torontostan wrote:

BowmanvilleBob wrote:

What about if you don’t live in Toronto?

You have several local radio stations to choose from in Bowmanville (Kx, CKDO, Rock, and so on.....)

Yes…and believe it or not, they’re radio stations that are owned by organizations that still believe in the idea of a modicum of public service during local emergencies. They choose not shrug their shoulders and say “we’ll let somebody else cover it” because they understand the core principle of maintaining good local reputations involves occasionally putting a little extra effort into serving their audiences. Too bad Bellmedia never learned that lesson.

torontostan wrote:

BowmanvilleBob wrote:

torontostan wrote:

You have several local radio stations to choose from in Bowmanville (Kx, CKDO, Rock, and so on.....)

Yes…and believe it or not, they’re radio stations that are owned by organizations that still believe in the idea of a modicum of public service during local emergencies. They choose not shrug their shoulders and say “we’ll let somebody else cover it” because they understand the core principle of maintaining good local reputations involves occasionally putting a little extra effort into serving their audiences. Too bad Bellmedia never learned that lesson.

Great, then stop complaining, Toronto radio isn't even relative to you way out there so you don't have a horse in this race. Plus. you've missed the lesson entirely, as I should've expected. It's not that nobody should cover this storm, it's that you only need one station to cover it before you start eating the same small pizza as your competitor. And for what it's worth.. I've been listening to those durham stations and they're doing nothing different than any music station in Toronto today... get a grip on the role radio plays in 2026. It's not teletype and carrier pigeons anymore....

Geez, guess I didn’t realize that I wasn’t entitled to comment on Toronto radio, despite the fact that the title of this forum includes the words “Southern Ontario.” Durham Radio had local morning newscasts today, which was at the time when most people needed it. Again, we’re not talking about wall-to-wall coverage here, but having someone on the board and in the newsroom to keep local folks updated on what’s going is hardly rocket science and won’t break the bank.

Look, we’re clearly not going to agree on this, so you can have the last word. Go nuts.

BowmanvilleBob wrote:

[So how does that help me if I live in Owen Sound, St. Thomas, Gravenhurst or Bracebridge?

You get all the local weather details from CFOS 89.3 et al in the Owen Sound area, or from any London-area station, there (980 comes to mind) or 99.5 Muskoka plus Orillia, and so on, depending on where you live. I'd think 680 News talking about nothing else round the clock is probably sufficient. If the others give quick periodic mentions and updates, that would seem fine. In the event of a military attack, earthquake or other such catastrophe - yes, I'd expect deviation from normal programming. But this is just winter at its finest.

I did turn on the 680 news live stream this morning at 4:30. From a listener point of view, you need to have an authoritative voice. The person that was on air, got all the words right, and I wish her well, and Rogers needs to have someone on the night shift, but this voice just does not work for me.
With that said, 680 is mostly a traffic and weather station, with news filling in the rest. The person doing traffic did have an authoritative voice.

On the drive into Toronto I never even considered the other stations because I was only interested in 2 things.

So, if Corus and Bell want me to consider them in bad weather maybe they should copy some of what Rogers is doing, there ratings may just go up a little bit.

RadioActive wrote:

I had to laugh on Monday morning when 640's Greg Brady had a guy named John McKay on, a broadcaster with WBZ-AM in Boston, which also got hit hard by the weather. 

As the guest came on, he said, "I was on last night covering the storm, as I'm sure you were." 

Brady said nothing and skipped over it. I mean what else could he do? "We were airing rerolls as the highest one day snowfall in the city's history was underway." 

But the irony was not lost on anyone. 

WBZ is all-news, CFIQ is political talk. This isn't a hard concept for most to grasp....
 

torontostan wrote:

RadioActive wrote:

I had to laugh on Monday morning when 640's Greg Brady had a guy named John McKay on, a broadcaster with WBZ-AM in Boston, which also got hit hard by the weather. 

As the guest came on, he said, "I was on last night covering the storm, as I'm sure you were." 

Brady said nothing and skipped over it. I mean what else could he do? "We were airing rerolls as the highest one day snowfall in the city's history was underway." 

But the irony was not lost on anyone. 

WBZ is all-news, CFIQ is political talk. This isn't a hard concept for most to grasp....
 

Except at night, when the station goes all talk with Dan Rea's NightSide Show, among others. From the station's website:

"NightSide focuses on a wide variety of issues, political, economic and social. Rea believes that talk radio is the best way for people to communicate their opinions and ideas on what he calls “North America’s Virtual Back Porch.” Rea encourages challenging conversations and diverse ideas combined with respect and tolerance for the opinion of others."

That respect and tolerance for others sadly often seems to be lacking here...

haha - so funny - there's no way Corus would spend money to actually give people radio they can use on the weekend

RadioActive wrote:

I had to laugh on Monday morning when 640's Greg Brady had a guy named John McKay on, a broadcaster with WBZ-AM in Boston, which also got hit hard by the weather. 

As the guest came on, he said, "I was on last night covering the storm, as I'm sure you were." 

Brady said nothing and skipped over it. I mean what else could he do? "We were airing rerolls as the highest one day snowfall in the city's history was underway." 

But the irony was not lost on anyone. 

torontostan wrote:

RadioActive wrote:

That respect and tolerance for others sadly often seems to be lacking here...

I agree. Your trumpism attitude of "my opinions are facts" and "the world revolves around my needs" is really irking a lot of us. I've received several private messages supporting my effort to keep this board honest and realistic with the state of our beloved medium in 2026. Moderate, sure, but please allow the experts to feel like they can openly weigh-in and make a meaningful contribution without being told that we should go back to how things were in the 70s....

Pot meet kettle.

Well the numbers are in. Environment Canada has reported Pearson Airport received 46 cm on Sunday while Downtown [City Centre] which is where exactly? received 56 cm. That total ties the record set in the December 1944 storm for the largest snowfall in one 24 hour period.