Update 9:40am: “Hot 103” made the transition to Virgin Radio around 8:00 this morning. Nothing major has changed outside of the name. The station is running commercial free through Labor Day Weekend.
Original Report 12:24am: Astral Media will bring the “Virgin Radio” brand to a seventh Canadian market as “Hot 103” CKMM Winnipeg will soon convert to what’s becoming a national brand.
1031VirginRadio.com was registered anonymously on August 14 and moved to Astral’s servers this week. It currently redirects to a blank page located at http://Winnipeg.VirginRadio.ca with a simple “103 Virgin Radio” in the header.
CKMM dropped from a 15.6 share in Spring 2011 to 9.1 following the launch of Evanov’s “Energy 106.1” CHWE in July 2011. That station garnered a 7.1 share in the Spring 2012 BBM ratings. To counter Energy’s gains, the station hired Dale Davies, the PD at Energy to take the same position at 103.1 a month ago.
Astral currently uses the Virgin Radio brand in Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal, Edmonton, Calgary, and London. The London station debuted just a couple weeks ago.
Looks like it went live at 8:00 this morning.