Having worked at 680News not that long ago, I can tell you that the way they make money is by having very few staff on hand. Jack FM is pretty much totally automated most of the day, and CHFI is pretty much the same thing. Most times I walked by those stations, the lights were off, save for the glow of the automation computer monitor.
Indeed, most stations could be run from our home computers practically. There's barely any spirit left to the beast. I can't remember the last time I was acutally surprised while listening to commercial radio. Even a skipping song would be a nice surprise at this point.
I think that was around when they started calling themselves Edge102. Thankfully that and the Eminem experiment didn't last long. It's better now - sure they play Nickelback (who doesn't?) but theres good stuff on there too. It's the only station I can tolerate.
CFNY took the Edge moniker slowly. Around 1994 it became "The Leading Edge" and then around 1997 it went with "Edge 102." A few years later it changed it again to "102.1 The Edge." If the spirit of CFNY were still alive today, there'd be no issues with the station playing hip hop (of the white or black variety). Eminem would have only been disqualified based on his over popularity.
102.1 doesn't just play mainstream rock, which is what makes it great. There is a lot of indie music, and a lot of retro music as well. And yes, they have always played other genres of music including rap: Beastie Boys, Outkast, K-OS, Delerium, etc. Yet there is some music that they inexplicably ignore, like 70's punk
I don't really agree with that. It's pretty darn mainstream these days. The "indie," "retro," and "hip hop" to be found on CFNY on any given day probably amounts to 10 songs. Their playlist has never been tighter and their likelihood of playing anything "edgey" has never been less.
It's better than other mainstream stations, but if you listened to CFNY in the 80's and early 90s, you would realize that it's gone way downhill ever since. Exhibit A - Nickelback.
It went downhill waaaay before Nickelback. The station was one one of the two most influential stations on the continent between 1978 and the early 1990s. It was still a relatively progressive beast until about 1996 when there was no turning the corporatization back. It pretends to live of its storied history, but it's truly not even a fossil of what it was.
Except that they don't play "new rock". They play rock from the mid 90's, like Pearl Jam, Nirvana. Ugh, get OVER it! There is so much new stuff that they avoid.
Indeed. To call themselves on the "edge" of anything is probably the biggest misnomer in Toronto radio. For instance, why do they have no problem playing then groundbreaking electronic music from the 1980s, but they won't touch anything from beyond? Also, while their "Ongoing History of New Music" program is generally a pleasure to listen to, it misses about 75% of the "new music" that was happening. It's always an extremely linear telling of what is a much larger story.
I listen to CBC radio myself and a bit of the uni stations too. I'm also slightly surprised by the depth of Pride 103.9's playlist (mostly during overnights though). Other than that, internet radio is where it's at for me. WOXY, BBC 6 Music, Last-FM, Radio Nova and CBC Radio 3 being my stand-out faves.
Having said all of the above, FM radio continues to make money because most people are quite lazy and don't really care if the song they are listening to is derivative and overplayed. They just want background noise and a sense of comfort in knowing that most other people are listening to the very same thing. More adventurous radio could easily make money in a musical hot-bed like Toronto. Sadly though, all our stations are owned by publically traded media conglomerates who will only offer what will make the most money for their shareholders. This is why all our stations sounds the same for the most part.
