As The Dial Turns: Vancouver’s Spring 2004 Radio Ratings Are In

May 27, 2004RadioRaymond Tomlin

Corrected figures applied. The chart above is a copyright of PugetSoundRadio.com.

As the men at Corus Radio’s 730 MOJO Sports Radio remain in their crisis prayer circle at Hooters on Robson, and Corus General Manager Lou del Gobbo recovers from having to fork out $2 million to keep middling sports quasi-‘talent’ Neil McRae in the Corus fold — a rumour is being floated that McRae will host a new noontime sports show on CFMI — there is general rejoicing at Corus that CKNW clobbered JACK-FM in the spring radio ratings, as ’NW emerged once again as Top Dog in the Vancouver market.
No one at Corus has much to say about the miniscule ratings jump by sibling, Rock 101 CFMI. Sister station, suburban rocker 99.3 The Fox is also up a bit in the ratings, to a relatively anemic 4.7, picking up the extra point and a half following the demise of urban rocker, 104.9 X-FM.
Meanwhile, over at Rogers, there’s much gnashing of teeth given the precipitous drop in listenership suffered by winter radio ratings leader, 96.9 JACK-FM. So much for the spike in ratings that was expected following the investiture of Larry and Willy into JACK’s morning slot. Execs at Rogers’ Toronto headquarters have to be asking just how much the firing, last fall, of former PD Pat Cardinal has to do with JACK’s 3-point ratings drop?
For the folks at Rogers, clear is clearly no improvement, as sister station 104.9 clear-fm picked up only one point over their urban rock predecessor, X-FM, landing in the unlucky number 13 spot, overall. Meanwhile, on Rogers’ AM side, News 1130 remains steady (or is that mired?) in 12th spot, with a 3.6 share of the Vancouver radio listening audience.
The dim bulbs at CHUM Radio can’t be all that happy, either. Even though soft rock 103.5 QM/FM spiked a bit in the ratings, AM sister stations 1410 CFUN and Sport Radio – the Team 1040, remain radio ratings basement dwellers. But at least the Team 1040 crushed their MOJO competition.
As for the remaining, also-ran, radio stations on Vancouver’s airwaves: in respect of former new music powerhouse, Z-95.3 (who’s new website sucks), all that the spring radio ratings tell you is that these are early days. Jettisoning their Top 40 format in favour of an urban adult contemporary format hardly seems to have paid off for Z in the short term, but at least the station wasn’t obliterated in the spring ratings, given their mid-book change in format. Sister station 650 CISL — who’s sound is brighter than than it’s ever been — actually lost listenership. The owners at Standard Broadcasting have to be scratching their heads.
94.5 The Beat, which has pretty much switched to a Top 40 format, failed to pick up any of of Z’s old audience. Pattison-owned 600 AM dipped dramatically, while sister station JR-Country spiked a bit.
According to the story that ran on Global-TV last night, Rafe Mair’s Spring 2004 numbers are down approximately 40% from the fall book (a 6.9 share this time out, as opposed to an 11.2 last fall). Many believe this has to do with Rafe’s too frequent vacations; the fact that he doesn’t work the Mondays of long weekends; a 10:30 a.m. sign-off time that is much too early (considering that his competition on CKNW, Bill Good — who, in the important spring ratings period, posted a much-improved 13.6 share — stays on the air until noon); an inadequate vacation replacement in the person of producer Shiral Tobin; and Bob Saye’s shamefully poor ‘lead-in’ morning show. Rafe — who is currently on vacation — won’t like the Spring ratings book. Changes will definitely be in the works at 600 AM.
As of 10 p.m., Puget Sound Radio has corrected the figures on the radio ratings chart (above) to reflect the accurate information supplied by CBC to VanRamblings this morning. As the CBC official averred: “CBC 690 has gained a 13.0 share in the Central Vancouver Area, and 5 a.m. til 1 a.m. CBC Radio One sits at a 7.8 share — up a full point over the autumn book — for fourth place overall in the Vancouver market. In the morning period, the Early Edition is up Spring 2004 over the fall book, at a 13 share, second overall across the Lower Mainland in listenership.” Good news abounds.

Tommy Douglas, and a Better World For All of Us
What Might Have Been, and What Will Surely Come To Be

May 26, 2004Decision CanadaRaymond Tomlin

Tommy Douglas, first
leader of the NDP

At present in Canada, we are in the throes of a federal election.
Although the choices before us are not quite the same Tweeledum and Tweedledee that has been the case in the past, as the Liberal Party and the Progressive Conservatives vied for the reigns of power, truth be told there’s still not a great deal that separates the two parties, or even Canada’s traditional third party, the New Democratic Party, under new leader Jack Layton.
Oh sure, the Conservative Party is no longer Progressive, and even the last leader of the PC’s, Joe Clark, finds himself campaigning on behalf of Liberal candidates, and against the right-wing forces of the presently constituted — and still socially conservative — Conservative / Reform / Alliance party.
Today, we offer a voice from the past, that of Tommy Douglas, the founder of Medicare, and the first leader of the New Democratic Party of Canada. Mr. Douglas helps us to remember a time in the not-so-distant past when the idea of truly building a better world was an honourable and reasonable goal, when we worked collectively with members of our communities to transform a patriarchial consumerist society into an egalitarian society where want and injustice would become but distant concepts.
Tommy Douglas was the most influential politician never to be elected Prime Minister. He pursued his humanist ideals relentlessly until they became so mainstream that rival politicians claimed them as their own. Douglas battled hard to bring the New Democratic Party to legitimacy in its first ten years, following the formation of the party in 1961. He was often criticized for his singular idealism but through it all Douglas was undeterred, convinced that he was helping to create a better, more humane society.
VanRamblings offers Tommy Douglas’ voice, as a reminder of what might have been, and what will surely become our shining future.

A Potpourri: Gadgets, Tips & Tricks, and The End Of Mac

May 25, 2004Web & TechRaymond Tomlin

Clicker Heaven: Tunes, Films and, Now, XP

Snapstream Media has just released a new PC-based clicker to add to your blooming bouquets of remote controls. The name of this new must-have device, the Firefly PC Remote.
The FireFly package comes with a standard-size remote control and a transceiver that plugs into a U.S.B. port on your computer. Once set up, with the click of a button the FireFly can play, pause and manoeuvre through tracks in your computer’s digital audio collection, play CD’s and videos, and zip through photo slide shows on your PC’s monitor.
The Firefly PC Remote works seamlessly with more than 80 existing multimedia programmes, including RealPlayer, QuickTime, MusicMatch Jukebox, Windows Media Player, WinAmp, InterVideo WinDVR and iTunes.
Tune Up Your Windows XP Machine (for Free)

In the June issue of PC World, contributing Editor Stan Miastkowski publishes a step-by-step computer guide that will help boost your XP-based computer’s system performance, and make upgrading easier than ever.
It’s a Plane, It’s a Cell Phone, It’s a Car

How Stuff Works publishes a provocative look into the future, with a front-page story about Toyota’s ‘concept car’, the PM. In addition to seating only one person and having its hubless wheels driven by electric motors, the PM incorporates wireless networking so that drivers can surrender control to another human-driven PM and relax as someone else drives them to work. And it reclines!
Something Is Stirring At Apple

According to high tech gadfly Robert X. Cringely, Apple may be in the throes of making the decision to get out of the hardware business. This would mean not only the end of Macintosh hardware but a transformation of Apple into “a software company (not unlike Microsoft) that also sells little hardware devices,” producing devices such as the iPod. Thought-provoking.

George Bush Never Looked Into Nick’s Eyes

May 25, 2004PoliticsRaymond Tomlin

Michael Berg, left, collapses to the ground,
and is comforted by his son, David,
after learning of his son’s death

Nick Berg has already disappeared from the front pages of newspapers. Although many haunting questions remain about Berg, 26, and his odyssey in Iraq, the murky circumstances surrounding the events which led to his horrific execution at the hands of Iraqi militants linger.
Besides being a human tragedy, Nick Berg’s death two weeks ago represented, as well, an ominous development for the Bush administration, which continues to struggle not only with the disastrous impact of the prison scandal at Iraq’s Abu Ghraib detention facility, but with the almost daily Iraqi terrorist bombings which kill innocent civilians, and American armed forces personnel. With the White House trying to curb attacks by insurgents before the June 30 handover to a caretaker Iraqi government, the spectre of Iraqi terrorists ratcheting up the violence endures as more than a dim prospect.
In an essay published in The Guardian this past weekend, Michael Berg places the responsibility for his son’s death — and for the war in Iraq — at the feet of George W. Bush. Mr. Berg calls for an immediate end to the war in the Middle East, and censures the U.S. President as a man who “doesn’t have to bear the consequences of his acts.”
Mr. Berg offers further condemnation of the U.S. Secretary of Defense …

Donald Rumsfeld said that he took responsibility for the sexual abuse of Iraqi prisoners. How could he take that responsibility when there was no consequence? Nick took the consequences.
Even more than those murderers who took my son’s life, I can’t stand those who sit and make policies to end lives and break the lives of the still living.

We mourn tragic loss, all the more so when the death of a loved one was as unnecessary and preventable as the death of Nick Berg.