It is being reported that TSN has completed an agreement for Winnipeg Jets broadcasts.
This would include TV and radio broadcasts and push CJOB for only the second time in its history out Winnipeg Jets broadcasting. Three years after the Jets got into the NHL in 1979, CKY won the broadcast rights and Curt Keilback and Ken (The Friar) Nicolson were allowed to leave from one broadcaster to go the other. They would make the return trip a number of years later when CJOB regained the broadcast rights. I still can't remember the exact dates they moved back and forth nor can I remember about the TV broadcasting. I re-call the CKY years for local Jets broadcasts but the WHA had CKND broadcasts. Any help here would be appreciated.
CJOB has been the broadcaster of the Manitoba Moose the last 15 years. No one has done hockey more than they over the last years.
If CFRW had not converted over to sports radio broadcasting in the last year, CJOB might have been a shoe in.
However, Sports Radio 1290 with the backing of Bell and the TSN sport network had the one-two punch of TV and radio broadcasts under one roof. Something that CJOB just didn't have.
CJOB's parent company Corus Entertainment does not have a national sports broadcaster for TV. Well, at least nothing that does hockey broadcasts. For Manitoba Moose broadcasts, this was not a big impediment but in today's NHL where every game is televised, it is.
Unlike in the past when CJOB wrested the broadcasts back to their station, it seems the loss of hockey will be permanent unless Corus acquires a sports broadcaster or if some sort of partnership is formed with another TV network.
I have no idea how long the Blue Bombers radio contract is tied up but CJOB is no doubt going to find they face the same problem of a radio/TV connection. TSN already does CFL football. Is it really a stretch to think that 1290 Sports Radio might eventually buy the radio rights too?
CJOB will prevail. However, the loss of hockey broadcasts is huge. One wonders if this the event that knocks the station out of first place in the radio ratings.
How will they prevail if their audience is dying off?
ReplyDeleteThe rest of the radio audience is too fractured to dominate the way CJOB does.
ReplyDeleteEven with having an older audience, CJOB should prevail in the top 3 station because there are no others out there presenting the right of center talk shows that is part of their format.
The loss of hockey will draw away a portion of the audience. If I am correct this may result in CJOB losing share. However, it remains to be seen whether this will be enough to knock them out of first place. It is possible that we might see Hot 103 take first sometime in the next 12 months.
CJOB is becoming unlistenable now. Extremely weak local coverage with only a small handful of reporters on the ground, inane syndicated programming taking up huge clumps of time and of course, endless barrages of annoying commercials.
ReplyDeleteOnce the Bombers leave for 1290, CJOB will more or less cease to exist in my world.
OMC: I agree that people will migrate to sports coverage of hockey. Part of this will be just the love of the game and part will be because they seem less in tune with local coverage. The afternoon drive home show has had how many hosts now?
ReplyDelete1290 Sports Radio is so far down the dial in ratings at the moment. Hockey coverage will likely bring them up a few points and out of the basement.
The big question for me is whether other stations will lose a point or two as well for hockey broadcasting. If this happens, CJON could retain broadcast lead.
My personal view is that CJOB might lose first place for the first time in decades. The question is whether they will boost their local programming to compensate. They have shown they can do the job in the past. Let's see how they play the hand that has been dealt them.
CJOB should prevail in the top 3 station because there are no others out there presenting the right of center talk shows that is part of their format.
ReplyDeleteI don't even consider them right of center. I look at them as pushing buttons for the sake of ratings.
Listing to fake sounding radio hosts feigning (IMO) concern for various causes du jour does not entice me as a listener. So and so has Cancer and is struggling with it.. or whatever. In the hands of CJOB radio hosts the topic is nails on a chalkboard unlistenable.
Marty Gold on TGCTS was at least entertaining and talked about local issues. The only person on CJOB who I can tolerate is Geoff Currier. He keeps things interesting. Everyone else is trying to ape American talk radio, and doing a poor job of it. The only reason people listen to CJOB is because CBC radio always has to put on programming about children starving in africa or women with lupus or things like that.