Re: All-News Failing Miserably in Montreal

["Douglas J. Broda" <djbroda@mindspring.com>]

At 09:07 AM 5/26/00 -0400, Stephen Pickford wrote:
>The first ratings book since the switch from CIQC AM 600 to CINW 940NEWS is
>out...and is undoubtedly the most dismal book in ratings history for this
>Metromedia outlet...

>Among English-speaking listeners age 12 and older --- CJAD 800AM dominates
>with 23%, followed by CJFM 95.9 (Mix 96) at 17.5%, CFQR-FM 92.5 (Q92) at
>16.6, CHOM-FM 97.7 at 7.0, CKGM 990AM (Oldies 990) at 4.0, and CINW 940NEWS
>dead-last at 2.4.

Just out of curiosity, is Radio One monitored in the books, and if so do
you know how it did?

>Whether all-news will survive in Montreal past another book or two is
>debatable...over $2.5 million has already been sunk into this venture,
>which has been lampooned by media critics (Mike Boone of The Gazette, Neal
>Ford in RadioDigest), and abandoned by listeners.  With 30-second ad-spots
>running for as low as $10CAD/$7US, money must be bleeding every minute
>940/690 are on the air, as all-news is the costliest format to operate.
>
I'm among those who don't think the promised format *or* the one they
reallhy did was ever feasible economically. Ironically, the only feasible
situation might have been to do it in a similar way to good old CKO,  with
a few cost-cutting adjustments, but that would have required at least five
more stations, IMO.

I think a Jammin' Oldies/WABC-clone in Montreal would be a much more
feasible format choice, financially and listener-wise.

------------------------------------------------------------------
Douglas J. Broda
Broda and Burnett
Attorneys at Law
80 Ferry Street, Troy, NY 12180 USA
(518) 272-0580
djbroda@mindspring.com