AM 820 in Hamilton Ontario...

[Yeziknoradio]

"Listen to 820 at 820 AM Sept. 2"

At time of this posting, the station is all christmas all the time, with no country christmas tunes. (as far as I know...)

They *DO* have ads running, so good for them.

I wonder what we'll all hear come Tuesday...

"Your Christmas present is coming early this year. There are Ten thousand reasons to tune in Tuesday September second at 820 AM"

So, my wildest guess is, they're going standards with ten thousand songs in a row, but I could be wrong.

820 CHAM: http://www.820cham.com

 

[Yeziknoradio]

OK, I was dead wrong. They went all talk and they are giving away ten thousand dollars. Yaay.

Not a bad talk station though.

 

[mimo]

They also did what very few stations do during a format flip, retain the airstaff. All former jocks are now talk show hosts. Not a bad idea.

 

[mjlarochelle]

Yay, another talk station in the Golden Horseshoe. Now, in all fairness there was already a country station in Hamilton with a large signal, on 95.3 FM. And, CHML should have some competition - I was dismayed to find a syndicated health show at the noon hour on a weekday when I was in Hamilton last January. But, just from looking at the program lineup, the station looks pretty redundent. Prime Time Sports is already readily available in Hamilton and other areas covered by CHAM from Fan 590, and Toronto listeners can pick up CHAM. I can't see Rogers being too happy about that.

 

[cyberdad]

Yay, another talk station in the Golden Horseshoe.

Then there's the matter of talk creeping into the mix on the 740 blowtorch.

 

[Yeziknoradio]

Then there's the matter of talk creeping into the mix on the 740 blowtorch.

To quote a gentleman in the CFRB promotions department:

" Wooooo...we're shakin' "

It is a solid belief that while CFRB targets younger, 740 will still target older...stretching the 50 plus into more of a 45 plus, but still...

Talk 820 on the other hand, is a direct threat to 900 CHML.

My only complaint is that Art Bell shouldn't be hogging the all night airwaves. There's enough of that up and down the AM dial already.

Either get some "best of" encore presentations of stuff from earlier in the day, or get some local show up and running already!

 

[cyberdad]

My post merely referred to the increasing availability of talk available on the a.m. dial in the area....not potential competitive situations.

My main takeaway from the format flip on 820 is that a less widely available format is being replaced by a more widely available one. I'll leave it to others...and the listening public...to decide whether or not this is a good move.

 

[Yeziknoradio]

I'll leave it to others...and the listening public...to decide whether or not this is a good move.

But there really is no demand for classic country!

I can only guess they've done their homework, and 900 CHML may be in trouble.

 

[dandmb50]

never heard of this station before, is it part of Global or astral?


Daniel ............ Toronto

 

[mimo]

I believe it's Astral.

 

[Yeziknoradio]

I believe it's Astral.

Yes. 820 CHAM was a variety country station.
Then former owner Standard radio decided to call it Legend 820, playing only classic country. (with very little success)

Astral bought all the Standard properties, including Hamilton's 820 CHAM.
They can't very well change back to variety country because those listeners are prefering the Country 95.3 format (in the same market)

I guess Astral had no choice but to go with talk radio as the new Talk 820.
Lucky for them, there really is a lack of local content on 900 CHML.
(900 CHML is Corus owned)

I wish them all the best, but they better keep local talk alive!!