COVID took a large chunk of the advertising pie away and it is likely not coming back.

It turned markets that were previously marginally profitable and made them unprofitable. They will not return to being profitable overall unless the number of stations in each is reduced.

Not sure of all radio jobs lost but it looks like the Toby and Warren show at The Bear Edmonton are gone. Not sure if that was today or recently. Not sure of anyone else.

How did Bell's CTV handle this story on air? Check out the video here.

markow202 wrote:

is CTV2 Barrie TV losing their news now or no?  It mentioned it is but then said except Toronto. 

No. It's just noon and weekend casts that were cut.

RadioActive wrote:

“We believe in local radio. We believe in having live people, where we can".

"Where we can" is doing a lot of heavy lifting there.

https://www.mykemptvillenow.com/on-air/
https://www.mybarrysbaynow.com/on-air/
https://www.mybancroftnow.com/on-air/


 

So, just for the heck of it, here are a list of formats/brandings and the number of stations Bell has in each format before and after the current round of divestments:

"Move Radio" (Adult AC) - before: 11, after 4
"Bounce" (Adult hits) - before: 25, after 6
"Virgin Radio" (contemporary hits) - before: 12, after 11
"Pure Country" - before: 16, after 9
"TSN Radio" (sports) - before 3, after 3
"Rouge FM" (French-AC) - before: 9, after 6
"Energie" (French - mainstream rock) - before: 10, after 8
"Boom FM" (French - oldies) - before: 2, after 0
news/talk  before: 7, after: 6
non-branded active rock/mainstream rock/adult AOC (CHUM-FM) - before: 5, after: 4

AM: before: 15, after: 9
FM: before: 85, after: 46 
(counts are rough and may be off by 1 or 2)

(source: Wikipedia )
 

Last edited by Hansa (February 8, 2024 7:14 pm)

RadioQuiz wrote:

-Don't expect the likes of MyFM of Vista to turn the clock back on the reality of the business. These stations aren't going to suddenly have their live and local dayparts or newsrooms back.

MBC has a news people in all their markets and I was told will be adding news people back to Brockville and Kingston and no changes to staff. So whatever all current live shows stay.

Everyone always says "no changes to staff." And even if true, that's a very low bar.

How'd that go for staff in stations they bought in Simcoe, Cobourg, or Welland?

Their "The Lake" has been on the air in Kingston for 11 months and still has no local announcers.

 

Last edited by RadioAaron (February 8, 2024 7:16 pm)

.
How'd that go for staff in stations they bought in Simcoe, Cobourg, or Welland?

No staff were let go.  News people have been added.  Welland still has a full on-air line up on both stations.


Their "The Lake" has been on the air in Kingston for 11 months and still has no local announcers.

Lake has announcers all day.

I'm curious if the new owners will mess with something that works. K-lite (sorry, Bounce 102.9 Hamilton), and Durham's KX947 are always battling for 1st place in Hamilton, so why would the new owner Whiteoaks mess with that? This could also be a chance for new jobs. People who voice multiple Bell stations will have to be replaced now. In my area that would be Tarzan Dan on Bounce, Ashley Greco on Move, Taylor Kaye who voices weekends on Bounce, but also works for CHUM, etc.

They got the right idea with the format of The Lake, but the execution is awful, and the ratings reflect it.

I don't think you get it.   Clearly they were waiting for FCC approval before investing heavily into Lake and obviously waiting for this deal.  Common sense.   Also ratings in Kingston are a rolling average so the last book didn't really mean anything relevant to changes.

Look at the chess game...  now they have the #1 station with a flanker running guard with no can con... and whatever 98.9 is or will be... you should be impressed... it's a great radio play.

RadioQuiz wrote:

They got the right idea with the format of The Lake, but the execution is awful, and the ratings reflect it.

I don't think you get it. Clearly they were waiting for FCC approval before investing heavily into Lake and obviously waiting for this deal. Common sense. Also ratings in Kingston are a rolling average so the last book didn't really mean anything relevant to changes.

Look at the chess game... now they have the #1 station with a flanker running guard with no can con... and whatever 98.9 is or will be... you should be impressed... it's a great radio play.

The long-game makes a ton of sense. 

But if they're going to wait for this deal to close to invest in it, that'll be almost two years with no live and local announcers, People may have made up their minds by then,

And the parts of the product that they can control now without much investment are terrible. Disaffected alt-rock sounding imaging voice, playlist lifted song-for-song from some US station that plays songs that were only really hits in Florida while ignoring huge Canadian hits, terrible AI weather, Facebook account posting nothing but memes.

And the fact that the ratings are a rolling average make the launch look even worse - with the KISS numbers falling out the ratings drop.

There is a good podcast interview with Vista President Bryan Edwards. He mentions keeping all 80 employees and hopefully adding more. I have heard from a lot of other people that the plan is to hire more people and make things local in more markets. Pure country Peterborough is most likely going to be KX Country. Durham is getting a Bounce, Move and Pure and will almost guaranteed to be hiring more staff. Bounce or Move will most likely become a rock station similar to The Rock in Oshawa. Maybe Ed the Sock will expand his reach. It will be very interesting times in Canadian radio. I am hoping some of my radio friends get back into radio and a lot of people do not lose jobs because of the sales. 
Although I am concerned for the St Catherines and Hamilton station being sold to WhiteOaks because they generally are Christian stations and the current formats do not fit what they generally broadcast. 

RadioAaron wrote:

RadioQuiz wrote:

They got the right idea with the format of The Lake, but the execution is awful, and the ratings reflect it.

I don't think you get it. Clearly they were waiting for FCC approval before investing heavily into Lake and obviously waiting for this deal. Common sense. Also ratings in Kingston are a rolling average so the last book didn't really mean anything relevant to changes.

Look at the chess game... now they have the #1 station with a flanker running guard with no can con... and whatever 98.9 is or will be... you should be impressed... it's a great radio play.

The long-game makes a ton of sense. 

But if they're going to wait for this deal to close to invest in it, that'll be almost two years with no live and local announcers, People may have made up their minds by then,

And the parts of the product that they can control now without much investment are terrible. Disaffected alt-rock sounding imaging voice, playlist lifted song-for-song from some US station that plays songs that were only really hits in Florida while ignoring huge Canadian hits, terrible AI weather, Facebook account posting nothing but memes.

And the fact that the ratings are a rolling average make the launch look even worse - with the KISS numbers falling out the ratings drop.

, 
I was under the weather a few weeks back and listened to The Lake in Kingston for well over 90 minutes in the afternoon.  Music was fine, not what I like but very safe and nothing too exciting.  Too many mid tempo songs back to back to back, but that is me.  A fair bit mellower than CHFI, and would appeal to a mature female listener.  I was sure I heard  the announcer (who wasn't bad and VT) promoting a Blue Rodeo concert in one break.  Struck me as odd since The Lake doesn't play them. 

Listened from 3:50 in the afternoon until 5:30pm, so weekday drive time.  I counted a total of 5 commercials in two breaks.  Mind you 3 were national and two local.  Now this is late January which I know isn't exactly a strong time for ads, but this would be concerning. 

This evening tuned in again for an hour, no announcer or VT, just music and a total of two commercials, both local.  One was for a funeral home in Kingston and the other was for a Smoke Shop and Convenience store in a Mohawk First Nation community that was also sponsoring the weather, but no weather forecast came on.  Then back into the mid tempo music.  Hope the Lake does well, but it could be a very long game. 

 

A great stunt into a soft launch is the absolute worst way to introduce yourself to a market.

(Kiss-->Pole-->Lake)

Last edited by RadioAaron (February 9, 2024 12:00 am)

paterson1 wrote:

Shame about W5, a well produced show that had decent ratings considering a poor time slot.  In fact I thought W5 was the best it had been over the past few yeas.

With all of these newscasts cancelled on CTV, shrinking news operations nationally, scaled back CTV News Channel makes the CBC more valuable.  Maybe the "defunding" nonsense will be put on hold for a while or laid to rest.  CBC may end up receiving more money from the feds or realocate dollars to fund some local newscasts. 

Bell seems to be having a temper tantrum because the CRTC doesn't appear to be giving them everything they want.
  
Odd too how Bell Media is getting all of the press about the layoffs, even though it is other divisions of BCE that are really taking the hit and losing the big number of jobs, possibly over 4,000.  

The people who want the CBC defunded will now claim that the CBC is taking a bigger percentage of the pie than ever before and needs to be defunded immediately.
Look for another hit piece in the National Post any day now.