Corus stations in Montreal, including 940 Hits and Q92, have started streaming online feeds from their stations in Dolby AAC format, judging that 128kbps MP3 is just too lossy for the picky tastes of their listeners.
Listeners won’t notice any difference at all, since the streaming is done through a flash player and only the most insanely picky of audiophiles will think high-quality MP3 is too lossy. And those people won’t be listening to the crap music that comes out of 940 or Q92.
CHRC Info 800, the Quebec City version of Info 690/940 News, is going to be eliminating its news-gathering operation by firing all its journalists, a move which journalists aren’t too pleased about.
Ironically, Info 800 is being sold to local interests (including Patrick Roy) by Corus Entertainment for $282,177.40, becoming one of the few locally-owned media outlets there. It’s the new owners who want to make the cuts, despite reassuring the CRTC that the takeover wouldn’t reduce local programming (they even referenced the “montrealization of the airwaves” in their submission as an argument in favour of the purchase), and that they didn’t expect any journalists to be affected:
The idea is to turn Quebec City’s only remaining AM station into a news/sports talk station, with emphasis on sports. Its schedule will be all-sports in the afternoons and evenings, and the station would cover local sports events such as Rouge et Or university football games and Roy’s Quebec Remparts junior hockey team.
The request for transfer of ownership of the station will be heard by the CRTC on Feb. 26 in Vancouver. Submissions are due by Jan. 23.
Corus, the owners of radio stations including 940 News, Q92, CKOI, CKAC and 98.5, have launched a campaign this holiday season to encourage people to shop in Quebec. The goal is to stem the tide of strong local dollars being spent across the border and falling out of our economy.
Corus Entertainment is headquartered in Toronto, Ontario.
I’d never heard of it before, but apparently Corus Entertainment runs a songwriting competition every year called Canadian Radio Star. It awards $10,000 in cash and a bunch of smaller prizes to one Canadian act.
And based on the Photoshopped clip art on the site’s homepage, you apparently also win Finger Eleven. (Is that just a one-night thing or can you, like, sell them into slavery?)
I’ve never been one for contests of creativity. They always seem more about a big company getting a cheap source of new ideas than they are about encouraging independent talent.
Here’s the skinny from the contest’s rules:
I know some artists are so desperate to get signed they’ll do just about anything, but it just doesn’t seem fair to me to work for free hoping that some stations will play a song you won’t get paid for. Especially when the grand prize is only $10,000. Surely a song good enough to win a national songwriting competition is worth more than a measly $10,000.
Am I just being cynical? Maybe. Maybe it’s just that horrible clip art graphic that’s getting to me.
