Well, it's a big day in Newfoundland radio! After placing last in the ratings the "Original Outlaws of Canadian Rock Radio" OZFM are playing Katy Perry & Lady Gaga in a flip from their 2.5 year Active Rock format to Top 40. The "Pop" OZFM logo can be seen overcoming the "Rock" OZFM website today (Click for image)

One very good point made to me on Twitter was that the dated radio ratings method (BBM "book") tends to favor stations with older audiences. OZ was generally targeted to a younger demographic so this may hold some merit. Unfortunately this ratings method is still used to sell advertising, which is radios main revenue stream.

 

Rock has dominated Newfoundland Radio for a long time. In St. John's we have an all Classic-Rock station, the Top 40 station leans heavily towards rock, and Coast added a lot of Classic Rock into their play list in 2011. With the same old Classic Rock songs being played for so long you'd think that the audience in Newfoundland would welcome a station spinning fresh rock music in addition to their favourite classics. So, aside from the possibility of ratings being skewed, what happened? There's no trouble to read about how "Rock Radio is Dying" but active Rock has been successful in other markets. Plus rock "just works" in Newfoundland if you do it right. OZ used to dominate the ratings, but they've been struggling ever since the early 2000s when NewCap came to town with K-Rock.

An important note about OZFM which makes it particularly unique is that they broadcast across Newfoundland, wheras other stations such as Coast or Hits are heard in St. John's only. In some areas of the province OZ could be the only FM station on the dial so by flipping to Active Rock they risked upsetting that audience. OZ did a respectable job maintaining a good playlist, but it always seemed like they were unable to do the format properly. 

A radio station needs to come to life. It needs to live and breathe. When that happens, listeners can relate to it, and they will tune in frequently for long periods. 

OZFM failed miserably at this. They didn't really relate to anybody. Tune in to K-Rock at any time of the day and you're entertained. Whether its Big Tom in the shed, theme weekends, special programming, fun contests, listener phone calls...... K-Rock is alive! It's fun to listen to and people love it. Outside of the morning show OZ had nothing but music going for them. There was no fun, just the giant "rock ego", concert flyaways and weather updates. I don't even recall hearing them out in the community doing those painful car dealership remotes (Oops, maybe that was because of the ratings..) Nobody loved OZ! There was no reason to. It was just there if you liked the music. Unfortunately "just music" is not enough to keep a radio station alive. Not to mention a waste of the broadcast medium.

Take a listen to 94.7 FM on their first day of Top 40 when everybody is talking about them and tuning in to hear the new OZ. You'll hear something that was slapped together quickly. No hosts on air, bad imaging, lame playlist. And the slogan "Today's Best Music".... Come on! Magic 97 used this before it was rebranded to K-Rock in 2000. Soon OZ will be saying "The station you can turn on and leave on".. This was no way to launch a radio station! OZ faces some tough competition. Hits is already doing Top 40 a hell of a lot better and K-Rock owns Rock! Poor execution was the reason for "Rock OZ's" demise. Should OZ continue to offer an inferior product, regardless of format, they will continue to fail. This launch certainly doesn't give much hope. Maybe they could stand out by giving Listener Driven Radio a try?

If OZ wanted to flip formats properly they really needed to put in the time and effort required to come out with their best foot forward. Ditch the "OZ" name, as it means nothing to anybody anymore. Who wants to listen to a station that betrayed them? Start from scratch. Hell, OZ is still using the same voiceover guy they've had for years. Rarely do you see a station flip formats while keeping the same name and voice guy. It's a terrible idea. 

As a province-wide station I think OZ should be playing Top 40 music in some way, but it is unfortunate that the St. John's radio dial now has less variety. Active Rock definitely could have worked. Especially with the opportunity to get 90s material in the playlist. I know lots of Rock fans would like to see OZ fail at Top 40. I just hope they learn from mistakes. Has to be gloomy in the OZ hallways now! 

Response on Twitter is generally negative. Some positive comments from listeners in other markets who had no Top 40 station. It's going to be interesting to see how things play out, what the next ratings will look like, and how Hits FM will respond. Hopefully things start to look up for OZ. A little competition is always good! Who knows, maybe they'll even take my advice and add some special programming like a Saturday night Dance show!

Looking forward to your comments below. What are your thoughts on the new OZ? Feel free to remain anonymous! Personally I would have loved to see a Gen-X all 90s format here in St. John's. Maybe that's next!

If you're lost without rock music on FM Radio, check out The Nick North Show on 93.5 CHMR every Tuesday night at 9PM!