Simple Plan, Paisley, Ladies to play MTS

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 12/10/2005 (7394 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A trio of new concert announcements means MTS Centre will remain busy through the winter.

Montreal rock band Simple Plan, West Virginia country singer Brad Paisley and Toronto pop quintet Barenaked Ladies will each play the downtown arena when the weather turns foul, three North American music-biz giants said yesterday in a series of unrelated press releases.

Simple Plan, who last visited Winnipeg during April’s Juno Awards, will play the Phone Booth on Thursday, Dec. 1, promoter ClearChannel Entertainment announced yesterday. Hedley, the Vancouver rock band that sold out three shows last week at the West End Cultural Centre, opens up. Tickets go on sale Friday, Oct. 14, for $37.50 plus fees at Ticketmaster, 780-3333 or www.ticketmaster.ca, beginning at 10 a.m.

Country star Paisley is coming on Sunday, Jan. 22, with Canadian Terri Clark in tow, promoter House of Blues announced. Tickets go on sale Saturday, Nov. 15, for $55.50 and $42.50 plus fees, also at Ticketmaster.

And the Barenaked Ladies’ Christmas-Hanukkah show on Wednesday, Dec. 21, has found a home at the MTS Centre, management company Nettwerk announced. Ticket info for this concert, which popped up on Pollstar last week, remains TBA.

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As a CBC Radio listener, I tuned in yesterday morning in the hopes of hearing the return of regular programming following the end of the annoying, nine-week lockout.

No such luck. The news was back, but there was no Information Radio or The Current, as the public broadcaster was not ready to return to prime time. Instead, it offered up “transitional” programming created by Quebec workers, whose union did not take part in the labour dispute.

As a local news junkie, I was back with CJOB within minutes. If this “transition” lasts one more day, it will be embarrassing for normally competent CBC Radio, which generally was spared the scathing criticism suffered by CBC Television during the lockout.

Memo to CBC head office in Toronto: Do you have any idea what you’re doing?

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Speaking of ‘OB, the Winnipeg talk-radio outlet remained the most popular station in town during the summer, according to the latest audience survey by BBM Canada.

CJOB attracted 17.2 per cent of Winnipeg radio listeners aged 12 and up in the summer ratings book, considered the least important of three annual BBM surveys when it comes to setting advertising rates.

Here are the commercial-radio audience shares for the summer, with spring 2005 numbers in parentheses. All numbers reflect the percentage of Winnipeg radio listeners aged 12 and up:

1. CJOB: 17.2 per cent (16.3 per cent)

2. Power 97: 10.1 (9.8)

3. QX 104: 9.8 (8.7)

4. Hot 103: 7.8 (8.9)

5. BOB FM: 7.6 (7.7)

6. 92 CITI: 6.3 (6.2)

7. Clear FM: 4.6 (3.8)

8. Q-94 FM: 4.6 (7.4)

9. 1290 CFRW: 3.3 (2.8)

10. The Breeze: 3.2 (2.3)

11. COOL FM: 2.2 (2.8)

12. Freq 107: 1.6 (1.0)

bartley.kives@freepress.mb.ca