Welcome to my first post of 2009. Yeah, I know, it's several days late, but as the old adage states, "Better late than never."
As you all know by now, I work in radio. I'm also a bit of a radio geek. I often record format changes because of their historical signaficance, because hey, what's more historic than the end of one thing and the beginning of something new?
On January 12th, something of that nature happened on Montreal radio. Hot AC station Mix 96 (CJFM) rebranded itself as Virgin Radio 96, as indicated by the above graphic.
Usually when a radio station changes names like this, everything else at the station changes with it, from the airstaff to the call letters. That wasn't the case with this name change. The current airstaff and schedule remained the same, albeit with a few new additions. The music remained intact as well. So, in a nutshell, it's basically the same old station with a brand new name slapped onto it. There are similarly branded stations in Toronto, Ottawa, and Vancouver. The Ottawa affiliate, however, is a rock station; the other two are Top 40 stations. The Toronto affiliate, Virgin Radio 99.9, is the oldest of the foursome, having been launched in August of 2008.
That being said, there is one thing that I fail to understand. A lot of people - some of my friends are included within this bunch - have been crying foul to the name change for some inexplicable reason. It even got to the point where a Facebook group protesting the name change was created. I honestly don't find that there is a need for these people to be complaining, because as I just said, the airstaff and music have not changed at all. Radio is a buisness where change can happen in an instant.
Now, I don't even listen to 95.9 FM anymore; they've been dead to me ever since they canned The Lounge King Show and Atmosphere 69 several months ago. Those two programs, in my opinion, were the only reasons I listened to what was once Mix 96 at all. But still, I find all this complaining about the name change to be a massive waste of time. As previously stated, it's just the same station with a different name. Nothing else has changed, really. So please, stop your whining already. It's enough.
Being the radio geek that I am, I took the liberty of recording the last hour of Mix 96, and first 42 minutes of Virgin Radio 96. It also includes the transition from Mix to Virgin. For the record, Mix 96 ran on autopilot from noon until 4 PM on January 12th, with the only interruptions being commercials, station IDs, and "X hours (or minutes) until Virgin Radio 96" announcements. The last song played on the Mix 96 branding was Simon Collins' Unconditional, which was interrupted halfway by a record scratch and replaced with Great Big Sea's It's The End of the World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine). They couldn't resist to end the Mix 96 branding with some CanCon. A fitting choice, nonetheless. After a few seconds of silence, the transition to Virgin Radio 96 began, complete with cheesy opening montage. And then, a mighty cry rose from the station's airstaff at the Fort & St. Catherine St. studio, for Virgin Radio 96 had begun. The first song played on the new branding was the strategically chosen Like A Virgin from Madonna. Nice touch, I suppose.
For those for you who are interested in hearing this little bit of Montreal radio history, you can download the clip of the transition from Mix 96 to Virgin Radio 96 here: http://www.mediafire.com/?1wld1mzx22n . At 93.38 MB, it's a relatively large file, but I suppose if you're a radio geek like me, it's well worth it.
Anyway, that's all for now. I'll be back next time with more exciting randomness for y'all.
No comments:
Post a Comment