RadioActive wrote:

As I post this, there's exactly one week until Christmas. It's a great time of year unless you're a fan of Toronto radio. As this weekend approaches, expect to hear fewer and fewer of your regular favourites on stations that don't play music, as the regulars take a well deserved holiday. 

CFRB's Jerry Agar is already off, not to return until Jan. 5th, with Deb Hutton sitting in at 10 AM. Jason Agnew has already confirmed he'll be in for John Moore during the holiday period. So what to expect after next Wednesday, aka Xmas Eve? My guess is a lot of filler and a lot of rerolls. 

Will 1010 air Christmas music as they did last year? Will AM640 go for those same tired radio comedies and dramas from the 40s and 50s? At least you know 680 will be current. As for the rest? Well, good luck. I suspect music stations will be on autopilot and become jukeboxes.

While I appreciate the season's specialness, as a talk radio fan, it's not the most wonderful time of the year. It's one of the worst. And January 5th already can't come soon enough!

Agreed.  The quality of Toronto talk radio declined along with their budgets again in 2025, and the Christmas - New Year break will be a big lump of coal to listeners, as usual.  No lousy old music or corny 80 year old radio plays for me.  680 will be the only option, and god knows I'll be plenty sick of it by January 2nd.
 

I worked many Christmas Day in the newsroom. In fact, I think I only got Xmas off one time. Part of it was my fault. Since I don't celebrate the holiday, I wanted to give other staff members who do the day off. But it meant coming in on Dec. 25th (they thankfully cancelled the late news Xmas Eve broadcast) and there was almost nothing going on. 

Christmas in the newsroom always meant the same thing. Inevitably, some family would be burned out of their house in a fire, and that sad tale would be the lead of a cut down half hour 6 o'clock newscast. Then there was the P.M.'s message, the Queen's address, a greeting from the Premier, The Pope preaches peace, preps for Boxing Day at the stores, the celebrations in the Holy Land, the holiday meal served to the homeless at a shelter, and other time fillers you're sure to see again next Thursday. (Although with the craziness down south, that might change a bit.)

There was generally nothing going on but I guess it was better than sitting at home, trying to find decent programming in that non-streaming era. The Internet has helped a lot, but a slow news days is a slow news day and Dec. 25th is usually the slowest of them all.

Shorty Wave wrote:

RadioActive wrote:

Christmas in the newsroom always meant the same thing. Inevitably, some family would be burned out of their house in a fire, and that sad tale would be the lead of a cut down half hour 6 o'clock newscast. Then there was the P.M.'s message, the Queen's address, a greeting from the Premier, The Pope preaches peace, preps for Boxing Day at the stores, the celebrations in the Holy Land, the holiday meal served to the homeless at a shelter, and other time fillers you're sure to see again next Thursday. (Although with the craziness down south, that might change a bit.)

 
I think you’ve nailed it here RadioActive, every year it is pretty much the same!

With the exception of the lead story, you could almost write the entire thing a day in advance and come in late on Christmas Day!

I heard Deb Hutton say goodbye for the year on Friday, while filling in for Jerry Agar. She won't be back until Jan. 5th. 

That means not only is Agar off, but so is Hutton. My guess is Jim Richards will continue to do double duty from Monday-Wednesday of next week, unless he's off, too. So who is doing the 10 AM slot and the rest until Christmas Eve hits? Would they really go into reroll-mode three days early? 

RadioActive wrote:

I heard Deb Hutton say goodbye for the year on Friday, while filling in for Jerry Agar. She won't be back until Jan. 5th. 

CFRB is slowly unveiling its holiday plans. It appears Richard Crouse will be taking Agar's place during the holiday, with light talk about entertainment. And get this - it will be a national show, airing on Bell talk stations around the country. One salary for multiple stations. Sounds like Bell to me!

I’m loooking forward to Mark Towey again. Our politics have changed but always enjoyed his shows. 2-6 afternoons will be better than regular imho.

Hopefully they give the 340 ‘here’s what’s coming up on CTV news at 6’ segment a Christmas vacation

Mr magoogain wrote:

I’m loooking forward to Mark Towey again. Our politics have changed but always enjoyed his shows. 2-6 afternoons will be better than regular imho.

Hopefully they give the 340 ‘here’s what’s coming up on CTV news at 6’ segment a Christmas vacation

 
Hopefully they give the 3:40 CTV News at 6 preview a permanent vacation as it usually ends as small talk between the two on air personalities.

Last edited by Shorty Wave (December 20, 2025 8:21 am)

Karl Dockstader told listeners on CKTB's Sunday Morning Show that his full crew will be in next Sunday, Dec. 28th and that they'll be doing a live show. What a nice change of pace that is, especially considering that day isn't technically a holiday. 

In case you weren't aware, 610 is the only station in this area that has actual live radio programming on Sunday mornings, starting at 6 AM with "The Secret Hour" - so called because the bosses presumably aren't aware they're doing it. Everyone else (besides 680) is either on auto-pilot, uses pre-recorded material or puts out a TV audio simulcast (I'm looking at you CFRB!)

I'll be looking forward to something live and local that weekend after the endless Xmas treacle everyone else will be playing. 

RadioActive wrote:

As mentioned earlier, Jason Agnew will be sitting in for John Moore on NT1010 in the coming week and promises the 7:30-8AM segment will be a mini-half hour trivia show, similar to what he does on Sundays. Another way in which the days before Christmas will differ from what we're used to. 

Thanks for the warning.
 

Walter wrote:

RadioActive wrote:

As mentioned earlier, Jason Agnew will be sitting in for John Moore on NT1010 in the coming week and promises the 7:30-8AM segment will be a mini-half hour trivia show, similar to what he does on Sundays. Another way in which the days before Christmas will differ from what we're used to. 

Thanks for the warning.
 

 
I think Agnew’s mini trivia show will probably go over very well, something a bit lighter to start the day, especially leading up to Christmas, and might draw in some listeners that usually only tune in for his Sunday show as he announced it during yesterday’s show. I just wonder if he’s going to have prizes for the mini trivia or you play for bragging rights, either way, I may just phone in! Looking forward to it.

RadioActive wrote:

It turns out the replacement for Jerry Agar on CFRB for the next few days is John Tory. He'll also do part of the rest of the week before Christmas and then it's anyone's guess what they'll air. 

Yes, it was surprising to hear Tory pop up. When Agnew mentioned way back in November (and posted here) on one of his Sunday Morning Trivia Shows that it'd be Agnew doing the John Moore fill-in, the assumption was that Tory was unavailable - maybe vacationing out of the city? Turns out as we now know, that unavailability was just because Tory was doing the Jerry Agar shift!

I find Tory's delivery has a lot of stammer and saying the same thing about three times in only slightly different ways. Funny enough he's often at his most natural during the crossovers or when trading barbs with another station personality. A co-host I think would help him where he can be more conversational. Not gonna happen in Bell's fill-in holiday mode, though!

Last edited by AspectRatio (December 22, 2025 2:41 pm)

Alex Pierson did one show - Monday - and is now off until Jan. 5th. (You have to wonder why she bothered coming back for a single shift at the beginning of the week.)

A fill-in I haven't heard in a while, Rob Fai, is taking her place until Wednesday. He lives and works in Vancouver, so it will be interesting to see if he does any local Toronto material - and how much he knows about issues going on in the GTA. 

 

I have been listening to Jason Agnew filling in for Moore in the Morning on CFRB and he’s doing a decent job. The trivia section was kind of different although one of the callers was hard to hear, still, something different for my morning listen. I’ll check it out next week as well.

Have to give credit to poor Mark Towhey, who is the only afternoon sub CFRB has and has been suffering from terrible laryngitis and an extremely hoarse voice doing fill-in the past few days. He even brought Richard Crouse in Tuesday as a co-host to try and give his voice a break. 

It's amazing he made it through the last 48 hours and his voice is so bad, it's been painful to listen to. But in the best tradition of "the show must go on," he somehow made it, despite often sounding like he was at death's door. Sad that there's no one else, but this is what happens at Christmastime, when the regulars are all gone and there's nobody to call in. 

I hear John Oakley was available!

RadioActive wrote:

Have to give credit to poor Mark Towhey, who is the only afternoon sub CFRB has and has been suffering from terrible laryngitis and an extremely hoarse voice doing fill-in the past few days. He even brought Richard Crouse in Tuesday as a co-host to try and give his voice a break. 

It's amazing he made it through the last 48 hours and his voice is so bad, it's been painful to listen to. But in the best tradition of "the show must go on," he somehow made it, despite often sounding like he was at death's door. Sad that there's no one else, but this is what happens at Christmastime, when the regulars are all gone and there's nobody to call in. 

I hear John Oakley was available!

 
I heard that too yesterday and felt for the man, but what a trooper! There’s some throat bug going around as I know a few people who have it presently, keep your hands clean!