In case you haven’t heard, Mix 96 ends today. In what is no doubt a bid to save some money, CJFM 95.9 is rebranding itself a Virgin Radio station (on orders from owner Astral Media). The change will take place at a time that for some stupid reason has been kept secret until later this morning, but will definitely be “during the day” today. (UPDATE: 4pm, you can watch the countdown in case you’ve forgotten how to count to 4pm)
Because the entire identity of the station is changing, anything with the word “mix” in it has to be replaced. They’ll have a new logo, new station IDs, new vans, a new website and even a new call-in number.
The format is saying the same (“Today’s best music”, or top 40 lowest-common-denominator pop songs), but there are programming changes that see some good local talent go out the window.
In case you haven’t heard the endless plugging on the air, the station is being hyped everywhere (and that will only increase now that it’s actually been launched). Program Director Bob Harris has started a blog to get everyone hyped up.
One of the first obvious questions is: Why change a brand everyone knows and replace it with the equivalent of a giant McDonald’s sign?
Astral Media (our parent company) has the rights to use the Virgin Radio name in Canada.
The Virgin Brand brings some amazing power. It represents an edge of cool, it’s irreverent, it’s sexy, its fun, it’s world class and constantly surprising.
Are you sold yet? They bought a brand and it has a good marketing team behind it. How could they not abandon their brand for this?
MIX 96 is one of Astral’s Montreal English radio stations (CHOM and CJAD the other two) and as we roll the Virgin radio name out across the country to other stations, we need to be part of it here too. Just because head office made the decision don’t think for a second that we had to do it.
Translation: If I pretend to like this horrendous gutting of a local station’s identity, I might get a promotion some day from a corporate executive who wants yes men working for him. Or at least I won’t be fired.
Bob shot the Sherriff
Murray Sherriffs: Gone.
The main face that has left the station is Murray Sherriffs, of Cat, Lisa and the Sherriff. He left last month in what is being described as “a programming decision.” Now it’s Cat, Lisa and classified third morning person to be announced in February.
Harris describes Sherriffs as a stand-up fellow despite the station’s apparent falling out with him, which also involved scrubbing any reference to him from their site and deleting all his past blog entries (you can get a taste in Google’s cache).
Sherriffs also took the high road when asked by Fagstein about his departure:
As you’ve heard, the radio station is being rebranded and sometimes hard business decisions have to be made.
But with the closing of this door comes other opportunities and I’ll be meeting this challenge as I have met others.
As I said on my MIX blog, the sentiments of one of my favorite songs by ”Chumbawamba”, ring especially true these days;
”I get knocked down
But I get up again
You’re never going to keep me down
We’ll be singing
When we’re winning”.
No word on Sherriffs’s next move, but we’ll let you know when it happens.
Seacrest in
Ryan Seacrest: Cheap filler
The new faces coming? The biggest one appears to be Ryan Seacrest. Yes, that Ryan Seacrest. He does this radio show which will air during weekday evenings at 7 p.m. It replaces the RJ Daniels show, though Daniels will stay on to cut in with local information (like the Habs score and weather) and follow with his own show until midnight.
Harris for some reason needs to confess that Seacrest won’t do his show from Montreal (no, really?), and instead does it from L.A. where it’s beamed to hundreds of stations. Now 95.9FM in Montreal will be one of those faceless stations rebroadcasting Ryan Seacrest. Doesn’t that sound awesome?
Feel for the Rhythm
The other programming change is the disappearance of Rhythms International. The Sunday night program, which had been on the station for more than 20 years, aired its final show Dec. 21, and is being replaced by UK Hit 40, another syndicated show replacing a local production. Like the ousting of Sherriffs, this is described as a “tough programming decision,” but essentially comes down to ratings.
Other programming, such as Nat Lauzon and the 80s/90s Nooner, will stay (though the latter will undergo a name change).
A sad day for local DJs
What particularly sucks about all this is that, unlike local television production, local radio production doesn’t require all that much work. A host and a producer. That’s pretty much it. When all you’re doing is playing music singles and doing small-talk between them, it should make sense to just have someone do it in-house.
But instead Astral is spending money to act as a rebroadcaster of foreign content. And not even good stuff. We’re talking about Ryan Seacrest here. The fact that Astral thinks Montrealers would prefer that (with the occasional local guy giving a 30-second weather report and local sports score) to spending an evening with a local DJ is sad.
Sadder still is that Astral might be right. Despite a few comments on my blog and a few emails to CJFM management, there isn’t much outrage over this. A Facebook group started up to fight it has less than 50 members. There’s been nothing in the other media about it.
It seems either Montrealers don’t know about what’s going on, or they don’t care.
Well, I do. Long live Mix 96.
UPDATE (Jan. 13): In case you missed the moment of launch, the station has posted a video of it on Facebook, which is apparently serving as their primary communications tool as their website is beyond simplistic.
Media coverage of the launch is light, but there are brief articles about it at Voir, Radio-Canada and the Journal de Montréal. Julien Brault also mentions it.
Infopresse has the two 15-second TV spots that are running on CTV.
UPDATE (Jan. 17): Clear Channel is planning massive job cuts in the U.S. in a move to nationalize radio production and gut local programming, according to the New York Post.
I give virgin a year, before it goes down the tubes
I actually listen to CKUT 90,3 or CISM 89,3 when I can’t listen to my Podcasts, So “commercial radio” station to me are all a like. But PLEASE correct me if i’m wrong but I have an impression that English Radio station DJ’s are usually in Montreal until they find a better job in Calgary or Toronto. It often sounds like they send rookies to the Montreal stations or DJ’s that need a little change before going back in a bigger ROC station.
Don’t get me going on French radio stations that uses “vedettes” instead of actually radio voices. Trust me it’s not better. We even need a station from Vermont to fill some edgier void. Virgin Radio will not help the cause of the radio quality but I don’t beleive it will hurt it.
Wasn’t seacrest already there with it’s american top 40 anyway? Too bad for Mix96 but like you said it does look like people don’t care.
The top 40 lowest-common-denominator pop songs music station replaced their DJs with a lowest-common-denominator douchebag host? I’m shocked.
http://montreal.virginradio.ca/ hasn’t appeared yet, but is live and doing some faux 24 style counting down to 16h.
Well this is really sad. But it goes to show that radio is dead and has been for a while. And now we will get AMERICAN radio in MONTREAL…MONTREAL… WTF?
I had a discussion with a local francophone friend about how franco Quebec has so much culture and anglo Quebec (and anglo Canada) has so little. With moves like this, it seems more and more like he’s right. Media owners think our culture can be substituted with American culture to save money.
I often here that from Francos also. But I claim it’s because they don’t know any Anglos and they should just STFU until they get to know them. But this is Americanization at its best right there, what the Quebecois are protectionist about. But there are plenty of Francos that listened to Mix also. Mix was more Montreal than it was Anglo or Franco. The local facet of Montreal just changed for the worse. I hope that people TUNE OUT massively. Besides Ryan Seacrest? REALLY? Come On!
But hey, it’s the free market, deregulate everything, it’s good for you…. FRAK!
As of now (12:55 pm) the station is running automated and I assume will until 4:00 pm.
This pretty much sums it all up: :-(
this is very unfortunate!! we will miss you, MIX 96!!
Seacrest is American but the Virgin concept is European.
Virgin is British, it is that super rich Brit dude… Branson…
Either way is still sucks that local content gets replaced by some branded stuff….
I have mixed feelings about this change. But it looked more or less like the writing was on the wall once this station became a property of Astral Media once it took over Standard Radio back in 2007.
With this move, Astral Media went on to be the biggest owner of commercial radio stations right across Canada. Less than a year later, there’s the partnership with Virgin to use the name, and Toronto is home to the first station with the Virgin label.
Of course, leave it to Toronto to set an example for other markets, as Astral deems this a succcess and decides to take it national, hence what we saw the last few days in Ottawa and Vancouver. Whatever they’re doing to cut costs, especially in the form of syndicated programming, this is the direction that Astral decides to take, regardless of whether we care or not. Note that they have stations in some other cities in Canada as well that could follow the same path.
Back to our station here…bringing in Ryan Seacrest for evenings does not come as a surprise, unfortunately. Most of the stations owned by Astral (Virgin or not) already carry his show, so this was bound to happen. Of the changes/additions, only Hit40UK sounds interesting to me, as long as it’s more about music and not like the American Top 40 with who else…Seacrest.
Then, there’s the many local programs were dropped recently – The Lounge King, Atmosphere 69 and now Rhythms International…all that leaves us with is the recently introduced show Fresh Mix, which is already being renamed after only few months (because of the “mix” label), MC Mario on Fridays and Saturdays, and the live overnight shows from the city’s clubs.
Last but not least, it was a shame that Murray Sherriffs parted from the morning show – the timing was questionable as his last day on the air was the first day they started running promos for Virgin. Not to take anything away from Cat and Lisa, but he had great chemistry and made the show fun and interesting with the way he delivered the news.
WOW, how sad.
I’ll never listen to the station like I used to anymore. And WTF is their problem removing Murray Sheriffs
off the program!!
I am truly disapointed THE WORLDS FALLING APART!!!!!
What happened to Kelly Alexander?
She seems to be doing the traffic report now as the 1pm show will now be done by Heather.
I am so disappointed about the change to Virgin. I want a Montreal face to listen to, not a rebranded worldwide bland image. Bring Murray back and leave Ryan to Sat mornings. I want to relax with a Montreal homie in the evenings.
Thank you for filling in some blanks about Murray Sherriffs.
Sorry to see so many sour opinions about the station. Radio is radio and nobody likes change. You pick out what you like like from a station and you move on to the next to listen to something else you like. It’s not that difficult. It’s hard to make everyone happy, that’s why there are a few stations out there, to give you some choice. As for alternative, The Buzz from just south of here is still an option.
The remaining staff members are optimistic and I’m sure will turn it around.
I didn’t even know any of this was going down.. I got home from work today and suddenly my station isn’t what it was this morning? I’m really disappointed that we’re being fed more garbage from America (not that Mix was all that Canadian). At least mix would shake it up with rhythms international!!! How could they be getting rid of that show!!?? All I can say is that feeding me fuckin’ Ryan Seacrest is gonna have me listening to this new station.
It’s a a sad day in mtl
This is a sad day for Montreal’s english radio. Why should we have to listen to some other countries crap when the city has it’s own local talent. I feel for all the people losing their jobs.
This sucks! Bring back the good old Mix!
Totally hate this. They call the club mix, Virgin Club Mix. I want the old MIX96 back.
I listened to the station since its launch on Monday afternoon and aside from the name change, Seacrest in the evenings, and lineup changes here and there, it’s not a whole lot different from what it was early in the day. The music is pretty much the same, as are all of the remaining DJs and staff from the Mix.
Without a doubt, the station is taking risks with the contests being planned as well as the hourly features along few other changes and additions, so that should make things a bit interesting. They’ve also gone the first 24 hours with no commercials.
Whatever happens, I hope everything goes well for this station and eventually, I’ll get used to it. There’s always room for improvement when it comes to musical selections, especially for new and current music, as well as stuff from recent years.
My overall impressions so far: Same station, different name.
And that’s just it: They’re replacing a local brand with a cookie-cutter one and getting nothing in return. It’s like a cherished local restaurant deciding to become a McDonald’s but serving the same food.
I was surprised too to hear Kelly going back to doing traffic reports, as I thought she was doing a good job in the afternoon block. However, if you check out her bio on the Facebook page that can be accessed on the station’s website, it mentions that she’ll now be doing her announcing duties on Sundays (not sure whether mornings or afternoons).
Radio is just another medium. like I said earlier, I do not listen to mix96, but I do understand most of your rants. English radio in Montreal may lose some of it’s flavor.
But how many of the people complaining about the name change actually at shop at H&M or Banana Republic instead of the local boutique like Simons or your local boutique. How many of the people complaining about the name change do their groceries at Loblaw’s or Provigo instead of locally owned Metro.
Maybe now they will stop playing repetitive crap! Mix 96 would play the same song, 3 times in an hour! I really think that this station is only made for companies to play over and over in hopes that their employees will work better. Every place I ever worked played this lame station from a radio you could never find no matter how hard you tried you could never change the station. MIND CONTROL!!! I am so glad its gone SO LONG CRAP 96 may Montreal listen better without you!
A Montreal face to listen to. As opposed to look at? :)
Joking aside, I totally agree. Not only that, but this comment makes me understand Quebec nationalism a little more. And I think that I understand it more than the average Canadian.
OMG, Virgin is a CRAP STATION.
WHY WOULD THEY PUT IT IN MTL?!
Mark “Burgerman” was obiously paid to say “YAY, Virgin… VIRGIN, VIRGIN, VIRGIN.
Vergin my ass.
VIVE CHOM CHOM CHOM…. hope that’s not the next station to be “rebranded” …. it’s the only station worth listening to … for now…
No difference between the old and new station so I don’t see why they bothered. Just sound even more generic. didn’t care much for Murray, especially his right wing reactionary Murray moments (though some were good), so I’m not sad he’s gone. His vitriol didn’t belong on a music station. Sigh I don’t like the comedian hosted shows on Franco top-40 stations, I don’t listen Rock matante, Virgin is barely tolerable, I don’t mind Q92 because it is what it is. So it’s mostly CBC and Rad-Can for me.
Local content still exists on Virgin Radio 96. It’s simply a name change and a few minor adjustments.
“Maritime Martian” is right. Why waste time listening to top 40 hits (most of which are crap) when we can listen instead to CHOM 97.7, which plays classic rock (from when it used to be good).
@BruB: Loblaws is a Canadian corporation and Provigo is a Quebec-only brand (that originally was a Quebec company)? Metro also operates in Ontario, so I don’t see why I should not shop at Loblaws/Provigo. Their stores aren’t any more “foreign” then Metro is in Ontario, and I’m sure you would be against Ontarians not buying from them solely because they’re from Quebec.
Great blog, I don`t mind some of the changes mainly because I`m not a huge fan of RJ daniels. But letting murray go is one of the worst Ideas ever…… Thanks for getting me the info on what happend to him….
Really miss listening to Murray – finally someone who had the nerve to tell it like it is – I will miss my little chuckle in the AM.
No big deal to me since I listen to the Buzz 99.9 exclusively. I just wish I could get it easier OTA in my apartment – though my iPhone now receives it thanks to the WeatherRadio app and their online player works fine from my PC as well.
I like the music and I find the DJs there are actually entertaining instead of the drivel found across the radio dial here in MTL.
This is unfair, Mix 96 should have never been changed and the Sheriff should have never left. Virgin wont last, people have been listening to Mix 96 for a very long time and I can’t belive no one had done anything about this yet.
I actually liked “TheMix” and Murray. Now under this new Brand “Virgin Radio” our company PROXY server is blocking this site due to the word “VIRGIN” being in the web url. This really sucks. I guess it’s time to tune into Q92.
Hi Steve,
It is great that you care about Mix96 transition to Virgin Radio 96.
I believe that we should give a chance to them: Why would they change something for worse ??
To keep people informed, here is a video of the Virgin Radio 96 launch : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0h5EvjVn0ek
Keep it real!
They would change to something worse if it saves them money.
I’m not necessarily saying that Virgin will be worse than Mix (though Seacrest doesn’t help), but it’s sad that there’s fewer hours in the week that will be produced locally, with local DJs who select their own songs. (Of course, DJs picking their own songs died a long time ago).
It won.t change a thing we will still get the same repeats.the american stations are the best no repeats every hour. mix 96 was montreal the owner had to screw it up what can i say I say Q92 is one to listen too. virgin 96 sounds like a sex show or act
I am surpised that the local annoncers are not working from home like the AM 940 guys ( Russ McCloud and ZMAN, that ‘s Jeremy Zafran, in case nobody knows for sure) but at least they’re local but can’t give time checks for that reason…….
But nothing has ever beaten that Great Top 40 American style radio that we’ve had in the distant past like Buddy G or Dave Boxer, or those stations like Windsor’s Super CFL or KHJ in LA or WKBW with Dick Biondi Montreal Radio is generally bland like Toronto’s as well, what we need is re-energized yes like those great top 40 rockers…….
there’s aguy out there who I know well could tear the roof off the joint of the local scene, you gotta love his name:
BOBBY D was a successful mobile dj in the 80’s and early 90’s, he’s a student of that high-powered style of top 40 radio but it could be done with more variety and just waiting to be discovered by an astute programmer……AM 940 could have had him instead of that wannabe American fast-talker z-boy.
maybe soeone could start a blog or petition, tog et this guBOOBY D some PR ,,, the only guy who probably knows more about music and , for example the histotry of the beatles, is CHOM’s Too Tall..
You’re kidding, right? Murray Sherriffs was the WORST thing about Mix 96, and I cannot imagine a better move than getting rid of him for Virgin Radio. He was tasteless, tactless, and ignorant. He wasn’t funny, verbose, charming or interesting. His way of telling the news was totally subjective (which I do realize was the intention), but he had no IDEA what he was talking about, and offended a lot of the Mix’s listeners with his blather. Way to go, Virgin Radio.
I notice that Kelly Alexander is also gone…could this be due to her inane babble every afternoon about her “friends” that had problems like stinky kitchen garbages and her insanely boring trivia always precluded with “AAAAAND now, the artist who likes to go out shopping in her pyjamas when she’s tired…Madonna!!!”
I must admit I’m a CHOM listener but I did catch the Mix here and there while in the car. It’s sad what Astral has done – money-grubbing pukes! I used to try to catch John Moore’s entertainment updates – is that even still on? I stopped listending to CHOM for a few years and switched to the Mix when they brought in Howard Stern. I returned to CHOM when Terry & Ted moved back. I’m sure if enough people stop listening to this Americanized crappy station, maybe Astral will rethink this “rebranding” excuse for selling out. Ryan Seacrest is like cotton candy – all fluff, no substance and empty calories.
Thanks for this blog – only site I found with all the facts!
So a few days have now passed since the launch of Virgin Radio 96 and I can honestly say that the addition of Ryan Seacrest has ruined my listening pleasure during the evenings – it’s gotten so bad now that aside from their 9 in a row every hour, less music is being played than when it was just RJ doing his evening show.
Although this is the first week and just a few days since the launch, I will give this station the benefit of the doubt as everyone is still adapting to what’s going on.
So with that in mind, the station will be holding various contests and promotions, introducing new hourly segments, and of course, running commercials to the point that there’s more talk and less music. Not to mention songs getting cut off due to time constraints.
For a station that runs a rotation playlist, they try to play so many songs yet with time restrictions there are many that get left out. What can be worse than hearing the DJ say that a particular song is coming up, only for it to be omitted because the last commercial break ran long? Often times, the new and current selections are compromised at the expense of more of the same old content (particularly the CanCon which is not even good). Also, they need to expand their playlist a little more, it seems the number of musical selections is limited.
I actually liked it when the station ran no commercials for the first 24 hours (aside from the repetitive clip of Virgin’s launch at the top of every hour). Why couldn’t they go at least 96 hours? It would have made sense given that the station is Virgin Radio 96…but I guess they couldn’t.
Fear for the citizens HAVE NOT changed the channel. They are all listening to the NEW VIRGIN channel :( Sheep
It is indeed a sad time for Montreal. And with the Sherif gone, who’s going to give the in-your-face comentary he used to do?.
Let’s see if the audience remains loyal to the Virgin changes.
So sad.
I’ve been listening to the NEW Mix 96 (Virgin) and I don’t like it.
I really liked listening to Murray sherriff putting his own little comments on the news, I miss him.
After giving it a week, I decided to change to Q92 at the office and wake up with the team990. Cat and Lisa are nothing without Murray Sherriff. No Mix96, No Sherriff, NO THANKS.
Just one final comment from me. Seeing this name change reminded me of 1215 AM Virgin Radio here in the UK. It’s broadcast nationally on digital radio, but I hadn’t listened in ages.
Turns out that this Virgin Radio was rebranded in September 2008 to Absolute Radio.
You quote Bob Harris saying: “The Virgin Brand brings some amazing power. It represents an edge of cool, it’s irreverent, it’s sexy, its fun, it’s world class and constantly surprising.”
Has anyone mentioned to him that Virgin is such a tired brand that its original radio station has now ditched it?
I was faithful to MIX 96… but I don’t like the new Virgin version.
Removing the Sheriff was a huge mistake.
I don’t think that the morning show will be Montreal’s Best anymore…not without Murray.
well,with the sherriff gone & virgin this & virgin that,no more mix 96 for me! chom97.7 from now on!
i like how they say It seems either Montrealers don’t know about what’s going on, or they don’t care.. well what can you do, not much really. I just notice that i dont listen to mix 96 anymore. since it changed to much ad’s seem to be popping up, not intersting at all anymore.
I hope the station flops and all of it gets cancelled all together, and show that maybe change to save some money isnt always good.
I am so glad that Murray is gone! Good riddens, I couldn’t stand his editorializing the so-called news with his conservative, right wing ideals! Long live Virgin Radio! :-)
I am not impressed. Where is Kelly Alexander? Who is Heather B. ?
Was I the only one who thought Rhythms International was the best thing about driving back to Montreal Sunday night after a weekend out of the city?
Can’t say I’ll miss Mix 96 (way to round up!) nor am I shocked with YOUR LISTENING TO A STANDARD RADIO STATION! STANDARD! RADIO! STANDARD! the parent company replacing it with the radio equivalent to the copy/paste command.
Montreal, it’s like you don’t want me to ever come back.