Corus flipped CJKR to Classic Rock “97.5 Big-FM” at 8:00 this morning.
Positioned as “Big Hits and Real Classic Rock”, Big launched with Peter Gabriel’s “Big Time”. The station will run jockless and commercial-free until Monday when a new morning show yet to be announced will debut then. The new format places the station between Rogers Rock 92.1 CITI-FM and Bell Media Variety Hits “99.9 Bob-FM” CFMW-FM.
Original Report 1/29: Corus Rock “Power 97” 97.5 CJKR-FM Winnipeg is currently stunting with a tease that “Something BIG Is Coming Tomorrow”.
CJKR ended its Rock format at noon today following Metallica’s “Fade To Black” and is looping a sweeper promoting the 8am launch. At that time it is expected the station will flip to Country “97.5 Big-FM“. 975BigFM.com was registered earlier this month by Corus.
Corus let go of CJKR morning co-host TJ Connors and afternoon host Holly Bausman as part of layoffs at its Winnipeg cluster earlier this week. A flip to Country would place CJKR in direct competition with Jim Pattison Broadcast Group’s “QX104” CFQX-FM. While “Power 97.5” registered a 2.6 share in the Fall 2014 Numeris ratings, CFQX-FM was third overall in the market and the top music station with a 9.8 share.
Logo is already on their streaming player on Facebook. https://www.facebook.com/Power97Rocks/app_136400003168065
ChrisD is now reporting that advertisers were told by Corus tonight that the new format will instead be Classic Rock.