News   Mar 27, 2024
 1.1K     1 
News   Mar 27, 2024
 1.1K     2 
News   Mar 27, 2024
 634     0 

Mix 99.9 Becomes Virgin Radio Effective Today

yyzer

Senior Member
Member Bio
Joined
Apr 23, 2007
Messages
3,444
Reaction score
386
Location
Mississauga
hot off the wire....

Attention Business/News/Entertainment Editors/See CNW Photo Network and Archive:

/C O R R E C T I O N from Source -- Astral Media Inc.; Virgin Group of Companies/
In c6563 transmitted at 12:24 today, the incorrect URL was provided for
more details on Virgin Radio 999 FM. It should have read
www.virginradio999.com. Corrected copy follows:

Astral Media and Virgin launch North America's first Virgin radio station
in Toronto


Astral Media's Mix 99.9 becomes Virgin Radio 999 as of 4:00 p.m. today

TORONTO, Aug. 25 /CNW/ - Astral Media (ACM.A/ACM.B) today announced the
launch of the first North American commercial FM radio station under license
with Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Radio International. The powerhouse
partnership was unveiled at a press conference as full details of Toronto's
newest and hottest station, Virgin Radio 999 FM, were released.
Virgin Radio will begin broadcasting at 4:00 p.m. EDT today on Astral
Media's 99.9 FM Toronto frequency and will replace Mix FM. Energetic,
innovative and irreverent will be the trademark of Virgin Radio, as it focuses
on delivering a very 'Virgin' kind of listening experience.
Virgin Radio will focus on the hit adult contemporary format and is
promising to shake up the industry by bringing a new sound that's more than
just music to your ears. Two new shows start today and are just the beginning
of a host of exciting new programming developments. From 4 p.m. to 6 p.m.,
Monday to Friday, Chris Biggs and Taylor Kaye will help you get home by
putting a smile on your dial with their new afternoon drive show "The Rush".
Then from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m., Monday to Friday, Ryan Seacrest will bring you
all the latest from Hollywood with a three-hour program, rich with
entertainment news, celebrity gossip, hit music and light-hearted commentary.
"Astral Media's continuous commitment to offering quality and innovative
radio to listeners and advertisers alike is once again exemplified with
today's announcement," said Jacques Parisien, Group President, Astral Media
Radio and Astral Media Outdoor. "With Virgin Radio we hope to create a totally
fresh sound with a brand that appeals strongly to our current audience and
helps us reach out to new listeners. Partnering with Virgin Radio
International brings us many opportunities to leverage the global and local
power of the Virgin brand and gives us a clear mandate to build the best radio
Toronto has ever heard."
"I am thrilled to be partnering with Astral Media and launching Virgin
Radio 999 FM, so we can serve up a fantastic new format to Torontonians that's
bound to be the bright spot of your morning, noon and night," said Sir Richard
Branson, Chairman of the Virgin Group. "Virgin Radio International is
experiencing phenomenal growth around the world and recently we have expanded
to Italy, France, Dubai and India. We are thrilled to add Canada to the list."
Musically speaking, as you would expect from Virgin, Virgin Radio 999 FM
will be the number one destination for the chart toppers both locally and
internationally. Toronto audience favorites like Mad Dog and Billie will
continue as part of the programming line-up to make sure listeners can start
the day in just the right way.
Virgin Radio 999 FM will launch a Toronto advertising blitz to help get
the message out. The station's tagline 'It's On' sums up exactly the kind of
attitude you can expect from Virgin Radio 999 FM. Major consumer promotions
will also be rolling out in the coming weeks to bring some new flavour to an
often dull space.
"This is an exciting day for the people of Toronto and for the entire
Virgin Group," said Ian Grace, President of Virgin Radio International. "With
Astral Media's strength and expertise, and Virgin's international and customer
focused experience, we believe we have built a station that listeners have
been waiting for. Virgin Radio 999 FM is where it's on and so we invite
everyone in Toronto to join us and switch their dial to 999 FM now to make
sure they aren't missing out."
For more details on Virgin Radio 999 FM, visit www.virginradio999.com.

About Astral Media

Astral Media is a leading Canadian media company, active in specialty and
pay television, radio, outdoor advertising and iMedia. Astral Media's solid
and dynamic presence in the country's major markets rests on its commitment to
offer a unique combination of high-quality, targeted media for all its
audiences. www.astralmedia.com

About Virgin Radio International

From Bangkok to Bangalore, Delhi to Dubai, Milan to Mumbai and now
Toronto to Toulouse, Virgin Radio International is one of the most exciting
and fastest growing companies in Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Group. Virgin
launched its first radio station in the UK in 1993. More recently it
established Virgin Radio International to develop opportunities outside of the
UK. This has lead to stations being launched in Thailand, India, Italy,
France, Dubai and now Canada. Other opportunities are being considered in
Europe, Africa, the Middle East, North and South America. For more information
on Virgin Radio International please visit www.virginradio.com


<<
/NOTE TO PHOTO EDITORS: A photo accompanying this release is available on
the CNW Photo Network and archived at http://photos.newswire.ca.
Additional archived images are also available on the CNW Photo Archive
website at http://photos.newswire.ca. Images are free to accredited
members of the media/
>>
 
Sounds pretty much the same as it was before. Now if only we can get a proper alt music station like Edge used to be.
 
Marc Weisblott's take

Scrolling Eye
Toronto's Virgin Radio
by: Marc Weisblott August 25, 2008 3:12 PM

A flash of the cover of Never Mind the Bollocks — Virgin Records catalogue number VX2086 — at the start of a video presentation set to “Let’s Get it Started” by the Black Eyed Peas says everything you need to know about how Richard Branson’s vision will extend to Canadian broadcasting. No other mogul but the one who gleefully salvaged the Sex Pistols from corporate purgatory could be trusted to provide pop radio with new branding that’s arguably marketable. Who cares if the line between music and commercials is finally being blurred beyond the wettest dreams of the architects of Top 40? Listeners to 99.9 MIX-FM are effectively working for Richard Branson now — and he makes a better boss than the one they’ve got.

A low-key announcement of a new handle for an existing station, at the swanky Panorama Restaurant & Lounge at the top of Bay and Bloor, was the second such radio launch in less than a week — following last Tuesday’s unveiling of plans for the new CBC Radio 2. Given how it’s been over seven years since a big deal was made of any local modifications to the AM/FM dial, figuring this a terrestrial dinosaur just trying to stave off oblivion would be a justified reaction, were it not Virgin Radio 999.

Beneficiaries of Branson’s branding benevolence are Astral Media, which picked up 52 radio stations from Standard Broadcasting last year for $1.08 billion. The now-retired moniker “Mix” was initially bestowed upon the frequency in September 1991 by Standard chief Gary Slaight who, in response to some FM deregulation, told the Toronto Star this concept would go “beyond the boundaries of conventional radio programming.”

Mix 99.9 then spent the next 17 years as the epitome of convention, with a revolving door of morning shows, and constant tweaking of a music formula: not too hard, not too soft, not too old, not too new, and definitely never too exciting.

The station was also responsible for some of the worst crimes against transit advertising. An early desktop-published advert likened the appeal to a shelf of mix tapes — just as cassettes were becoming obsolete. A few years ago the station touted itself in public as “MP-FREE.”

For the last couple years, a discreetly re-branded MIX-FM tilted to a predictable rhythmic hit format, drafting the established Mad Dog and Billie morning show. Four months ago, it became the Canadian flagship for Perez Hilton’s radio gossip bites.

But, in general, the station didn’t seem to be aspiring to be much except a vague variation what was already being done better down the block at 104.5 CHUM-FM. A global corporate identity seems the only way to compete on a local level. Good thing Virgin Radio were equally eager to furnish Astral with the identity launched in the UK in 1993 — even though those national frequencies, recently sold to an India-based company, are being forced by Branson to relinquish the name in the same week it slithers into Canada.

Meanwhile, stations in Thailand, India, Italy, France, Dubai and soon Turkey have adopted the Virgin brand at an accelerated rate, in conjunction with local owners, even though each country offers its own distinct variation on the formula.

Strangely — or maybe not so strangely — paralleling CBC Radio 2’s pitch, Astral’s local radio vice-president Pat Holiday stresses the “international” flavour of Virgin Radio 999 programming. Well, the globalization jukebox does make celebrity station IDs more convenient (“Hi, this is Mariah Carey, and you’re listening to Virgin Radio” can be repurposed with no particular technical wizardry) and explaining their hit-radio disposition as a multicultural one is snazzier than stating the dubiously obvious — that the only appeal music FM can truly count on going foward are those without the means or know-how to access alternatives.

Then again, an audience may also be reached by doing something well. Such is the plan with the drive-home show, The Rush, co-hosted by Chris Biggs and Taylor Kaye, both drafted from CHUM-FM to freshen up MIX’s sound after rehearsing all summer long. Morning-style radio in the afternoon is apparently the hook — which must mean, instead of learning about what happened on yesterday’s prime-time reality television, they will instruct you on what to watch tonight.

Wouldn’t it be better if “youth” broadcasting execs in this country better resembled the female stars of The Hills? No such luck at Astral, where a cabal of middle-aged men can no doubt talk your ear off about multi-platform strategies due to accompany the clout of the Virgin brand — sure to extend to other markets in the months to come. Mercifully, with the launch broadcast over the air, such hyperbole was muted.

And while Richard Branson unfortunately didn’t scale his way up the outside of the 51-storey Manulife Centre as hoped, he sent envoys in the form of Virgin Radio International president Ian Grace — along with the Beefeater and Ginger Spice Union Jack dress costumes meant to project cheeky Rebel Billionaire attitude.

The notion of hit-radio in Toronto importing its authority from other places is nothing new: Dick Clark shipped tapes from Philadelphia to 1050 CHUM in 1963 to facilitate a pseudo-live show, much like Wolfman Jack did a decade later in the wake of revived American Graffiti fame. Casey Kasem of American Top 40 filled weekend airtime across Canada with countdowns more profound for originating from Hollywood.

Now it’s 2008, and the modern-day version is Ryan Seacrest, who does a morning show from Los Angeles so devoid of informational purpose — aside from perpetuating itself between commercials — that it can be broadcast to Toronto at night via Virgin Radio. Mad Dog and Billie are thankful for the disparity in time zones.

Commercial radio revenue grew six per cent in 2007, Statistics Canada reported today, outpacing media advertising growth as a whole for the third time in five years.

HEAR the nifty Virgin Radio launch montage while it lasts here.

scroll@eyeweekly.com
 
I was wondering what Ryan Seacrest was doing on my radio. I thought he was on 103.5. I guess we now have another 103.5
 
Doesn't really sound that interesting.
I for one am sick and tired of celeb gossip. I don't give a shit who's in rehab or who named their Baby whatever random name they could find to get the most attention this week.
 
Doesn't really sound that interesting.
I for one am sick and tired of celeb gossip. I don't give a shit who's in rehab or who named their Baby whatever random name they could find to get the most attention this week.

^ right on dude !!! , exactly
 
Weisblott has it right, but he always does when it comes to local radio (with the exception of his prediction that CFNY would be going "adult alternative" back in 1995). This is merely a branding exercise for CKFM that has pretty much nothing to do with music. The new CBC Radio 2 is at least something to sort of get excited about.
 
I recently spent a week listening to 99.9 while I was installing hardwood flooring in my new home. I just had my portable sound system at the time and it was the clearest station. I dont normally listen to mainstream pop music or any radio other than CBC, but some of the music was not bad and I added a couple new favourites to my selection: Madoona's "Give It To Me' and Katy Perry's "I Kissed A Girl" But as for the brain dead hosts and their celeb gossip... someone please tell me how that sells? I wish I could remember the name of the one female host who would laugh hysterically when listeners would call in and she'd make small talk with them. Are these dj's really that ditzy or are they just acting like that as part of the job?
 
funny, I've been listening to it too...and I am definitely not part of the demographic they are selling to...

I have discovered that I like Coldplay.....who knew?
 
Several times this week I've turned on CBC Radio 2 for a few seconds - to confirm the true enormity of their crime. It is almost too dreadful to contemplate. There's often some sort of nasal, twangy, country-sounding rubbish, instead of the wide variety of excellent classical programming they used to provide us with. Then I turn to 96.3, which is awfully schlocky much of the time, and make do. Such a shame what happened.
 
Several times this week I've turned on CBC Radio 2 for a few seconds - to confirm the true enormity of their crime. It is almost too dreadful to contemplate. There's often some sort of nasal, twangy, country-sounding rubbish, instead of the wide variety of excellent classical programming they used to provide us with. Then I turn to 96.3, which is awfully schlocky much of the time, and make do. Such a shame what happened.

I feel your pain. I miss the music. I miss the learning while listening. I miss the easy charm and intelligence of the presenters. I miss the way I was touched in some way, every day. My radio is silent now. There's nothing to replace CBC 2 and all my emails of protest were for naught.
 
CBC Radio 2 had been losing audience share for years, while it's Radio 1 counterpart has grown to become the #1 station in most Canadian markets.

The "new 2" still has a huge emphasis on classical music, but is also incorporating a wide variety of other genres that are simply not heard on Canadian radio. Something like 2% of the music produced in this country annually is heard on the radio and the "new 2" is an attempt to correct that.

It's a publically funded service and should reflect the public. Classical music fans still will have plenty to find on Radio 2, but I reject the assertion that all other music is "dumbed down" and that reflecting Canada is a "travesty."
 
As long as Adult Contemporary doesn't include rap and hip hop on the side it'll be okay.

I've never understood radio stations that mix hip hop and pop and quasi-dance electronic pop. How can you go from Paul Oakenfold in one song to Soulja Boy the next (and actually retain listeners) is really interesting.
 

Back
Top