Producer of fine radio frequency since 1956. 

I guess we'll see what happens to the FM side shortly. But it's definitely easier to change music formats than to have to replace dozens of hours of talk shows from Bell Media - if that's the plan.

We know about Gene Valaitis' return. The next few days/weeks should be interesting to see what else they have in mind for 610. As I've noted here before, if they are cutting all ties with Bell, there are mega-hours of shows to replace, especially on nights and weekends.

RadioAaron wrote:

I'd bet on them keeping Vassy Kapelos

Well, if you're right, that opens the door to allowing other Bell shows on their airwaves, including the Sunday Morning Trivia Show as an example. It's the hard to program dayparts (nights and weekends) where they might miss the Bell stuff most.

If they maintain ties, that will make it easier for them during the transition. But I'd love to hear original programming that's not already available elsewhere.

The more I think about this, the less I understand it. Other stations have changed formats and owners and have prepared their websites well in advance, flipping the switch on the day they go live. Why would Whiteoaks have to take days or weeks to turn on their new site? They've had months and months to prepare.

A lot about how this transition was handled doesn't make sense

Lots of positives to local ownership, but they're operating the same environment as the big guys, except with fewer shared resources. They may choose to allocate money differently (ie: My or Vista spending on news over jocks) but there's only so much available revenue. So now we've got live/local middays on four stations that previously didn't, but we've got no websites and lacklustre logos.