The Infinite Dial

Just as the first year of the Bob- and Jack-FM format went without much notice from the U.S. radio industry, so did the fifth anniversary of the first Bob-FM, CFWM (99.9 Bob FM) Winnipeg. But I was motivated to check them out this afternoon--almost exactly five years after I first encountered the station. (Count on a longer look at the format in an upcoming Ross On Radio.)

This was my first visit to Bob in a year or so (which, I suppose, says something in itself), and my first long stretch of the station since original programmer Howard Kroeger left. If I was coming upon the station for the first time today, I would still think it was nicely uptempo, well-focused, well-executed, and surprisingly cohesive for a station that goes from Green Day into Grand Funk, certainly more cohesive than many of the subsequent Adult Hits stations managed to be.

What's different now? For better or worse, it felt like there were fewer well-calculated surprises, even though this Bob never went as crazy with variety for its own sake as many imitators did. (Setting aside the government-mandated Cancon, I can't identify more than one song in the music monitor below that wouldn't test well for somebody.) Then again, that may just be a function of losing the shock of the new, and it's hard for anybody to keep that going for five years. It's been hard for a lot of the subsequent Bob- and Jack-FMs to keep it going for more than a year or two.

Here's Bob in middays today:

Green Day, "Holiday"
Grand Funk, "Some Kind Of Wonderful"
Nick Gilder & Sweeney Todd, "Roxy Roller" (Canadian)
Billy Joel, "You May Be Right"
Elton John, "Saturday Night's Alright For Fighting"
Crash Test Dummies, "Superman's Song" (Canadian)
Robert Plant, "Tall Cool One"
Bryan Adams, "When You're Gone" (Canadian)
Wings, "Live And Let Die"
Stevie Nicks & Don Henley, "Leather And Lace"
Tragically Hip, "Courage" (Canadian)
Pretenders, "Brass In Pocket (I'm Special)"