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Combined Hot AC and Hot Talk Format in Canada

G

Gregg.

A number of Canadian markets have combined Hot AC with Hot Talk. Initially the format saw success. These stations include...

93.5 CFXJ Toronto (Today Radio)
102.7 CKPK Vancouver (Now! Radio)
94.3 CHNW Winnipeg (Now! Radio)
101.5 CKCE Calgary (Today Radio)
102.3 CKNO Edmonton (Now! Radio)

But unlike Jack-FM, which started in Canada and spread quickly in the U.S., this hasn't caught on south of the border. In fact, one combined Hot AC and Hot Talk outlet, 107.9 WLNK Charlotte, gave up the Hot Talk elements when it had a recent ownership change. Now it's a standard Hot AC outlet.

We have a few Hot Talk stations in the U.S. Two that do really well are 80 miles apart: 104.1 WTKS Orlando and 102.5 WHPT Tampa. iHeart is trying to start one in Dallas at former Active Rock 97.1 KEGL. That's Hot Talk with Sports Talk. But these three stations clearly aim at men.

Nobody in the U.S. is doing what's been working in Canada, a more general Hot AC - Hot Talk combo.
 
i think youve kinda answered your own sorta question as to why no ones doing it in the US

In general, i dont think women want an excessive bunch of blabbering, especially that falls into the almost too hot talk for radio category.

women these days wanna laugh, be entertained.......
 
Gregg. said:
A number of Canadian markets have combined Hot AC with Hot Talk. Initially the format saw success. These stations include...

93.5 CFXJ Toronto (Today Radio)
102.7 CKPK Vancouver (Now! Radio)
94.3 CHNW Winnipeg (Now! Radio)
101.5 CKCE Calgary (Today Radio)
102.3 CKNO Edmonton (Now! Radio)

But unlike Jack-FM, which started in Canada and spread quickly in the U.S., this hasn't caught on south of the border. In fact, one combined Hot AC and Hot Talk outlet, 107.9 WLNK Charlotte, gave up the Hot Talk elements when it had a recent ownership change. Now it's a standard Hot AC outlet.

We have a few Hot Talk stations in the U.S. Two that do really well are 80 miles apart: 104.1 WTKS Orlando and 102.5 WHPT Tampa. iHeart is trying to start one in Dallas at former Active Rock 97.1 KEGL. That's Hot Talk with Sports Talk. But these three stations clearly aim at men.

Nobody in the U.S. is doing what's been working in Canada, a more general Hot AC - Hot Talk combo.
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By no means are those stations Hot Talk. They're basically music stations with interactive elements via callers and text lines all day.

Hot Talk is the industry terminology for the younger, male skewing Talk format that peaked in the early 2000s such as the Florida stations you mentioned and CBS's "Free-FM". These Canadian stations are female focused, basically taking the aforementioned WLNK model with a modernized twist.
 
SomeRadioGuy said:
In general, i dont think women want an excessive bunch of blabbering,
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lanceventa said:
By no means are those stations Hot Talk. They're basically music stations with interactive elements via callers and text lines all day.
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Does anybody remember "Your Time with Kim Iversen,"and would it sort of describe what you're talking about? This was a female centric talk show with a few songs sprinkled in that ran about 15-years ago on Entercom (Audacy) stations. Norfolk, Virginia Hot AC WPTE initially aired the program between 7:00 p.m. and midnight. The Point later returned to regular programming between 7:00 and 10:00 with "Your Time," sans music, playing from 10:00 until midnight. I don't know when "Your Time" stopped but the whole thing was pretty short-lived.

I agree with SomeRadioGuy because I found chatter and sharing opinions annoying when I wanted to hear music. It drove me away and I definitely think this would have driven away most guys.
 
Cordelia Chase said:
Does anybody remember "Your Time with Kim Iversen,"and would it sort of describe what you're talking about? This was a female centric talk show with a few songs sprinkled in that ran about 15-years ago on Entercom (Audacy) stations. Norfolk, Virginia Hot AC WPTE initially aired the program between 7:00 p.m. and midnight. The Point later returned to regular programming between 7:00 and 10:00 with "Your Time," sans music, playing from 10:00 until midnight. I don't know when "Your Time" stopped but the whole thing was pretty short-lived.

I agree with SomeRadioGuy because I found chatter and sharing opinions annoying when I wanted to hear music. It drove me away and I definitely think this would have driven away most guys.
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It sounded like "Your Time with Kim Iversen" was a less weepy Delilah. And then there's John Tesh, who's been doing life, work and relationship tips culled from magazine articles between AC songs on many stations. Some AC stations run BOTH shows, Tesh and Delilah. So I guess that's a syndicated way to add some chatter to AC.

While many people may think combining chit-chat and music is not their cup of tea, in Canada, the top two English-language markets seem to like it, along with three others.
 
Gregg. said:
Some AC stations run BOTH shows, Tesh and Delilah. So I guess that's a syndicated way to add some chatter to AC.
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The Point added The Kidd Kraddick Morning Show, On Air with Ryan Seacrest in middays and Your Time with Kim Iversen around the same time. That's 13 hours of talk heavy syndicated programming! Furthermore, the morning team Kidd Kraddick displaced moved to afternoon drive where they continued to chat it up quite a bit. I think this line-up was on several Entercom (Audacy) stations, so I suppose Entercom was trying to make this "talk and celebrity gossip with a little music thrown in" format a thing. (I guess saving the money they didn't have to pay the local jocks who would have pulled those three shifts was a factor too!)

I don't know how long it lasted in other markets but IIRC, it was less than 18 months in Norfolk.
 
Gregg. said:
It sounded like "Your Time with Kim Iversen" was a less weepy Delilah. And then there's John Tesh, who's been doing life, work and relationship tips culled from magazine articles between AC songs on many stations. Some AC stations run BOTH shows, Tesh and Delilah. So I guess that's a syndicated way to add some chatter to AC.

While many people may think combining chit-chat and music is not their cup of tea, in Canada, the top two English-language markets seem to like it, along with three others.
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Tesh is hardly talk intensive. i worked at a station that carried him.. and while he talked more than the average AC jock, he was nowhere near as talk intensive as bob n sheri or kid kraddick. delilah talked more than tesh but not by much

Tesh was really orogoinally on Ac/Hot AC stations and it was geared towards life hacks, life tips....health tips.. not yack yack chat it up type of show
 
Gregg. said:
It sounded like "Your Time with Kim Iversen" was a less weepy Delilah.
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It's been a long time since I've heard it, so I've forgotten a lot of the show's elements, but I don't think I'd compare it to Delilah. Also, since I didn't like it, I didn't listen that often but I'm thinking it was more of an attempt to bring "The View" to radio. I guess you could call it "infotainment."

You know, the more I think about it, "Your Time" must have been live as I remember Ms. Iversen breaking the story about the death of John Travolta's son.
 
Big difference is definitions. Here is the States Hot Talk is more defined as politically-oriented "Hate Talk". In Canada, they're just talking.
 
radiofan2023 said:
Loveline ran on some Hot Talk stations and it wasn't political. It was also on whatever that "Guy Talk" station was in Vancouver, Canada too.
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lovephones with dr judy AND loveline with drew/adam ran on an alt rock station in hartford for years. i listened to those shows nightly. before the internet was really much a thing, it was my outlet and my answers to sex, sexuality and sexual hwalth
 
SomeRadioGuy said:
lovephones with dr judy AND loveline with drew/adam ran on an alt rock station in hartford for years. i listened to those shows nightly. before the internet was really much a thing, it was my outlet and my answers to sex, sexuality and sexual hwalth
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I never heard Lovephones, what was the difference between it and Loveline and did you like one show more than the other? I started out watching Loveline on MTV and then I found the radio show later on. Funny story - when I met Dr. Drew after he gave a lecture on addiction and told him I watched the show on MTV when I was around 11, he said, "Where were your parents?!" and put his head in his hands, lol.
 
radiofan2023 said:
I never heard Lovephones, what was the difference between it and Loveline and did you like one show more than the other? I started out watching Loveline on MTV and then I found the radio show later on.
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its kinda hard to say, sorta. .25 years later, but ill try n make it make sense

Judy is a psychologist, sex therapist... dr drew is an internist and addiction medicine specialist.

Dr judy and jaggers lovephones was more geared towards sex & relationships with more clinical type advice when needed.

Loveline was more guy oriented and more general ish advice, i think
 
SomeRadioGuy said:
its kinda hard to say, sorta. .25 years later, but ill try n make it make sense

Judy is a psychologist, sex therapist... dr drew is an internist and addiction medicine specialist.

Dr judy and jaggers lovephones was more geared towards sex & relationships with more clinical type advice when needed.

Loveline was more guy oriented and more general ish advice, i think
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I always thought Loveline was more of a comedy/sex and relationships advice show, especially when Adam was cohost. They (Westwood One & KROQ) had weeklong cohost tryouts after Adam left to do his morning show, with guests like David Alan Grier and Joel McHale, but they weren’t offering enough money, so they ended up with Stryker, who I absolutely couldn’t stand because he was so obsequious with Dr. Drew. He was almost as bad as Rikki Rachtman. Adam was great as a cohost, because he wouldn’t automatically assume Dr. Drew was right about everything, but he didn’t argue just to argue. He was similar to Poorman in that he could identify with the listeners, but he didn’t have the ego that Poorman did and didn’t think he was solely responsible for the show being successful (and he never walked off the show like Poorman did).

There’s a great site called lovelinetapes where you can listen to full shows from the 80s, 90s and 2000s, it’s really interesting hearing how the problems from callers went from AIDS and HIV calls to spazzy teenagers wondering if someone could get pregnant from having anal sex.
 
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WLNK Charlotte NC did a mix of Hot AC and talk some years ago. The midday show, as far as I know, had no music. It was just the female coach from "Coach" talking about stuff women like to talk about. Bob and Sheri were already doing the morning show (it was their original station) and Matt and Ramona had afternoons.
 
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