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CHR/Top 40
This essay, Coast To Coast With Canadian Top 40 – Part III: Saskatoon & Calgary, was written by Sean Ross for Radio-Info.com's CHR/Top 40 column.
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Coast To Coast With Canadian Top 40 – Part III: Saskatoon & Calgary
Read Part I: St. John’s to Ottawa and Part II: Toronto to Winnipeg
We started working our way across Canada’s large-market Top 40s more than a week ago in honor of Canadian Music Week. In this installment, two surprisingly fierce races on the Prairie, with another one coming in our next installment.
Rawlco’s C95 was, at one time, an Adult Top 40 with an unusual dollop of Classic Hits—not unlike WRFY (Y102) Reading, Pa., in the days before it evolved to Rock AC altogether—very much the Top 40 station you’d expect from a group that cheerfully embraces hybrids. With the arrival of crosstown CFWD (Wired), and the subsequent hiring of Wired PD Chris Myers, it’s more mainstream Top 40 but still adult leaning.
Here’s C95 at 4:00 p.m. on Monday (8), with the help of BDSRadio.com (which monitored while I drove):
Young Money, “Bedrock”
Mariana’s Trench, “All To Myself”
Lady Gaga, “Bad Romance”
Theory of a Deadman, “Santa Monica”
Cascada, “Evacuate The Dancefloor”
Nickelback, “Never Gonna Be Alone”
50 Cent, “In Da Club”
Lady Gaga f/Beyoncé, “Telephone”
Kanye West, “Gold Digger”
Mariana’s Trench, “Celebrity Status”
Shakira, “Hips Don’t Lie”
David Guetta f/Akon, “Sexy Chick”
C95 was doing “Break The Bank.” Wired is doing “Ten Secret Superstars,” making this market a throwback to the days when Top 40s dueled it out with that sort of “agonize along at home” contest. C95 has evolved toward the mainstream since its launch, but remains the younger skewing of the two Top 40s. Here’s the station at 4 p.m. on Tuesday (9), also with help from BDS:
Young Money, “Bedrock”
Hedley, “Perfect”
Rihanna, “Rude Boy”
Iyaz, “Replay”
Three Days Grace, “Never Too Late”
Timbaland f/Justin Timberlake, “Carry Out”
Stereos, “Turn It Up”
Cascada, “Evacuate The Dancefloor”
Finger Eleven, “One Thing”
Jason Derulo, “In My Head”
Lady Gaga, “Just Dance”
Mariana’s Trench, “Celebrity Status”
Daughtry, “Life After You”
Ke$ha, “Blah Blah Blah:
Astral’s Vibe was another station that launched as a Hip-Hop outlet – one of two in the market at the time– and eventually evolved to Mainstream Top 40. On this listen, it sounded newly invigorated—perhaps a function of the three-way format battle. The station was playing “one hit winners”—not “oh wow” oldies, but their handle for “payoff song.”
Here’s Vibe 98.5 at 3 p.m. last Tuesday (9);
Onerepublic, “All The Right Moves”
State Of Shock, “Best I Ever Had”
Black Eyed Peas, “Boom Boom Pow”
Lady Gaga, “Telephone”
Shawn Desman, “Shiver”
Britney Spears, “Toxic”
Romeo f/Drake, “Juice”
Rihanna, “Rude Boy”
Santana f/Chad Kroeger, “Why Don’t You & I”
Iyaz, “Replay”
Newcap’s 90.3 Amp FM has the stripped down feel of L.A.’s KAMP (Amp 97.1), but a broader music mix. And its Monday promotion is $1,000 Monday. (Disclosure: The author has a working relationship with Amp’s sister station, Greatest Hits CFXL [XL103]). Here’s Amp at 7:10 p.m. last Tuesday (9):
Lady Antebellum, “Need You Now”
Trey Songz, “Say Aah”
Jay-Z f/Alicia Keys, “Empire State of Mind”
Lady Gaga & Beyoncé, “Telephone”
Kanye West, “Love Lockdown”
Mariana’s Trench, “Celebrity Status”
Onerepublic, “All The Right Moves”
Faber Drive, “Give Him Up”
Kris Allen, “Live Like We’re Dying”
Down With Webster, “Your Man”
Black Eyed Peas, “I Gotta Feeling”
CKCE (101.5 Energy FM) Calgary
Like its sister, CHUM-FM, CKCE (Energy FM) is still an Adult Top 40 reporter. It’s indeed more adult than its rivals, although that’s mostly a function of a few more ’80s and recurrent titles. But its tempo and oft-rhythmic feel says a lot about what “Adult Top 40” has come to mean in Canada. Here’s the station at 1:30 p.m. on Monday (12):
Justin Timberlake, “Sexyback”
Hedley, “Perfect”
Young Artists for Haiti, “Wavin’ Flag” (newly recorded multi-artist charity version of the still massive K’naan song)
Onerepublic, “All The Right Moves”
Roxette, “It Must Have Been Love”
Nikki Yanofsky, “I Believe”
Pink, “Sober”
Nickelback, “If Everyone Cared”
Lady Gaga, “Just Dance”
Cascada, “Evacuate the Dance Floor”
Black Eyed Peas, “Where Is The Love”
About the Writer
Sean Ross, one of the radio and music industry’s most widely respected writers and programming analysts, is the author of the newsletter Ross On Radio, an extension of his long-running column of the same name.
