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Calgary's 90.3 CKMP new Quickhitz radio format

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OTAWatcher:
Time is short and so is our attention span, which explains Quickhitz, a new radio format promising twice as many songs per hour as conventional radio stations.

Unveiled in Canada for the first time at Calgary radio station 90.3 AMP on Friday, Quickhitz provides shortened versions of popular songs, edited from three to four minutes down to about half that length, so listeners don’t get bored. Even the commercial breaks are brief, averaging around nine minutes per hour instead of the regular 12 minutes on most top 40 stations.

90.3 AMP says it now plays 24 songs per hour compared to the 12 it used to play.

“A lot of people can’t detect the music has been edited,” said Hillary Hommy, vice-president of brands and networks at Sparknet Communications, a Vancouver-based consultancy that developed Quickhitz.

The format was first launched in the U.S. in September and stations in the U.K. and Australia are planning to introduce Quickhitz within the next six months, Ms. Hommy said.

Sparknet typically provides radio stations with a library of Quickhitz songs and advice on how to implement the concept.

Source: http://business.financialpost.com/2014/08/01/quickhitz-calgary-amp/?__lsa=c16c-60b0

OTAWatcher:
Well that didn't last very long...


--- Quote ---CALGARY – A radio station in Alberta has given up a format featuring shorter versions of songs which it said gave listeners “twice the music.”

The station, 90.3 Amp (CKMP) in Calgary, changed to the style called QuickHitz nearly three weeks ago.
Owner Newcap Radio said it was a first for a radio station in Canada and perhaps the world to take up the format.

But Steve Jones, vice-president of programming, says the station went back to its original format Tuesday.
“It was greeted with a lot of curiosity and it was also greeted with numerous legal threats from a variety of different directions,” Jones said from Halifax.

“As we evaluated it, we made the decision that this week we would just go back to the old strategy because to do this successfully would involve far too many lawyers getting far too rich.”

Jones wouldn’t identify which artists had raised the spectre of legal action except to say they were mostly Canadian.

“Nothing was ever launched, but there was sort of swashbuckling and discussions about that from various artists and other industry stakeholders,” he said.

“It just came to a point where we said it isn’t worth risking the relationships with all of our content providers, the various artists that we play, at our radio station.”

Calgary singer Jann Arden vented on Twitter after the new format was introduced that the station was basically messing with art and, amid expletives, she called the people running it “morons.”

“Can anyone recommend half a good book I should read?” she wrote.
“The NHL is only having one period this season. Makes sense. Those games are just too long.”

Arden got word of the switch back to the old format earlier in the day and was looking for confirmation on Twitter.
“Is it true? Amp radio full songs?” she asked.

Jones said shorter songs were a good fit for the 18- to 34-year-old demographic the station was going after.
He doesn’t think the concept is entirely off the table.

“Our plan is to go back to the drawing board, maybe work a bit closer with some of the various stakeholders in the industry and try and bring this back at a later date.”

--- End quote ---

Source: http://globalnews.ca/news/1516116/calgary-radio-station-drops-short-song-format/

OTAWatcher:
Some other notable tweets from Jan Arden made before Amp radio decided to revert to its previous format:


--- Quote ---Too lazy watch Downton Abby season ten? Download half of the good parts now at AMPflix media.
--- End quote ---


--- Quote ---What amp is doing is wrong on every level. I don't give a crap how you feel about me and my work... This is about copyright infringement
--- End quote ---


--- Quote ---AMPCare for the elderly is here! They take their clients to pee every 2nd day cause they really don't know the difference!
--- End quote ---


A devoted Jann Arden fan even wrote a song about the whole ordeal and posted it on YouTube!
[embed=425,349]<iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/anckfpj6fA8" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>[/embed]

joshua minaya:

--- Quote from: OTAWatcher on August 20, 2014, 01:19 pm ---Well that didn't last very long...

Source: http://globalnews.ca/news/1516116/calgary-radio-station-drops-short-song-format/

--- End quote ---


You just took the words out of my mouth.

tiffaninichole:
Too bad it wasn't a success, this was a really fascinating idea. I would have given it a try just because it was different from what everyone else is doing right now. I know a lot of people thought it wasn't a good idea, but I guess I'm in the minority in thinking that it was cool. Maybe the idea was ahead of its time.  ;)

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