My
Opinion: Anyone who knows me knows my history with CFAN, 99.3 The river
and knows that I have not been a cheerleader for the station, even with
friends of mine that are on there.
I
have been impressed with some of the changes that have been made
recently with the addition of more current music and the return of Paddy
Quinn along with the hiring of Brad Legere, who I think is a talented
young broadcaster who is learning the only way you can, by doing it. I
think the reason the station has made these changes is the arrival of
the new station owned by Newcap, but whatever the reason, the changes
made were for the better.
When
I was working there, one of the questions I was asked all the time was
“Why is that station not country?” and I honestly never had a good
answer, as I always thought that was the natural format for this area. A
good compromise was the “Country Mornings” along with the more current
evenings that was in place a few years ago before the move to the new
building and programming that moved out of here. One of the issues that I
have always heard is that the music is not consistent, which is an
issue that is not going to occur now.
Is
this change going to be liked by everyone? No, and I am sure that it
was taken into consideration when the change was made. One of the things
that is going to happen is the people who enjoy country music are going
to tune in all the time, while the people who were not going to listen
anyway are still not going to listen, so nothing changes.
You
can’t throw out things like “canadian radio rules”. These are constants
of running a radio station in Canada, you have to play (I think the
number is) 35% of canadian content. It’s these rules that have built the
canadian music industry, so if you are a fan of any canadian artists,
chances are you have heard of them due to these regulations.
You
can’t cater to all as when you try to, you please no one. You have to
look at your community and see what the biggest slice of the pie is and
cater to that. There are really only 2 types and music, “Good” and “Bad”
the problem being everyone has a different definition of both of those
terms.
I
have listened to the radio station more in the past 24 hours then I
have in a really long time and when I turn it on, I am enjoying what I
am hearing. And I guess at the end of the day, that’s all that matters.