As posted on Facebook it was announced that the new owners will be taking over Bounce Radio Lindsay on May 5th and one can only assume they will take over Pure and Move Peterborough at the same time. The new owners are Durham Radio and it is rumored they will bring the Rock and KX brands to Peterborough but the most interesting rumor is the revitalization of the BOB brand to Lindsay. Obviously nothing is confirmed yet and we just have to wait for the morning to hear the announcements. 
 

I have IPTV. Main reason why is because in my building Rogers is included and it is a decent cable package but I enjoy watching Canucks and Oilers games but they are usually blacked out. So I subscribed to the Sportsnet+ but that was problematic as even certain games were still blacked out. I was able to get more American games but rarely the games I wanted. So I switched to IPTV. I also watch a lot of Rugby and Aussie Rules Football so I watch that on this service. I pay less for the IPTV then I did for Sportsnet+ and I get the games I want within Canada. 
I do know that not every regional game is blacked out on the app but there were to many that it was not worth it. What I like about my IPTV is I can skip back on channels (not all) and I usually can get a lot of shows on demand as well. Now I will say, I do have Crave (included with my free Rogers), Netflix, Disney+ Prime Video and Paramount. I also use Youtube Premium so I have the majority of the services I need and I get most of the shows I need. Through Telus (my cell phone provider) I get Prime Video, Netflix and Disney+ for 40 or so a month, plus the cost of Paramount at 10 a month plus family YouTube Premium, I end up paying 75 or so a month for all the streaming services which is less than what my monthly cable would cost if I paid for the package I actually have. So illegal or not I use the IPTV service mostly for sports. I also enjoy the 24/7 streams of certain TV shows or movies. There is one that is all Tarantino movies, some that are all Tom Hanks, or Samuel L. Jackson, or whatever, some by genre, and then there is the streams of the TV shows and there are lots. So I use it. I also primarily use all my streaming services on the Apple TV box that I have. I have one on each TV and it keeps track of the shows I am watching and when there are new episodes available except on Netflix for some reason. The IPTV service works with an app I can install to the Apple TV. If IPTV were illegal and companies want

RadioAaron wrote:

Seems clear that 98.9 stays Country with Big G and Matty. I’m guessing 98.3 keeps its format and reverts to FLY-FM branding.

There’s no condition for WLYK to serve the US audience. The CRTC used the word “should”.
They’re very intentional with the difference between the words “should” “shall” and “must”. They have no jurisdiction over it anyway.

From the decision In response, Mr. Pole and Mr. Dickson stated that the acquisition of WLYK-FM occurred before the Bell Media acquisitions and that the process of branding had already begun. They indicated that they would revert WLYK-FM’s programming back to target Cape Vincent once the Commission renders a decision on the acquisition of the two Kingston stations.

JON POLE wrote:

torontostan wrote:

Performative and gimmicky. They should actually do something to help. Or..... if you're going to do this.. don't do it at noon.....

I will jump on in on this.

Toronto Stan - no idea who you are, or your experience. Hope you're well. 

Here's what I can tell you.   In my 30 years of radio (and I've done ok) - playing the National Anthem at noon is one of the BEST decisions we've ever made.   The audience reaction has been nothing but positive since we started years ago.   Obviously today's political environment has increased the positive response, but it has always existed since we started.  In rated and non-rated markets.   Pembroke has been doing it through surveys the longest and 104.9 myFM is #1 in every day part 25-54... so it's not hurting us.

Also - You're wayyyyyyyy overthinking it. It's 90 seconds before the news.  If I'm being honest - if a listener doesn't like us taking 90 seconds to pay tribute to our country... I'm not sure I want them as a listener?  We've had exactly ZERO complaints.  This board is the only place I've seen anything negative about playing our Anthem.


Now you know.

P.S - if asked I would recommend every station in the country add it immediately.  I would encourage Canadian artists to send custom versions that stations can play for variety.  There is no down side.

P.S.S - I posted this 6 days ago.

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/jonpole_this-is-a-text-exchange-with-my-19-year-old-activity-7306711992818442240-EhV0?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_android&rcm=ACoAAAIFQzEB3ZQQ4lq75dv9JWuKHVz_Pr_0YeQ

Good on you. I am happy you are doing this. And I agree. Canadian artists should send versions to stations so they can be played. I would love hearing different versions instead of the same one.

If you go and read the story that is linked on Boom 99.7's website it also mentions Boom 97.3
It also mentions at the top of the article Corus stations and then lists off all the "Corus" stations taking part. Boom 99.7 is not listed but Stingray's Boom 97.3 is with the link to the Toronto website. I think whoever wrote the original post made a boo-boo and because of all the layoffs at Corus there is nobosy there to check it. 
https://boom997.com/news/11054212/canadian-day-corus-fm-stations-music-march-1-2025/

RadioActive wrote:

In the case of the AM, there's a lot to replace. 

610 simulcasts Jerry Agar (2 hours), Vassy Kapelos (2 hours), Shane Hewitt's The Shift (4 hours), and makes room for CTV's Question Period on the weekend (1 hour) and various Best ofs (John Moore, Bill Carroll, Elias Makos, Shane Hewitt again) overnight. That's 5 hours.  

And then there are the various weekend shows, including the CTV Your Morning podcast (1 hour), The Social podcast (1 hour), The Richard Crouse Show (1 hour) The Ted Radio Hour (1 hour), The Munk Debates (about an hour), and Famous Lost Words, a podcast from Bell (1 hour),Totally Useless Information (1 hour),  not to mention an hour or two of a CP24 simulcast early in the morning on weekends. (at least 2 hours), two doses of Tech Talk (2 hours) and the Trivia Show (3 hours.) And there may be others I left out. 

But just from that list, that's nearly 30 hours of programming they'll have to replace with something else once they cut ties with Bell. (And it's even more when you multiply it by 5-7 days a week.) That's an awful lot of blank space to fill all at once. I'll be curious to see how they figure out what to run in place of it all.

Sorry when I was making my main post I was talking about the FM. I Didn’t even think of all the changes that will be needed on the AM side. But that is also because I’m not even sure they know what will be on the station. I know it’s staying talk. But I have heard a lot of different ideas of the way they will operate the talk format.

Word I have gotten from several sources is that Zoomer radio Owen Sound is launching in the next 2 or so weeks replacing Bounce Radio, meaning the takeover should be happening any day now. Golden Horseshoe Broadcasting (formerly Whiteoaks) is supposed to be taking over Hamilton/Niagara stations soon as well. Plans are currently no format changes and hiring 2-3 on air staff to replace hosts that are staying with Bell. 
It is expected that by the end of March all the currently approved takeovers will be completed and the new ownership will have taken over. The only issue I have heard about so far is that certain on air staff at the sold stations are needing renegotiated contracts. For instance the midday host at HTZ Ashleigh is a Bell employee who was hired at HTZ, but she has since moved to Calgary and does her midday show from Calgary as well as the midday show on CJAY Calgary and The Bear Edmonton. But based on the sale she technically stays employed by the new owners. But she would lose her position in Calgary and Edmonton. So situations like that are why delays may happen. 
Also when Tarzan Dan was hired he was hired to be the midday host for the Bounce Radio network, once the deals are all completed there will be very few Bounce stations left. My thought is maybe some of the new owners will be trying to negotiate a deal to keep Dan on there stations. Maybe as a contractor potentially. Similar to how Crash and Mars work for 102.3 Now Radio Edmonton (Pattison Media) and they are still heard on C95 which is owned by Rawlco (who used to own Now Radio). 
The next 60-90 days should be very interesting in media and I am excited to see what happens

Jody Thornton wrote:

Drex left Indie already?

Apparently he was there only a month or so. He is located in Vancouver and I think they wanted a host locally. 

Word going around is that the station vehicles in Guelph had the CJOY name/logo removed. 
Is it possible that the station flips or goes dark? My guess is that they will go dark unless they decide to air 640 on that station as well. 

If Stingray is going to buy more stations in the GTA I strongly believe they will try to dump a lot of stations in the West. They have tried to sell stations out there previously. In fact I know that there were talks between Stingray and Vista as well as Stingray and Pattison to buy stations but those talks stalled. 
As for Corus, I was told that Quebecor was interested in the whole company but they were going to sell off some of the radio stations. They also wanted to purchase a couple more AM stations because the big rumor I had heard was Quebecor was trying to buy TSN and TSN radio and they could do a whole network of sports radio to go with the TV. 
A lot of changes are coming. I am here for it. Let's just hope they are decent changes. 

I think this format is a good alternative for some of the underperforming stations Rogers has. It could just be a full Rock version of Jack. In fact I could see this station replacing Sonic in Chilliwack/Abbotsford/Vancouver. It would have to be on all 3 as it is a cluster technically based out of Chilliwack. 
 

I have a feeling there will be fewer layoffs this year as about half of the stations are being sold. So that means that a lot of the staff of those stations will be moving with the new owners. As for the remaining hosts I feel that they have already moved a lot of programming to national so there is not a lot of shows or hosts to layoff. 

Word is that the Kitchener stations will move to Guelph and operate out of those studios. 95.3 is already running from Toronto as none of the shows are broadcast locally. Y108 is going to move into the Guelph studios but they only have one host that broadcasts from within the studio anyways. Everything else is broadcast from elsewhere. These changes should all be happening early 2025

Stefanie wrote:

Jonah Sigel is not even based in Canada. He's located in Seattle and has been wrong on a variety of subjects in the past. To me this sounds like click bait!

He shares his time between Toronto and Seattle. 
I will say that a lot of the stuff he posted in that article is stuff I have been hearing for the last several months. My information is coming from the same people that had told me about the fact bell was looking to sell a number of stations, and the only difference in that information and the information when it was announced was there were a few more bell stations that should have been added to the list but it was modified due to negotiations falling apart. 
The stations that didn't get sold? The TSN stations and the couple of other stations they had not turned in the license for that had been shut down. 
Lets see how all this stuff plays out, but I suspect there will be a lot of changes in the media landscape in Canada over the next few years

Big Doug wrote:

brian451 wrote:

I am wondering if this is a placeholder format for now. I have heard in the past that Rebel has had a lot of signal issues and they wanted a stronger frequency. So I believe at some point that 98.5 will most likely become Rebel and then this Mix format will move up to 101.7 
Also this is pretty fast for a full on sale. I am wondering if Torres is just operating the station on behalf of Evanov until the sale is fully approved through the CRTC 

I sure hope it's a placeholder, because the imaging and overall flow of the station is amateur sounding at best.

It sounded terrible when I listened earlier. Not what I would expect from Torres.