Quote:
Originally Posted by Jiri Hrdina
Well, the issue is more broadly that radio is suffering. Prior to covid less people were listening and listening less often. And now with less people commuting, for stations that depend on that "Drive" traffic which have always been the key hours for both stations and advertisers, I suspect it has taken another hit.
So radio is suffering overall.
But formats like sports and news then have higher costs b/c of way higher staff expenses. So they become even more vulnerable to these moves.
A music station can survive because, for the most part, a lot of them are staffing the morning drive, MAYBE (but not always) the afternoon drive and the rest can be voice tracked, where the DJ lays down 6 hours of programming ahead of time, in 2 hours. A computer decides what songs to play and when, and the DJ just drops in the usual banter in between. They record all that in advance.
If you walked in a radio station after 7 PM, you'd be stunned to see that there is no one there. It's just all being run by computers.
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Also to be fair Calgary has one big game in town and it's the Flames. The Stamps have a niche fan base and the CFL isn't big enough to have compelling news on a day to day basis. In the US it's a lot different in markets where a city would have a MLB, NFL, NBA, NHL etc team as they have big time sports going on every single month of the year and large fan bases following them. Ratings are going to be good all year round in cities like that. Toronto is probably the only Canadian city that has that kind of fan diversity.