Can CKLW be Saved?

[klutch00]

Perhaps the news format should move to CKWW, and their music to CKLW. It is a waste of a 50kW signal to have a news/talk station aimed at Windsor and Essex County. I wouldn't mind listening to CKWW's music on 800 up where I live.

AMEN! With CKLW's ratings being lower than CKWW's, why not put the more listened to programming on the station with the stronger signal? Moreover, I think that this fact would hold true after dark when CKLW's signal covers numerous states and a portion of Canada. I think you'd get more mileage out of Oldies or even Nostalgia/Standards than you would out of syndicated Talk! It's about damned time that clear channel stations realize their nighttime potential and offer programming more likely to draw in listeners from outside the daytime service area. Managers and sales reps should court national advertisers for nighttime revenue.

 

[Catawba Scott]

I agree as well. I remember in northern Ohio listening to WHLo 640, WKYC 1100 and WIXY 1260 in the daytime. At night when 640 went off the air and 1260 reduced its power after sunset, I would Listen to Big 10 WCFL, 89 WLS, 84 WHAS, 77 WABC, etc.
I thought the quality of the stations was better back then because these stations competed against not just locally but nationally. It used to be that on the clear channel stations, that a third time slot was just as important as the drive times and that was in the prime of the night. And with that it made for better radio.
You don't have that now because with FM being the dominant music band you only get to hear what the local stations play and no one else.
You cant just blame CKLW of the late night syndication programming. If you're out late enough, just cruise the AM dial and you'll hear all the clear channel stations do it too.
It almost makes more sense that the FM band should be for news and talk. With most talk stations having local talk with local callers and syndicated the rest of the time it only makes sense.

 

[cARLOS Blake]

How's this...they should have a WEBCAST of nonstop "Classic CKLW" audio...music, jingles, airchecks...& if it got big enough some of the old jocks could make audio appearances. Now that would be a hell of a way to promote the station website!...It'd be a great way to get a billion hits on the website & give new found glory to a lame Canadian women's lib struggling talk format. It would be easy to promote & they could get web sponsors like crazy. I know I'd have it on faithfully if they did it right...and the old Top 500? This could be HUGE! :

Undun
I Can Help
Daylight Katie
Philadelphia Freedom
Sky High
Pretty Lady
Listen To What The Man Said
Poetry Man
Make it With You
Painted Ladies...and the list goes on...

 

[gr8oldies]

Not to burst anyone's bubble...but The Big 8 on the web isn't going to bring a billion hits..if Reelradio and other classic radio tribute and aircheck sites don't get that kind of traffic neither would CKLW. It may have been better to have kept the nostalgia on 800 and have it the news/talk stay on 580 but whether they'd change now is open to dispute. They probably can charge a relatively decent ad buck on 800 even if ratings are technically lower. As far as the night signal, first its nowhere near what it was in the heyday with all of the pipsqueak signals that make 800 sound like a graveyard, and radio is sold locally. Even in the old days, the only exceptions were direct mail outfits like Ernie's Record Mart on WLAC, or Wolfman's glow-in-the-dark pictures of Jesus. This was all before computers, high intensity and noise producing lamps, etc. I do have an aircheck of CKLW during an overnight shift with live spots for a big and tall mens clothing chain with locations in Columbus and Cincinnat OH.

 

[klutch00]

I agree as well. I remember in northern Ohio listening to WHLo 640, WKYC 1100 and WIXY 1260 in the daytime. At night when 640 went off the air and 1260 reduced its power after sunset, I would Listen to Big 10 WCFL, 89 WLS, 84 WHAS, 77 WABC, etc.

I got into listening to the radio in my early teens around 1979. There were few top-40s on AM in the Baltimore -Washington area even by then. The only local AM signal which provided round-the-clock coverage where I lived was Baltimore's WCAO. If you were stuck without an FM, particularly at night, you only other choices were the distant clear channels. At that time, you had New York's WNBC and WABC, Detroit's CKLW, Chi-town's WLS, Cleveland's WGAR and Buffalo's WKBW-all top-40 or something similar. There were also Cleveland's 3WE, Chicago's WCFL, Charlotte's WBT and Fort Wayne's WOWO, but I believe these stations were A/C or some other 'adult' oriented format.

I thought the quality of the stations was better back then because these stations competed against not just locally but nationally. It used to be that on the clear channel stations, that a third time slot was just as important as the drive times and that was in the prime of the night. And with that it made for better radio.
You don't have that now because with FM being the dominant music band you only get to hear what the local stations play and no one else.

You mention this and I recall in the early '80s when WLS segued to a 'Rock-40' format and thought that they were better programmed than Washington's WRQX (then Q107).

You cant just blame CKLW of the late night syndication programming. If you're out late enough, just cruise the AM dial and you'll hear all the clear channel stations do it too.

I don't, but I will blame the powers-that-be there for making that stupid signal swap between them and CKWW! Despite the fact that I wasn't big on pop-standards, I thought and still think the move was by no means an improvement! Today, it seems like the only clear channel stations worth tuning in are WSM and CHWO. I don't know what KWKH and KTNN are like but they may also be exceptions as well. One format which didn't catch on too well on AM was what I'll call personality/talk, like the WLUP-AM of the late '80s-too bad.

It almost makes more sense that the FM band should be for news and talk. With most talk stations having local talk with local callers and syndicated the rest of the time it only makes sense.

Even if many AMs are doing news, sports and/or talk, that's fine. They should just offer more unique programming. If a high-quality analog AM broadcast standard was available, this would solve some problems.

 

[JohnnyElectron]

I listened to CKLW down in Toledo on a Sony AM stereo radio, and The Big 8 was smokin' - great audio quality with their Harris AM stereo system (1982/1983). They even had a Pistons game on in stereo up and down the court!

Too bad that they don't switch that back on (in CQuam) and swap the CKWW music format to CKLW and n/t on 580.

 

[cARLOS Blake]

To Gr8 Oldies who put...."if Reelradio and other classic radio tribute and aircheck sites don't get that kind of traffic neither would CKLW. "
...Wrong. Sorry to burst YOUR bubble, but the average listener doesn't have a clue what an aircheck is & there aren't full versions of SONGS on aircheck sites, & again, they could have a great time promoting it on the present 800...or even cross promote it on other CHUM stations. Besides, the average listener doesn't wanna pay $12 a year to listen to jingles. Aircheck sites don't have a station telling you to go to them also. There's enough people out there that want the Big 8 back & I'm sure they would listen to the stream especially if they hear a :30 promo using those jingles & music on the present 800 teasing them to log on. Plus they could have a shrine on there full of old pics & nostalgic stuff.

 

[tvmusic]

CKLW's format is Windsor news and talk, for the most part they are not focusing on Detroit anymore, just Windsor (population 200,000) and nearby Canadian cities. That said, in the last ratings I saw for Windsor, Ont. for March 2007- CKLW was at was far and away the top station with ratings double that of the number two station. http://www.bbm.ca/en/BBM_Canada_S1_2007_Top-line_Radio_Report_final.pdf

I think CKLW is doing just fine!

 

[gr8oldies]

16.9 compared to CKWW's 4.2? I'd say CKLW is doing just fine. Curious though, does BBM just not count the Detroit stations that spill across the border? Or is the CHUM group doing so well that Windsorites aren't listening to the cross-border stations?

A web-only Big 8 stikll would not do any better than any other oldies stream. Case in point...when 1050 CHUM went internet only. No doubt a big 8 tribute webstream would get a few thousand hits a week...probably largely radio geeks, but no where near "billions". As for people listening for jingles, that would pretty much be what a tribute stream would be...oldies with Johnny Mann jingles dropped in. I like the CKLW accapellas, the CKLW rum-pums (which always seemed punchier than the ones on other Drake-influenced stations), and CKLW's vey own top of the hour stager (which I used on an AM station in rotation with the KHJ version everyone uses), but the only way you truly "bring back the big 8" is bring it back in ite entirety. Anyone think Max Kinkel, Ted Richards, Johnny Williams and all the rest who are still alive and able are going to come back and jock an internet stream live? Is CHUM willing to pay them to do it? I'd say the answer is no.

 

[cARLOS Blake]

CKLW's format is Windsor news and talk, for the most part they are not focusing on Detroit anymore, just Windsor (population 200,000) and nearby Canadian cities. That said, in the last ratings I saw for Windsor, Ont. for March 2007- CKLW was at was far and away the top station with ratings double that of the number two station. http://www.bbm.ca/en/BBM_Canada_S1_2007_Top-line_Radio_Report_final.pdf

I think CKLW is doing just fine!

Maybe if you're a women's lib activist the station's doing just fine...
One minute they're talking about how much they're focusing on Windsor, the next minute they'rerunning a Michigan college game or talking about American Idol or what other American t.v shows are on tonight. Too much women's lib yap. Best thing about the station is Coast To Coast AM & they don't even have that on their program line-up on their website! Very weak.

 

[Media Mogul]

I am kind of out of the loop on how they do things up there. What is CanCon?

 

[mimo]

I am kind of out of the loop on how they do things up there. What is CanCon?

Cancon = CANadian CONtent, it was a law passed to get Canadian stations to play music by Canadian artists as a way to get them exposure, unfortunately in the 70's it meant a lot of really bad music, but as our talent has grown cancon today isn't so much forced down our throats, instead Canadians actually WANT to hear Canadian bands. Especially with althernative and new rock.

On another note on page 2 someone mentioned the station they heard in Moose Jaw Saskatchewan (also at 800) that is CHAB which is currently a classic rocker, back in the 80's it was one hell of a rocker, a top 40 station with a huge coverage area (which it still has). It covered 3 major cities in Saskatchewan as a local, and competed with CKCK 620 and CJME 1300 in Regina, (just down the road) as well as CFQC 600 and CKOV 650 in Saskatoon. Probably the songs they heard that they weren't familiar with would be the Cancon requirements, in other words, the Canadian artists.