Paul Jeffries wrote:

TVO offers their perspective, too:

The closure of Hamilton’s CHML 900 an ominous sign — and the station’s loss will be devastating

PJ

Somewhat ironically, this column was written by Matt Gurney, who does not mention he used to be one of the many hosts at AM640 - which, of course, is also owned by Corus. "The Exchange" aired for exactly one year from 9 AM-noon, starting in February 2018.

Glen Warren wrote:

Saul wrote:

..... I imagine the 900 transmitter site is more valuable as real estate...

Not too sure about that...  immediately to the S/W of the TX site, sits the former Beverley landfill site (I think it was originally part of the former Wentworth County)...  Also, in the area there are also 3 high pressure pipelines (one owned by Trans Canada, and the other two owned by Enbridge)  as well as an oil tank farm also owned by Enbridge.
  Just my opinion, but not a very desirable area for mega bucks rural development homes...
 

Interesting. Didn't know. Thanks! Maybe for industrial/commercial development, if needed? Or maybe it's a viable antenna farm for 820/1150/...
 

We can lament the loss of these great AM stations. I believe one of the reasons for their demise is the loss of listeners to CBC Radio 1 and its local regional shows. How can / could CJBK, CHML, CKPC, and CFPL compete against the CBC with no commercials, an arguably better FM signal and no fiscal realities that private broadcasters face? In the London market which I am most familiar with, how can a city that size support three news / talk stations; that being CJBK, CFPL and CBC 1? It obviously could not. Could it support two? Perhaps. Could it have supported two if they were CFPL 980 and CJBK 1290? We will never know. I am aware of a couple of posters on this board from the London area and have mentioned they listen to the CBC radio 1. If it were not available would they have listened to 980 or 1290 instead?

What the hell is the CBC even doing in this business? It bugs me that the CBC is able to confiscate $25 or $50 bucks a year with no accountability to me. What a great scam. Then it takes those $ and uses it to put private broadcasters out of business. What a great scam. We  need the government in the broadcasting business like a fish needs a tricycle. TVO included. Those who say CBC is a public broadcaster are either disingenuous or naive; the CBC follows in lockstep with the federal government. I personally find their content to be banal and uninteresting; why someone would want to listen to them is beyond me, but a lot of people do. Each CBC listener is one less for the private stations.

CBC lovers I hear you now - like a relative of mine would say the private stations would just have to have the same commercial free content and he would listen...

Sure the big corporate owners have some blame too but at the end of the process how can they compete with commercial free?
 




 

Last edited by darcyh (August 16, 2024 12:46 am)

It's ridiculous to think the existence of CBC is what's preventing people from listening to 640 or 1010. It's like arguing that if Jazz FM went off the air more people would tune in country music. If CBC left the airwaves most of its listeners would just stop listening to radio.

First of all the same thing is happening in the US where there is no equivalent public broadcaster (NPR is much smaller and hasn't received federal government funding in years). Stations aren't failing because people are listening to CBC Radio instead, they're failing because people aren't listening to radio at all and because a lot of commercial revenue they used to get is going to online ads instead - especially Google, Facebook etc. If they can turn it around it'll because they've found a way to get more people to listen to the radio instead of Spotify or podcasts.

Last edited by Hansa (August 16, 2024 8:10 am)

Hansa wrote:

First of all the same thing is happening in the US where there is no equivalent public broadcaster (NPR is much smaller and hasn't received federal government funding in years). Stations aren't failing because people are listening to CBC Radio instead, they're failing because people aren't listening to radio at all and because a lot of commercial revenue they used to get is going to online ads instead. If they can turn it around it'll because they've found a way to get more people to listen to the radio instead of Spotify or podcasts.

Thanks for being a voice of reason Hansa. Over the last few days, I've been alternating between Twitter (now X), where bots and trolls have been rejoicing at CHML's demise for broadcasting "left-wing propaganda" and sites like this, where people blame the CBC for everything except Grandma's bad knees. It's a source of constant amazement to me that some people are prepared to minimize the role of corporate greed in decisions like these. 
 

Then it takes those $ and uses it to put private broadcasters out of business. What a great scam. We  need the government in the broadcasting business like a fish needs a tricycle. TVO included

Because, you know, the reason Corus is laying off people from Global News is because too many people are watching The Agenda on TVO at 8 pm. BTW, one reason TVO isn't going to be defunded is if it was then there'd be nowhere for Ontario cabinet ministers of the day, and provincial politicians generally, to go and talk for 30 an hour during prime time. Focus Ontario on Global for half an hour on the weekend just isn't the same. 

Last edited by Hansa (August 16, 2024 10:07 am)

darcyh wrote:

What the hell is the CBC even doing in this business?

Much better quality spoken word programming (and music, too) than the big-chain private broadcasters. Even if it carried ads, I'd listen.

Jody Thornton wrote:

Look, I'm sad that CHML has disappeared, but in truth I hadn't listened to it for YEARS.  What I miss is all historic, and I mentioned that in an earlier post.  It was no different than in September 2015 when CKOC dropped music.  But even then, what I really sad about was the "Ontario's Music Leader" era of the late 70s and early 80s.  To me even Rockin' Ray and Ted Yates were CKOC newbies.  They weren't really the era I was celebrating at all.  It was Dave Smith, Ray Girard, Scott Harris and Bob Sherwin - of course with Nevin Grant operating the strings.  And guess what?  That could NEVER come back.  To really have that sort of radio return, we'd also need the world to be back to the way it was in 1980, and you can never go back in time.

This is it in a nutshell. We're a forum of radio enthusiasts and nowhere near representative of the general population. It's like the horse and buggy. Works great as a small town tourist zone novelty, for the Amish who lead a very dedicated way of life, and for places like Mackinac Island State Park in Michigan. Private interests could create something for radio that invokes some of the kind of magic we relish, and it could have some measure of success. It would have to be either hyper-local or highly focused in some way. But time marches on. Radio is a delivery vehicle, and its days are coming to an end. Any radio-related effort would need to be heavily integrated with new communications technologies.
 

Last edited by Saul (August 16, 2024 10:19 am)

RadioActive wrote:

I find this headline in The Bay Observer a little hard to accept. 

Corus Radio division showing a profit despite CHML closure

I found this article to be misleading. I'm not a financial expert, but I believe those figures would be for the quarterly divisional net earnings before interest and taxes. Corus Entertainment has $1 billion in debt, resulting in a massive interest obligation, so the Local Radio, Local TV divisions etc. each would have their proportional share of the interest costs still to pay. Statistics Canada publishes annual statistics, based on the actual tax filings of the private companies (but not broken down by company), that lately show that existing private Local Radio and private Local TV as a whole in Canada report massive losses each year.

Hansa wrote:

Are there any stats available on the number of AM stations in Canada from year to year? There's definitely a decline but it would be interesting to see it charted over the past decade or two. (Also interesting to see how many have moved to FM vs closing down entirely).

Here is a Statistics Canada table comparing year by year for local private radio in national aggregate. It reports total number of stations per year, but not with an AM, FM breakdown (perhaps the CRTC would have that somewhere). One can surmise from the tallies that some AMs have shifted to FM over time, some new FM and even the odd AM stations have been licensed and some stations, primarily AM, have shuttered, but the 2024 line inevitably will paint a grim picture when it comes out:
https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/t1/tbl1/en/tv.action?pid=2210000501

Statistics Canada even got fancy and put out a little narrative report to mark National Radio Day on 2023, with some dark undertones to it:
https://www.statcan.gc.ca/o1/en/plus/2934-some-static-statistics-world-radio-day

Also a broad overview on private Canadian mainstream media here:
https://www.statcan.gc.ca/o1/en/plus/4413-money-mediums-make-message






 

Last edited by DX (August 16, 2024 11:36 am)

What a strange way to list the times. Or did they mean 12:10A.M.?

Last edited by Binson Echorec (August 16, 2024 12:13 pm)

Binson Echorec wrote:

What a strange way to list the times. Or did they mean 12:10A.M.?

The thought at the time was that "afternoon" didn't start until 1 PM (literally after noon). So morning, noon, afternoon, night.

RadioAaron wrote:

Binson Echorec wrote:

What a strange way to list the times. Or did they mean 12:10A.M.?

The thought at the time was that "afternoon" didn't start until 1 PM (literally after noon). So morning, noon, afternoon, night.

The thought at the time made no sense. "12:10 Noon" is somewhat clumsy, "12:10 P.M." would be much more clear and consistent with the format of the other two times listed,

Last edited by Binson Echorec (August 16, 2024 2:13 pm)

Walter wrote:

The same Matt Gurney who was saddled with Surpriya on 640?  She was the kiss of death, and burned through him and poor old Stafford, before quitting and citing racism, misogyny, and the usual basket of PC complaints.  She was also a terrible radio personality, which didn't help much.

LOL - you can't dunk on Supriya and not dunk on Gurney. They were a terrible idea as hosts and the only people who should be excoriated for it would be whoever it was in management that greenlit the move. Easily one of the most boring radio shows I've heard.
 

Last edited by Binson Echorec (August 16, 2024 8:10 pm)