Central Okanagan

For years, the Kelowna radio waves were dominated by two corporations, the Pattison Group (Power 104, Q103) and Astral Media (Sunfm, EZ Rock and AM1150).

This year a third player entered the marketplace, Newcap. They concluded the purchase of K96.3 and Great Valley Radio in Penticton (now Country 100.7), and they are making waves.

Photo: Contributed - Graphics by Ed Ouellette

Newcap, based out of Dartmouth Nova Scotia, has moved both properties up the radio dial in less than a year.

According to numbers released by BBM (Bureau of Broadcast Measurement) both stations have made significant gains in listenership compared to ratings periods in the spring of this year and fall of 2011.

While every radio station programs to a different demographic be it females, males, younger adults or older, Castanet has always used a broad range of measurement, adults 18 to 64.

Numbers also take into account a full week of listening.

Using these numbers, K96.3 moved into second place in Kelowna's 10 station market with a 12.6 audience share. That's up two spots from both the spring and fall of 2011.

The biggest gain came from Country 100.7. The Penticton based station has continually languished in the number nine spot, just above CBC 2 with a market share of about 4.0.

Country 100.7 boot scooted five spots to fourth in the market with an 11.2 share.

Sunfm, the flagship Astral station continues to dominate the Central Okanagan airwaves with a 16.2 share of the audience.

EZ Rock slipped from second to number three in the 18 to 64 demographic with a 12.1 share.

AM1150 took the biggest tumble dropping three spots to number nine with a 5.4 share.

Over at Pattison, Q103 jumped three positions to number five with an 8.7 share while Power 104 fell from third to seventh with an 8.0 market share.

The Juice, the only stand alone station left in Kelowna fell one spot to number eight with a 5.8 market share.

The publicly funded CBC 1 and CBC 2 finished sixth (8.5) and tenth (3.2) respectively.

Castanet contacted each station in the market asking for comment concerning the ratings.

Newcap, Astral and The Juice took the opportunity to state their case.

Astral Radio:

Astral Radio is pleased to announce that 99.9 Sun FM, AM 1150 and 101.5 EZ Rock continue to garner top tuning in Kelowna according to Fall 2012 BBM results.  Astral Radio stations 99.9 Sun FM, AM 1150 and 101.5 EZ Rock are #1, #2 and #3 in *Adults 12+ in Kelowna radio tuning.

The Juice

TJ Connors says, "In key demos for The Juice, we did have some gains in Market Share. We're continuing to work hard as an independent station in a highly competitive market place."

Newcap:

Newcap Program Director David Larsen says the audience growth and the increased time spent listening to both stations is gratifying and really important to local advertisers. "We don't take this success lightly and as we do every day on both stations, we want to say thank you for listening to everyone who has chosen our stations."

Click here to see Vernon radio station ratings.

Click here to see Penticton radio station ratings.