Calgary Radio: CHPK Drops Alternative For Country

Calgary's CHPK 95.3 FM has dropped Alternative music, branding as The Peak, for Country as Wild 95.3 FM, branding as “Calgary’s new country.”

According to the Calgary Herald, the station made the abrupt switch on Monday morning at 10:15 a.m., ending their run 22-month-run as the Peak, which was launched in April 2014 with great fanfare and high expectations but had them languishing in or near last place in the ratings for much of that time.

Wild 95.3 FM will be directly going after the city’s perennial ratings juggernaut CKRY Country 105.1 FM, which has long been the king of the Calgary airwaves.

Ross Winters, Director of Programming for the Jim Pattison Broadcast Group added, “Calgary listeners told us that they love New Country music and that they love choice, so we're delighted to give them both!”

“We’re thrilled that with the launch of Wild 95.3 Calgarians now have a choice for New Country. We plan to kick it up a notch and deliver true excitement and energy,” said Eric Stafford, General Manager. “We’ll show what WILD means through our music, our presentation and our complete involvement in the community.”

Stafford says he believes the piece of the pie is big enough that there’s enough to satisfy both stations and a market that can support them.

“I sure do. We respect the fact that they’ve done a good job and have been in the market for a long time, a heritage station, but we do believe there’s room for two stations in many formats,” he says, referring, again, to the various hit music stations in the city that have “been able to find a space and be successful.

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As part of the launch and to introduce itself to the market, the station will play 10,000 songs uninterrupted, announcing at the end of the period — approximately three or three-and-a-half weeks from now — who its on-air talent will be.