A swing and a miss. It was a valiant effort, but in its two-year life span Winnipeg radio listeners remained unreceptive to the pop alternative pitched by Curve 94.3 FM.
CHUM Radio had high hopes for the pop alternative format, the first of its kind in North America. Curve replaced the once-thriving Q94, the long-running hits station that previously dwarfed current top 40 juggernaut Hot 103. Instead of duplicating Hot, Curve would still play some of the favourite pop tunes of the day, but add rock tracks and the alternative artists you were not hearing elsewhere on commercial radio, like Arcade Fire and Tegan and Sara. Honestly, no station playing Lady Gaga and Kesha can justify its “alternative” moniker (maybe why their slogan changed to “Real Music Variety” in September), but Curve still played diverse songs that breathed fresh life into today’s genre-specific radio choices.
Where else could you hear a pop anthem by Katy Perry spun back-to-back with Bob Marley and the Wailers? Same with a mainstream station providing deserving airtime to fine Winnipeg hip-hop artists The Lytics or a soulful track namedropping Optimus Prime from local songwriter James Struthers? The answer was none.
Original as Curve’s music usually was, they did not come close to knocking “Hot” off its perch. The alternative station had 2.9 per cent of the market in the most recent fall ratings book, a far cry from the 11.8 per cent of listeners tuned to Ace Burpee’s home, Hot 103, the FM leader. Regardless, Curve was still able to attract a passionate audience to its eccentric playlist, small as that crowd might have been.
Curve 94.3 FM was an original product in a conservative radio industry too afraid to experiment, a business thriving on repetition of the same songs by the same artists ad nauseam. The tried and true formula has proven a success, for better or for worse.
Curve, mind you, was not without its blemishes. Their music was eccentric to a fault; who could possibly like all the songs they played? The morning show was simply average, and the other personalities recited advertisements more often than entertaining listeners.
The pop alternative Curve spun was, at the very least, inventive. Disappointingly, CHUM Radio did not replace it with another novel idea, choosing rather to repackage an existing property they promptly cancelled only months ago: an oldies station. Fab 94.3, promising to play the “Super Hits of the ’60s and ’70s,” is a FM version and a shiny coat of paint on the defunct 1290 CFRW.
CHUM is aware of the market for the Beatles, Stevie Wonder and the Beach Boys, and maybe intended from the beginning to resurrect oldies onto the FM dial. However, Fab becomes just another radio station catering to an older demographic. You see, we now have Fab representing the ’60s and ’70s, Bob has become unrecognizable to youngsters, apart from every third track being included in the Rock Band video game series, and two classic rock stations sharing many resemblances.
What’s available for our generation, you ask? Not much. Hot fits the bill by playing today’s trendy pop ditties, whereas the country, rock and soft rock stations play new tunes, but maintain an audience of all ages by offering airtime to baby
boomers.
Radio stations more often than not subscribe to a particular genre. There are variations but your rock destination is going to play Billy Talent within the hour. On the dial, you got your club favourites and your boot-scooting music, Nickelback duplicates and talking heads. But why is this when listeners often do not restrict themselves to a sole genre in their personal music collection? Nobody has an mp3 player exclusively containing the melodies of Rihanna and Beyonce; chances are they might have a little Paul Brandt and rock out to the occasional Rush track.
Why then is Winnipeg devoid of a radio station that corresponds closer to our diverse iPod playlists?
College stations and CBC Radio 2 could be the solution to this problem, with their substantial music selection. However, these stations are often genre-specific as well, except they alter their formats multiple times a day with every voice behind the microphone.
More than a pop alternative station, Curve 94.3 was a variety station, presenting songs comparable to the mix individuals might opt for if they were the music director. Curve’s song list was probably too bizarre for listeners, but it was an attempt to stray from the genre exclusivity of the city’s current crop of radio stations.
With the predictability of terrestrial radio, is it any wonder why listeners are striking out in favour of iPods and satellite radio subscriptions?
