Related Story… . .
CALGARY – A Calgary radio station has given up a format featuring shorter versions of songs which it said gave listeners twice the music.
The station, 90.3 Amp (CKMP), changed to the style called QuickHitz nearly three weeks ago.
Owner Newcap Radio said it was a first for a radio station in Canada and perhaps the world to take up the format.
But Steve Jones, vice-president of programming, says the station went back to its original format today.
He says there were threats of lawsuits on behalf of a number of unnamed musical artists and the company decided it wasn’t worth it to continue.
Jones says he is convinced that the format is a good one and could be rejigged and brought back in the future.
I still contend it was all a marketing scheme. Look how many people were talking about this station after it made the change! Well done, I guess?
Wonder if Jan Arden will now take to Twitter and apologize for her “small”-minded and Insensitive remarks directed at Mr. Jones?
“I still contend it was all a marketing scheme. Look how many people were talking about this station after it made the change! Well done, I guess?”
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If you intend on murdering someone, then change your mind. you’re not exactly a hero, nor can you say you’ve saved that person.
You’re still a creepy person !
Chances are, Amp Radio will come up with another silly gimmick in a few months time and all for naught.
Agreed, Just Saying. They’re the same ones who did the boob job giveaway and burning the money. They’re so desperate for ratings they’re willing to go out of their way to use silly cheap tricks.
I hope they remember that the brightest flames burn out the fastest.
I’m sure the fact that no advertiser wanted to be associated with this train wreck had something to do with it as well.
Rumor is, it was actually the source of this format – SparkNet – that got the big legal letter from Universal Music. It (SparkNet) then had to inform its clients. It went quickly downhill after that.
This was never a stunt. It was a creative way to crawl from the bottom of the CHR pile. If it worked, you would have seen others jump on it. Which begs a question: Wasn’t JUMP in Ottawa supposed to be Quikhitz?
The labels have their heads in the sand on this. Never mind the editing, the number of weekly spins on the station would nearly double. The playlist would be deepened and the station would likely have to add more cancon, more gold, and more new artists. The station would have gone deeper into the labels’ rosters and more artists would get exposure. That’s a plus for labels, not a negative.
Jann Arden’s behaviour in this debate was deplorable. Her ‘art’ was never relevant to this discussion. Sean Ross’ piece explained the idea very well, it is terrible that dinosaur bullies moved the station off this effort.
http://www.edisonresearch.com/fresh-listen-quickhitz-90-3-amp-calgary/
I’m certain money is at the bottom of this. This station sounds desperate. Maybe they ought to just try good programming instead of stunts… and I don’t think Ms Arden needs to apologise for anything.. AMP’s guys need to ask forgiveness of the artists whose work they butchered, and listeners who’s intelligence they insulted.
It would be interesting to see the legaleze on that letter. IMHO, as long as radio stations are paying for the music, it should be theirs to do with as they please whether that’s playing only part of it , speeding it up, editing it, adding dynamic compression or even playing it to death. I don’t imagine there would ever be a time where a Music Label or, indeed, an artist will ask a station to NOT play a song as much.
Everyone is missing the point here. Most of the potential audience is getting its music from this new gizmo called a Smartphone (look it up), which allows you to skip any song you don’t like any time you want, or listen to it three times if you do like it. For the most part, they’re not even listening to radio! This is the kind of thinking that happens when radio people only talk to radio people. As Gary Russell said a long time ago, “When you’re in radio, you think everybody listens to the radio.” No they don’t. Stop being so clueless. As for Jann Arden, I must agree that you don’t go to the art gallery to look at half a painting.
One would think the labels would be on-board with twice the spincount, that would boost their overall plays and royalties.
Considering some very talented radio people have lost their jobs for MUCH MUCH less – it would be very hard for the almighty to defend their ‘cuts’ and then have this debacle take place, where nobody loses their job? We’ll see. It wasn’t smart, researched, or proven. It was simply a case of some radio people being ignorant of the world around them. Based on ‘shrinking attention spans’? A knee jerk strategy made by self absorbed radio management who believe they understand social science. They don’t. They don’t even remember what ‘listening’ to the radio means. (Ever ask a ‘listener’ what TSL or CUME mean?)
Theres no such thing as bad publicity. These guys love the attention. Next they’ll kidnap a dog and hold it hostage unless folks tune-in
I very much enjoy washed up old radio people who are so afraid of change. The same that enjoy10 in a row, giving away 101 dollars via the prize vault and think using Facebook/Twitter as a tool for your station is STUPID. Eventually, you’ll all be out of the industry, and radio will be able to move forward.