C 100 Fm

I used to be a big fan of radio. When I was younger, I wanted to work in radio. And growing up in Newfoundland, we had OZfm which was unlike any other radio station I encountered while traveling or online. When I moved to Halifax, there was no OZfm so the first station I became friends with was C100.
Before the days of Z103, 101.5 The Bounce and Live 105, there was only C100 and Q104, plus CKDU and the country and talk-​radio stations. I like a certain level of familiarity when it comes to music I hear on the radio and C100 provided me best with that. However, like most radio stations, familiarity is one of the most apt descriptions of radio. They thrive on familiarity to keep listeners in. People want comfort and radio knows that. C100 is no different. It didn’t take me long to sourly realize that.
What made C100 different from Q104 in my eyes was that C100 evolved its playlist and still had enough variety to suit my wants. They play mostly lighter rock, pop, some hip-​hop, and whatever suitable crossovers are out at the time.
After a few months, songs go through the expected levels of rotation, from light to heavy, back to lighter and eventually into «recurrent» rotation if it was a big enough hit, which means it’ll likely stay in their playlist for a few years for occasional play.
Their «gold» list (Gold = songs older than 3 or 4 years old that they play) I always found was quite limited. With literally thousands of hits from the last 20 years and they always seem to latch on to the same 10 or 15 at any given time, which I always was confused by. (Red, Red Wine is a bloody head-​scratcher!!!)
I enjoy their morning show as I get ready for work. It’s friendly and comforting. I purposely tune to 100.1 for that reason.
What I always found that C100 lacked was their weekend programming. I grew up on Weekend Countdowns and C100 has their own countdown but I liked hearing Top 40 shows. Z103 has American Top 40 and Rick Dee’s Top 40 but there are programs for other radio formats (like C100’s Hot Adult Contemporary format) that C100 could acquire. I also really enjoyed their evening Battle of the Block Rockin’ Beats. An opportunity to hear new songs… even if the winners would never make their regular playlists. Sadly, they eventually abolished this.
Since my days of wanting to work in radio, I’ve come to realization that like anything, the radio industry isn’t what I thought. It’s a business and in a lot of ways, is quite flawed. Radio isn’t quite as about the music as I’d like to believe. So, knowing this, C100 isn’t that bad. Also, hearing people complain about C100 overplaying their songs brings to mind another sobering fact. C100’s most played song is played maybe 45 times a week. That’s about once every four hours. Compare that to a lot of American radio stations that play songs upwards of 120 times a week. That’s about once every hour and a few minutes.
Most of my friends hate the radio. I can understand it when you have the internet and endless musical choices at your finger tips. I still enjoy some aspects of radio and for what I expect from radio’s limitations, C100 provides suitably.