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How Much Of 680 News Is Taped Overnight?
I had one of those sleepless nights early Sunday morning, so at 4:30 AM, I turned on what I thought would be the only live overnight broadcast in Toronto - 680 News. The first 15 minutes featured a not-so-great female newscaster, who did, indeed, seem to be live, featuring the latest headlines (most from yesterday.)
But after the throw to sports, a different anchor came on, this one male, and he proceeded to do a host of generic stories and features that were clearly not new. I listened as late as 5:30 AM, and in that hour and a bit, I heard the same guy at the same time throw to the same stories with the same copy both hours. (The one about a new book on John Candy made it especially obvious.)
Sounds like just another way Rogers is trying to save a buck in a fallow time period. And maybe there's nothing wrong with it. But it seems to me if you're going to promote yourself as a 24-hour live news station, you ought to at least be one, weekends or not. False advertising or smart money saving? You decide.
Either way, I guess it's better than hearing Calgary or Vancouver's news all night long, something they've also done in the past.
- KenkuKwanchi
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Re: How Much Of 680 News Is Taped Overnight?
The overnight anchor is Julia Vellucci, the pre-recorded news clips after sports is Dylan Maguire who solo-anchored the Saturday evening (6pm-12am). When Dylan report the first 15 minutes for the evening news, pre-recorded new clips are presented by Mitch Burke and Lisa Amaral from the afternoon shift (12pm-6pm) alternating evening 30 minutes.
Brendan Lang is doing an exceptional job as anchor/traffic reports.
Ben Howes keeps making mistake reporting news or traffic.
I've brought this up previously in Summer 2025 that the weekend evening news anchors reduced from 2 to 1, modelling the overnight news since sometime in December 2024 (could be earlier).
Last week's weekend evening news did have 2 anchors for some reason.
But yes, Rogers is saving money.
- DX
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Re: How Much Of 680 News Is Taped Overnight?
RadioActive wrote:
I had one of those sleepless nights early Sunday morning, so at 4:30 AM, I turned on what I thought would be the only live overnight broadcast in Toronto - 680 News. The first 15 minutes featured a not-so-great female newscaster, who did, indeed, seem to be live, featuring the latest headlines (most from yesterday.)
But after the throw to sports, a different anchor came on, this one male, and he proceeded to do a host of generic stories and features that were clearly not new. I listened as late as 5:30 AM, and in that hour and a bit, I heard the same guy at the same time throw to the same stories with the same copy both hours. (The one about a new book on John Candy made it especially obvious.)
Sounds like just another way Rogers is trying to save a buck in a fallow time period. And maybe there's nothing wrong with it. But it seems to me if you're going to promote yourself as a 24-hour live news station, you ought to at least be one, weekends or not. False advertising or smart money saving? You decide.
Either way, I guess it's better than hearing Calgary or Vancouver's news all night long, something they've also done in the past.
Isn't this just normal course for their news wheel: sports at :15 and :45, rotating features at :20 and :50 and rotating business features at :25 and :55?
I say good on CFTR to still have a live, but less experienced, newscaster at 4:30 a.m., ready for breaking news, in a day and age where the 11 p.m. television newscasts in many smaller markets are now completely pretaped hours earlier.
Last edited by DX (January 18, 2026 12:17 pm)
- RadioActive
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Re: How Much Of 680 News Is Taped Overnight?
OK, then. But don't promote yourself as a 24 hour a day live news service if half of every 30 minutes all night long is on tape. Either do the format right or don't do it. Or at least stop with the false claims.
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Thread Starter- pinto
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Re: How Much Of 680 News Is Taped Overnight?
I heard her last night as well.. needs an aircheck
- torontostan
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Re: How Much Of 680 News Is Taped Overnight?
OK, then. But don't promote yourself as a 24 hour a day live news service if half of every 30 minutes all night long is on tape. Either do the format right or don't do it. Or at least stop with the false claims.
That's an incredibly literal interpretation of their position. Would you fault a 24 hour grocery store for closing the deli counter overnight?
- Chrisphen
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Re: How Much Of 680 News Is Taped Overnight?
"Limit your listening to 680 News to short intervals no more than two, three or four times a day."
- Shorty Wave
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Re: How Much Of 680 News Is Taped Overnight?
"Limit your listening to 680 News to short intervals no more than two, three or four times a day."
I agree, I now listen maybe twice a day and that’s mostly for traffic.
- Aytononline
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Re: How Much Of 680 News Is Taped Overnight?
I am not taking the side of Rogers wanting to save money, but how much new news happens in the over night hours. Traffic and weather needs to be live and local and you need to have a live person in studio just in case something really does happen. After that how many different ways can you reintroduce the same pre recorded story's.
A good example is what Gobal and City has for there All News channels on Prime. Most of it is just running the same stuff over and over again, but if something happens, they can still go live.