Virgin 95.3 CKZZ and 94.5 THE BEAT CFBT

[e-dawg]

Since Bell Media acquired Astral Media in July. They have to divest CKZZ Virgin 95.3 since the max is 2am and 2fm. Will Bell Media swap frequencies of CKZZ 95.3 (Virgin Radio) and CFBT 94.5 THE BEAT? Virgin Radio brand is owned by Bell Media right now. It makes sense to keep the Virgin Brand name with Bell Media than the sold off company.

 

[Dan Sys]

Long standing rumour around Vancouver is that the Virgin brand will eventually be transferred to 94.5 once the dust settles with the new ownership at 95.3. I did notice a TV ad for The Beat 94.5 this morning, so a flip to Virgin is apparently not on the immediate horizon.

 

[Yeziknoradio]

a flip to Virgin is apparently not on the immediate horizon.

Can that be because CRTC likes to secure that radio companies do not buy other radio companies and only sell the weaker frequencies? Not sure, just asking...

 

[Dan Sys]

Can that be because CRTC likes to secure that radio companies do not buy other radio companies and only sell the weaker frequencies? Not sure, just asking...

Interesting point. It was entirely Bell's decision to divest CKZZ 95.3. They could have kept it and merged the CHR format from CFBT 94.5 with 95.3 keeping the Virgin branding intact. From what I gather the technical issues involved with that scenario made it impractical, plus 94.5 operates with 90,000 watts while 95.3 puts out a less appealing 71,000 watts.

For the record the latest PPM's show CFBT 94.5 (The Beat) coming it at #4 with a 7.6 share while CKZZ 95.3 (Virgin) was #5 with a 7.3 share.