— Story by Paul Richards
Radio listeners never got the chance to hear the magic. This proposed FM radio station was denied the opportunity take to the air.
The research and planning were extensive, proposed financing was in place, but this 1987 proposed new regional radio station to serve Simcoe-County and surrounding area didn’t receive the final approval of the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission. At the end of the proposed first broadcast day, CJFM FM 95.7 signed off without ever signing on.
In 1987, Simcoe County boasted a population of 219,350, with five local radio signals (two in Barrie and one each in Midland, Orillia and Collingwood) that accounted for only 37 percent of all hours of tuning according to the Fall 1986 BBM survey. At that time an overwhelming majority of radio tuning (all persons 7 years of age and older) within Simcoe County was to various Toronto signals. Radio audience measurement research clearly indicated a need for a new “local” radio outlet.
The investment group of the proposed new MAGIC 95 FM radio station were local business operators. Harl (Butch) Orser had moved to Penetanguishene where he was President of and eventually the owner of the Penetang Bottling Company Coca-Cola franchise. The father of eight-time Canadian Champion and past World Men’s Figure Skating Champion Brian Orser was to act as Chairman of the new radio station. Other shareholders were to include broadcaster Jerry Chomyn of Collingwood, CHAY Limited President Vin Dittmer of Midhurst, and businessman Bob Marshall from Uxbridge.
Research and promotional material in hand, the CJFM FM group set out to tell its story as to how it would provide a regional voice representing the lifeways and concerns of young adults who the applicant determined to be under-served by home-town media. MAGIC 95 proposed a format to appeal to “29-year-olds and those who wish they were” said Mr. Orser in an October 1987 press release.
Twenty new jobs to be created for the start-up operations of MAGIC 95
Proposed music programming of MAGIC 95 was described as “young, vibrant and streetwise,” to appeal to young, 25–34 year-old adults. The station had proposed to pay special attention to new and undiscovered national and local artists in a special daily contemporary music hour to be known as the “Magic 95 Music File.”
News and Information programming was to play a meaningful role in the daily programming of MAGIC 95. In addition to operating a full-time newsroom, the applicant had proposed to operate a news bureau in Orillia, another in Midland, and a third in Barrie. Newscasts with predominant local content were to be presented nine times per day. In addition, a daily, thirty-minute, locally produced news magazine to be called “Perspective 95” would have provided news and feature programming highlighting the concerns of local listeners and important issues impacting Simcoe County and area.
The MAGIC 95 application outlined a detailed eleven-point plan to develop Canadian talent including on-air exposure for student broadcasters, donations of commercial time to promote Canadian recordings and the funding of a journalism scholarship.
The plan was to operate out of newly constructed offices and broadcast studios along Highway 400 in Moonstone which Orser claimed represented a strategic location for serving the largest population centres of Simcoe County. The transmitter site was proposed to be situated just south of Horseshoe Valley.
The call for applications for a licence to serve Barrie 95.7 FM frequency was highly competitive.
The proposed MAGIC 95 group made its presentation to the CRTC in Toronto on December 7th, 1987. In total, six applicants set out to plan a new radio station, all with different ideas on what programming elements and music format would work best to serve the wants and needs of Simcoe County listeners.
The eventual winner? ROCK 95 Broadcasting.
Given the successful history and continued solid local ownership, management and programming provided by ROCK 95 it seems the CRTC got it right.
