Posted by Jonathan
(luvradio) on May 13, 2008, 10:07 pm, in reply to "CHR"
74.12.19.32
"Mix 99.9 plays more recurrents/older tracks...admittedly now mostly tracks that have been CHR hits..than current/new tracks.... CHUM-FM and Mix (especially CHUM, which has a greater emphasis on currents)"
(I can't believe I've given any time to this, but) if the 3 pm hour this afternoon was representative enough, and I'm defining currents right, it's a wash and they both play somewhere around half. Spot-checks of a few other fairly typical hours showed CHUM maybe playing one or two more currents some hours. But Mix has a drivetime countdown and CHUM has a retro show and accomodations for those are liable to throw off 'typical' hour averages around them.
CKFM-FM
3:04 PM RIHANNA Umbrella (f/Jay-Z)
> 3:07 PM ESTELLE American Boy f/ Kanye West
3:11 PM OUR LADY PEACE Somewhere Out There
> 3:15 PM KREESHA TURNER Don't Call Me Baby
3:19 PM CARRIE UNDERWOOD Before He Cheats
> 3:22 PM LEONA LEWIS Bleeding Love
> 3:26 PM HEDLEY For The Nights
3:37 PM BEYONCE Irreplaceable
> 3:40 PM STATE OF SHOCK Hearts That Bleed
3:44 PM USHER U Got It Bad
3:48 PM AVRIL LAVIGNE Girlfriend
> 3:59 PM JORDIN SPARKS No Air f/Chris Brown
CHUM-FM
3:04 PM NELLY FURTADO Say It Right
> 3:08 PM JORDIN SPARKS No Air f/Chris Brown
> 3:12 PM NEW KIDS ON THE BLOCK Summertime
3:16 PM SERENA RYDER Weak In The Knees
> 3:20 PM KYLIE MINOGUE All I See f/MIMS
3:23 PM FERGIE Big Girls Don't Cry (Personal)
3:27 PM MODJO Lady
> 3:31 PM HEDLEY Never Too Late
> 3:35 PM KREESHA TURNER Don't Call Me Baby
3:43 PM RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS Under The Bridge
3:47 PM NE-YO Because Of You
> 3:51 PM SIMPLE PLAN Your Love Is A Lie
3:59 PM SEAN PAUL Get Busy
There is extremely little difference between these stations' music programming today. CHUM-FM has retro blocks and also a few weekly live-to-air dance things, while Mix sticks to request shows and a weeknight countdown.
Mix's strongest and most consistent differentiator for years was that they went rockier, by share of the playlist and by hardness of the hardest song, than CHUM-FM; not today. Probably the hardest recent hit between them, Three Days Grace, "Never Too Late," I got the sense was pushed earlier and harder by CHUM than the Mix. Apparently you almost have to be a Cancon act, preferably local, with a Big Message Song with positive and topical lyrics to break through to these stations with that certain sort of power pop-rock song that once in large measure defined them, see also Crash Parallel, "World We Know."
For a little while, Mix seemed to have leapfrogged CHUM at adding some of the "rhythmic" hits they never played the first time around. Mix will play 50 Cent, "In Da Club," occasionally where I believe CHUM-FM still won't. On the other hand, Mix actually thinks adding "In Da Club" in 2008 is the least bit impressive to anyone; they'd have been better off letting it go. And CHUM has lately totally cottoned to the late Notorious B.I.G., bringing both "Mo' Money, Mo' Problems" and "Hypnotize" from nowhere to a spin every day or two.
Points to the Mix for making at least one recent gutfeel add of a more traditional hot AC sort of song, Pascale Picard, "Gate 22." I way prefer her "Smilin'!!," which we will probably never hear on English-station commercial radio. Could we get an Énergie in Toronto with Astral here at least? ...I say this wishfully; I know we can't.
So. We had this Hot AC format battle, and it was so closely fought the stations... both left the format to fight it!
Let's see how far we've come, let's see how far we've come...
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