WINNIPEG – After close to 20 years together waking up Winnipeg’s Q94 FM (CHIQ) listeners, Beau Frietzche and Tom Milroy are now hosting the morning show on Q94’s sister station, BOB FM (CFWM 99.9).
(Both stations are former CHUM Radio stations now owned by CTV Globemedia Inc.)
The reason seems to be demographics. BOB FM has a slightly older demographic – 35 to 49 – as compared to Q94’s 25-39 target audience.
In recent ratings books, Q94 mornings have slipped in the ratings. Where Beau and Tom used to be either number one or two among morning listeners, they have fallen back to the middle of the pack amid increased competition.
"It was time for a change," Chris Brooke, BOB FM’s program director was quoted as saying in the Winnipeg Free Press. "This gives Tom and Beau a new challenge and gives Q94 an opportunity to develop a new morning show.
"It gives both stations an opportunity to attract new listeners."
Frietzche and Milroy will be playing ’80s and ’90s music for their BOB FM listeners, while at Q94 they spun more current hits.
Beau and Tom are replacing Steve (Thompson) and Harry (Callaghan) who had been BOB’s morning men for the past three years. "Steve and Harry had a great show," Brooke says, "but it never caught on in the ratings. We felt that we had to make some changes."
Those changes also include moving Q94 afternoon slot host Doug Joy to the same time slot at BOB. Joy, who had been on-air at Q94 for ten years, replaces Tom Bradley.
Dez Daniels. the third member of the Beau and Tom on-air team for the past several years, was on maternity leave and is expected back on the air in September.
At press time, Q94 still hadn’t appointed a replacement for the departed morning duo.
– Myron Love
