In another ho-hum Bureau of Broadcast Measurement ratings book, radio in Vancouver continues in the listenership doldrums that has gripped the medium for the past decade and more. For all that, there is some provocative movement in this latest ratings book, ranging from a re-ascension of CKNW, to a new, august place for country music in the hearts, minds and ears of those resident in Metro Vancouver.
CKNW experienced its best ‘book’ in a couple of years, mostly due to the increased listenership brought in by mid-afternoon talk show host, Christy Clark. Even given the loss of the broadcast rights to the Vancouver Canucks and the BC Lions a couple of years back, CKNW continues to hold its own, even if it has the oldest (and continuing to age) audience among the fraternity of Vancouver over-the-air broadcast radio stations.
JRfm continues its ascendancy in the Vancouver radio listenership stakes, finding both a younger and more diverse audience, while 95 Crave — thanks to the appointment of programming genius, Brad Phillips, as General Manager / interim Program Director — incrementally increases its audience from book to book. The issue that Crave owner, Astral Media, has to address is what to do with perennial oldies loser, 650 CISL, which has languished near last place in the ratings for a number of years now.
Perhaps, when Jim Pattison shutters his oldies outlet, 600AM, later this year CISL will pick up some of its displaced, ever-aging audience.
In other news around the dial, Clear FM took a hit, dropping almost a full percentage point, probably due to the loss of Fred Latremouille in the morning and the failure of Charlee Morgan to find her own audience, while CBC 690 also took a somewhat unexplainable hit in the latter part of the spring. Otherwise, it’s pretty much same ‘ol, same ‘ol in Vancouver radio.

Continue reading Vancouver Radio Ratings, Spring 2008 →

Click on the picture above for a larger, more readable version of the ratings table

The latest Vancouver radio ratings were released earlier this week, and the results were largely ho-hum.
CKNW — which has never sounded as inane as they do at the moment (and that’s going some) — triumphed with a splendid 14.8 rating, meaning that at any given time 14.8% of those tuned into radio in the Greater Vancouver area had their radio tuned to the once Mighty 98, ’NW. All VanRamblings can say is, “Thank goodness our XM Radio was hooked up today.”
In the all important adults 25 – 54 tuned in Monday to Friday, 6 a.m. til 10 a.m., the news broke down like this …

• 1. Larry and Willy, JACK-FM
• 2. Philip Till, CKNW
• 3. Bro Jake, CFMI
• 4. Terry and Tara, CHQM
• 5. Clay and Karen, JR-FM
• 6. Nat and Drew, Z-95

More results of note in this ho-hum Board of Broadcast Measurement book: AM 730 MOJO Sports Radio, although still in the basement, somehow managed to double their ratings, while The Team 1040 Sports Radio still beat their pants off, taking it to their competition.
Rafe Mair leaving failed to raise a blip in AM600 CKBD’s ratings. CKWX News 1130 continues to have decent books, as does Jimmy Pattison’s JR FM.
What else is there to report? With Gerry ’O Day as PD and morning host on CISL 650 the station treads water, as does CFOX and ‘they oughta put it out of its misery’ CFUN. The ‘fight’ for teen listening dominance between Z95 and The Beat remains a standoff, with the latter emerging the victor.
VanRamblings is simply glad the CBC (hallelujah) is back: Rick Cluff and the whole Early Edition crew, Mark Forsythe and BC Almanac, and even the newly expanded version of On The Coast, with the ever dreadful Priya Ramu (maybe she’s nice in person, but she sure doesn’t come across that way on radio … where’s Katherine Gretzinger when you need her … come back Katherine, come back … we miss you … thank goodness Ms. Gretzinger’s a CBC fill in host occasionally, both locally and nationally). All said, VanRamblings reasonably expects that the CBC will regain its previous august ratings position in the next (winter) ratings book, with CKNW and AM730 taking the biggest hit, returning to their past, most recent ratings.
Did VanRamblings mention we’re listening to XM Radio? M-m-m-m, good.

Missing your daily fix of CBC radio? Wonder when the time will come when you’ll next hear World Report, or the folks who bring you The World at Six will make their triumphant return, so that you’ll know what’s really going on in the world?
And what about The House? How are we supposed to figure out what the shenanigans of those Ottawa-based hooligans on Parliament Hill really mean if Anthony Germain and company aren’t available to help us tread through the shoals of the affairs of the Canadian political miasma?
And just how much stinkin’ BBC News can a woman (or man) listen to and watch before going completely bonkers? We want Peter Mansbridge back on the air, and we want The National to begin broadcasting NOW !!!
No NHL hockey in Canada for a year. A piece of cake. But, if you’re anything like the author of VanRamblings, a week without the CBC is the equivalent of what we believe a week in hell would be like. And that just ain’t no fun.
CBC Unplugged has come to our rescue, and not a moment too soon. In a story on The Tyee, British Columbia’s feisty online presence reports …

Locked-out CBC employees are working together to put out their own radio programmes, under the collective name of CBC Unplugged. They will broadcast on conventional radio stations and across the Internet through a new technique called podcasting, in which people download audio files from the web and listen to them on their iPods or other digital audio players.

The initial CBC Unplugged podcast is available here, and the second full hour broadcast is available here (Windows Media Player required).
A bit of sanity has returned to the universe. And not a moment too soon.