I think this is good news overall. CKTB, especially, is a unique presence in the Niagara area. It would be a shame if it disappeared. 

My only concern is we've heard this kind of thing before, until the new owners get a look at the books and then plans can change. I well remember the day the rumours began that the Waters family was going to sell City TV. I recall being told by people who were there then that Ron Waters came in and assured staffers that the reports weren't real, there were no plans to sell CHUM and that everyone's job was safe. 

A few months later, the ink was barely dry on the agreement that sold the entire empire to Bell (the CRTC later forced City TV to be spun off to Rogers) before people started losing their gigs. Some had been there over 20 years or more. 

As a result of these kinds of stories I'll believe the "no changes" assurances when they happen - or rather, don't happen. But if they're true to their word, it's a real relief for a lot of employees - and listeners.

RadioActive wrote:

My only concern is we've heard this kind of thing before, until the new owners get a look at the books and then plans can change. I well remember the day the rumours began that the Waters family was going to sell City TV. I recall being told by people who were there then that Ron Waters came in and assured staffers that the reports weren't real, there were no plans to sell CHUM and that everyone's job was safe. 

A few months later, the ink was barely dry on the agreement that sold the entire empire to Bell (the CRTC later forced City TV to be spun off to Rogers) before people started losing their gigs. Some had been there over 20 years or more. 

There's probably no sentence feared more and believed less in the media industry than "your job is safe."



PJ
 

I hope the new owners are aware of what they're in for, because they're going to have a lot of programming to replace. 

Consider:

-CKTB runs Jerry Agar's Show out of CFRB from 10-noon.

-That's followed by Vassy Kapelos from Ottawa during noon-2PM.

-At 7 PM until 11, there's NewsTalk Tonight with Jim Richards and

-From midnight - 5 AM, it's all iHeart Radio repeats, including John Moore and Bill Carroll. 

What do they all have in common? They're all sourced from Bell stations across Ontario and Quebec (Elias Makos), programming that presumably won't be available to the new owners any more.

That's 13 hours of programming a day they'll lose out of a 24-hour period (and that's not counting weekends.) It's not going to be easy to fill all that time without some new hires. Unless they opt for some kind of syndicated stuff overnight. But there are still a lot of holes during the day. And filling it won't be cheap, even in a smaller market. 

It will be really interesting to see how they do it.