Vertical markets in radio
Posted on Thursday, January 7th, 2010 at 9:00am. #
Rogers is a fascinating organisation, and they’ve got Toronto sewn up.
I was lucky enough to have a quick look round the Rogers radio operation in Toronto, Canada. It occupies a couple of large floors in a large building – and, oddly, every corridor has its own street name. I think I walked down Madison Square Gardens to get to the studios.
And there, tucked in a corner, is a bright studio for The Fan 590, the sports station owned by Rogers.
They cover the Toronto Blue Jays which is a baseball team owned by Rogers.
Oh, and the Toronto Blue Jays play… in the Rogers Centre, which is owned (not sponsored) by Rogers.
The lights and television cameras in The Fan’s studio are because their output is also broadcast part-time on a sports television channel owned by Rogers.
The channel is available on the local cable system, which is owned by Rogers.
On The Fan, they run phone-ins, which are mostly made up of callers on cellphones, which run on a network owned by… Rogers.
And their website? People access it using, yes, you’ve guessed it, a Rogers internet connection.
Listening to Jack FM in Vancouver, a station owned by Rogers, I noticed that many of the sponsorship credits were for a christmas offer for Rogers mobile phones and Rogers gift cards.
Small wonder that, a few blocks away, you can enrol in the Ted Rogers School of Management…
I’m currently visiting radio companies worldwide. Here’s where I am and when.
