by Myron Love
WINNIPEG – Newcap Radio, the new owners of Winnipeg’s The Breeze 100.7 FM, has made some personnel changes and will soon be changing the format of the low-rated station.
Gone are on-air personalities Russ Tyson – the station’s program director and morning show host – and veteran broadcaster Roger Curry who read the news. Curry is a well known figure in Winnipeg. He had served previously stints on air at both CJOB – the city’s top-ranked station – and CBC as the early morning show host.
The new faces behind the scenes are Nick Adams, former music director of Edmonton classic rock station K-Rock, who is the new program director, and Kevin Klein from Calgary who is the new general manager.
The station was originally licensed in 2002 as CHNR (Home of Nostalgia Radio) whose format was Big Band music and other standards from the ’30s, ‘.40s and ’50s. When that format failed to draw enough listeners, the station became The Breeze playing more contemporary music. In the fall ratings, The Breeze only drew 1.7% of the listening audience.
Newcap COO Mark Maheu has announced that the new station will unveil its new format on December 26. When asked by www.cartt.ca, he denied that it will become a hip hop station – as has been rumoured in the city – but refused to divulge what the format is ahead of time.
The station’s specialty format license requires that at least 40% of its music must be specialty music such as folk, jazz or blues.
The personnel/administrative changes were strictly a business decision, Maheu says.
"Our goal is to improve the ratings," he says. "We believe listeners will be pleasantly surprised by what they will hear under our new format"
