Toronto Radio: CHBM Launches 'COVID-Free Fridays'

From commercials to news headlines to an inbox full of emails from every service provider you’ve ever dealt with, audiences – for most are now entering their sixth or seventh week of social distancing – have been inundated with an overwhelming amount of messaging, often riffing on a plethora of what have become pandemic memes in these “unprecedented” and “uncertain” times.

Feeling that fatigue set in themselves, CHBM boom 97.3 FM Toronto staff have launched “Covid-Free Fridays,” committing to two hours of up-tempo music and good news every Friday morning, without mention of the ongoing pandemic.

“A couple of us were talking last week about Covid and how we’re drowning in it,” program director Troy McCallum told Broadcast Dialogue. “Commercials, News, Social Media… basically everywhere we turn it’s everywhere and it’s just too much – we need a break…it’s a chance for our audience to escape with Stu Jeffries and get the weekend off to a good start.”

The two-hour commercial free block launched yesterday, accompanied by new imaging. Canadian Traffic Network (CTN) reporters were also asked to adjust their sponsors and reports.

McCallum says response on the station’s social media and via text affirmed their suspicions that listeners were ready for a reprieve from the last few months of pandemic-dominated content.