FLIP, FLOP AND FLOW

 

Flow Radio. Who? Where? Why?

By Stephen Weir

A Big swap has just been made between the two commercial Black FM music stations in Toronto. As of Monday, this week radio station G-98.7 now calls itself FLOW 98.7 FM, Toronto’s Hip Hop R&B. Also on Monday, radio station CFXJ which used to call itself as FLOW, is now 93.5 Today Radio.

Confusing? You bet. Radio listeners all across the city have been trying to find their favourite stations and their equality favourite DJs sometimes will little success.  To help clear the air so to speak, 93.5 Today Radio has been running commercials to tell loyal listeners they have to turn their radios to G 98.7 to catch the sounds of FLO

When you do turn that dial, it does play the FLOW style music, but It isn’t the same DJ’s you are used to hearing.  This week the morning hosts at Flow were Red and comedian Jay Martin, long-time voices on G-98.7.  Missing in action at 93.5 are the two popular FLOW hosts Blake Carter and Peter Kash who have been replaced by former Montreal radio talk show host Nikki Balch. Most of the on-air talent, including the popular Dr Jay (the Soca Prince) are no longer working at 93.5 Today Radio. To understand this game of radio musical chairs, remember that there are two different stations, owned by two different companies in two different buildings, with two different CRTC licences playing music to basically the same audience.  

Jamaican Canadian businessman Denham Jolly launched CFXJ 93.5 FM some 21 years ago this month becoming the first Black owner of a radio station in Canada and the first to play Hip Hop and other urban sounds. The station that he dubbed FLOW, is located at St Clair Avenue and Yonge Street. It has had several different owners since Jolly sold the station 12 years ago. None of the subsequent owners, including the current Stingray Group are Black.   

New Look for FLOW 98.7 (l)

For the past several years Stingray’s Flow has been only moderately successfully playing a steady diet of Hip Hop. “For some time now, T-Dot’s hip hop heads have been loyal to Flow 93.5, explained Musicologist and Toronto promoter Ron Nelson in a recent Social Media post. That fan base “can take partial credit for being an essential Drake amplifier over the years, they played more Drake than any other Canadian radio station!”

 

Recently Stingray wanted to get out of the Hip Hop business and abandon its Black historic roots laid down by Mr. Jolly.  Rather than simply drop the name FLOW they approached G-98.7 to buy the rights to the FLOW name and format.

 

The North York station, CKFG 98.7FM, was launched in by the late Jamaican-Canadian broadcaster, Fitzroy Gordon. In 2011, he brought the station to air with a mixture of talk, Soca, Reggae music, and community news. The station fell on hard times when Mr. Gordon passed in 2019. Transmitter issues (there are parts of Toronto that can’t receive the station), mounting tax bills and friction amongst the station management team resulted in a court ordered sale. Six month  ago it was acquired by Neeti P. Ray who is an operator of multicultural stations in Ontario and Atlantic Canada. 

 

Mr Ray is not Black, but, one of the first thing he did was to hire Afro-American radio expert Gary Gunter to run his Caribbean Canadian station.  The acquisition of the Flow name is one of many strategic moves Gunter has made to improve the station’s lot in life.

Popular morning host posted his goodbyes after his last show a week ago (right)

 

“Flow 93.5FM has been a powerful brand in the GTA for many years,” said Gary Gunter, General Manager of the “All New” Flow 98.7. “Coupled with the historical legacy of G98.7FM and what it has meant to the Black community, this move demonstrates our commitment to serving Toronto with a radio station that further invests into the tastes, issues, needs and lifestyle of its loyal listeners. We are thrilled to bring together two of the most respected radio stations at 98.7FM.”

SIDEBAR  

With every business deal there are winners and losers. One radio station selling its identity to another is not a business strategy we have seen before.  We asked Toronto media expert and former Manager of Vibe Radio (CHRY – York University) Danae Peart about the rationale of this week’s deal.

“My take is that the decision of G-98.7 to acquire FLOW’s brand was to monopolize on the following and audience numbers that comes with a longer established brand that also has some respected history in the Toronto Radio market,” she told the Caribbean Camera. “I am sure the logic was more numbers more advertisers. The caveat here is that this approach does not guarantee the expected results’

LOSER

Loyal listeners – There use to be two stations playing Hip Hop, R&B, Soca and Reggae. Now there is just one

New Listeners - The new Flow has transmitter issues; parts of Scarborough can’t pick up the signal.

The Caribbean Community – There is no longer a Black owned station in Toronto, there used to be two, the hiring of Mr. Gunther helps

The Staff at 93.5 – all black on-air staff at the old Flow station are gone.

The City of Toronto - the transition was not properly communicated across both stations. Listeners were left confused, but listeners are not the decision-makers.

WINNERS

The new FLOW – More listeners as Drake fans move over from the Old FLOW to get their fix from the Six.

New FLOW - more advertising opportunities, less competition to capture. Black specific advertising dollars 

93.5 Old Flow ownership – the station has flat-lined in terms of listenership and advertising dollars in its current format. This lets the station gracefully out of the Hip Hop format and lets them bring in a whole new format with new people and different music.

more photographs in the the Weir cover story in this week's Caribbean Camera. 

 https://thecaribbeancamera.com/radio-station-g98-7-re-brands-itself-as-flow/