DePoe announced on Wednesday that two thirds of its long-running morning trio would be leaving the station: Paul Zakaib (aka Tasso Patsikakis) and Suzanne Desautels. No reason was given beyond a vague statement of making changes.

The Aaron and Tasso show began on CFQR in 1989, but their collaboration began years before that when they worked at CKGM and CFCF radio. The CFCF partnership ended in 1987 when management decided Tasso was no longer a good fit for the ratings-stalled show hosted by Aaron Rand. Later, when they were teamed up for Q92's morning show and the ratings skyrocketed, the powers that be learned their lesson, and Aaron and Tasso stuck together throughout the 90s and most of this decade.

Considering the revolving doors of morning shows at the competition CHOM, CJFM and even CJAD, it's astonishing that they stuck around for so long, cementing their names into the city's consciousness. (I remember one morning a while back when a woman got a surprise call from the CHOM morning show - the hosts asked if she knew who they were, and she said "Oh, it's Aaron and Tasso!" There was a bit of an awkward silence after that, but it demonstrates how they were the most recognizable of the morning teams.)

Suzanne Desautels

Desautels also hails from the old days of CFCF radio, where she started off as an intern in the early 80s. But she spent most of her career at CFCF television, as a weather presenter and co-host of its Travel Travel program. In 1999, when the budget axe fell there, she moved to CFQR as a news reader and has been there since, eventually moving to morning traffic and then recently as a full partner in the morning team.

So far, the plan is to keep Aaron Rand going solo, with a scaled-back morning show (less talk, more music). I can't help but wonder if that may be an indication that the two-men-one-woman morning crew format we see on Montreal's anglo music stations might be a bit excessive on the talent for these belt-tightening times.

Those who want to express their opinion on the dumpings can do so on the station's Facebook page or by contacting management directly. (UPDATE: The station has shut down the discussion forums on its Facebook group page after being swarmed with comments about the programming change. Listeners are being asked to email PD Brian DePoe directly, presumably so negative comments are kept out of public view)

UPDATE: Coverage from CTV Montreal and The Gazette, both of which have been flooded with comments about the move.

Neither The Gazette nor CTV (nor I) have gotten any comment from the two fired personalities. Instead, Aaron Rand has been stuck in the unenviable position of explaining the decision of someone else to fire a good friend.

UPDATE (Aug. 21): Some insightful comments from radio buff Sheldon Harvey.

UPDATE (Aug. 25): Comments from Aaron Rand, who says he's passing along people's thoughts to Tasso and Suzanne, even while the two of them remain silent.

CFQR dumps Terry DiMonte

Fagstein — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 18:29:46 +0000

Less than two years after he moved to Calgary in the midst of a nasty contract dispute and took up a job that pays him more money than God, and less than a year after competitor Q92 decided to have him do a noon-hour show from Calgary, Terry DiMonte has once again been booted off Montreal radio.

DiMonte announced on Thursday that his show on CFQR would come to an end, by "mutual agreement." His final show is Tuesday, June 23, from noon to 1pm, just before the Fête nationale holiday.

Unlike his very public spat with Astral Media's Rob Braide and Bob Harris, which DiMonte described as "hurtful", his departure from Q92-now-925-the-q is more an acceptance of an unsustainable situation, and he holds no acrimony toward the station or its owners. CFQR is, above all, a music station, and with its relaunch in April it became even more so. DiMonte's voice time was cut to only about six minutes during the hour (other Q DJs were similarly cut to make room for more music), and he's paid far too much to sit around and drink coffee for 20 minutes while he waits for his next two minutes on air. As he said on the air on Monday, "it doesn't fit anymore."

Even though his ratings were up in the last quarter, the price was still far too high. There are plenty of younger, cheaper, more local DJs that can be brought in to introduce Madonna and Marvin Gaye. According to someone intimately involved with a source with inside knowledge of a phone call between a highly-placed insider and the astrologer for a janitor with access to secret documents, DiMonte was told (graciously) on Thursday that budget cuts meant he had to be dumped. It was a day after he was congratulated for his ratings bump.

Asked about his departure, DiMonte had nothing but kind words for the station (which is owned by his current employer, Corus):

My time at Q was really nice. They were welcoming and supportive and Mario Cecchini and Mark Dickie are class acts. And it was an interesting and different challenge, talking to Montrealers from a studio in Calgary. That was fun. And it helped ease the pain of the bums rush I got from CHOM.

I asked him what he'll be doing with all the extra time he has. He says he has lots of work to do as "a morning man trying to make a mark in a city of 1.2 million people and 18!! radio stations" and he doesn't expect to be taking extra-long lunches.

It was a cute little experiment, but in the end DiMonte was overpriced and underworked, doing a job more suited to someone with less than half his experience. It was like hiring a race car driver in a limousine to deliver pizzas. It just didn't make sense.

So DiMonte is once again off Montreal radio, at least until someone can match what he's getting in Calgary and offer him serious money to come back. Considering the state of the media economy here, and the rather charred bridge between him and Astral Media (which owns CHOM, CJFM Mix 96 and CJAD), I wouldn't hold my breath.

I've asked for comment from Brian DePoe, program director at CFQR, but he's on vacation until after June 24. I'll update this post if he has anything to add.

UPDATE: The last two minutes from his final show, in (slightly imperfect) Mp3.

Little changes for Montreal radio

Fagstein — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 23:09:49 +0000

"Reach" (listening at least one minute a week), in thousands, for Montreal radio stations.

Astral Media, which owns CJFM (Virgin Radio 95.9), CITE (Rock Détente 107.3), CKMF (Énergie 94.3), CHOM (97.7) and CJAD (800), has put together some graphical representations (PDF) of the latest ratings for Montreal radio stations. (via RadioInMontreal)

In terms of "reach", which counts the same if you listen to a station for five minutes or six hours, Cogeco's CFGL Rythme FM 105.7 still leads all others in the city, thanks mostly to huge numbers of female listeners (CKOI leads among young men) and CJFM has leapfrogged into second thanks, I guess, to non-stop Katy Perry and Lady Gaga that have put the 18-24 bracket in a trance. Otherwise, the rankings are about the same as they were three months ago.

Anglo market share: CJFM, CHOM, CFQR, CJAD, CKGM

On the anglo side, this "commercial market share" graph (which doesn't include CBC - Radio One and Two would be fourth and fifth on this graph), CJFM holds its commanding lead among adults 18-49, with a stronger showing for its morning show (CBC Radio One says it's a strong second in the morning, ahead of CJAD)

Demographic map of radio stations: X axis for age, Y axis for gender

I particularly liked this chart, which shows what demographics the stations are tuned to. There's a huge chunk in the older women category, while the rock stations appeal to younger men. Note CJFM and CFGL sitting pretty much alone targetting younger women listeners. Perhaps there's a lesson there.

Q92 relaunch didn't change much

Looking specifically at CFQR, because this is a pretty good before-and-after with their relaunch in April, there's not much to say. They've improved, but only to keep pace with everyone else:

The morning show and Terry DiMonte's phoned-in nooner have slightly improved numbers, perhaps showing that not doing anything is the best thing to do (UPDATE: Apparently not good enough, DiMonte's show has been cancelled)
Late morning and early afternoon are failing to keep pace after shuffles
Adding Donna Sarker to Ken Connors's afternoon drive-time show has helped it gain considerable ground on CJFM, but CHOM improved as well to stay in second
It's the most improved of the big four anglo stations on the weekend (Leta Polson hosts on weekend afternoons), but it's still in fourth place

CFQR announcement a whole lot of nothing

Fagstein — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 17:17:27 +0000

It was billed as a big announcement. Huge. Multiple full-page ads in the paper, lots of announcements on the radio. Everything was going to change at Montreal's Q92 at 8:45am this morning.

And nothing did. Which makes me kind of cranky because I'm not used to waking up before noon and I'm low on sleep for nothing.

But with parent company Corus Entertainment seeing a 30% drop in profits from its radio division (pdf), it's clear some management types decided major changes were in order.

Here's what is changing:

The name and logo. They've added the indefinite article "the" before the Q. This gives them a new, edgy and unique name (if you don't count that station in Victoria)
The website. From Q92fm.com to 925theq.com, which seems more complicated to me, but I'm not an online marketing expert.
The on-air talent. Despite some rumours, the morning team remains the same, but some of the afternoon and weekend people are leaving. Details below.
The programming (maybe).They're promising "more music" as if it's somehow possible to cram more songs into an hour and still have advertising, traffic and weather. They also say they'll have more variety, but having listened for a few hours I haven't heard a single song that screams variety to me.
The jingles. Still in the same style, but with a new annoying catchphrase.

The moves

Lots of talent is moving over to new time slots. Here's the skinny. You can see the full schedule (PDF) on their website.

Aaron, Tasso and Suzanne are still together, prolonging Aaron & Tasso's seemingly endless tenure at the helm of Montreal morning radio. The only change there is that the show ends at 8:45am instead of 9.
Donna Saker moves from doing late morning/early afternoon to a six-hour shift in the afternoons (1pm-7pm), including a seat at the table of the afternoon drive show.
Tammy Moyer takes over the late morning shift from 9am to noon weekdays.
Terry DiMonte continues his home-away-from-home noon-hour program
My favourite new radio personality Natasha Hall survived a broadcast station makeover (she had some bad luck at previous jobs), and moves from Sunday evenings to do the graveyard shift, midnight to 5am Monday to Thursday.
Taking its cue from other radio stations, the Q now has a best-of show of Aaron, Tasso and Suzanne on Saturday mornings. It runs from 9am to noon. Similarly, there's a "best of John Tesh" show (isn't that an oxymoron?) from 6pm to 9pm Sundays.
Leta Polson has a more sane schedule, doing noon to 6pm on weekends. Previously she did the morning shift on Saturdays and the afternoon/evening shift on Sundays.
Weekends feature shows with no hosts listed:
- Studio 92: 6pm to midnight Saturdays
- Montreal's Greatest Hits: 9am to noon Sundays
- Chill: 9pm to midnight Sundays

The cuts

Not mentioned in any of this, of course, are the people whose shows are getting cut in the shuffle. Sonia Benezra and Judy Croon both get booted off the drive-time show in favour of Saker. Ron E. MacKinnon loses his 7-9pm show to an ealier start to the John Tesh show, and Jeremy Zafran loses his weekend gig from 9am to 2pm on Saturdays.

Sonia Benezra

Judy Croon

Jeremy Zafran

Ron E. MacKinnon

Leo Da Estrela, the other half of Patrick and Leo (Patrick jumped to CJFM for its Virgin Radio remake), also gets cut from his Saturday morning show. (UPDATE: He says he's sticking around though, as Assistant Program Director for CFQR and CINW 940)

The website

925theq.com

The new website is kind of startlingly bland, with a "listen live" link, some pictures of famous singers, and a link to the now-updated Facebook group, but not much else. I'm assuming more stuff will come later, much like it did on the Virgin Radio 96 site a few weeks after its launch.

Oh, and if the lady holding the headphones there looks familiar, it's probably because it's a stock photo available on a bunch of cheap stock photo websites. It was taken by a British photographer named Cathy Yeulet. I guess it would have been too difficult to have a photo of a Montrealer holding a pair of headphones and smiling.

The announcement

The new era began with a two-and-a-half minute announcement read over a rather ominous-sounding background sound. You can listen to it here (with bonus bumbers and jingles).

This is the text read over the air in its entirety:

Good morning, and thanks for being here for our special announcement.

Over the past few months, we've been working on something new for you. We didn't want to guess what you wanted, so it all began with hundreds of conversations with Q listeners just like you. You told us overwhelmingly that you loved your Q92, but it was time for a change, for something fresh and completely new.

Well, we took all of your suggestions and went to work. You said you wanted us to play more music, not just more songs but a bigger variety. We're going to do that for you. Every hour during the work day, we'll feature 10 great Q songs in a row, and you're going to hear more of your favourite songs too.

You told us you wanted a fresh new sound, something that would be just right for you. We're going to do that too, with a whole new listening environment we know you're going to enjoy.

You told us you wanted fun weekends, fun prizes, and a perfect way to de-stress every evening. We've got it all for you. Coming this weekend we have special new shows that are just right for you. And today marks the kickoff of our famous Dream Home Makeover, where one of you will win over $125,000 worth of dream improvements to the most important place in your world: your home.

It doesn't stop there, but let's get to the music. So thanks for all your listening and loyalty over the years. Today marks the start of something fresh and new. It starts with our new name. As of today, we're calling ourselves Ninety-two-five, the Q. We've got a great new website, revamped shows, great music, and it's all been built with one thing in mind: that it's just right for you. Welcome to the all-new Q.

[Jingle: "Montreal's Montreal's music ... the Q's just right for you"]

My take

The announcement reads like what you'd expect from a station that brought in a bunch of focus groups and couldn't really tell what they wanted. The answers are conflicting: They like the station but want to change everything. They want more music but also more prizes and fun stuff.

The announcement is devoid of any specifics, and there's no corresponding press release yet, but I'm guessing it's not going to include a whole lot of numbers. Other than the schedule shuffle, the changes seem mostly cosmetic and more about marketing than programming.

So tell me again what I got up early for?

Your take

The CFQR makeover is:

Epic marketing fail
Total listener fraud
Shuffling the deck chairs on the Titanic
Irrelevant
The Q is The Win!

Share your thoughts in the comments below.

UPDATE: Mike Cohen of The Suburban is the only journalist to talk about this non-change so far. He also mentions changes at 940 AM.

Q92 to relaunch Tuesday

Fagstein — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 08:14:04 +0000

CFQR, aka Q92, is planning a super-secret "all new" relaunch on Tuesday morning at 8:45am.

The station isn't letting out any information about what exactly will be "all new" - Brian DePoe, who was just hired as program director from Astral's EZ-Rock station in Toronto, told listeners the station will be offering "more music and more variety" but also more "fun things."

So expect a new logo, some new gimmicks, but very little in terms of radical change to the way commercial radio is done in Montreal. This won't even be as big as the Mix 96/Virgin overhaul.

Patrick Charles says Q92 sucks

Fagstein — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 20:30:13 +0000

Patrick Charles (Q92 photo)

Well, not in so many words, but it's hard to interpret otherwise from his first blog post at his new home of CJFM 95.9, where the morning show is now Cat, Lisa and Sir Patrick.

There, he says "the callers, everything is cooler" at CJFM compared to his old station of Q92. He also says the morning hosts are better.

Fagstein » CFQR

The Beat is on – but is 92.5FM* any different?

Legacy brand

The announcement

A revamped lineup

Dressed to the silvers

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