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CIWV Hamilton "Waves" Goodbye; Flip to Country Coming

M

Mark77

Guest
Just got word yesterday that Hamilton, ON's Smooth Jazz outlet, Wave 94.7 (CIWV) is slated to flip to a country format on August 1st at midnight. Wave 94.7 lasted for 11 years, and featured some of the best on-air talent I've ever head on commercial radio.

The new format is to be branded as KX 94.7 FM, and it will be paired with Durham Radio's other country station, KX96 (CJKX) from the Ajax / Oshawa / Whitby area. A Facebook page for KX 94.7 is already up, and aside from a logo, it is not populated with content (yet).
The Wave will continue to broadcast online at www.wave.fm. Some members of the current Wave airstaff have announced that they will be migrating to the web-based version of The Wave, picking up from where they left off on FM.

People often say that smooth jazz stations are gradually losing their audiences. In the States, there are 15 or fewer smooth jazz stations remaining, and unfortunately, the death watch is on. Smooth Jazz is even rarer up here in Canada. I can count on my hand how many smooth jazz stations there are in this country. But still, the music is relaxing, energetic, and enjoyable. It's nice to listen to after a long, hard day, or even when I'm working.

Our radio dials are crowded with all that annoying pop garbage these days, and Wave 94.7 provided radio in Southern Ontario with some much-needed variety. Wave 94.7 interacted well with its listeners, and established a strong rapport with them through well-executed contests, events, and promotions. Judging by what's posted on their Facebook page, these events were often well-attended.

I'm sad to see this wonderful station go, but I guess that's how things work in the radio business sometimes. Audiences change, and when that happens, the formats often change along with them. Thank you, Wave 94.7, for providing Southern Ontario - and this Montrealer - with some good tunes, and some good company. You will be missed.
 
Mark 77 said:
I can count on my hand how many smooth jazz stations there are in this country.

I'm afraid CIWV was the last true Smooth Jazz station left in Canada. All the others in places like Vancouver, Edmonton, Calgary, and Winnipeg have long since vanished.
 
Oh...NOW they go Country! Why didn't they do that when 95.3 FIRST said good bye to Country music!
820 was a talk station at the time. It would have been a perfect idea!

Oh well, at least they're doing it now.
 
New website: http://www.kx947.fm/
New calls: CHKX
New local morning show: Toff & Melissa in the morning
(as in, NOT the KX 96 morning show)

all other shifts also seem to be local, and not a repeater of KX 96 at all.

Now, as for the music, I honestly don't know if they just flicked a switch and tossed on the KX 96 playlist
OR rounded up something closer to more of a Country 95.3 kind of sound.

We'll soon find out...

BTW?...What's 820 CHAM gonna do? ???
 
What's 820 CHAM gonna do? The new Smooth 820 or stay country lean more to classic country or a format like 800 CJBQ Country with some talk and oldies or traffic radio 820 or a very soft rock format or all 70s and 80s compete with CKOC
just a few ideas
 
ELL383 said:
What's 820 CHAM gonna do? all 70s and 80s compete with CKOC
just a few ideas

CHAM and CKOC are the same company! Scratch that one! They already tried Talk 820 and failed miserably.
 
I'm really happy that I never got "The Wave" my way. Having it flip for another CW format would be totally depressing for me.

~BG
 
I never bothered to stream CIWV, but would listen on my visits to Niagara Falls & Toronto. To me, they got lazy as time went on... and like many a SJ station did, started adding more vocals, and 94.7 just had TOO many for my tastes. I guess their slogan... "Ontario's Smoothest Groove" kinda covered their butts as far as vocals vs. instramentals went.

At least they lasted as long as they did :-\
 
RBW said:
I never bothered to stream CIWV, but would listen on my visits to Niagara Falls & Toronto. To me, they got lazy as time went on... and like many a SJ station did, started adding more vocals, and 94.7 just had TOO many for my tastes. I guess their slogan... "Ontario's Smoothest Groove" kinda covered their butts as far as vocals vs. instramentals went.

At least they lasted as long as they did :-\

Alas, the true 'easy' format (smooth jazz, easy listening, beautiful music) just doesn't 'sell' well. The stations skewer their playlists to the point where it becomes another soft rock or soft AC station, in order to attract the advertising dollars. Way back, before the CRTC allowed the increase in advertising and pop formats on FM, this was not a problem. There used to be blocks and blocks of great music on FM, largely funded by the commercial success (of lack of it) on the AM side of things. Now the FM band is full of commercial stations, which in order to compete for market share and advertising dollars, have a tendency to sound quite the same...

~BG
 
Yeziknoradio said:
Way back in the day, CJEZ in Toronto was required to play a percentage instrumental as part of THEIR license agreement with the CRTC.

Remember this? ----> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MbeYldXtDbs&feature=related

Times sure have changed! I wish there could be a station like this in Toronto today!

I grew up with the original CFMO 93.9, in our home. What a great station that was...I still have fond memories of it, during the Christmas season in particular.

As more stations arrived on Ottawa's FM band, the original CFMO tried to rebrand itself a bit. In my humble observations, rebranding is usually a sign of trouble. The CFMO commercial is the first in this 8 minute clip of Ottawa and Montreal TV.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fHDNSoIw9ZI

And then...you know the end is near ~> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kVqx6-rUzjk

As for "The Jewel", their instrumentals do usually fall short of the mark, generally not being from the height of the 'beautiful music' era.

:(

~BG
 
ChrisInMI said:
Doesn't CKDX 88.5 "The Jewel" play some easy instrumentals? Or did they drop that?

They seem to have cut it off for now. The format is now "lite hits"
NOT the "standards & soft sounds" it once was.
At least when they say "lite" they do mean it, unlike CHFI & Others.

CHFI SHOULD drop the word lite, since they're clearly more of a "Favorites" station, rather than a "Lite favorites" station these days!
 
Yeziknoradio said:
CHFI SHOULD drop the word lite, since they're clearly more of a "Favorites" station, rather than a "Lite favorites" station these days!

I guess it depends on one's definition of "lite". Some people would consider some modern rock to be "lite", at least compared to scary metal.
 
M.J. said:
Yeziknoradio said:
CHFI SHOULD drop the word lite, since they're clearly more of a "Favorites" station, rather than a "Lite favorites" station these days!

I guess it depends on one's definition of "lite". Some people would consider some modern rock to be "lite", at least compared to scary metal.

CHFI is riding on the idea that they're still "lite" because they are the "Lite"est radio station in Toronto, so the staff there likes to say...
 
Yeziknoradio said:
M.J. said:
Yeziknoradio said:
CHFI SHOULD drop the word lite, since they're clearly more of a "Favorites" station, rather than a "Lite favorites" station these days!

I guess it depends on one's definition of "lite". Some people would consider some modern rock to be "lite", at least compared to scary metal.

CHFI is riding on the idea that they're still "lite" because they are the "Lite"est radio station in Toronto, so the staff there likes to say...

All this 'Lite' stuff makes me think of chemical sugar substitutes and beer which makes me pee a lot. Thank goodness for the internet though, as there are still places to access the good stuff. 'Beautiful music' may live beyond our local air waves, but it still gets very much played throughout our home. :D

~BG
 
It's just not the same without the local news weather and traffic for Toronto though...or even a radio announcer to go with all that.

It was good of Wave to keep the staff employed, but how long will they be able to keep that up for?
 
Mark 77, the original poster, said he's a Montrealer and listened to CIWV on line. Isn't 91.9 CKLX still a Smooth Jazz station in Montreal, although doing it in French?

By the way, a great Smooth Jazz station that's still playing mostly instrumentals, is WSBZ Miramar Beach, Florida. www.seabreeze.fm

And even though they play only 3 instrumentals per hour now, I still admire KTWV for staying in the top 10 in the Los Angeles ratings. (They were the original 94.7 The Wave before CIWV took the same slogan and wound up on the same frequency.) I listen to them on line at www.947thewave.com


Gregg
[email protected]
 
Hi, Gregg. Yes, I found out that 91.9 CKLX (Planete Jazz 91.9) is, in fact, a French smooth jazz station. They've had this format since 2008. Before they, they launched as Couleur Jazz 91.9 in 2004, and they played regular jazz music until their 2008 relaunch.
 
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