Source: The Hamilton Spectator

It's all about the audience.

That's the simple reason behind the death of country music in Hamilton.

Fans of that genre were saddened Friday when the last country music radio station in the area -- CING-FM, The New Country 95.3 -- suddenly switched formats, dropping Garth Brooks for the Rolling Stones.

"Like any business, we had to look at our long-term growth possibilities, and we didn't see long-term growth in country music," said Suzanne Carpenter, general manager of the three Corus Entertainment radio stations in Hamilton. "Country music is a niche, and once you have everyone who's that way inclined, there's no room for growth."

The new sound will be classic rock hits from the 1960s to 1980s. That music, Carpenter said, will bring ears to hear the commercials.

Creating an audience to sell to advertisers is the point of the entire media industry -- and it's an especially important task for money-losing Corus, which owns a number of radio stations and specialty TV channels. The company's most recent quarterly report showed a net loss of $145 million, a sharp turnaround from a $37.7-million profit a year earlier. But the radio division remained profitable, with earnings of $16.1 million for the third quarter and $45.2 million year-to-date. Those figures were down 35 per cent and 25 per cent, respectively, from the previous year.

"We're profitable, but we've certainly been challenged by the economy," Carpenter said. "So far this year our sales have been soft, but they're recovering."

That recovery might take some time, warned Lori Beckstead, professor in the radio-television arts faculty at Ryerson University.

A format change, she said, makes sense when it opens the station to the possibility of tapping a larger audience -- and baby boomers who remember the music of the '60s and '70s are a huge audience. But getting them to tune in to a new station could take up to a year.

Ian Morrison, spokesperson for Friends of Canadian Broadcasting, a Canadian content watchdog, agrees this kind of format shift matches the aging of Canada's population and is a good way "to seize more audience share in a new genre."

Listener reaction wasn't as understanding. As soon as the last country song died on the station, listeners crowded onto online discussion boards to voice their disapproval. At torontomike.com, a fan with the screen name Sheila moaned, "The last thing this area needed was another Rock station ... Talk about bad judgment."

Jared T declared, "Country 95.3 was a fantastic radio station and a great refuge from the kind of radio 95.3 has now become."

Hamilton has five FM and three AM radio stations serving an audience of 652,468 potential listeners over age 12. According to the most recent ratings by BBM Canada, CKLH (K-Lite) is the market leader with its adult contemporary music, followed in order by CHML (news/talk), CJXY-FM (classic rock), CING-FM (now classic rock), CKOC (oldies), St. Catharines-based CHTZ-FM (rock), CIWV-FM (smooth jazz) and CHAM (news/talk).

© Hamilton Spectator