November 2007 newspaper ad
This is part of an ad that appeared in The Gazette in November 2007, reassuring listeners after Standard Radio was purchased by Astral Media that their radio stations wouldn’t suddenly change.
Since then:
- Two of these three stations have changed logos, making this ad all the more ironic
- All three have changed program directors (CJAD changed twice)
- CHOM has replaced its entire morning crew (at the time it was Terry, Ted and Kim)
- CJFM has replaced its entire branding with one that Astral purchased from England
- CJAD has fired a bunch of on-air staff
“Please be assured of our commitment to continue providing the same great listening pleasure you have come to enjoy,” the ad said. “Respect for our broadcast audience and the public in general is a core value of Astral Media.”
I’ll leave it to you to judge, based on their subsequent actions, whether Astral Media stuck to their word.
CJAD hasn’t changed much. I mean Tommy Shurmacher is still an asshole so there’s some consistency for ya!
Amen to that!
Especially after humiliating his technical director on the air all because he didn’t like the fact he & his brethren couldn’t spoonfeed Canadians into believing proroguing is a good thing.
A lot has changed in 3 years, including the collapse of advertisement dollars and we watch as old media collapses. Wagging your finger at a company that has reacted to the changes is absurd. If they hadnt, and were facing bankruptcy, you’d be even more harsh, saying “why didn’t they make the hard choices?”
All companies have had to make drastic changes in the past 18 months. If you find some that HAVENT, that might be an interesting post. This however, is not.
My point isn’t so much about the layoffs as it is about the rebranding. These things cost money in advertising, and appear to have no tangible benefit. Surely in tough times they can’t afford such luxuries.
No kidding, CHOM’s rebranding is a good case in point.
Changing your logo isn’t rebranding.
Getting PJ Stock on your morning show……er…um…well I guess that’s a different direction. It’s like the captain of the Titanic saying do I hit the iceberg on the left or the right!
Ah, but Bill, Ted’s leaving was probably a relief to the Bean counters at Astral Head office. PJ is probably not even getting half of what Ted earned.
Couldn’t have spent the 5 minutes to photoshop a 2010 into there?
2010 hat collection that is.
That’s nothing compared with what Astral has done with their Toronto stations. 2 were re branded: Mix 999 became Virgin 999; CFRB 1010 is now NewsTalk 1010, and in a complete switch of formats[easy listening AOC to Oldies AOC] and brand EZROCK 97.3 is now BOOM 973. Won’t go into management changes and on air personalities. [Too many to mention].
LOL, Gary you took the words right outta my mouth, lol, just something to add, is that Mix 99.9 was pretty good, I listened to it a lot, but now that its gone Virgin Radio, its crap, the same 30-40 songs repeated every few hours, just total GARBAGE, my work used to play 99.9 exclusively, but now switch between Virgin and the one that replaced my beloved Country 95.3, Vinyl 95.3, its pretty good so far, except the overnight, blech!
Good ole’ KLITE FM from Hamilton is still around thank goodness, so when i get sick of the drivel from Toronto, I can go hometown favorite!
Astral and Corus are both have the same idea about developing their radio properties:
They flail around, waste money, and then give up. In the case of Astral in Montreal, they have flailed around, now they are wasting money. The next step is ugly.
All of what is going on at CHOM reveals what happens when there is competition. CHOM won’t compete against Mix-FM96-Virgins because they are the same company. They have their neatly carved up demographics, and they don’t step on each other’s toes. However, the Buzz is an outsider, and as such, they are gunning for them, even if it gets them very little in return, because most of the people who like alt rock are not going to sit through another rousing rendition of Back In Black or the like. Meanwhile, Virginity radio is left to fight off the attack of 94.7, which eats away at their feeder tween audience.
I can remember when CHOM and FM-96 were fighting for the soft middle, when they would push the limits of their formats, their promise of performance, and playlists to try to appeal ever so slightly to the other side. Now with pretty much all of the english radio market in Montreal coming from a small group of companies, competition isn’t an issue.
Can someone please poke the CRTC and remind them what competition is?
CRTC have been asleep at the switch for far too long…
Explore the dial here in southern Ontario for excellent evidence…