thinking mojo..

Fred Paterson reminded me the other day with a nice little entry on his blog that this was the week seven years ago when Mojo Radio kicked off on the airwaves. The format was guy radio. The females had all the top rated AC radio stations, it was time there was a place for the guys to get together to chug beer, scratch their balls and talk about girls, gadgets and drinks. At that time, I was still listening to 640 because I was getting tired of music radio and this talk radio idea was really making me think. I chose to stay tuned to see what this new format idea would bring. With a bunch of fanfare, AM640 MOJO Radio - Talk Radio for Guys hit the Toronto streets on April 23, 2001. The station had a lineup that if was worked better could've beaten CFRB in the ratings. The morning run was done by the super morning combo of Humble Howard and Fred Patterson. The station also went deep in their pockets and recruited such huge talent as Mike Stafford, John Derringer, Phill Hendrie, Andrew Krystal, and Ripkin - who I had become a huge fan of from day one. The station had some of the best broadcasters in the country, a pulling the card type format and a pretty good ad machine backing them however, 640 fell low in ratings and the station which was supposed to be a five year experiment turned out to be a two year trick and later turned into a news/talk radio station heavy on local news and signed a huge contract with the Maple Leafs.


With the death of Mojo came the death of experimental radio as I grew up loving on 80's radio. The crazy zoo morning shows were closed. The personality driven drive home gigs were gone. Formated radio won over new ground radio. I don't think I've been an avid fan of a radio station or a brand of a radio format since. Sure, I still listen to talk radio and enjoy the new mouths motormouthing, but it isn't the same as back then.

Radio was fun back then. You wanted to tune in not because you had to. With me thinking about Mojo this week, I'm also thinking about the old days of local radio.

It's missed.