All posts by Raymond Tomlin

About Raymond Tomlin

Raymond Tomlin is a veteran journalist and educator who has written frequently on the political realm — municipal, provincial and federal — as well as on cinema, mainstream popular culture, the arts, and technology.

Vancouver Radio Ratings (Winter), Nov. 29 2010 – Feb. 27 2011

Radio

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The folks at PugetSoundRadio published the raw Vancouver radio ratings earlier this morning. Perennial ‘top dog’ CKNW emerged, once again, as the ratings leader, down 30% from years past but on par with recent books.
CBC Radio 2 continues its climb into prominence, rising 30% over the course of the past 18 months. When the Board of Broadcast Measurement went to portable people meters, reputedly a more accurate measurement system than had been employed earlier, CBC appeared to drop dramatically in the ratings, but all that seems to have changed in recent books.
Despite layoffs galore at CKWX, the 24-hour news outlet holds on to a significant portion of Vancouver’s radio listening audience. Triple-A (adult album alternative) Shore FM remains an also-ran in the ratings, which given the speculation that the station is about to be sold to Astral to be converted into an uptempo 80s station (just what we need, another oldies station in Vancouver) stands to reason, at least in terms of economics.

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A Friday Morning Potpurri of Sites VanRamblings Has Surfed To

VanRamblings

As VanRamblings does most mornings, while sipping our morning coffee and finishing off a plate of scrambled eggs (one egg and free-run egg whites), we surf the ‘Net to apprise ourselves of the day’s events, all while attempting to gain some pungent insight into the daily cultural zeitgeist.
Here’s what we’ve run across this chilly late winter Friday morning (a note: you’ll want to take all videos below full screen for a proper appreciation) …

Thom Yorke and the folks in R.E.M. have just released the video for their single “ÜBerlin” featuring actor Aaron Johnson (who starred in the breakout hit Kick-Ass, along with Chloë Grace Moretz, as well as the quite wonderful John Lennon movie Nowhere Boy, both released last year) who, dressed in a yellow T-shirt, tracksuit pants and sneakers, makes Fred Astaire-like dance moves, a wonderful life affirming feat which can only effectively be accomplished when hope springs eternal and you’re in your early 20s.
Shot and directed by Johnson’s fiancée Sam Taylor-Wood (the director of Nowhere Boy) in and around London’s Brick Lane one recent afternoon, REM’s new album, Collapse Into Now, will be released Monday, March 7th.
Also on our radar this morning, the new trailer for Water for Elephants, starring Academy Award winners Reese Witherspoon and Christoph Waltz, along with Twilight’s Robert Pattinson, director Frances Lawrence’s screen adaptation of Sara Gruen’s best-selling 2007 romantic page-turner cum historical novel …

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