The new Mojo radio (AM 640)

[wolfwolf]

Have you noticed the non-silent revolution that took place on Mojo radio starting earlier this week?

There are at least six new voices (that is, weather readers, news readers, etc). Also, Andrew Krystal just disappeared into thin air (I have to check his website to find out what happened to him).

Mojo Radio now calls itself the "New Mojo" and the phalanx of new personnel suggests there's a lot of new money being poured into it. Or if not, they had a really profitable year and decided to reinvest a lot of the dividends into it.

Since the station is owned, I think, by the Rogers communications empire, that probably explains the major changes.

 

[CaseOne]

you're totally wrong

they suffered from poor ratings and cleaned house.

theyre trying to salvage whats left of those legendary call letters

 

[MojoRisin']

and andrew krystal got the boot a month or so before the new format came into place. Hes at 1010 CFRB now..filling in some slots for now. Theres a huge thread about this already somewhere on terb. old news now though

 

[mr. x]

mojo, like q107 and 102.1 the edge, is owned by Corus, and has been for a few years.

generally, AM is dead except for sports and talk and obscure foriegn language stations... Corus came up with the talk radio for guys idea, and hoped to sell it to other stations in the US and Canada, but with little success...

it seems they are trying tochange the station without too much fanfare as they don't want to lose the audience they already have.

 

[Talerion]

mojo, like q107 and 102.1 the edge, is owned by Corus, and has been for a few years.

generally, AM is dead except for sports and talk and obscure foriegn language stations... Corus came up with the talk radio for guys idea, and hoped to sell it to other stations in the US and Canada, but with little success...

it seems they are trying tochange the station without too much fanfare as they don't want to lose the audience they already have.

It got off to a good start but doesn't seem to have any real direction anymore. The morning show didn't really have anything specific to do with Humble and Fred and they didn't want to pay the sheckles to keep them. I am not sure that Oakley will ever be able to get rid of his CFRB personna and as such he never really seems like he belongs there.

Now they have Craig Brommel in the morning and while he does provide an interesting perspective from the police side of things he otherwise simply spews out opinions about things he clearly has zero knowledge about. A little more research and a little less bully might make that segment worth listening to, but at the moment it is Craig the Bully as he was before only now he doesn't get that no one "has" to listen to him.

With the hockey strike looming I am certain that they are in an utter panic at this point which was probably one of their major money makers. Now they are suggesting that thier coverage of the strike is going to be worth listening too... yeah like that there will be breaking news on this issue very hour.

T.

 

[Keebler Elf]

Oh yeah, the hockey strike - I hadn't thought about that. MOJO will be screwed as hockey takes up a good 25-50% of their live broadcast.

I think Stafford seems a little down now that the fun's been taken out of the station; I think he sees the writing on the wall.

I'll never understand why Oakley went to MOJO; he wasn't a fit then and isn't a fit now.

I'm kinda glad some of the stupid topics are gone; like the girls show on Monday - it was so fake it made me want to puke!

When MOJO went to pre-recorded comedy routines on the weekend, I knew something was up.

When MOJO came out, I stopped listening to CFRB. Now I've gone back b/c MOJO now sucks; whereas before it sucked but at least was funny...

 

[Mr. K]

I'll never understand why Oakley went to MOJO; he wasn't a fit then and isn't a fit now.

Money. . .

 

[rsalomon]

Lots of money and of course a morning show. Corus is paying Oakley $350,000 per year for the next 5 years. Even if they decide to drop him they still have to pay. CFRB was also not going to be changing their morning show anytime soon, so he left.

I was a fan of Oakley on CFRB but for some reason don't enjoy him on Mojo.

Has anyone else noticed that since they made the switch the broadcasts sound like they are broadcasting from a cave? There seems to be some sort of echo effect.

For a company that is known for paying very little to the people that work for them Corus is not shy about shelling out money for the on-air talent. Oakley's contract is huge, Bill Waters makes $200K from what I hear, and gets to spends summers at his home and does his show from there, and only works 1 hour per day in the summer. Nice gig if you can get it. Even Stafford makes decent coin, which I never understood. Just my opinion, but I have never been a fan of Stafford.

I don't think that this move will help Mojo's ratings as they no longer stand out in the AM Radio crowd. The impending hockey strike will be devastating to them as well. Hard to do a program called Leafs Lunch with no Leafs. Also, how will they fill the evening time slots that would have been Leaf game broadcasts?

 

[LanceMcClure]

Oakley can't be getting $350K per year when Krystal; was only getting $87K per year (re: his website). What kind of injustice is that?

No wonder they are going tits up.

I liked Krystal because he said whatever the hell he wanted to. I didn't always agree with him but he was at least entertaining.

The new format sucks dick. At least I had something to laugh about with the old format. We have 680 and 1010 why do we want another news-talk type station??

 

[Talerion]

When MOJO went to pre-recorded comedy routines on the weekend, I knew something was up.

When MOJO came out, I stopped listening to CFRB. Now I've gone back b/c MOJO now sucks; whereas before it sucked but at least was funny...

Actually I enjoyed the weekend comedy. It isn't like there is anything worth listening to on the weekend anyway on CFRB so why not just play comedy? But they are at a point now where they replay Oakley's show at night and there isn't much new material on MOJO all day.

T.

 

[Keebler Elf]

Oakley is a much bigger draw then Crystal, thus the higher pay.

 

[LanceMcClure]

Oakley is a much bigger draw then Crystal, thus the higher pay.

No shit?

But $350K? What do H&F and Derringer make? Anyone know?

 

[rsalomon]

Derringer makes $375K. He was making $300K but he has a clause in his contract that stipulates that he must always be the highest paid on-air talent at Corus. Not sure what the Mix deal was for H&F, my mole works for Corus and don't know anyone at Standard Broadcasting who own Mix. I do know that when they were with Corus they were making $150K each at Edge 102 and then got a bump up to $200K each for the Mojo morning show.

My understanding is the Ted Wolyshin (sp?) at CFRB is the big man in Toronto. Rumour is he makes $500K+!!!

Morning is where the dough is. Afternoon drive can be decent depending on the talent and ratings, a popular afternoon guy can make $80-$120K. Mid-day talent somewhere from $50-$80K. Any other shift pays lousy, but none worse than the "overnight" shift. If an overnight guy makes $35K he is fortunate. Most overnight or weekend fill ins make $28-$32K

If you want to make big dough you have to get a gig at a US Station.

The scary thing is that this is pretty much the standard at all stations. It is almost like there is colusion between program directors!! Reminds of me NHL GM's, however that's a whole different thread.

 

[LanceMcClure]

Wow that is some serious coin, eh? Ego's really start to get in the way when you have those Derringer clauses. What about Craiggy and the supporting cast, I guess Derringer would work to get them what they want too?

This stuff fascinates me how these guys can get that coin for being sociable and working 4-6 hours per day.

 

[Qsecofr720]

Derringer is an a$$h0le. Self-absorbed prick. A buddy of mine went to school with him. Said that in school he would hang around with the jocks and kiss their asses to be protected from the other guys that would beat his ass.

 

[lewd]

My understanding is the Ted Wolyshin (sp?) at CFRB is the big man in Toronto. Rumour is he makes $500K+!!!

And certainly not deserving in my eyes. He is so lame and uninteresting...and so damn politically correct.

 

[The Shake]

For those of you interested, Andrew Krystal has been given the 11 PM to 1 AM slot, Sunday nights on CFRB.

I can't believe that CFRB is paying that Tool Wolyshin $500,000 to get his ass kicked by Radio One. TOO FUNNY!

 

[saywhat]

they should have tried one more year of talk radio for guys and put Howard Stern on in the mornings...Oakley sucks!!

 

[Keebler Elf]

Krystal on from 11 to 1 on Sundays?!? Who listens then? I thought he was better than that?

But my real question concerns the guy on CFRB 1010 at night, Jim Richards. He blows big time and he never even gets better over time. When he gets a call, it's like he's in a big rush to end the call even though he often has no one else lined up on the que. I have a theory that the only reason he's still around is that he's cheap and he fills airtime at night when few people are listening. Anyone know what he makes (and more importantly, why he's still around?).

 

[Talerion]

And certainly not deserving in my eyes. He is so lame and uninteresting...and so damn politically correct.

Hard to imagine he was at CFNY back when it was a real alternative radio station. He was dull there too so it made sense for him to leave.

Considering he replaced Wally Crouter, who if memory serves me correct continued to host the morning show for nearly five years despite his death in 1991 without anyone noticing, all Ted had to do was become even more vanilla and ensure he sounds outraged on a issue if Steve Couch indicates he is mad about it.


T.