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The Peak 100.5 Vancouver's New World Class Rock Station

Comments 15 by Rebecca Bollwitt

The radio situation in Vancouver has been slightly lacking over the years, especially when you compare it to other major markets across North America that have more than one station of each genre on their dials.

An example of this is the rock station in town, which although is ever-changing its approach to rock and roll, has unfortunately settled on a mostly Nickelback and AC/DC format. Mind you this is better than listening to Britney Spears 10 times a day, but I digress. This leaves fans of sweet alternative tunes like myself in search of alternate music source thus moving me away from the traditional dial and toward podcasts, internet radio, or some of our pretty great college stations like Evolution 107.9, CiTR or CJSF.

However, just a few weeks ago 100.5 was unleashed and The Peak FM was born.

The Peak will be an ADULT ALTERNATIVE music intensive radio station that will be putting a huge emphasis on new and emerging artists with a secondary focus on alternative music from the 80’s & 90’s. It’s the only place you’ll hear the hottest rock, acoustic, folk, world beats and much more, all on one station – setting a new standard for great music in Vancouver.

DJ’s will be mature, articulate and professional – never wasting your time with useless banter and chatter – information and news will cover everything from local arts and environmental issues to gastronomical interests and the local music scene. [Puget Sound Radio]

The Peak is also a member of the Pattison Broadcast Group and our pal Raj from Urban Mixer was there in November for the launch party. Since then they have impressed listeners with interesting content offerings such as the EcoZone and spending time at the UGM.

Here’s hoping they can keep doing what they’re doing and grow from here because entertaining my ears with the likes of The Weakerthans, Death Cab for Cutie, Metric, Spoon, and Ben Folds all in one sitting is something I can truly live with.

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15 Comments  —  Comments Are Closed

  1. RobMonday, January 12th, 2009 — 4:06pm PST

    Spoon on the radio??!! Have I died and gone to music geek heaven? I had truly given up terrestrial radio. This gives me hope.

    Cheers!

  2. rachaelMonday, January 12th, 2009 — 4:37pm PST

    I listen to lots of the local radio stations, so that I can mix it up myself, lol, I don’t have time to get tired of any of them! I have the Peak tuned in right now and I’m listening to the uber fab Peter Schaad play some of my favorite tunes. 🙂

  3. MarkMonday, January 12th, 2009 — 4:43pm PST

    Vancouver’s radio does really suck, so anything would be an improvement.

    One bit of advice to this new station – please get a standard (quicktime, wma, asx ) streaming method for your live stream. They seem to be using some non-standard format that requires you to install a java runtime module. Java’s horrible on many notebook computers, and I refuse to install it.

  4. TawcanMonday, January 12th, 2009 — 5:00pm PST

    I found myself listening to The Peak more and more. I seem to be switching between Fox, Classic Rock, The Peak, Team 1040, and News 1130.

  5. James SuttonMonday, January 12th, 2009 — 6:37pm PST

    Thanks Miss 604 for the love..I hope we can keep up the goodness.
    james

  6. Derek K. MillerTuesday, January 13th, 2009 — 12:02am PST

    I like the Peak (it and CBC Radio One are about all I listen to over the air), but as far as their “mature, articulate and professional” DJs go, they have some work to do. Even though some of the on-air talent has been in the business awhile, I often find myself screaming “Shut up!” at the radio when they yammer on like someone who just filled out their CiTR college radio membership card — and especially when even a crusty almost-40-year-old like me knows more about the acts they’re playing than the DJs do. (Meg White isn’t really Jack White’s sister? No way!!!!) I hope they improve.

    Also, one reason I’ve fallen away from radio in the past few years is the narrow playlists, and even the Peak seems to be prone to that problem, although serially. A month or two ago, they’d play Death Cab’s “I Will Possess Your Heart” about 15 times a day. Then came Mother Mother’s “Oh My Heart.” Now they’re on a Cure kick with “Love Cats.” All songs I like, but which I start to hate on tight rotation — if I wanted to hear them over and over, I could use my iPod. I wouldn’t mind if there were DIFFERENT Death Cab for Cutie or Mother Mother or Cure songs on 15 times a day, so it just seems puzzling to do that. It’s not like there’s a lack of choice.

    But those are growing pains. I hope the Peak can iron them out, and also maintain the interesting mix of music they’re playing now, while not getting stuck in a “classic alternative” rut where the Cure and the Smiths and Ramones and, oh, I dunno, Dave Matthews or something start crowding out new acts. Vancouver has had a few attempts at alternative radio over the past couple of decades (AM 800 and 1040 were, more than 15 years ago), and they’ve all failed eventually, which is a shame. I hope we listeners are ready for it now.

  7. chris coburnTuesday, January 13th, 2009 — 7:58am PST

    To echo James, we appreciate the support! A bunch of this has mentioned this on the air, so we’ve done our best to show you the love as well.

  8. RobTuesday, January 13th, 2009 — 12:24pm PST

    @Chris and James,

    I really, really, really hope that this works out. I just had a look at the playlist, and (besides the Dave Matthews inclusion – when were they ever an alternative band?) and it looks fantastic.

    I too would like to echo Derek’s point about tight playlists and heavy rotation. I always marveled at the state of classic rock stations, where they draw from such a shallow pool of tunes when they have 40 years of rock history to work with. I think the same can be applied to any format. I suppose a part of the job is keeping people’s dials stationary in order to make the station more attractive to potential advertisers.

    But, I really think that most listeners love to be surprised by radio, and will stay tuned for those reasons. Sure, they want to hear a favourite, a song which gives them a stylistic point of reference as to what the station is all about. But, I’ve discovered so much great music just by listening to my own LastFM library, related music to an artist in that library, and that of my friends too.

    So, I get to hear Elvis Costello sing “Alison” a bunch of times, which is a song I love. But, I also get to discover new guys like Brett Dennen. Or even older acts like The Damned, Squeeze, or The Rezillos. I can’t help but think there are others out there like me who would love it if terrestrial radio might follow suit in some way that makes sense for a wider market.

    Otherwise, you have no idea how much better life will be to when I decent radio back in my car!

    Thanks in advance!

  9. This is What’s Awesome Meme » Vancouver Blog Miss 604 by Rebecca BollwittFriday, January 16th, 2009 — 10:38am PST

    […] song makes me happy and they played it on The Peak the other night, which is just […]

  10. klparrotFriday, January 23rd, 2009 — 1:51pm PST

    Thanks for the tip! I started listening to The Peak just after you posted this blog entry, and since then I’ve barely touched the dial.

  11. RobbyThursday, February 5th, 2009 — 9:56am PST

    I am glad to have another radio station choice Vancouver!
    Music is great, nice to hear local, contemporary and alternative music…however they repeat the same songs over and over and the day time Dj’s are driving me to listen to the stations where the music sucks-just to get away from their “DUMB” banter. Could they offer the position to Larry and Willie?

  12. Steve CFriday, February 27th, 2009 — 10:17am PST

    @Rob

    who ever said The Peak was alternative?
    It’s world class rock…. whatever that is.

  13. bobFriday, August 21st, 2009 — 4:20pm PDT

    world class my ass….I have to agree with other posts here, it was fresh at the start but this heavy rotation of the same old same old….I couldn’t agree more, they play good tunes i like but gettin sick of hearing them over and over….branch out a bit and maybe play ANOTHER tune off the album!Personally vancouver radio sucked after the demise of coast 800. David Marsden…now there was a guy who knew how to play the tunes…10,000 song playlist and they’d pay you a thousand and forty bucks if they played the same song twice in a 24 hr period. look him up.

  14. bobFriday, August 21st, 2009 — 4:22pm PDT

    P.S. I also agree that college radio is still prolly the best place to hear new tunes and a better rotation of tunage. evolution 107.5 is pretty good.

  15. Mark BignellMonday, July 26th, 2010 — 3:47pm PDT

    Rather sad how none of the long-running indie music shows on Co-op Radio 102.7 FM were mentioned.

    My God, I’ve been doing my Radio Bandcouver show for 13 years with lots of web presence and people STILL don’t know about it? Geese.

    I know CFRO can be rather hard to listen to when you have to fish for the indie music shows ,but, they are there:

    Until the afternoon indie music shows can be moved into one solid 4 hour block on Thursday ( 2-6pm ), this is where the shows are.

    No Apologises Necessary Wednesdays 2:30-3:30
    Broken Records Wednesdays 3:30-5pm
    *Radio Bandcouver Thursdays 2:30-4pm–Arseniy and I are very picky
    Sound Resistence Fridays 10:30-Noon
    Front Row Centre Fridays 9:30-10:30
    Into The Pit Fridays 10:30-Midnight

    CFRO is on-line at http://www.coopradio.org
    You can hear podcast there and on my Bandcouver Facebook page.

    So please, no more ignorance about Co-op Radio’s indie contributions.
    E-mail us and bug us at [email protected]

    Thanks for the space.
    Mark Bignell

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