I keep hearing, and reading, really strong rumours that the CJCH Hotline, the talk show hosted by Rick Howe, will not survive the station's transition to FM. I am pretty sure that the FM home for the station will be 103.1. I keep tuning in to that frequency to see if they are testing their signal. Still nothing there. Feel silly, tuning into a radio frequency expecting to hear something. Only do it when I am alone. People wouldn't understand. Please don't tell anyone.
Once they have tested the signal sufficiently, they will be ready to make the flip. The question is, what will the format be? Oshtur, Crom and Mitra know that there are already stations that play what we would call Oldies, music recorded when I was but a pup. Kool FM plays such music, and I am not much interested in listening. So does Q104, and as much as I personally like the rapport of the jocks on the morning show, and admire J.C. Douglas, I find it hard to listen to the same damnable rock songs over and over. Hal FM is all about old, "classic" rock, songs that we're all sick of hearing. They as much as acknowledged that on the air last summer, but they still play that shit over and over and over again. C100 plays some vintage music. 780 Kixx plays old country songs. Why do we need yet another oldies station in this market? Frig, I'd pee on a spark plug if we could end up with a station in this market that had a truly compelling format, one that made me want to quit my job, sit home in my underwear all day, and listen to it to the expense of personal hygiene and social interaction.
CJCH had that format, for a while at least. Strained my relationship with Patricia. In 2002, when they started playing music again, they played music that you couldn't hear anywhere else, not even by Stan Carew on CBC every weekend. They played some jazz, some big band, some really obscure 1950's era pop, that I enjoyed very, very much. The morning show lead nicely into the 9:30 scrum with Brian Phillips, Rick Howe and Doug Reynolds (now Deb Smith) talking about the issues of the day. Then, Rick would do his Hotline for 3 hours, before we were treated to more of that wonderful music. Sigh.
And, every December, they would play interesting Christmas music played by no other station. Double sigh.
But they dropped the big band music, the older stuff, and replaced it with stuff from the 1960's and '70's, songs played to death by other stations. It is hard to get behind that music. I still miss the Andrews Sisters! I want to hear Glenn Miller! Where is Les Brown and his Band of Renown when a fella wants to hear them?
While they still have that morning scrum, it now doesn't start until at least 9:45, and now, closer to 9:50. I enjoy that interaction with the 3 hosts (these days, Rick, Deb, and news reader Chris Mills). But when the Hotline is over, I stop listening to the station until the next morning. Just don't want to hear the music.
And, the way they keep canceling their spoken word programming (Just Between Us, Renovations, the X Zone Radio Show, etc.) all makes me think that the Hotline is toast. Very sad.
Giddy. Overtime done. Hee hee.
Bevboy
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