910 CKDQ Rebrand

[TRENT310]

As of this morning, Newcap has unified music format, branding and jingle package for both of their 50kW AM country stations in Alberta.
Jackie-Rae is program director, but not sure if engineering is still handled out of Red Deer.


http://910cfcw.com

[jon]

With CFCW-840 sending almost no signal to the South at night, and not much during the day, and Drumheller's 50KW 910 patterns strongly favouring North, combining the two should provide excellent coverage for all points North of Calgary.

A look at the Program Schedule shows that 910 will carry a combination of unique programming and CFCW-840 programming:
http://910cfcw.com/index.asp?mn=11&cc=2&id=30

One interesting error on the web site. The title in the browser tab for Drumheller is "910 CFCW FM".

[TRENT310]

This is a bit of a throwback to the Cat Country days (nope, still haven't let go) with the time-synchronized network programming and the same challenges for the local announcers to get any somewhat-local commentary snuck in between. First day hiccups no doubt, heard a few accidental 840 CFCW IDs aired on 910 and some Larry Donohue cutting in on Kristopher Jay, weather for the wrong region, and some advertising for the wrong region as well - although I suppose that could now be turned into a marketing feature.

As a personal preference, I tend to like a contemporary Country format rather than the more traditional/classic Country format, so this reduces my listening choices - but time will tell as to whether this appeals even more to the rest of their listener demographic. This may be an attempt to fill the void left by 1060 CKMX and in light of the recent format change by CHPK.


The audio imbalance continues to be an issue, with the right channel attenuated compared the left causing a lot of the resultant mono mixdown over the air to seem like there is only left channel - this is discernible on content that is originally stereo-sourced, or songs that make heavy use of stereophonic effects.

[albertaboy4life]

The dual AM station strategy certainly helps in Red Deer. Last week, while visiting the area 840 AM disappeared at sunset while 910 AM was of reasonable listening quality - not quite local level signal quality but still good.

I still give the edge to 910 over 840 when it comes to audio processing. 840 is way better than 790 was in its final days but 910 wins for sound quality.

[albertaboy4life]

For the record -

CFCW classic country radio launches

Written by Pat Kolafa | © DrumhellerMail.com


Now with even more reach, Q91 in Drumheller has joined the iconic 840 CFCW in creating an Alberta-wide classic country radio station.
At 9:10 a.m. Monday morning, CFCW 910 was launched in Drumheller. Hilary Montbourquette, director of regional operations for Newcap Radio explains that combining the energy of the Q91 and CFCW brands made sense and creates a superstation serving from Slave Lake to the US border.

“It is a new era in radio in Southern Alberta, and really across Alberta, because we are merging our legendary 840 CFCW brand with out Q91 brand into this super AM network to serve all of Alberta,” said Montbourquette. “I think the difference you will notice in Drumheller and Southern Alberta is in our content.”

Jackie Rae Greening, manager of operations for Newcap, explains the new format of classic country will delve into the archives of country music with names like Johnny Cash and George Jones, but still play contemporary artists.

“Country music is at a junction right now, it is the widest it has been in format in relation to pop-rock country and traditional country. That is why we felt it was time to make 910 part of the CFCW brand because AM radio is just meant for that real country music,” said Greening.

Beyond the music, Montbourquette says listeners will notice a difference in terms of news, information and content and it will have an Alberta wide reach.
“Newcap is very excited about this merge,” said Montbourquette.

- http://www.drumhellermail.com/news/2825 ... o-launches

Missing from the story is that Jackie Rae worked at CKDQ and was last on the air there, prior to the current re-brand, in 1988.

[the-real-deal]

You can tell the listenership priorities of a local radio station with their news department and how they cover local stories.

It seems that NewCap Alberta does a decent job of covering the crime beat, but not so much other types of breaking news, such as politics.

Not a single sports story is even mentioned on their website. No national or international news.

With the link of signals between CFCW and Q91 covering a humungus amount of ground, and based on what stories I just read on their website, it seems that they tend to report mostly on rural crime stories about Alberta towns, although the occasional Edmonton breaking news story is also mentioned.

So, in other words, unless the cops gives CFCW a presser, gift-wrapped, no need to call cops at all, right ?

That is a lazy type of journalism that belies an Alberta Superstation like CFCW.

After you scrape away the folksy, white rural folk writing, (which is admittedly quite good), what this is, is a missed opportunity by Newcap?

No point in blasting at 50,000 watts, if your newsroom is weak and lazy.

[Rocky]

CFCW news went downhill after Mike Goetze died.