Flow 93.5 Has Been Rebranded After More Than 20 Years, Opinions Pouring From All Around

      

 

 

 

93.5, the iconic Toronto radio station is being rebranded, and will no longer play hip-hop, R&B, or Caribbean music exclusively.

According to Steve Jones, who is the senior vice-president of brand and content, Stingray, which owns the signal, has changed the station’s name to 93.5 Today Radio, which now plays a “wide variety of music of all sorts.”

However, listeners are anxious that no hip-hop and R&B will be included.

Steve said, “What sparked all this was our desire as a company to make 93.5 as successful as it could possibly be. And when we began to look at ways to do that, one of the obvious answers was to return the radio station back to its roots.”

The Flow brand was sold to G98.7; Toronto’s only other R&B and hip-hop radio station. G98.7 has been renamed Flow 98.7. However, the previous Flow 93.5 workers have been laid off.

Jones said to Global News “When we re-launched as 93.5 Today Radio, we felt the need to have an entirely new on-air staff. We certainly hope that 98.7 will pick up some of those employees.”

Some of the staff, including radio DJs Peter Kash and ‘Ricochet’, gave their farewells on social media.

In his farewell post, Ricochet wrote, “It’s been fun…On to the next one!” on Twitter.

The change takes place just days after the 21st anniversary of Flow 93.5’s launch on February 9, 2001. Following a push by the city’s black community, the license was obtained.

Syrus Marcus Ware, an assistant professor at McMaster University School of Arts said, “I can remember listening to WBLK, the station in Buffalo that used to be on those call numbers.”

He continued, “We sort of gave up access to that station in Buffalo in order to gain access to a Black radio station here in Toronto.”

The shift, according to Jef Lo, a local DJ and Proprietor of MyLimeRadio.com, an online Caribbean radio station, is a tremendous blow to the community.

He said, “Us little guys play music in the clubs and we have online radio stations, that sort of thing.”

He added, “But to have that sort of representation in mainstream media, especially in one of the most diverse cities in North America…it’s a massive loss to our community.”

Marcus Ware said that the Black community has heard about this. He was quoted saying “this message over and over again. That there isn’t enough space for all of us, in terms of Black people.”

Music experts have claimed that although the change is disappointing, it shows a sign of the times.

Industry expert Eric Alper said “When you find something, you have to support it, If not, the people that run the economy side of it, (they’re) just going to take a look at it and say, ‘Well, there’s better options.’ And that’s exactly what happened in Toronto this week.”