Coleman Research looks at Canada's "Social FM (TM)"

[davideduardo]

Several Canadian markets now have a format called "Social FM" and in one market in Alberta it has become the dominant station. It involves a wide personality driven playlist. The Coleman folks consider it a "new format".

The Hottest Radio Format Most Broadcasters Overlook

A deep dive into a thriving radio format that remains underutilized by many American broadcasters, revealing its potential for audience growth.

colemaninsights.com

 

[Miss Tuned]

This format is, to all intents and purposes, BBC Radio 2. The British station breaks format off-peak to provide some specialist music (jazz, folk, country, musical numbers etc) but certainly the daytime formats are very similar, particularly the wide playlist and heavy emphasis on listener interaction.

 

[CTListener]

This format is, to all intents and purposes, BBC Radio 2. The British station breaks format off-peak to provide some specialist music (jazz, folk, country, musical numbers etc) but certainly the daytime formats are very similar, particularly the wide playlist and heavy emphasis on listener interaction.

That's the way the BBC programs its local stations as well.

Unlike many Canadian stations, this one doesn't geoblock American listeners.

 

[Miss Tuned]

That's the way the BBC programs its local stations as well.

Unlike many Canadian stations, this one doesn't geoblock American listeners.

The BBC's local stations are moribund. They can't decide whether they want to be a hard-hitting local news station or a format similar to BBC Radio 2, with AC hits, on-air games and listener talking points on subjects like "what candy do you remember from the 1980s?".

Every few years, they drift from one to the other. Right now, they're heavily at the entertainment end of the spectrum (right down to sung jingles proclaiming "all the music you love"), but a new BBC manager will come along at some point and go "you aren't doing enough news". Such is life in the BBC!

 

[Brian Bowers]

Since the posting of this article, I've been sampling CKNO-FM (Now! Radio). I was not aware of these stations (and the Alan Burns & Associates SocialFM format) until David posted the article. I do find Now! Radio a very interesting listen (will soon be sampling BBC Radio 2). It keeps me coming back to it on a daily basis. Hmmm , interesting, I've yet to hear any hip hop on the station. The all request lunch (or what they call the 1023 takeover) plays an amazingly (to the point of almost shocking) wide variety of requests - nothing like our typical North American radio stations. I do like what I'm hearing on Now! Radio.

 

[Kelly A]

Since the posting of this article, I've been sampling CKNO-FM (Now! Radio). I was not aware of these stations (and the Alan Burns & Associates SocialFM format) until David posted the article. I do find Now! Radio a very interesting listen (will soon be sampling BBC Radio 2). It keeps me coming back to it on a daily basis. Hmmm , interesting, I've yet to hear any hip hop on the station. The all request lunch (or what they call the 1023 takeover) plays an amazingly (to the point of almost shocking) wide variety of requests - nothing like our typical North American radio stations. I do like what I'm hearing on Now! Radio.

Canadian radio is like Canadian TV; Awful.

 

[davideduardo]

Canadian radio is like Canadian TV; Awful.

That is what happens when you require a huge percentage of music content to be of Canadian "credentials" (CANCON) when the amount of music in certain categories by Canadian artists is very limited... and always will be given the differences in population between Canada and the rest of the English or French speaking world.

 

[CTListener]

That is what happens when you require a huge percentage of music content to be of Canadian "credentials" (CANCON) when the amount of music in certain categories by Canadian artists is very limited... and always will be given the differences in population between Canada and the rest of the English or French speaking world.

I've given a couple of the Canadian channels on SiriusXM a listen and you're right. Much of the native content is inferior. SXM, unfortunately, is obligated to carry it in order to do business north of the border. It fulfills its obligation to the bare minimum extent by relegating the music channels to monaural sound, much as it does the other channels it has been ordered to carry by outside forces -- the minority-interest channels, all of which are in dull, flat mono.

 

[fybush]

Generalizations are silly.

There's some awful radio and TV that comes out of Canada, but there's also some fantastic programming. (He says, having just binged the reboot of "Kids in the Hall.") Schitt's Creek, Kim's Convenience, Little Mosque on the Prairie, Letterkenny, SCTV? All great stuff.

JAZZ.91FM (CJRT) out of Toronto is one of the world's best jazz radio stations. CBC Music is doing some great new shows aimed at Black audiences ("The Block," nightly at 7, is fantastic if you're into that music.)

There's better talk radio in most Canadian cities than in the US - much less syndication, much more local. CBC Radio 1's news and documentary programming is as good or better than what we have stateside on NPR most of the time. And Radio-Canada is the voice of Francophone Canada, if you speak the language/dialect.

And, yeah, there's a lot of generic nationalized radio that's indistinguishable from what you'd hear in any other English-speaking country.

 

[Miss Tuned]

Generalizations are silly.

There's some awful radio and TV that comes out of Canada, but there's also some fantastic programming. (He says, having just binged the reboot of "Kids in the Hall.") Schitt's Creek, Kim's Convenience, Little Mosque on the Prairie, Letterkenny, SCTV? All great stuff.

JAZZ.91FM (CJRT) out of Toronto is one of the world's best jazz radio stations. CBC Music is doing some great new shows aimed at Black audiences ("The Block," nightly at 7, is fantastic if you're into that music.)

There's better talk radio in most Canadian cities than in the US - much less syndication, much more local. CBC Radio 1's news and documentary programming is as good or better than what we have stateside on NPR most of the time. And Radio-Canada is the voice of Francophone Canada, if you speak the language/dialect.

And, yeah, there's a lot of generic nationalized radio that's indistinguishable from what you'd hear in any other English-speaking country.

Perhaps drifting off topic a little, but I wish there was a bit more sharing of content around these English-language public broadcasters. You get the BBC news hours on various US public stations, more as a time-filler than anything else, but why not NPR programming on the BBC, or Australian ABC programming on CBC? Perhaps a shared channel featuring the best of English-language radio from around the world - similar to the old World Radio Network, but with less of a focus on news and more of a lean towards feature programming and podcasts - or just as additional programming on existing networks.

All these broadcasters are producing quality content which is of course available worldwide already, but discoverability is a big issue - I'm unlikely to go routinely visiting the Canadian or Australian or New Zealand broadcasters' websites for any reason. TV has, of course, done this for many decades - so why not import English-speaking programming for radio?

 

[victorres43]

This isn't really a new format, as Coleman Insights would like to put it, since other countries besides Canada and the UK have done a mix of AC/Hot AC and personality/talk. For instance, in the Philippines, the Love Radio stations are very successful, with their mix of banter and contemporary music (probably resembling a gold-friendly Hot AC); lots of interaction with listeners, too. Over the years, several radio stations in the Philippines, such as the Barangay FM stations, have copied Love Radio's format.