CIDC-FM
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Template:Infobox Radio Station CIDC, AKA Z103.5, is a Rhythmic/Dance Top 40 radio station that serves Central Ontario and the Greater Toronto Area. Although they are licensed to Orangeville and still has its transmitter there, the station's studios are located in Toronto, where they decided to fill the market's Top 40 void while retaining their heavily Dance-leaning direction and playlist.
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History
CIDC started as an affiliate station in 1995 called "HOT 103 playing solely Dance music". The station then began adding more Rhythmic and Pop tracks to its Top 40/Dance playlist in February, 1998, along with a name change to "Hits 103.5/Party Radio". The station's slogan was "We give you the hits".
On January 1st, 2001, the station began to imitate the name of WHTZ station "Z 100" of New York, resulting in the name of the station, "Z103.5", even though they retained the CIDC call letters.
Z103.5 is proudly Canada's only radio station still playing dance music since Energy 108 changed formats. It should be noted though, that it is also the only Top 40 station left in Toronto after Kiss 92 changed formats in 2003. There was a brief revival in 2001 of competition from another dance music radio station, Foxy 88.5, but listenership was low and that station switched to an "Unforgettable Hits" format after a few months.
Beginning in 2006 Evanov will launch another station that will be patterned after CIDC in the form of CKHZ-FM/Halifax, Nova Scotia. They too will also use the Z103.5 moniker but unlike CIDC their slogan is "The Beat Of Halifax" and has a Z in their call letters to match the handle.
Programming
As of 2006 the lineup for Z103.5 consists of:
- Monday through Friday
- 5:30 to 10AM - The Z103.5 Morning Show with Scott Fox, Melanie & Dave Blezard
- 10AM to 3PM - Tony Monanco
- 3PM to 7PM - Matt "The Hammer" Wreggitt
- 7PM to 12Mid(Mon-Tues); 7PM to 10PM(Wed-Fri) - Chris Biggs
- 12Mid to 5:30AM(Mon-Tues); 1AM to 5:30AM(Wed-Thurs) - Continuous music
- Saturday
- 4AM to 6AM - Continuous music
- 6AM to 9AM - Pina
- 9AM to 1PM - Rick Dees Weekly Top 40
- 1PM to 7PM - Continuous music
- 7PM to 10PM - Saturday Night Streetmix with Danny D
- Sunday
- 4AM to 5PM - Continuous music
- 5PM to 9PM - American Top 40
- Swing shifts
- Richard Correll
- Mike Devine
- Anwar Knight
- John Woodlock
- Norm Long News
- Sandy Solerno(Morning Show news reporter)
- Mixers
- Danny D
- DJ Constantine
- DJ FX
- DJ Lil Funky
- DJ Spence Diamonds
Specialty Shows/Mixes
- Monday-Friday
- 7AM to 7:30AM - Top 7@7 Countdown
- 12Noon to 1PM - All Request Lunch Hour
- 3PM to 4PM - All Request Power Hour
- 4PM to 4:30PM - 4Play
- 5PM to 6PM - Drive At 5 Mix
- 6PM to 6:30PM - Hit List
- 7PM to 7:30PM - Pump It Or Dump It
- 7:30PM to 8PM (Fridays) - Powermix
- 8PM to 9PM - 8:00 Request Hour
- 9PM to 10PM - Top 9@9 Countdown
- Live To Air(Wednesday-Sunday 10PM-1AM)
- Wednesday: Club Menage with Tony Monaco & DJ Lil Funky
- Thursday: Sugar Daddy's with Chris Biggs & DJ Constantine
- Friday: The Guvernment Nightclub with Chris Biggs
- Saturday: Distrikt Nightclub with The Hammer & DJ Danny D
- Sunday: Afterlife Nightclub with The Hammer
- Afterhours (1AM to 4AM Early Saturday and Early Sunday mornings)
- Friday/Early Saturday: Various clubs
- Saturday/Early Sunday: Club Downtown with Mike Devine & DJ Flipout
Criticism
To the displeasure of many listeners that have been watching the station grow for over 10 years, they have started to play less and less dance music. Many people blame this on influences by Kiss 92 and Flow 93.5 listeners. It is now more rap and hip-hop. A poll conducted in early-September 2005 asked those visiting it's official site what their favourite type of music was on z103.5. A total of over 5000 votes were sent in. Euro/Trance won with 50.8%, Hip Hop/R&B obtained 19.0%, Reggae/Reggaeton 12.9%, House 10.1%, and Pop/Rock came last with 7.1% of the votes.
Despite the downward trend in dance music, the stations highest rated program continues to be "The Drive @ 5 Street Mix" with DJ Danny D. It's a show mixed live entirely with vinyl. No show gathers more listeners than the Street Mix. The show evolved from the days before the streetmix started, when the host of the regular 5:00 hour would start off by playing 3 or 4 consecutive super-hot dance songs.
A similar show, The Power Mix with DJ Spence Diamonds, used to air 3 nights a week. This show, which was 100% hardcore urban music, was cut back to one night in the fall of 2005 as the station heads toward a more 'generic' sound.
Z103.5 also had a weekly show on Sundays at 5:00-6:00 PM called the Freestyle Frenzy, hosted by 103.5 veteran Tony Monaco. It was solely a show of Freestyle music and mixes. It lasted many years, but in January 2004, the Evanov Radio Group which currently owns the station decided to end it and make the time slot regular programming, and soon to be part of Ryan Seacrest's American Top 40 countdown.
Concerts and Live To Air programs
The station annually hosts a number of live concert events featuring the year's hottest acts. Past and present concerts include the Hot Rush (now Summer Rush), Euro-Freestyle Invasion (now Euro Invasion), and Partymania. Most of the concerts are sold-out because they are mostly filled with performances by Dance artists that usually don't get much publicity.
The station also hosts live-to-airs from various Toronto-area nightclubs three or four nights per week. Wednesdays have been from Club Menage since 2002. Thursdays and Fridays have been hosted by various clubs as the station looks to find new live club locations for those nights since Berlin and Plastique closed down in 2003 after many years of anchoring those nights. Saturday nights has stabilized lately at Distrikt, after a more than decade-long run at club Paparazzi came to an end, also in 2003.
See also
- List of radio stations in Ontario.
- Not to be confused with CIBC, a bank in Canada.
External links
- Z103.5's Homepage
- [1] Technical Info from Recnet