Changing Vancouver Radio
byJune 5th Update: The wiki has been updated, as of 7:00 this morning here’s what 95.3 on your dial will get you:
CKZZ-FM (identified on air as 95 Crave) is a Canadian radio station in the Greater Vancouver region of British Columbia. It broadcasts at 95.3 megahertz on the FM band with an effective radiated power of 71300 watts from a transmitter on Mount Seymour, and its studios are located in Richmond. The station was owned by Standard Radio. It went off the air at midnight, June 3, 2007. It has been replaced with “Crave,” a rhythmic AC station – “music to move you.” [wiki]
So far I’ve heard C&C Music factory (which was the first group played on the original station when it came to life on Vancouver airwaves) and now Pointer Sisters – Jump (for my love). For now it’s just music while they gather their troops over the next few weeks, which seems like a novel idea… Vancouver radio actually playing music.
Stations in this city are constantly changing – whether it be personalities, call signs or format. I grew up with LG73 and the Morning Zoo and soon grew into a Fox listener for those teenage-angst years. There was a while there when we had two “new rock” stations in Vancouver with the brief introductions of xFM 104.9. Later on, LG73 became MOJO sports radio and for the last year now it has been purely traffic updates [Metblogs] . 96.9 used to be Kiss FM, which my mother was a fan of, and now it’s Jack. All of these changes I’m mentioning are basically within the last 10 years and now the latest station on the chopping block is Z95.3
We wanted you to know that the time has come for a change. As of Sunday at midnight, Z95-3 is no longer.
We can’t thank you enough for your support of Z over the years. We really appreciate it.
On Tuesday you will hear a new radio station on line (here), and on your radio at 95-3 FM. We hope you really like it. We think you will. [Z95.com]
Now I wasn’t a Z listener per se but they’ve been around since at least my elementary school days so there’s a bit of sentimentality there [wiki]. Although they were known for their bumper sticker contests and for playing the pop artist of the day at least 4 times per hour, they certainly were not the worst that Vancouver radio had to offer. John and I don’t listen to much commercial radio except a morning program here or there while getting ready for work. I’m just hoping it doesn’t turn into a) streaming Christmas music 2) another traffic station. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.
June 4th Update: From Buzz Bishop’s MySpace
“Now, you may or may not have heard about the staff changes at the station over last week. Nat Hunter, Drew Savage, Kelly Grant and Remo were all let go.” “…I wish I could tell you more, you just gotta listen tomorrow morning at 7.”
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It’s sort of funny, but i don’t know many people who listen to the radio anymore.. Most people that did now have iPod car adapters and listen to that. Brennen and all his friends (including me now) picked up XM in our cars for only $12/mo, and that gives you digital broadcasts without advertising (although, they do sneak the odd ad in from time to time). When I listened to Matt’s broadcast the other day, I had to stream it, simply because the only place I can listen to FM is in my car.
So that’s what that display at False Creek was about: I was surprised to learn that Z95 still existed, but there you go. The only radio I listen to are in podcast format or streaming online. The only radio my friends listen to are alarm clock radio or satellite radio.
“Commercial radio” somehow seems quaint, doesn’t it …
Ah, the days of LG73 / 99.3TheFox / Rock101 …
I can barely list a radio station especially since ceasing to listen to radio before coming to Vancouver. Except for the CBC, of course. I wonder what happens to all those Z(ed) points that it seems people were accumulating?
I just heard about this today too. I hope the station is good. I’d be pleased if it was a jazz station, with diverse programming like maybe using the jazz festival as a musical programming prototype. Damn, where I was I when they were focus grouping?
I’ll be happy as long as it isn’t opera, conservative talk radio or a smooth jazz station.
Vancouver radio sucks. It has for years. There was a time when we had a great station, called cjaz. It turned me onto jazz when I was about 12 years old. That station became CKSS (97 kiss) and is now CKLG FM (Jack).
There was a shimmer of hope when Clear FM went on the air. The trouble was they played only about 30% smooth jazz, and for jazz listners, we want to hear jazz all the time, not mixed in with Elton John, or Celine.
Personally I would like to see a true jazz station on the air, one that plays all flavours of jazz, from Fusion to Smooth and everything else in between. Benson, Yellow Jackets, Mike stern Rippingtons, Weather Report, RTF, Davis, Trane, Monk, Summers. I could go on, but you get my jist. I have given up on Vancouver radio, and do not listen to any of the commercial stations. There are a few “non commercial” low power stations I enjoy, and the south of the border stations have the idea.
The internet has been my savior, plenty of jazz stations to satisy my hard core jazz fixes. Perhaps some day some station owner will have the balls to put a real jazz station on the air. If I had the money, I would be that guy.
i think satellite radio did not gain so much popularity these days..,;