1290 funny (review) New Sports Radio coming?

[David Mandel]

2 months in and Funny 1290 is not doing great in ratings. Ive tried to listen to it when in Winnipeg and 1) Hard to listen to stand-up on radio 2) Programming lineup is terrible. Maybe if they had audio of a late show (though these shows arent as good as when Letterman/Leno hosted) or a talk comedy show..... Cant see this lasting unless they literally do not care about ratings.


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There has always been rumors and always will be rumors about sports talk returning. In Vancouver there has been talk about a new sports talk radio station that was leaked last month from a former TSN Vancouver host.

I have heard the same from radio executives around Winnipeg that a current station could be going all Sports and that leads to speculation of which station. The leading candidate would likely be 97.5 as it makes sense for a sister station of CJOB to be sports.

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[Cypruss]

Sure hope so...missing the sports talk for sure.

 

[kanadalainen]

I would love a return to something with dedicated sports programming.

 

[KingBogo]

2 months in and Funny 1290 is not doing great in ratings. Ive tried to listen to it when in Winnipeg and 1) Hard to listen to stand-up on radio 2) Programming lineup is terrible. Maybe if they had audio of a late show (though these shows arent as good as when Letterman/Leno hosted) or a talk comedy show..... Cant see this lasting unless they literally do not care about ratings.


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There has always been rumors and always will be rumors about sports talk returning. In Vancouver there has been talk about a new sports talk radio station that was leaked last month from a former TSN Vancouver host.

I have heard the same from radio executives around Winnipeg that a current station could be going all Sports and that leads to speculation of which station. The leading candidate would likely be 97.5 as it makes sense for a sister station of CJOB to be sports.

I’m not sure a FM station is the way to go. Not nearly enough range to get to rural areas or into lake county. 1290 sucked for range a FM station would be far worse.

 

[Jetsfan79]

Sounds hopeful. I just hope if CJOB/CORUS does commission a sports radio station, they do it justice. A 9 hour all day extension of CJOB's Jets post/pregame show would suck. They should hire some of the 1290 guys and look at radio talent that are actually living in this century not the last one

 

[WolfHouse]

It really sucks because on part of my drive through the Northern Rockies, you can only get 1060 AM - fine to listen to sports chat for a couple hours... painful to listen to stand up.

 

[sipowicz]

Sounds hopeful. I just hope if CJOB/CORUS does commission a sports radio station, they do it justice. A 9 hour all day extension of CJOB's Jets post/pregame show would suck. They should hire some of the 1290 guys and look at radio talent that are actually living in this century not the last one

NO! only Hustler and RR were any good

 

[Jetsfan79]

NO! only Hustler and RR were any good

Radio personalities opinion is subjective. For me , other than Kevin O(who admittedly was horrible) 1290 guys ranged from decent to pretty good. They also had frequent great guests like Murat Ates and Gus Katsaros.

 

[drumzan]

I had always hoped 1290 would go to FM because the sound on AM was so awful. From my perspective would be great news if the new sports channel is FM.

 

[SM]

If so please don’t let Kelly Moore anywhere near it. Cant stand listening to him, his voice, the way he asks questions, or his opinions.

I’d take Kevin O over Kelly any day of the week.

 

[David Mandel]

I’m not sure a FM station is the way to go. Not nearly enough range to get to rural areas or into lake county. 1290 sucked for range a FM station would be far worse.

Whats funny about 1290 is that it does get a good range around lake country. Its not BAD or you really cant complain about it but FM dial is awful. Jets games on 97.5 is great but you will never get a great feed at the lake. Yup very true about that.

 

[White Out 902]

Its crazy theres no sports radio in Winnipeg. I hate having to listen to CJOB.

 

[Jet]

The problem with sports radio is it's very resource intensive. What's likely to happen is a nationally syndicated station with perhaps a few hours of local content. So, welcome to TSN and Sportsnet - radio! 23 and 1/2 hours of Leafs talk, and 30 minutes for the other 6 teams.

 

[cheswick]

Confused as to how the OP has any information about how it’s doing in the ratings. The ratings for the period it’s been operating isn’t out yet and won’t be out for months.

Also should point out 1290 did terrible in the ratings. This is essentially close to no cost and would make far more sense financially even with far lower ratings.

 

[KingBogo]

Whats funny about 1290 is that it does get a good range around lake country. Its not BAD or you really cant complain about it but FM dial is awful. Jets games on 97.5 is great but you will never get a great feed at the lake. Yup very true about that.

I get CJOB way better than I got 1290 up in the Interlake. You have no hope with FM.

 

[LucianoBorsato]

The problem with sports radio is it's very resource intensive. What's likely to happen is a nationally syndicated station with perhaps a few hours of local content. So, welcome to TSN and Sportsnet - radio! 23 and 1/2 hours of Leafs talk, and 30 minutes for the other 6 teams.

So it would still be a comedy station, more or less

 

[Gnova]

Stand up radio doesn't need great ratings because it is really inexpensive to operate.

In Canada they are routinely some of the stations with the lowest ratings but they keep running.

From a viewership, fanbase building, perspective it is a big plus for the Jets games to be on CJOB that can be listened to across most of the province.

 

[Mortimer Snerd]

I’m not sure a FM station is the way to go. Not nearly enough range to get to rural areas or into lake county. 1290 sucked for range a FM station would be far worse.

My experience was that 1290 was about the same as a typical FM station. A few of the stronger FM stations come in stronger than 1290 does.

But generally agree. 1290 is a poor yardstick.

It was a poor yardstick for quality of content too. It was horrible when they had Lawless. Became much worse after he left.

 

[Yukon Joe]

Confused as to how the OP has any information about how it’s doing in the ratings. The ratings for the period it’s been operating isn’t out yet and won’t be out for months.

Also should point out 1290 did terrible in the ratings. This is essentially close to no cost and would make far more sense financially even with far lower ratings.

Yeah I pulled the information back when 1290 was shut down comparing the ratings in Calgary of their all sports channel (Sportsnet), and their all comedy channel. Sportsnet 960 had fairly poor ratings, but the comedy channel was abysmal - absolute dead last in the market.

I can guarantee that the comedy channel's ratings in Winnipeg will be just awful. But it's extremely cheap to produce. And apparently that's good enough for Bell.

 

[Mortimer Snerd]

So it would still be a comedy station, more or less

We don't call them the Laffs for nothing.

 

[jetsmooseice]

I’m not sure a FM station is the way to go. Not nearly enough range to get to rural areas or into lake county. 1290 sucked for range a FM station would be far worse.

With FM you have access to lots of people who listen to the radio on their phone (many if not most Androids have an FM tuner), and lots of people have portable FM-only radios. That could offset the loss of far flung rural listeners.

 

[BigZ65]

Stand up radio doesn't need great ratings because it is really inexpensive to operate.

In Canada they are routinely some of the stations with the lowest ratings but they keep running.

From a viewership, fanbase building, perspective it is a big plus for the Jets games to be on CJOB that can be listened to across most of the province.

Yeah they fully do not care about ratings. I wonder what the costs actually are for the comedy station and if some of what they are playing is somehow public domain because I haven’t heard a bit on there that’s even from the last decade. It’s all 2000s and earlier.

 

[RetroWinnipeg]

I’m not sure a FM station is the way to go. Not nearly enough range to get to rural areas or into lake county. 1290 sucked for range a FM station would be far worse.

Isn't Power 97 the most powerful FM station in Canada? That would mean quite an extended range.

 

[BigZ65]

Isn't Power 97 the most powerful FM station in Canada? That would mean quite an extended range.

Interesting that CBC doesn’t jump into that breach a bit. They have lots of podcasts including some with sports but they could dedicate some air time to them at basically no cost. They have a bunch of stations and repeaters too.

 

[10Ducky10]

They should include the guys from illegal curve for a good chunk of the day if they get another sports radio station...Hustler too.
Is CKRC 630 available???