Changes coming to HNIC and Fan960?

[NewFan]

Local Radio, I can understand they talk about own teams more.
But there are 5 Sportsnet, 5 TSN something channels and they show only 2,3 North American sports?
Any World Championship type competition of any sports are so interesting to watch. Wrestling, Boxing, Swimming, Table tennis, Volleyball, Field and track, cycling, shooting even chess matches. I'm sure it will cost money but there should be one or two sport channels to show all international sport events 7 x 24 hours.
I saw Chinese CCTV Sport channels which always shows some kind of international sports. Canada is big county, like G7 country but its sports TV is operates like small city local TV.

[smithtofuhr86]

Originally Posted by SportsJunky

Great job today Boomer.

Totally agree, the show he put together was fantastic and if anyone on this thread was a fan of the Walker, Rhett & Boomer mixed in with a little Stephen Brunt you have to check out the show from today. I believe it is up on the podcast already. It was a fun trip down memory lane with clips, laughs, serious chatter and tears. I normally enjoy scrolling CP as I have few years and hardly ever comment but I was compelled to come on here and share this and also say thank you to Boomer. I didn't think it would hit me as much as it did and knowing he is going to be gone in the mornings actually made me realize how damn long I have been listening to the show. I remember doing the awful commute from New Brighton to Mission and getting stuck on Barlow / Sheppard trying to sneak into Ogden back in 2010 / 2011 or so and it was the Boomer / Walker / Rhett mix that would make that up to at times 50 minute commute pass by better.

[Jay Random]

Originally Posted by NewFan

I saw Chinese CCTV Sport channels which always shows some kind of international sports. Canada is big county, like G7 country but its sports TV is operates like small city local TV.

China has 1.4 billion people. Canada has less than three percent of that, and the English-speaking market is smaller still. The market simply is not big enough to support niche programming on that level.

[CroFlames]

Originally Posted by Jay Random

China has 1.4 billion people. Canada has less than three percent of that, and the English-speaking market is smaller still. The market simply is not big enough to support niche programming on that level.

Maybe Canadians should have more kids then so I can have diverse sports radio.

[smithtofuhr86]

Originally Posted by Delgar

What a morning on the Fan960.

I have no idea what personal problems he was referring to, but he sure meant it. Glad to hear he overcame them.

He got suspended one time as he made a comment about a plane crash I believe regarding the Riders CFL football team.

[soulchoice]

Originally Posted by GirlySports

Do you guys think the issue with 960 is it's too limited to hockey? Yes, the majority of people in Calgary love hockey and talk Flames, but you can't do that 24/7 365.

Should they talk about local sports more, university sports, high school sports, Stampeders, or there's World Volleyball in town this week.

In the States, national sports radio talks about NFL year round for hours and hours but pivot to NBA and MLB and NCAA and other issues, sometimes political, throughout the year if there's big news. Local radio I believe talks about their local teams.

I am not local at the moment, as I am in the UK for the year, however, the only teams I like to hear about are the Flames and the NHL. I have zero interest and immediately turn off the dial when they discuss any of the amateur sports in the city. Even the CFL chat, I have very little interest in, but it would not be as abysmal as having to listen to a discussion about Uni/High School sports, or any local sports besides the Flames for that matter.

I hope the Fan 960 sticks around though. I still stream it and when in Calgary, I didn't even mind the NBA and NFL talk from the CBS sports stream at night or Rome earlier in the day.

[timun]

Originally Posted by GirlySports

Do you guys think the issue with 960 is it's too limited to hockey? Yes, the majority of people in Calgary love hockey and talk Flames, but you can't do that 24/7 365.

Should they talk about local sports more, university sports, high school sports, Stampeders, or there's World Volleyball in town this week.

In the States, national sports radio talks about NFL year round for hours and hours but pivot to NBA and MLB and NCAA and other issues, sometimes political, throughout the year if there's big news. Local radio I believe talks about their local teams.

Originally Posted by CroFlames

Absolutely they should. But I've heard snarky remarks over the years from the panelists and hosts themselves about how no one cares about other sports. They aren't interested in covering anything else.

They don't have the broadcast rights to anything else. Why cover a sport that they don't make money off of? It's as simple as that.

This is precisely why for the last 15ish years in the US ESPN was incredibly snarky and dismissive of hockey. E.g. you really wanna know why the goofs on 960 (Rogers) joke about the CFL? Because 770 (Corus) and TSN (Bell) make money off of it, and they don't.




I am flabbergasted that people have any affinity for 960 whatsoever. If it went off the air I'd scarcely notice; according to Numeris they're generally the second-least-listened-to radio station in the city save for a bit of a bump in the spring if the Flames are in the playoffs. Outside of Flames games the programming is atrocious, I can't bear to listen to it for more than a minute or so at a time.

[craigwd]

Originally Posted by NewFan

Local Radio, I can understand they talk about own teams more.
But there are 5 Sportsnet, 5 TSN something channels and they show only 2,3 North American sports?
Any World Championship type competition of any sports are so interesting to watch. Wrestling, Boxing, Swimming, Table tennis, Volleyball, Field and track, cycling, shooting even chess matches. I'm sure it will cost money but there should be one or two sport channels to show all international sport events 7 x 24 hours.
I saw Chinese CCTV Sport channels which always shows some kind of international sports. Canada is big county, like G7 country but its sports TV is operates like small city local TV.

I highly recommend the Olympic Channel on CBC Gem and streaming CBC Sports or Eurovision.

Like you I really want to see all of this stuff on my main TV channels but this is the next best thing.

[flambers]

Originally Posted by CroFlames

Absolutely they should. But I've heard snarky remarks over the years from the panelists and hosts themselves about how no one cares about other sports. They aren't interested in covering anything else.

I would disagree.... Fan960 and the various on air personalities are fully aware if they chatted about those type of sports.

They would simply lose listeners.

[flambers]

Originally Posted by timun

I am flabbergasted that people have any affinity for 960 whatsoever. If it went off the air I'd scarcely notice; according to Numeris they're generally the second-least-listened-to radio station in the city save for a bit of a bump in the spring if the Flames are in the playoffs. Outside of Flames games the programming is atrocious, I can't bear to listen to it for more than a minute or so at a time.

My understanding Fan960 especially the morning show did very well in terms of listeners.

Boomer, Warrener and Pinder were great. Fun show.

It will be missed

[keenan87]

I was always a little disappointed how little they talked about the Raptors. They spend hours talking about Blue Jays so why not basketball?

[Hey Connor, It's Mess]

Originally Posted by Jiri Hrdina

And during those 10 minutes listeners switch the dials.

Listeners are turning the dials anyway. Actually, with increasing regularity, they never turned it on to begin with. Radio is a dying medium. No one my age ever listens to the radio and I suspect it's becoming the same for older people as well. Why bother when you have unlimited access to music and podcasts in commercial-free form?

960 could disappear tomorrow and no one would know or care outside of a very narrow demographic.

[GioforPM]

When Richards left people predicted Boomer would suck as the centrepiece. Wrong.

[Northendzone]

I feel like it took boomer about 9 months to really grow into his role and make the show his.

I felt like mike was a hard act to follow

[jaydub74]

Originally Posted by flambers

I would disagree.... Fan960 and the various on air personalities are fully aware if they chatted about those type of sports.

They would simply lose listeners.

I was one of those listeners, don’t listen often now as I don’t commute, but if I Turn it on and they’re not talking hockey I immediately turn it off. No interest in MLB, NBA or football. Hockey or I’d rather listen to a podcast or music.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Number 39]

I’m an out of town Flames and Stamps fan. If they’re not talking about either I tune out.

[getbak]

Originally Posted by flambers

My understanding Fan960 especially the morning show did very well in terms of listeners.

No, not really. Here are the ratings for the last year:

• Summer 2021
• Fall 2021
• Winter 2021-22
• Spring 2022

AMA is the average number of listeners each station gets per minute; Daily Cume is the number of unique listeners each station gets per day on average; and Share is the percentage of all time spent listening to the radio by everyone in the market that each station gets.


Sportsnet 960 is CFAC. It has been consistently near the bottom of the ratings for years, finishing only ahead of Funny 1060. In the latest ratings (Feb-May 2022), SN960 also surpassed Wild 95.3 for the first time and finished ahead of CBC-FM. The improvement was likely tied to an increased interest in the Flames during the spring.

These are total listener numbers for anyone 12+ in all dayparts, so there are likely demographic splits by age and gender where they rank higher, but there isn't much that can be done to help out bad underlying numbers.

[Jay Random]

It's my understanding that those demographic splits are precisely what has kept 960 afloat all these years. It's not a large audience, but it's mostly male and not particularly young, and most listeners have a fair amount of disposable income. If you have a product that you want to target at middle-aged men with money to spend, 960 has been a good place to find them.

[GioforPM]

It probably is worth mentioning that a lot of those stations have a common owner and therefore it’s about total coverage in the market. It’s not a zero sum game for them.

[PuckSlap]

I enjoyed the humour for a few years, but started to lose me more and more around 2018. Then as soon as Covid hit, I completely tuned out.

Not only that, but the talent that’s been added in the past 4 years or so; has completely lost touch with what made the fan, so good. That included Peter Klein, Will nault and Matt rose

Seems whenever I tune in, they’re not even talking series about the flames. It’s always something unrelated.

And ya, I know Klein was let go a year ago. But so many liked him. But I actually couldn’t stand him towards the end.