We need a radio station that will throw us a real curve

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 11/12/2010 (5424 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

There’s nothing like a change in radio formats to shake things up when your ratings stink.

And when that doesn’t work? Well, change, change again.

The latest rumour making the rounds — courtesy of national radio watchdog Airchecker Canada — is that Curve 94.3 FM, formerly known as Q-94 and the New Q-94, will fill the void left earlier this year when CFRW became Sports Radio 1290. That’s good news for fans of Good Time Oldies and Burton Cummings’ solo material, but bad news for music fans looking for any innovation in the local radio market.

Curve dubbed itself the city’s “pop alternative” and featured a playlist all over the musical map. Alt-pop groups like Tegan and Sara and Metric shared airtime with Beyoncé and the Black Eyed Peas, and you could hear Maestro Fresh Wes’s Let Your Backbone Slide side by side with Under the Bridge by the Red Hot Chili Peppers. It was an eclectic, strange mix that ultimately proved too jarring for Winnipeg commercial radio listeners, who seem to prefer a consistent format, if the station’s measly 2.9 per cent fall ratings are anything to go by.

When you tune into stations like CJOB, Hot 103, QX-104, Power 97, 92 CITI and BOB, for example, you know exactly what you are going to hear — and in many cases you will hear the same songs over and over. Want to listen to AC/DC and Led Zeppelin? CITI’s got you covered. How about new hits by Rihanna and Katy Perry? That’s Hot’s territory. Some Nickelback and bands that sound exactly like Nickelback? Power 97’s got your post-grunge fix. News on the hour and talk and opinion about local issues? Hello, CJOB.

What’s missing is an adult album alternative station — known as AAA radio — featuring up-and-coming buzz artists, along with some older favourites, that are making ripples in the industry or are continuing to make quality new music — think Bruce Springsteen and Neil Young — but don’t fit into any predefined slots that currently fill Winnipeg’s airwaves.

With Curve gone, who is playing Arcade Fire on the radio? How about the Killers? LCD Soundsystem? The National? (Note: this doesn’t include university and college stations or CBC, which offer format changes every hour or two with different hosts covering almost every music and talk niche. Music geeks should check the programming guides to acquaint themselves with the shows on each station).

Some of these bands are filling arenas in the United States, but of all the commercial stations on the air here, only Hot and Power might be able to fit them onto their playlists, since they offer the most flexibility with new music. A glance on Friday at Hot’s “30 hottest songs” of the week included none of those above-mentioned artists. Power’s “Power 20 countdown” from Dec. 4 included one act that might fit nicely on a playlist of our new imaginary station: blues-rock duo the Black Keys.

There is no doubt an oldies station is needed and wanted in the city (and cottage country), even if Curve’s owners won’t confirm the change to the horribly named Fab FM (“We’ll have announcements about future programming in the coming weeks. Playing all-Christmas music was part of our strategy over the holidays,” said Patricia Garcia, spokesperson for CTV, parent company of CHUM Radio) but as good as that news is, it heralds no innovation.

Hey, K-Rock, looks like your classic rock format is tanking. Need some ideas?

rob.williams@freepress.mb.ca