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Sting Ray to Flip Vancouver Radio Station to "The Breeze"

Y2kTheNewOldies

Y2kTheNewOldies

http://broadcastdialogue.com/stingray-set-to-flip-classic-hits-stations-in-edmonton-and-vancouver/

Yes Apparently Stingray Productions is going to flip CHLG-FM to the Breeze Soon

Stingray has announced that it’s flipping its Classic Hits stations in Vancouver and Edmonton.

LG 104.3 (CHLG-FM) Vancouver and 96.3 Capital FM (CKRA-FM) Edmonton will be re-branded as 104.3 The Breeze and 96.3 The Breeze, respectively, playing “easy, relaxing, and familiar favourites.” The format flip will happen at midnight on Dec. 26.

Stingray says listeners can expect a broad playlist spanning five decades, from the 1970s through today, featuring artists like Lionel Richie, Elton John, Ed Sheeran, Whitney Houston, Sara McLachlan, Billy Joel, and Adele.

Steve Jones, SVP Brands & Content, Radio, told Broadcast Dialogue, that the company has been watching the rise of The Breeze format in several U.S. markets over the past year, including San Francisco, Philadelphia, and Detroit, among others.
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https://radioinsight.com/headlines/173065/the-breeze-expands-to-canada-in-edmonton-and-vancouver/

The Breeze is heading to Canada

Stingray Digital Media is debuting the Soft AC “Breeze” brand in a pair of Canadian markets.

Both Classic Hits “96.3 Capital-FM” CKRA Edmonton and “LG 104.3” CKLG Vancouver will debut their new identities on December 26 at 12:00am. Stingray SVP/Brands & Content told Canada’s BroadcastDialouge.com, “We saw an opportunity in both Edmonton and Vancouver to fill a void that was glaring,” said Jones. “Both markets lack a radio station like this, and Edmonton has no AC station at all. So, we saw a window for ratings and revenue growth in two of Canada’s best radio markets, and we decided to seize it.”
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Is Move 103.5 really Hot AC? Or is has mainstream AC moved to the point where it's hard to distinguish it from Hot AC? After all, CKZZ is also considered Hot AC.

Is Vancouver the city where CBC Music gets its highest ratings? CBU-FM is a mix of AAA, Classical and some specialty music shows. Most other Canadian cities I've seen the ratings for has CBC Music ranked toward the bottom.

And notice how far CKST 1040 has fallen? Giving up Sports for Comedy doesn't make any sense. Even if it's expensive to program a Canadian sports radio network, why not just run whatever is on in Toronto in Vancouver too? Even if it's a lot of talk about the Maple Leafs, better that than listening to cuts from Comedy albums.
 
Move 103.5 is more mainstream AC than Z95.3. The playlist consists of several pop songs from the 80's, 90's, and early 2000's. Many of these songs aren't heard anywhere else in the market except for an occasional spin on Jack.

CBC Music gets decent ratings in Toronto and Montreal. A lot of former listeners are still carrying a grudge around the format shift from classical to AAA several years ago.

I assume the operational expenses of running a comedy format are almost nil. I'm not sure if importing Maple Leafs content would have fared any better. That would almost be seen as an insult to Canucks fans. Sports advertising was severely impacted by the pandemic, and it seems like Bell chose the comedy format to these AM stations on life support and keep the licenses active until they figure out what to do with them when the industry recovers. Also, sports talk is not a popular format in this market. We don't have a lot of professional sports teams that can help drive a fulltime sports format. CISL has the market to itself now and the station is still a bottom feeder in the latest book. Having said that, CKST has got to be one of the worst ratings dips in history.
 
Thank you for providing that screenshot! It's actually pretty impressive that "The Breeze" is so close to CHQM in the latest book. Personally, I would classify CHQM as a conventional AC outlet. Clearly, the playlist aligns more with CHR than it would have 20+ years ago, but the overall focus is still on familiar songs that span multiple decades and genres. CKZZ is classified as Hot AC, but they definitely skew more toward CHR.

As for CISL, they don't have the most impressive ratings in the world, but the general survey of ratings doesn't tend to do sports talk radio any favours. Many of these stations are still profitable just because they feature programming that targets the male audience. With that being said, I definitely agree that splitting a small sports talk market between CISL and CKST was problematic, but comedy radio didn't seem like the best option.
 
One more quick comment on CHLG: I was a little disappointed that Stingray didn't just tweak the format to align with their "Boom" branding. The flagship station, Boom 97.3 in Toronto, is one of the best classic hits radio stations that I've listened to. Obviously, the classic hits format is a little saturated between Rock 101 and Jack.
 
Rock 101 has tweaked their format to rock-based classic hits. A lot of the playlist overlaps with Jack. Also, consider that KISM has a similar playlist (although less variety) and their signal covers the market well. The Breeze format fills a void in the market now, especially since Bell modified the heritage QMFM into Move.

Ironically, CISL-AM had an oldies/classic hits format before the sports format, and had decent ratings, especially for an AM music station.
 
louisparker said:
Rock 101 has tweaked their format to rock-based classic hits. A lot of the playlist overlaps with Jack. Also, consider that KISM has a similar playlist (although less variety) and their signal covers the market well. The Breeze format fills a void in the market now, especially since Bell modified the heritage QMFM into Move.

Ironically, CISL-AM had an oldies/classic hits format before the sports format, and had decent ratings, especially for an AM music station.
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I used to listen to CISL all of the time when they had their music format (even though I am well below the target age demographic). "Fun FM" on 104.9 was a good station Both were good formats, but good things can't last forever. I mainly listen to CFMI now. I'd say that they have an excellent mixture of songs in the playlist, and balance classic rock and classic hits quite well. Of course, CFMI still focuses on rock music primarily, so Jack provides a decent classic hits playlist. I like the hosts and most of the music, but because they are a Jack formatted radio station, they still throw in random newer songs every so often that I could probably live without.

Overall, CHMB in Toronto is what I would call the perfect classic hits playlist. Their mixture of 80's songs is unparalleled by most radio stations out there. They also throw in a few newer tracks, but they're not going to put on a song that sounds like it should be on 103.5. I'd imagine that Stingray would consider that format on 104.3 only if the conditions were right.
 
I see KWPZ is in the ratings at a 2.2, but not KAFE or KISM on the same Orcas Island tower. Do they get any listenership in Vancouver next to locals on 93.1 and 104.3? I also don't see the ethnic stations (CKYE, CHKG, CJVB) in the ratings, so I guess they don't subscribe.
 
The KAFE signal is very weak and doesn’t cover much of the Greater Vancouver Area. KISM covers the market quite well with their strong signal. There is a history of complaints around KISM interfering with CKYE (in Vancouver) after KISM enabled HD radio.

Unlike KWPZ, the music played on KISM is covered by other stations in the market (and with much more variety IMHO).

Also, stations must install encoders in their signals in order to be detected by PPM Canada. I doubt KAFE and KISM would put forth this effort since they don’t care about attracting Vancouver advertisers.

KWPZ actively targets the Vancouver market with billboards, ads on buses, and has a sales office here. Their legal ID on air at the top of the hour is “KWPZ-FM Lynden, Vancouver, Bellingham” so they identify as a Vancouver station.
 
louisparker said:
KWPZ actively targets the Vancouver market with billboards, ads on buses, and has a sales office here. Their legal ID on air at the top of the hour is “KWPZ-FM Lynden, Vancouver, Bellingham” so they identify as a Vancouver station.
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Like what KVOS-TV used to do. Studios and transmitter in WA, 80% of the advertising being Canadian products, car dealers, and stores.
 
It’s true, KWPZ actively tries to market itself as a radio station for the Vancouver market. Hence why they show up in the ratings.

KAFE used to have a stronger signal in the market before CHLG went on the air. I’m not sure exactly, but I think they also tweaked their signal at that time and might have a null to the north from Mount Constitution to protect CHLG (I’ll have to check on that). CHLG struggles in whatcom county where the HD hash from KAFE is strong, but in the Vancouver Metropolitan Area, CHLG has a very good signal.
 
CHLG and KAFE swapped frequencies about 10 years ago. I remember this was a big event in the broadcasting community because this was the first time an international frequency swap took place. Both stations made a big deal about it on air and on their respective web sites. Before the swap I recall hearing “KAFE 104.3” in shops and around town. Now, the signal is almost inaudible on 104.1 north of White Rock and South Surrey.

Also, there was a low power repeater of a First Nations network serving the Vancouver area on 106.3 several years ago. The network shutdown but the CRTC determined that the frequency was unsuitable for broadcasting in Vancouver due to the HD side-band hash from KWPZ on 106.5. It seems like this is another business case for stations to deploy IBOC/HD…first adjacent frequency protectionism.
 
louisparker said:
CHLG and KAFE swapped frequencies about 10 years ago. I remember this was a big event in the broadcasting community because this was the first time an international frequency swap took place. Both stations made a big deal about it on air and on their respective web sites. Before the swap I recall hearing “KAFE 104.3” in shops and around town. Now, the signal is almost inaudible on 104.1 north of White Rock and South Surrey.

Also, there was a low power repeater of a First Nations network serving the Vancouver area on 106.3 several years ago. The network shutdown but the CRTC determined that the frequency was unsuitable for broadcasting in Vancouver due to the HD side-band hash from KWPZ on 106.5. It seems like this is another business case for stations to deploy IBOC/HD…first adjacent frequency protectionism.
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That is very true about KAFE. They made some pretty dramatic technical changes to accommodate CHLG. To be fair, it was probably a good decision when you consider that the bonus coverage they enjoyed in the lower mainland wasn't doing anything for their business model. Of course, I'm sure that all of the other radio stations involved had to compensate them well for making these changes.
 
I remember that 106.3 in Vancouver, CKAV-FM2. They could be heard north of Marysville and over on Whidbey Island, even with the HD hash of 106.5. It's that Salish Sea/Puget Sound FM amplifier, of course! Northern Native Broadcasting was supposed to take over that 106.3 frequency but the plans I guess went up in smoke because of the Praise HD hash.
I also remember the original Shore 104 signal was very weak. 104.1 was an empty frequency prior to 2010 around the Seattle area, and only the occasional airplane flying by reflected a very weak signal from Vancouver, even though Rock 101 was audible, noisy, but stable at my old location near Mill Creek. I think this was because CHHR was only 8KW at the 104.1 frequency and then upgraded to 10KW when they swapped with KAFE. I also never heard KXDD in Yakima from the Seattle area, and you'd think they would make it in occasionally. Their signal at 104.3 was very slightly stronger at least to a DXer, but nowhere near audible south of Skagit County. Not that they really want listeners from that area, anyways.
 
crainbebo said:
I remember that 106.3 in Vancouver, CKAV-FM2. They could be heard north of Marysville and over on Whidbey Island, even with the HD hash of 106.5. It's that Salish Sea/Puget Sound FM amplifier, of course! Northern Native Broadcasting was supposed to take over that 106.3 frequency but the plans I guess went up in smoke because of the Praise HD hash.
I also remember the original Shore 104 signal was very weak. 104.1 was an empty frequency prior to 2010 around the Seattle area, and only the occasional airplane flying by reflected a very weak signal from Vancouver, even though Rock 101 was audible, noisy, but stable at my old location near Mill Creek. I think this was because CHHR was only 8KW at the 104.1 frequency and then upgraded to 10KW when they swapped with KAFE. I also never heard KXDD in Yakima from the Seattle area, and you'd think they would make it in occasionally. Their signal at 104.3 was very slightly stronger at least to a DXer, but nowhere near audible south of Skagit County. Not that they really want listeners from that area, anyways.
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Interestingly, CHLG is one of the few stations you can still hear on your radio if you dial in 104.3 around the Everett area. Pretty much all of the other stations are static, but you'll still get faint soft AC.
 
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