Update 7/3: Rogers completed the rebranding of the remainder of their FM Country stations to the “Country” moniker.
“Y101” CKBY Smiths Falls/Ottawa is now “Country 101.1“, “Kix 93.5” CKXC Kingston is now “Country 93.5“, and “Q104” CJQM Sault Ste. Marie is now “Country 104.3“.
The changes bring identical logos and imaging to the stations.
Original Report 6/2: As Cumulus begins phasing in its “Nash” brand in the United States, Rogers Radio has begun to place all of its Country stations under identical branding in Canada.
On Friday, “Kix 106.7” CIKZ-FM Kitchener, ON relaunched as “Country 106.7“. No changes were made to the station’s programming other than the name change.
Earlier in May, domains matching the frequencies of all of Rogers’ existing Country formatted stations were transferred to Rogers nameservers awaiting activation. The domains were as follows:
- Country600.com for 600 CKAT North Bay, ON
- Country935.net* for “Kix 93.5” CKXC-FM Kingston, ON
- Country1011.com for “Y101” CKBY Smiths Falls/Ottawa
- Country1043.com for “Q104” CJQM-FM Sault Ste. Marie, ON
Country935.com being the only exception as that domain is owned by 930 KAFF/93.5 K228XO Flagstaff, AZ. .net, .org, and .ca variations were registered for all of the previous frequencies as well as for the two Rogers stations already using the “Country” moniker.
Those stations are “Country 93.3” CJOK-FM Fort MacMurray, AB and “Country 107.1” CKQC-FM Abbotsford, BC.
This seems like a bigger company motive. Rogers also brands most of their Rock stations simply as “Rock” and News stations simply as “News” Their main competition Astral (Soon to be Bell) focuses on national and regional brands as well (EZ Rock, Boom, Virgin Radio, NRJ, Rouge and Sun FM)