Montreal was never a really big market when it came to FM radio, but in the '70s, it was the home to a pretty good rock station known as CHOM-FM. They played what were then new artists like Supertramp and Styx and in some cases they even played them before they were discovered in the rest of North America.
CHOM-FM still exists today but now it's a classic rock station, meaning that they play bands like Supertramp and Styx. Basically it is like as if things haven't changed, which may be fine for those of who like nostalgia. However, some are left feeling like there is a void on the FM dial when it comes to finding new rock music.
1996 to 2003 - the Alternative Rock Comeback
Yet in the summer of 1996, there was a glimmer of hope. Montrealers credited DJ Stephen Picard and program director Stephanie Hindley, a.k.a Cap’n Steph, for bringing them something new when they took over WGFB-FM, B-100, a powerful yet little known radio station in nearby Plattsburgh, N.Y. They suddenly became WBTZ the Buzz and stopped playing their usual playlist of hits from ’70s, ’80s and ’90s. They began playing Marilyn Manson, Korn and other artists that would make a parent cringe and wonder, what is that rubbish?
The cross-border station's influence on Montreal media was unmistakable. Soon after, CHOM and even the MusiquePlus cable TV channel added some rock alternative music programming. Then the soft sounding Ciel 98.5 FM changed their format to become Cool-FM (actually CKOO-FM to be precise) a French alternative rock station. They argued that if Montrealers were listening to a station which doesn’t even come from their town, then there must be a demand.
“The station was at 200,000 listeners, I brought it up to 250,000," said Cool-FM’s program director Jean-Philippe Tremblay at the time. He also said that the Buzz, in Montreal, was "somewhere between 65,000 and 100,000."
But by 2003, the glimmer faded to black. Cool-FM would run into trouble. They changed their format again to classic rock. They also fired one of their most popular DJs, Babu, and hired Lucien Francoeur, a well-established Quebec personality with a reputation as a baby-boom rocker. And that wouldn't be the end of the format changes. Today, the station is now CHMP-FM and is just about as far away from rock as you can get: talk radio.
CHOM would also remove the tiny little bit of alternative music that they had added, MusiquePlus would return to being an MTV wannabe by running shows like Punk'd in French and while the Buzz didn't officially change format, the station was revamped, without Picard and Cap’n Steph.
Plus, in recent years, the CRTC has approved a couple of low-power community stations in places like LaSalle and Vaudreuil on 100.1 FM, causing even more too-close-for-comfort interference for 99.9 the Buzz than what there was already.
Some Answers From Some Radio Insiders
So what went wrong? Tremblay along with Ted Silver, the former Program Director for lite-rock's CFQR-FM, did provide some insight back in 2003.
"Alternative music and many young-targeted formats don't score big in the 25-54 demographics, where all the advertising is," Silver said. "Large radio companies with hungry share holders want to go where the dollars are."
“The old format was working, but at the level of profitability, it wasn’t," said Tremblay. "Cool was a station that was losing a lot of money."
The original format of Cool was mainstream American aimed at young people. Tremblay described its target audience as very specific, perhaps too specific for the purposes of Quebec radio.
"We were strictly targeting 18 to 24 year olds. We wanted to increase our reach."
In essence, a limited reach is a main part of the problem. The difference between alternative music and the rock ’n’ roll era of CHOM-FM is that rock ’n’ roll came at a time when the baby boomers were still young.
“The Quebec population is growing older,” said Tremblay.
Explaining the success of CFQR, now known as the Q, Silver pointed out, "It's partly because of demographics... The baby boomers are all over 35, which is where the lion's share of our audience comes from."
He also was never convinced that a new Cool-FM would change anything.
"Cool has changed format several times in the past few years and so has no heritage in the market," he said. "Nobody knows what they are because they keep changing and they haven't been able to do much in the ratings as a result."
A Possible Future
Yet Hindley thought there was still hope for the format if only local stations would have adapted.
"Look at television marketing," she said in 2003. "Almost every car commercial you see uses music that appeals to us - hello, Gary Numan, Tones On Tail, Moby, Stereolab, - we are a viable demo, and yet radio won’t recognize us anymore."
She cited WFNX in Boston which changed its approach at about the same time that Cool-FM went classic rock. WFNX dumped the rap-rock and pre-teen muppet angst, and have embraced heritage artists like The Clash, U2, R.E.M., along with Pearl Jam, Nirvana, Radiohead and other new music that makes sense with these bands.
Perhaps it's not too late for new rock music to make a comeback. AVR radio just recently gave up its license to broadcast at 106.7 FM in Montreal. That means that there's an opening on the dial. Is it time to give over-the-air rock alternative another chance?
When and Where to Find New Music Today
In the meantime, CBC Radio 3 and it's French counterpart Bande A Part.FM may just fill the void. These stations are available on Sirius Satellite Radio on channels 86 and 87 respectively as well as over the internet and play a freeform mix of indie music, including rock, pop, alternative hip hop, folk, country and electronic music. Of course, 99.9 the Buzz also still plays alternative rock but many would say that the station just isn't the same without Picard and Hindley.
Sources:
Personal interviews with Ted Silver, Jean-Philippe Tremblay and Stephanie Hindley.
Steve Hatton - Steve Hatton is a Montreal-based freelance writer and journalist who covers the television industry, including TV show reviews and media ...
Join the Conversation