Description by Steve West:
Recorded late on a Friday night (10:45 to 11:30 pm), here’s a multi-faceted aircheck that begins with the number one song on “Toronto’s Most Wanted” countdown (Red Hot Chili Peppers’ – Californiacation) and flows through a night where the station is broadcasting live at a local night club. It’s also an A-Z Weekend as the Q-107 plays ‘Car Tunes’ to go along with Indy Weekend. All this hype and promotion kinda gets lost in the overlap but loyal fans likely knew what was what.
Q-107 bills itself as “Pure Rock”. Of course, this is the Active Rock format, and it IS Canada, after all. (As a side note, Wikipedia, such as it is, references the format during this time as ‘Album Rock’. But even when launched in 1996, the station really did not play album cuts. The main Rock formats from the 1990s to present, hard rock formats, are Active, Modern, Alternative and Classic. Not counting AAA. So it technically would be inaccurate to describe CILQ in 2000 as ‘Album Rock’. So there.) There is one Canadian artist to satisfy the CTRC’s CanCon requirements. One, that is, that you’ll hear introduced on this scoped aircheck (I think three per hour is what the formula came out to the last time I did a Canadian show.).
I like this for several reasons. First, it’s LIVE. And the station sounds like it’s always live. If there’s voice tracking on CILQ, there’s not a hint of it here. Second, Q-107 plays pretty much everything. From the Red Hot Chili Peppers to Metallica to Pink Floyd, this has the feel of a good old fashioned AOR station.
Curiously, perhaps REFRESHINGLY, I don’t hear the jock say his name ONCE in this 45 minute cassette side. Once would be nice so we know who the personailty is but perhaps one of our visitors knows.
Interestingly enough, Q-107 reverted back to Classic Rock on September 1 of 2000. The format which remains to this day.
Enjoy now, one of Canada’s leading Rock stations, 107.1 CILQ. Known in Toronto simply as Q-107.
The jock is Jon “Gonzo” Mark. Andy Frost does the live hit at 2:30 from Club 107. Thank you for sharing this, Lance!
Great to hear Pure rock, but I’m glad the Mighty Q is still with the current classic rock playlist
Recognized:
Red Hot Chili Peppers – Californication
Boston – Smokin’
Metallica – Sad But True
George Thorogood & the Destroyers – Bad to the Bone
Bruce Springsteen – Pink Cadillac
Pink Floyd – Comfortably Numb
forgive me for this comment but i’m confused, if you’re not Album rock yet you describe the station as an AOR format, AOR as in the official abbreviation meaning Album Oriented Rock, NOT Adult oriented rock which so many radio people incorrectly describe it as, thanks for posting this is a quality scoped check, proof was never required as Q107 still the mighty rocker of Canada