[nostalgie]

Forecast for tonight… if travelling to Toronto?

Heres what you need!

http://jinglemad.com/e107_files/public/1221004458_12139_FT0_cjez_weather_off_air.mp3 filename:cjez_weather_off_air.mp3

[TheMix]

Thierry:

As a thank you for the Canadian stuff (and the Québec stuff as well!) I've uploaded some off-air airchecks on the 'Download' section. Most come from Birmingham, England (Smooth Radio, BBC WM and Coventry/Warwickshire, Heart, LBC)

I'll see if I can upload some more in the near future.

Thanks again (and thanks for the EZ Rock cut)

[TheMix]

Whilst on the subject of Toronto radio: you've probably heard- Rick Hodge has left CHUM-FM?
What a shock. 25 years as Roger, Rick and Marilyn now its just Roger and Marilyn?!?

Also is Proud FM really a gay station, or is it just a cover so Evanov can get a station in Toronto? (He also owns Z103-5 in Orangeville) It will probably go the same way as Flow 93.5 which was originally Hip-Hop/RnB but it now more of a Dance/RnB station. Sucks but why can't the radio operators just be honest?

[nostalgie]

Proud FM is really a gay station, but totally “commercial” in the way they do things (most of the time).

Their staff on the air is very pleasant, friendly (and not too much stereotyped). For example, they have a very good announcer in the drive show (between 3:00 and 7:00 pm) which is a party guy, funny, easy going, with a deep male voice. Totally commercial. Totally FM… with a different spoken content. More unexpected than what usual radio offers, but never shocking.

I also like the morning team. However, they already lost a BIG name for that show: Mary Jo Eustace. (One of the best female announcer that I've heard on the air in Toronto. She also has a TV Show on W Channel I think.) She was the “soul” of CIRR (PROUD FM), even if she was not lesbian. Ken Kostick & her on the air were totally hilarious! I heard that she left to have more time with some personal plans.

For those who don't know Mary Jo, she was born and raised in Toronto. Then, she moved to Los Angeles when Dean McDermott went south to develop his acting career. They had two children.

McDermott left Eustace to marry Tori Spelling. Eustace has since returned to Canada with her children.

Controversy about CIRR FM
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org

The application has faced a number of controversies, both within Toronto's gay community and among outside groups.

Pink Triangle Press, the publisher of the city's LGBT newspaper Xtra!, was originally a partner in the application, but pulled out in December 2005. Pink Triangle alleged that Evanov Communications (owner of CIRR-FM) was not genuinely committed to serving LGBT audiences, but was instead proposing an LGBT station as a “bait and switch” manoeuvre to get the company into the Toronto market (where reception of the company's existing contemporary hit radio station Z 103.5 is unreliable), with the intention of dropping LGBT programming and converting the station to a mainstream format shortly after its launch.

Evanov has stated a commitment to serving LGBT audiences, but refused Pink Triangle's request to have the commitment reiterated in a legally binding contract. (???)

(…) Several interventions opposing the application, as well as National Post columnist Lorne Gunter, noted that the CRTC had not issued an open call for other applications, alleging that the application was given special treatment by the CRTC for “politically correct” reasons.

Some other commentators have directly linked the station's approval to the CRTC's denial in 2003 of a licence for a Roman Catholic radio station in Toronto, alleging religious discrimination. In the licence approval, however, the CRTC noted that because the 103.9 frequency (CIRR) is second-adjacent to Evanov's own Z-103.5, and Evanov would therefore have to give its consent to accept a zone of radio frequency interference to Z-103's signal, the company would effectively have had veto rights over any competing application for the frequency.

Further intervenors, including several major commercial radio companies, indicated that the station's proposed format did not offer a sufficiently clear distinction from other commercial radio stations already broadcasting in the Toronto market.

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