Tag Archives: CJFM

| Montreal, Radio

CJFM is hiring (Seacrest out?)

A job posting has gone out for an evening host at CJFM 95.9. It’s to replace “Cousin Vinny” Barrucco, who’s moving from late nights to take over The Rush in the afternoon.

The position requires at least two years of on-air experience, the ability to prepare “relevant content for each on-air shift as scheduled and as per station target” and, you know, the ability to speak English.

What’s noteworthy about this post is that it lists the on-air shift as 7pm to midnight. This would entirely replace not only Barrucco’s old show but the syndicated On Air with Ryan Seacrest as well. Replacing syndicated content with a local DJ has at least one former Astral Media employee giving it a thumbs-up.

I wish I could get you more details about all of this (like whether this would also affect Seacrest’s weekend show), but Program Director Mark Bergman isn’t responding to my emails anymore (probably because I keep making fun of him).

Meanwhile, I just noticed that the station has picked up a (former) podcast to fill an hour on weekends. Man of the Hour features two Montrealers (including someone from Simple Plan), and is now airing Sundays from 9 to 10pm. Unfortunately, this means they’ve discontinued the actual podcast, so you can’t download it. You’d think they’d at least have the podcast on the Virgin Radio website so it can generate some buzz and better connect the station with an audience that doesn’t listen to radio any more.

| Montreal, Radio

“Sir” Patrick Charles dumped from Virgin Radio Breakfast Show

Patrick Charles

After a year on the CJFM (aka Virgin Radio 96) morning show, Patrick Charles, aka Sir Patrick, is being shuffled into an off-air job at Astral Media.

As seems to be the usual procedure in this town, when a host is removed from a show there’s no announcement or long goodbye. The name of the show is simply changed – it’s now just “The Breakfast Show with Cat and Lisa” – and the offending host’s image scrubbed from the website.

Charles made the announcement himself to his Twitter followers on Saturday night (his new Twitter handle being itself scrubbed of links to Virgin Radio). “The company has new plans for me,” he said, indicating that this wasn’t his decision.

Sources who support Charles tell me this is the outcome of a personal conflict between Charles and co-host Lisa Player. Because Player is the more senior co-host, it’s Charles who gets the boot. (I’ve asked Player for comment, and will update this post with any response.)

But Charles isn’t leaving Astral Media. He says he’ll be doing “new stuff for the company” – he’ll be working in an off-air capacity, continuing to do his parodies for CJFM and CHOM. He will also have a regular segment on CJAD, joining morning host Andrew Carter at 8:20am weekdays starting April 19. And he appears semi-regularly as a pop culture columnist on CFCF newscasts.

It’s expected Charles will return to the air in a more permanent capacity soon, possibly at CJAD.

UPDATE (April 12): On the first show as Cat and Lisa, a pathetic 35-second announcement (MP3) about Charles’s departure suggests that this decision was somehow his and that he’s welcome to be a guest “sporadically”:

Spencer: By the way, as you probably have mentioned, or probably have noticed by now if you’ve been listening this morning, it’s now Cat and Lisa. Sir Patrick is still with us in the building and with all three of our radio stations now. He will be doing other work behind the scenes and he’ll be welcome to join us on the air here and there sporadically.

Player: That’s right, when he gets a chance. When he has time.

Spencer: But the show now is Cat and Lisa, but it’s nothing that he has been asked to leave or let go or anything like that –

Player: No no no.

Spencer: He’s still working with us and all three of our stations in a different capacity.

Player: Yeah, we’re trying to use him even more.

Spencer: There you go.

The announcement aired only once during the three-and-a-half-hour show, at about 7:37am.

Compare this to the multiple announcements throughout the morning totalling almost 17 minutes given on sister station CHOM-FM when Ted Bird left in January. Is Charles less important to CJFM than Bird was to CHOM, or did they want to sweep this under the rug and hope people wouldn’t notice?

| Radio

Promotions at CJFM

From Mark Bergman via Milkman Unlimited comes news about new appointments at CJFM 95.9 aka Virgin Radio 96, two of whom replace Bergman himself, who has been holding a few titles since being named the station’s program director and has been looking for new blood for the past few months:

The big one is behind the scenes. Madhvi Shah becomes the station’s music director, taking over from Bergman. “Madhvi is part of the reason that Virgin Radio has been enjoying the success that it has. Her attention to detail, strong work ethic, love of music, and her strong desire to win, will make Madhvi a successful and strong Music Director,” Bergman writes.

Vince Barrucco

Vince Barrucco, aka “Cousin Vinny”, who has been getting the really crappy shifts of late (late night weekdays and early morning weekends), takes over Bergman’s afternoon show The Rush.

Bergman writes:

“Over the last 2 months I searched across the country for Montreal’s next big star. Throughout my search, I began to notice that Montreal’s next big star was right here in Montreal! Cousin Vinny possesses a rare quality that allows him to raise his game faster than anyone I’ve ever met. Vinny has been working with Cat Spencer over the last couple of months in order to get the gig of his dreams. Well today his dreams come true! Vinny’s slick on-air style, hot phone calls, and targeted material will give The Rush the fuel that it needs to continue owning the #1 afternoon drive position in Montreal!”

Natasha Gargiulo

Finally, Natasha Gargiulo, who you might recognize from Global Quebec, Entertainment Tonight Canada and CJNT’s Italian show, will be a contributor to Vinny’s show, with segments three times a week.

Unlike some other radio stations in Montreal, CJFM has been enjoying climbing ratings of late. So it’s all happy fun time with no downside.

We’ll see how long that lasts.

I’ll get more details from Bergman just as soon as it’s no longer 1:30am on a Saturday.

| Montreal, Radio

You’re listening to an Astral Media radio station

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:

“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.

| Montreal, Radio

Mark Bergman hiring own replacement at CJFM

A year ago, Mark Bergman launched Virgin Radio 96 on air. Now he da boss.

Mark Bergman, who hosts the afternoon drive-time show on CJFM (Mix 96 Virgin Radio 96) but was recently promoted to interim program director at the station, is hanging up the mic and hiring his own replacement.

But he won’t disappear forever, he tells me:

Radio is a passion of mine (I’d have to be crazy to be in this biz, if it wasn’t).

I started off handing out bumper stickers, then tech work, then overnight shows, evenings, drive, and now the next step for me is programming the entire station. It’s ways been a goal to program… But yes, I will still be around on-air here and there.

Bergman, who I’m told spends his days alone in his office crying, with occasional screams of “Chantal! Why did you leave me?“, is accepting applications for a permanent weekday 4-7pm host until Jan. 31. Requirements are three years of on-air experience, the kind of energy and perkiness that you’d expect from a music radio announcer, and “fashion sense of Lady Gaga”, which I find an odd requirement because every time I see someone from that station they’re wearing a standard-issue Virgin Radio T-shirt.

Continue reading →

| Radio

The one-year-old Virgin

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JCWBxijotfI

Today was the first anniversary of Virgin Radio 96, a rebranding of CJFM 95.9 from “Mix 96” to one created by the British and licensed by Astral Media.

The move was criticized, not so much because of the brand change (the previous brand was as generic as you can get), but because of staff changes that came with it, particularly the dismissal of Murray Sherriffs (who has since found a job at competitor CFQR). Bringing in Ryan Seacrest as the evening host didn’t help matters much either.

A year later, Virgin Radio 96 hasn’t been a disaster, but hasn’t been a success either. The ratings were stable, and the station is still #1 among anglo music stations with a 16% market share among anglophones (PDF), the same as it was a year ago.

And so while the station and its perky on-air personalities are very excited about the anniversary, as you can see in the above video (they were also apparently handing out cupcakes downtown today), the city responded to the anniversary much the same way they did the rebranding itself – with a collective “meh.”

| Montreal, Radio

Chantal Desjardins replaces Kim Rossi on CHOM morning show

Chantal Desjardins and Mark Bergman put on their sad faces in announcing they're splitting up on Twitter

Chantal Desjardins and Mark Bergman put on their sad faces in announcing they're splitting up on Twitter

The game of musical chairs in local radio continues. Bob Harris, formerly the head honcho at Astral Media’s Montreal radio stations, is moving to take a similar job in Hamilton. His wife, CHOM morning host Kim Rossi, joins him and gets a job in St. Catharines.

Two weeks ago, Astral announced that each station would have its own program director and promotion director. Mark Bergman will take over Harris’s job at CJFM 95.9 (Virgin Radio 96).

Rossi’s job will instead be filled by Chantal Desjardins, Bergman’s afternoon cohost on CJFM.

Mike Cohen was the first with the news in The Suburban. Bergman and Desjardins made the announcement on Wednesday’s show. Desjardins joins the CHOM morning team of Ted Bird and Pete Marier on Jan. 4.

Before then, hopefully someone will figure out how to change the name of the Mark & Chantal Facebook fan page.

From her bio:

Chantal received a Communications degree from the University of Winnipeg and a Creative Communications diploma from Red River College. She then got her big media break as a sports anchor/reporter at CityTV Winnipeg.

Chantal got her first taste of radio thanks to a number of guest appearances on Winnipeg’s Q94FM and BOBFM’s morning shows. Once Chantal realized she could wear jeans and a ponytail every day to work, it was only a matter of time before her big TV hair and spray tan days were behind her.

Chantal’s lived in Montreal since 2006, reporting on the Montreal sports scene for CJAD800AM and helping people get home every afternoon as a traffic reporter for Astral Media Montreal.

Meanwhile Rossi, whose last day on CHOM’s morning show is this Friday, has a long post on her blog saying thanks to just about everyone she’s ever met.

| Montreal, Radio

Behind-the-scenes changes at Astral Media radio

From the Airchecker blog, a memo about changes at Astral Media radio stations in Montreal (which include CJAD 800, CHOM 97.7 and CJFM 95.9).

The skinny:

  • Mike Bendixen, former CJAD programming director who took a temporary job doing the same at CFRB 1010 in Toronto, will remain there permanently.
  • Steve Kowch, the man Bendixen replaced at CFRB (and who took Bendixen’s job at CJAD in a rather ironic move), is out. His last day is Dec. 18. He had expected to be at CJAD until March. Now he can concentrate on writing a book, at least.
  • Chris Bury takes over as PD/Interim News Director at CJAD on Jan. 4. Bury started at CJAD in 1998, but for most of this decade worked at 940 News. He became CINW’s program director when it became 940 Hits.
  • Mark Bergman becomes Interim Program Director of CJFM (Virgin Radio 96), replacing Bob Harris, who is leaving for Hamilton. Bergman is currently the assistant PD. Bergman will remain on his afternoon show with Chantal Desjardins.
  • Mathew Wood, who managed promotions for all three stations, now focuses exclusively on CHOM.
  • Melissa Mancuso, a promotions assistant, replaces Wood as Promotions Director at CJFM.
  • Bianca Bayer becomes Promotions Coordinator for CJFM. (What’s the difference between a Promotions Director and Promotions Coordinator? Beats me.)
  • Lisa Fuoco becomes Promotions Director at CJAD, stripping “assistant” from her title.
  • Peter McEntyre will assist Fuoco part-time. (McEntyre is also one of the hosts of CJAD’s Irish Show)

VP/GM Martin Spalding explains the strategy, in case it’s not obvious:

The strategy is to have a dedicated Program and Promotions Director for each station. This will enable CJAD, Virgin 96 and CHOM to compete independently, prosper and build strong brand identities within an aggressive and ever-evolving radio market.

Could it be that Astral Media is finally realizing that radio stations work better if they have their own brands and target audiences, and that the tag “an Astral Media radio station” doesn’t impress anyone?

UPDATE (Dec. 10): The Suburban’s Mike Cohen talks briefly with some of the figures in these changes.

| Radio

Virgin Radio branding hasn’t helped CJFM’s ratings

Virgin 96

Though everyone at what used to be Mix 96 was really excited about owner Astral Media stripping out their (admittedly lame and generic) branding to replace it with one they bought form the British, ratings figures since CJFM’s new brand launch in January have shown little change for the station.

BBM figures for Dec. 1 to March 1 (PDF) using their new fancy-shmancy portable people meters show it has 16% of the anglo Montreal market, putting it behind powerhouse CJAD but ahead of its direct competition. Over the past few years, CJFM’s share of the anglo market has drifted between 13% and 20%. There was a slight uptick compared to figures from before the relaunch, resulting in about 8,000 more daily listeners, or an increase of about 1%. But that’s still well within the usual margin for error in radio ratings.

If Astral expected an audience jump from the change, it didn’t get one. But there wasn’t a widespread abandonment of the station either. When it comes down to it, people don’t care about the branding, so long as the music is the same.

For the French side of the recent radio ratings, Le Devoir has the numbers.

| Radio

Patrick Charles joins CJFM morning show

Patrick Charles (Q92 photo)

Patrick Charles (Q92 photo)

Patrick Charles, who since 2001 has been working with the morning show on Q92, has jumped ship and (after some contractually-mandated downtime) will join CJFM 95.9 as the third morning host with Cat Spencer and Lisa Player. He starts on Wednesday. (via MediaInMontreal)

His old bio page at Q92 is still up in case you want to learn more about the guy. You can also hear his song parody work on MySpace.

| Radio

CJFM bans Chris Brown

Mix Virgin Radio 96 has become the latest radio station (oh wait, there’s another one) to pull music by Chris Brown from its playlist, citing his domestic violence arrest.

The decision, which isn’t groundbreaking either for radio or for the station, is being decried as “OMG CENSORSHIP” by people on its Facebook group. The station’s program director (who for some reason has changed his last name to “Blogg”) responds and morning host Lisa Player republishes some comments on her blog.

I’m on the fence about this kind of blanket ban of an artist. On one hand, this tool could be misused. On the other hand, a station should have every right to decide for itself what it should play, and if they want to ban someone they don’t like, that’s their choice.

I’d be happier if the decisions rested with actual DJs instead of corporate-minded program directors, but DJ freedom went out the door long ago, sadly.

I should also applaud CJFM for standing up to criticism on its Facebook page (and it’s gotten quite a lot of it) when other media outlets would just delete those kinds of comments.

| Montreal, Radio

Cohen on Sherriffs

Murray Sherriffs

Murray Sherriffs

The Suburban’s Mike Cohen interviews ex-Mix 96 morning man Murray Sherriffs in his column this week (where he totally name-drops this blog), about Sherriffs’s departure from the station. It makes it pretty clear that it was the station’s decision to let him go:

When Mix announced in early December that it was being rebranded to Virgin 96 Radio, Sherriffs said he was called into the office of Bob Harris, vice-president of programming for Astral Radio’s three Montreal radio stations. After three and a half years of partnering with Cat Spencer and Lisa Player, while contributing to the most unique newscast in town, Sherriffs was told he was not a good fit for the new label.

“I was shocked,” he said, “but not surprised. This is radio after all. It was done very professionally and I have no hard feelings. Our ratings for the Mix morning show were very strong, especially with the new PPMs (Personal People Meters) so to be truthful I had felt kind of safe in my position.

As for what’s next, Cohen says Sherriffs isn’t rushing:

He finds his extended vacation very relaxing and spends most of his time making furniture. Soon, though, he will begin knocking on a few doors.

Cohen makes some offhand suggestions for where he might end up next. Unfortunately, this is about the worst time to try to get a job in just about any media, even for someone with a modest following like Sherriffs.

The article, unfortunately, can’t be linked to directly, but it’s part of the freely available online version of this week’s Suburban, starting on Page 4. It’s followed by a piece on The Monitor shutting down, which quotes people who used to work there.

| Montreal, Radio, Web design

Mix … err, Virgin Radio 96 launches website

Behold the cookie-cutterness

Behold the cookie-cutterness

CJFM 95.9’s new website is still pretty rudimentary. A list of shows (each with its own really uninteresting blog – posts like “It’s cold outside” and “It’s still cold outside“), and a list of the 1,300 artists on its playlist. Perhaps the most useful thing is the list of recently played songs.

Lest you think any actual design went into it, don’t worry. Besides the colour scheme it’s pretty well identical to Ottawa’s Virgin Radio website (R.I.P. The Bear 106.9).

And in case that’s not enough suck for you, well there’s that picture of Ryan Seacrest above.

P.S. According to Astral Media’s legal notice:

  • You may view the website on only one computer, and it must be at your home
  • You may not view the website for commercial purposes
  • You may not link to the website if your website contains material that “may be construed as distasteful, offensive or controversial”
  • “Astral may withdraw a third party’s right to link at any time in its sole discretion.”
  • “Users waive all rights to any stories, ideas, drawings, opinions and other materials posted on Astral’s Web site. Furthermore, Users may only post materials which they alone have created.”
| Montreal, Opinion, Radio

R.I.P. Mix 96

Virgin 96

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?

Harris explains on his blog:

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.

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

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.