[SteelTown]

CHAM Country goes all talk

September 02, 2008
By DOUG FOLEY
The Hamilton Spectator

Hamilton country music station 820 CHAM has headed to Boot Hill.

The venerable radio station dropped its country format yesterday after 25 years and rebranded itself  Talk 820 with a 24-hour schedule of talk shows.

“The bottom line is that music on AM radio is a dying breed,” said Tom Cooke, Astral Media Radio Hamilton Vice-President and General Manager.

“It’s a tough business and the ratings weren’t there on CHAM and there is only so long you can put up with it before you have to make a change.

“We are under a new owner going back to November and we were mandated to produce the best product we can and this was an option we presented and they told us to get our butts in gear and make it happen.”

The switch puts Talk 820 in direct competition with AM 900, Hamilton’s other talk station.

It was AM 900’s FM sister station, Country 95, that put the bullet in 820 CHAM’s country format.

The stations will find out how the new competition is working out when the fall radio ratings are released Nov. 27 by the Bureau of Broadcast Measurement.

Cooke said no jobs were lost in the radio switch, which has been three months in the planning.

The station’s new lineup mixes local broadcasters and syndicated material, including U.S. social comic and critic, Dennis Miller,  whose show will air on Saturdays from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. with a repeat Sunday from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m.

Talk 820 is sticking with long-time morning man Jason Farr, with new co-host Jodi Gaskell from 5 a.m. to 8:30 a.m.

Station traffic man Mike Nabuurs will handle the mid-day time slot and Dave Shuttleworth the drive home show.

Veteran news director Robyn Foley (no relation to this reporter) will host a half hour news magazine show Hamilton at Noon, on weekdays.

The station says programming will also feature traffic, weather and sports, including NFL night game broadcasts.

Cooke said TALK 820’s arrival will not have any affect on Astral’s two other Hamilton station, 1150 CKOC and 102.9 K-litefm.

Astral acquired the stations in November after it took over privately-held Standard Radio for $1.08 billion in cash and stock to the Slaight family for its 52 stations in five provinces. The deal made Astral the biggest radio broadcaster in Canada, ahead of Corus, which owns Country 95, AM 900  and Y-108 in Hamilton.

Suzanne Carpenter, general manager for the local Corus was not available for comment on Astral’s move.

Other programs on Talk 820 will include Coast to Coast, Monday to Sunday from 10 p.m. to midnight (and rebroadcast over night);   Ask The Experts with Mike Wyman and Prime Time Sports with Bob McCown at 6 p.m.; John Biggs and    Go-To Gadget Guy Leo Laporte