2006.12.20
Why is Calgary radio so bad?
I’ve lived in or near Calgary for most of my life, and I have to say that the radio in this city is rather pitiful. You would think a city as large as Calgary would have at least a few decent radio stations, but that’s not really the case.
So what’s on the airwaves here? The majority of the stations fall into the following slots:
- Country music
- Rock music
- Top 40 / Pop
- Classical
- Talk
- Easy Listening
- JACK format
There’s a notable lack of anything else. There’s no decent Jazz station. There’s no dance / electronic / underground station. There’s no alternative station.
I still remember when the JACK FM station launched in Calgary. For a while it was the most popular FM station in the city. Take that as a measure of how bad things were – a station which essentially is a hundred or so CDs on shuffle was the most popular one for a while. How pathetic is that? I’m embarrassed to admit that the JACK format originated here in Canada (Vancouver, actually).
As bad as things are, there are a few bright points in our radio constellation:
What all these stations have in common is a bit of a variety of formats (especially CJSW, the University of Calgary station), and a lack of corporate overseers. The CBC stations are funded by the federal government. CKUA used to be funded by the provincial government though it is now run as a non-profit and funded primarily by listener donations. CJSW is almost all-volunteer run and again funded mostly by donations.
Definitely commercial radio has let us down in Calgary – the best stations we have are all non-commercial entities. Sadly, things don’t seem to be improving much.
Fortunately, there’s another way to get radio nowadays – the internet. What I find really interesting is that the station I listen to the most online is actually a regular old radio station in San Francisco. Energy 92.7 is an unusual station, to say the least. They play dance music. And lots of it. While they are a for-profit operation, they aren’t owned by any of the radio megacorporations, and you can tell if you listen to their programming. Some of the things they air would probably make ClearChannel executives squirm more than a little bit. But I love it.
I guess the best indicator of this is how much Energy 92.7 has influenced my music purchases. During the last 6 months, the vast majority of the music I’ve purchased was things I heard first on Energy 92.7. Some of it eventually makes it to Calgary’s Top 40 format stations, but I guarantee a track like Tom Novy‘s Take It will never be aired on the radio in Calgary. And it would be rather unusual to hear Paul Oakenfold, Gabriel and Dresden, or heck, even some of the dance remixes of Madonna‘s recent singles on the radio here.
And for a real trip, how many other radio stations actually play Mash-ups on the air? I can’t think of any in Canada.
There’s a bit of hope yet for Calgary, though. Recently a new adult comtemporary / jazz station launched here, though it’s not really to my taste. Also, we’ll have to see what CFEX turns out like in January. Hopefully they don’t degenerate into another CJAY – one is more than enough.
So until one of Calgary’s radio overlords clues in, I’ll stick mostly to San Francisco’s finest and my iPod, venturing out to CKUA and CJSW from time to time.
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