I'm shocked..  I shouldn't be surprised but man it still hits hard.
Thinking of all the people involved.  I particularly enjoyed Mike Farwell on Kitchener Rangers hockey.  Taking phone calls for a junior hockey post game show was always entertaining...

sbpointer wrote:

I'm shocked..  I shouldn't be surprised but man it still hits hard.
Thinking of all the people involved.  I particularly enjoyed Mike Farwell on Kitchener Rangers hockey.  Taking phone calls for a junior hockey post game show was always entertaining...

Unless anyone's heard otherwise, there's a chance those broadcasts make some money and could be shifted to 106.7. They'd have to work something out with Mike, as obviously the talk show's done.

This means 680 is Rogers' last remaining all-news station. Are there any non-Rogers all-news stations (as opposed to "news/talk" or is 680 the last of its breed in the country? 

Last edited by Hansa (Yesterday 8:51 pm)

I Used Carts wrote:

Morbidly curious- did they make any type of announcement or just not come back from a break?

There was a short recorded farewell message, according to the Calgary Herald report.

https://calgaryherald.com/news/rogers-closes-660-newsradio-sportsnet-960-the-fan

Thanks for sharing.   That's a pretty decent radio bumper sticker collection in the background.

That was a good interview with Jon Pole.

I wonder if the feds will get involved in this. True, they can't force Rogers to run any of its radio stations if they don't want to, but did they not promise to create thousands of jobs, especially out west, when they were allowed to take over Shaw? 

Critics of that approval warned the government this would happen, but of course, no one in Ottawa listened. And now no one in the cities affected can listen to those shuttered stations, either. 

From 2023:

"The conditions formalized many of the commitments Rogers had made in the two years leading up to Ottawa's approval, including the establishment of a second headquarters in Calgary and adding 3,000 new jobs based in Western Canada...

"We fully expect Canadians to hold us accountable to do all the things we said we were going to do and we're very proud to do it," (Rogers CEO Tony) Staffieri said...

If Rogers breaches its conditions, it must pay up to $1 billion in damages. Videotron would potentially be subject to $200 million in penalties if it fails to meet its commitments."

Rogers takeover of Shaw finalized, deal now official

By my reckoning, the only Rogers AM station left is Country 600 North Bay.

I am not sure what the Shaw deal has to do with 4 AM radio stations that Rogers has owned for a while. Shaw moved its radio, tv and Cable stations over to Corus and Freedom Cell phones to Quebecor Media Group . Rogers bought the Cable part of Shaw. From what was reported any head office jobs were lost in Toronto. I don't think Rogers AM stations were part of any commitments in the Shaw deal, but I could be wrong.

This is terrible.    They had   4 billion +    to purchase the rest of MLSE and can't keep the radio stations going.
Rogers and Bell seem to know how to cut costs in the wrong ways (at least for radio fans).   570 News was great, being a bit of a combo on CFTR type news, and then some talk, and then some sports....A sort of modern "full service" station.
CKLW does fairly well with good ratings.

I wonder who US news and sports stations are doing.    WGR is Buffalo's main station and does well but 1520 is sort of a poor cousin,  which, among other things has play by play of the Bisons....

WLW in Cincinnati does very well, and I think WWJ Detroit is doing ok.......WJR's ratings have gone downhill for sure.

What does anyone think of the future of CFRB, CJCL, and CHUM  am  will be...

680 still does fairly well in the ratings.
I guess time will tell.
 

Drex began his AM640 show on Wednesday by talking about the Rogers massacre, saying he personally knows at least 6 or 7 people who were terminated the day before. He even had one of those fired from a previous lay off as a guest, a guy who worked for Rogers in B.C. for over a decade. 

It's been in the news and published as a story on several radio and TV websites, but this is the first time I've heard an on air host refer to it as part of their show, let alone interview a victim of the company's poor business decisions. Good for him. 

I could be wrong, but was it Rogers or Bell who recently proclaimed they no longer had any faith in radio as a viable business and were keeping their distance from expanding in the industry as much as possible? It seems to me one of them put that forth, despite the fact both already own so many stations. (Rogers, sadly, a few less now after Terrible Tuesday.)

Radiowiz wrote:

Interesting thought. Rogers is now free to buy a third FM in various markets where they no longer own two AM stations. Will they do that? I don't know if it's beneficial or not, since they can't put news/talk or sports on FM... but there could be other reasons...?

0% chance. 

RadioActive wrote:

I could be wrong, but was it Rogers or Bell who recently proclaimed they no longer had any faith in radio as a viable business and were keeping their distance from expanding in the industry as much as possible? It seems to me one of them put that forth, despite the fact both already own so many stations. (Rogers, sadly, a few less now after Terrible Tuesday.)

It was Bell in reference to the stations they sold

torontostan wrote:

RadioActive wrote:

And they still have not added all those promised positions, regardless of the divison. Watchdogs warned the government this would happen but they were ignored.  

Okay, which has nothing to do with the radio stations being discussed

But it's a reflection of the company and how they operate. Their recent foray into trying to get around the CRTC edicts on excessive and sneaky unnecessary phone charges is just one example of the corporate ethics - or lack of them - at Rogers. And Bell, too. 

Will anything happen as a result of their breaking the rules? I would not bet on more than a slap on the wrist, if that. Which just invites them to keep doing it. And this reflects on the way they do business. No wonder nothing ever changes.