Corus owned Country 95.3 FM is spinning a new sound for southern Ontario after undergoing a format flip that includes a new name and a revised lineup of on-air personalities.
Now known as Vinyl 95.3, the Hamilton, Ont.-based station is playing top 40 greatest hits from the ’60s, ’70s and ’80s in a bid to reach more adults 35 to 54, with a female skew.
The change was sparked by the station’s desire to reach a more mainstream music audience, said Suzanne Carpenter, general manager, Corus Radio Hamilton.
The country market is extremely niche, she said, and sticking to that format was inhibiting long-term growth. When looking to rebrand, the station realized the region lacked a greatest hits format that focused specifically on music from these decades, she said.
Research showed that the new format is particularly popular in cosmopolitan areas like Philadelphia, New York, Edmonton and Calgary where listeners share similar characteristics to those in Vinyl’s market which includes the densely populated urban corridor between Toronto and Hamilton.
“We felt we had enough breadth of examples that the format would work in this city as well,” she said.
Before launching, the station hired a music research consultant who played over 1,400 songs for focus groups that rated the selections on varying degrees of likeability.
“From that we determined the most popular…from each of those eras, and compiled out music list accordingly,” said Carpenter.
Though the new format won’t necessarily appeal to all country fans, Carpenter believes the station was able to maintain a good share of its loyal listeners. She has received several letters and phone calls of praise since the Jan. 4 relaunch.
“Whether you’re a country music fan or a rock fan, everyone grew up with this music and so it’s familiar to everyone,” she said.
Astral-owned, Toronto-based 97.3 EZ Rock also rebranded in December as BOOM, with a new format playing “Toronto’s Greatest Hits,” and a revised personality lineup.
Carpenter said most markets have two greatest hit stations, which manage to co-exist because they tend to be distinct and slightly different. Carpenter believes the two stations will share listeners.
Corus is supporting the launch with transit, billboards and bus boards developed by freelance creative team Rosalinda Graziano and Jen Wilson, in addition to TV spots that were produced internally by Corus TV.
Media Dimensions handled the buy.
