It’s been a long time – 38 years in fact – since Toronto’s classic rock station Q107 began to rock n’ roll.
But with many of its best-known artists now considerably longer of tooth – if not still long of hair – the Corus Entertainment station has spent the past six months trying to entice younger listeners by adding more contemporary bands like Foo Fighters, The Black Keys and The Sheepdogs.
Dave Farough, general manager of Corus Radio Toronto, said the company decided last April to “evolve” the brand and make it feel more contemporary. The station has also introduced an updated logo and tweaked other consumer touch-points such as its website.
“It’s really a world-class radio station, but like any business, if you don’t evolve you eventually die,” said Farough. “We can still play Led Zeppelin and Aerosmith and AC/DC and Pink Floyd, but there are so many new artists that were influenced by those bands, so why can’t we play those too and be a little broader and accessible for a wider group of people?”
The average Q107 listener prior to the revamp was around 50 years old, but Corus is hoping the revamp will attract listeners in their early 40s, said Farough. While its listenership was previously as high as 70% male, the objective is to create a 60-40 or even 55-45 male/female split – turning it into more of what Farough calls an “adult” station.
Susan Schaefer, Corus Entertainment’s head of brands, said audience research revealed that listeners perceived Q107’s previous iteration as “dark” and “hard.” The goal, she said, is to make it more accessible and contemporary, lightening the overall feel with the addition of more female-friendly artists like Blondie.
Corus said the format tweaks have already produced ratings boosts, with Q107’s share among adults 25-54 increasing 13% in the most recent ratings period. It has also further strengthened its #1 ranking among males 25-54 (where it commanded a market-leading 11% share of hours tuned for the Sept. 1-Nov. 30 period).
A greater emphasis on its female on-air personalities is also paying off, said Farough, noting that Derringer in the Morning with Maureen Holloway is now Toronto’s second most popular morning show among adults 35-54, behind CHUM FM’s Roger, Darren & Marilyn. “What we’re doing content wise, and with a broader range of music, we can certainly close that gap,” he said.
Last month, Q107 launched an extensive out-of-home campaign underscoring the station’s commitment to newer artists. The billboard and transit ads poked fun at the station’s traditional focus on Boomer-friendly classic rock – what Schaefer called “the elephant in the room” – with messages including “Now playing rock music recorded in the last thirty years. We also have the internet” and “Have you heard these new bands like Red Hot Chili Peppers, Foo Fighters, or Green Day? We’re playing them now.”
Another ad featured a list of music genres including “New Rock, Alt Rock, Classic Rock and Prog Rock” accompanied by checkmarks, while one genre, “Viking Metal Folk Rock,” has an “X” beside it.
“With every piece of creative, we asked ourselves ‘Does it feel like a lighter approach and does it address that we are more than classic rock?’” said Schaefer. “We wanted to ensure we communicated that [we’re playing] a broader range of rock, we had a sense of humour and that we’re lighter and more accessible.”
On Monday, the station launched a new TV spot exclusively on Global Television called “What does it mean to rock?” Created by Toronto agency hqvb, the 60-second spot – which Schaefer describes as a “rock anthem” – blends video of classic rock warhorses such as the Rolling Stones with bands like U2 and Green Day. The musical accompaniment is not guitars cranked to 11, but an orchestral track.
The voiceover concludes, “Rock and roll will live forever…but only if we let it. Maybe it’s time to take a look at what you think rocks, and then listen to what we think does.”
In development for approximately three months, the spot has attracted some negative online attention because it fails to include female rockers or pioneering black artists like Chuck Berry. One YouTube commenter responded to the rhetorical question posed by the video with, “Based on this I’d say being a white male.”
Schaefer said Corus’s marketing team worked with footage it was able to obtain from artists and labels. “One of the toughest things was getting the footage,” she said. “Basically we created [the spot] from what we had to work with.
“It wasn’t for not trying,” she added. “We reached out to a really broad group of artists.” She said there are currently no plans to re-cut the spot, which she called a “labour of love.”
As for Q107’s revamped playlist, listeners tuning in at 3:28 p.m. on Monday would have been greeted by a true classic rock chestnut in the 1976 Kansas hit “Carry on Wayward Son,” followed by Sam Roberts’ 2002 single “Brother Down.”
Of the 12 songs played by Q107 in the next hour, four dated from the 1970s, four from the 1980s, one from the 1990s and three from the 2000s, the most recent from 2010.
Farough said that cross-section of music is representative of the station’s new approach, with some older songs being jettisoned to make way for more current recordings. If 20 Led Zeppelin Songs had previously been in regular rotation for example, that may have been whittled down to 10.
In other words, the song only sorta remains the same.
