late spring/early summer 2007 › edmonton ratings archives › edmonton ratings › radio in edmonton › radio

The "Late Spring/Early Summer 2007" book measured Edmonton radio audiences from April 16th to June 10th. Slightly over 2,000 listeners were reported to have filled in surveys.

Known as the "oddball" period, the Bureau of Broadcast Measurement first introduced the second quarter survey in 2006. Station managers, program directors and armchair pundits are still trying to figure out what omens the newly-timed book may bring.

Three stations posted their best results ever while four stations went into the record books marking their all-time nadirs.

Overall, audience numbers are down to 1,616,500 from 1,668,000 measured in the Spring 2007 book.

CHED - 12.3 (11.9 last book) seems to have welded the title of king of the hill onto the market. Despite a poor Oilers run in the weeks leading to the playoffs (the games are usually a boost for the station) listeners remained loyal. CHED's drop of 29,400 in audience numbers to 196,500 can possibly be attributed the slightly lower total listenership.

CHED's long dominance of the news audience might someday catch the attention of an aggressive competitor. Even if CHED's audience was halved, the station and its rival would place sixth – which is not too bad in the large Edmonton market.

CBX - CBC Radio One - 9.8 (6.9) posted their best ever showing, their fourth improved positioning over as many books. CBC brass were overjoyed – with Ron Wilson's morning show becoming the second-most listened to on the network. The station added 40,000 listeners, bringing the total to 153,300.

"We certainly put a push on being out in the community," Mike Linder, CBC's regional director of radio and TV, told the Edmonton Journal.

"We've been involved with soccer, we've been involved with food in the markets, and I think we're sending a message that we're part of this community and we're really motivated and excited."

"It doesn't look like there's a huge switch from anyone," Linder said, adding the station attracted new listeners of all ages. "It looks like growth. Specifically, we're trying to appeal to newcomers and we're trying to sound younger than the traditional CBC sound."

Radio One's recent addition of a simulcast on 93.9 FM likely added listeners stuck in the urban core (in buildings not friendly to AM signals) and those in cars whose drivers had forgotten their dashboard device even had an AM band. Time will tell if CBC's rise to second place carries over to the Summer book due out in early October.

CKNG - Joe FM - 8.7 (9.1), while taking a slight dip, hung onto third place and certified the "Play Anything" format as a perennial and winning favourite.

CHDI - Sonic FM - 8.0 (6.8) pulled away from their last-book tie with The Bounce with their best showing since arriving on the scene in April 2005 – a tribute to the accurate reading of their target audience's musical tastes.

The station's gain of almost 31,000 listeners likely came from boredom and fatigue of the once reliable classic rock and country formats – see items below.

CFBR - The Bear - 7.7 (9.3) suffered the second biggest drop in ratings during the period (CISN won that distinction hands down) and the bad news wasn't a pleasant parting gift for General Manager Marty Forbes who left the Standard Radio station partway through the survey. Forbes also handled sister stations EZ Rock 104 and CFRN 1260 The Team (well, two out of three winners ain't bad).

The ratings drop also presented a challenge for new program director Ryan Zimmerman (no relation to K-Rock's Steve) who took over from Forbes as operations manager. The Bear's audience dropped 16,200 to 137,700 which suggested the loss came from more than just general listener drift.

CFMG - EZ Rock - 7.7 (8.0) slipped slightly but maintained their usual middle of the upper pack status.

CHBN - The Bounce - 6.5 (6.8) experienced a fractional drop, surprisingly not matching Sonic's scoop of the younger demographic.

Hired on during the survey period was new program director Dan Tucek (who left imaging duties at sister station CHUM FM in Toronto). Also new on board was replacement midday host Adam McKale (ex of 96.7 The Rig in Whitecourt).

CISN - 5.6 (8.9) provided media hawks with the smell of roadkill – a jaw-dropping slide from their market-topping 13.3 share in the Late Summer 2006 book. The Corus station lost half its audience over the year, a problem also shared with rival CFCW.

The erosion of the country audience is not limited to the Edmonton area with many rural stations flipping to rock formats. The change in taste probably reflects the province's changing demographic and the urbanisation of small communities brought about by the current economic climate.

Doug Rutherford, general manager of Corus – CISN's owner – told the Edmonton Journal he was perplexed by the numbers.

"Country is a format where the listeners are very loyal and as dependable as the sun rising each day. So for that block of listeners to simply find somewhere else to go comes as a real surprise to us. ... I would like BBM to be able to help me understand how they arrived at these conclusions."

"I've been kicking around this game for 30-odd years and it seems that every time there's a ratings survey, there's something that doesn't add up," said Rutherford.

CBX FM - CBC Radio 2 - 5.3 (2.8) indicate the "I Now Love The CBC" movement also descended on the network's high-brow counterpart. Audience numbers rose 27,500 to 83,400.

CIRK - K-Rock - 4.1 (4.7) indicated the Newcap group is in serious trouble. From being a consistent top five finisher in the past, the slide to tenth place likely caused some serious blood-inducing head scratching on the part of management.

And new producer for the morning show was likely behind the punting of longtime co-host Steve Zimmerman.

"Newcap would only say it was time to go in a different direction," CTV Edmonton reported. "K-Rock's popularity took a hit in the recent radio ratings. For now, Jim Jerome and Bill Cowen will handle the K-Rock morning show," an unnamed spokesman for Newcap was quoted as saying.

The rub is that the ratings results referred to were released April 10th – five weeks before Zimmerman was shown the station's West Edmonton Mall studio doors (and smack dab in the middle of the survey).

In covering the story for the Edmonton Sun, Graham Hicks quoted Newcap station manager Randy Lemay as saying the departure was not ratings-related. Hicks suggested a personality conflict between Steve and co-hosts Cowen and Jerome caused the split.

Ironically, it was the second time Zimmerman followed an exit by Terry Evans. Terry "quit" K-Rock in June 2006. A similar pattern for the duo took place earlier over at The Bear.

Curiously, on a thread covering the departure of Zimmerman on the guest-friendly Puget Sound Radio board, a poster by the name of "Walter Zipcut" began making unusual contributions to the dialogue (and on this thread too). It was suggested by members of the board that Zipcut was actually Terry Evans. Whatever the case, the two threads make for 'interesting' reading (with allegations outside the boundaries of Last Link editorial policy).

CHMC - Magic 99 - 3.7 (2.8) seems to be stuck in a perpetual state of up and down (yo-yo magic?), often gaining as much ground as it previously lost. TV ads for the station running through the survey period prominently feature Rob Christie as the 'face of the station' and the campaign looks like it paid off. Audience numbers are up 9,600 to 72,4000.

CFCW - 3.1 (6.7) gave Newcap brass more woes to worry about with a 50% drop in share and 30% loss in audience numbers. The glory days of Bev Munro and Wes Montgomery have all but evapourated from the station's legacy (in 1960 CFCW became Canada's first full-time country music station). One might think the demise began back in the summer of 2005 when all of the station's broadcast operations moved from Camrose to facilities inside West Edmonton Mall. It was just prior to then that CFCW posted a 9.9 share, their best performance of the last decade.

CHQT - Cool 880 - 2.1 (3.6) remains the Corus family's black sheep. To single out this book as their worst performance of the millennium would be adding insult to injury. The station has been mired in freefall after several mutations in programming: in 2001 it changed Familiar Favourites "AM-880-CHQT" to Cool 880 "Good Times and Great Oldies." Two years later, Cool 880 became JOE AM. After three months, CHQT returned to Oldies Cool 880 and the JOE format moved to sister station CKNG-FM.

Speculation has swirled that Corus may flip CHQT to an all-news format to stave off any possible suitors after the news market. In 2006, Rogers flipped Calgary's oldie station CFFR to all-news becoming “660 News.” Rogers is known nationally as a news network. Local watchdogs have thought Rogers might flip one of their Edmonton properties – CHDI The Bounce or CKER World FM – but this book's winning performance of the former station and the mandate of the latter would suggest this is likely not happen.

CKRA - Big Earl - 2.0 (2.8) clocks in with another disaster, their worst since adopting the countrified JOE format ratings fishing expedition that started out a year ago. Hands on manager and show host Jackie Rae took herself off the air to concentrate on steering the rudderless Newcap boat (and the upcoming Ford World Curling Championships).

Back on local radio waves is Karen Kay, now handling news and traffic on Big Earl's morning show. Kay was known as Jami Hendrix when she worked at The Bear. Her addition to the flailing station might suggest a change in direction for CKRA (their sixth? seventh?) to all-traffic all-the-time or Elvis On Demand – ooops, that's already been suggested for someone else.

CFRN - The Team - 1.2 (0.9) maintains its small but loyal listenership; CHFA - Radio Canada - 0.1 (0.2) didn't benefit from the addition of their signal to the FM dial at the 101.1 frequency; and CFCW FM - CAM FM - 0.0 (0.1) likely had neither of its listeners filling out their BBM survey diary.

For more detailed data about the Late Spring/Early Summer 2007 book, read the Bureau of Broadcast Measurement report (opens as a .pdf) or the imsradio report (which also opens as a .pdf). General demographic data can be seen in this snapshot taken from Broadcaster Magazine.

radio - edmonton ratings archives - late spring/early summer 2007