I’ve been having fun learning more and more about the radio market in Vancouver. Today has to be no exception with MOJO Sports Radio being chopped off from the Corus block. Apparently the station has been having troubles in the ratings for some time, and the news of its departure can’t be all that surprising.
MOJO, one of Corus Radio Vancouver’s four local stations, will become AM730 and offer continuous traffic and weather reports during the morning and afternoon rush hours as well as re-broadcast “time-shift” several talk shows from CKNW, its sister station.
MOJO had about half the market share of its all-sports competitor, TEAM 1040, with a 0.9-per-cent share of the total radio audience compared to 1040’s 1.4 per cent, according to Bureau of Broadcast Measurement Canada’s 2006 statistics. [the province]
This continues a steady decline of performance for Corus Radio Vancouver, the largest blow being the loss of broadcasting rights to Vancouver Canucks games to cross town rivals, Team 1040. This also comes after the “major restructuring” at CKNW in April that saw twelve staff members, of various departments and tenures, being removed from the company. With the fourteen let go from MOJO today, there’s a lot going on within the Corus group of stations.
Does Vancouver need a radio station that is heavy on the traffic report side? I’ll be honest and say that I haven’t listened to enough of the market to give a solid answer, but there seems to be an abundance of traffic reports on the dial now to get that information in a fairly timely manner. It’s almost as if they are shoving AM730 into the closet with the hopes that it makes enough money to validate its existance and float along with the rest of the group.