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What Changes Will The End Of Summer Bring To AM640?
I'm told the new P.D. at the Corus talk station is making a flurry of changes that you may soon hear on the air.
We know that Danny Longo is out of the now empty newsroom at Corus Quay, with two others to be hired to work out of Global's H.Q. at Barber Greene Rd.
And Brad Smith's "No B.S." mid-morning show is over, as he heads to the TV side on Global.
And of course, there's that horrible mess between noon-3 PM, with a rerun of the previous night's "Last Show" and the Shaye Ganam program out of Edmonton. He's an OK talk show host, but the subject is too often stuff about Alberta politics, which does not play well in Ontario.
Something has to give. Will it start this week or do they need more time to put everything into place? The answer to that question could come as soon as Tuesday, after Greg Brady's morning show is over.
- RadioAaron
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Re: What Changes Will The End Of Summer Bring To AM640?
The PD doesn't have much power over most of that. There's a reason MBD stormed out.
- RadioActive
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Re: What Changes Will The End Of Summer Bring To AM640?
A source close to the place is telling me the new PD is making moves in a hurry. I'm only relating what this person told me. Time will tell if the info is right, but I believe the source.
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Thread Starter- RadioActive
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Re: What Changes Will The End Of Summer Bring To AM640?
And so it begins. Rob Fai was sitting in for the now departed Brad Smith. (Can you be sitting in for someone who's already gone?) He said he'll be doing the shift from B.C. all week, although I don't think it's by any means their permanent replacement.
On Tuesday, Drex - who had been filling the mid-afternoon spot the past several weeks - has replaced the horrible Last Show rerun. And have we heard the end of Shaye Ganam out of Alberta?
The time slot between 10 AM and 3 PM has now been rebranded as "AM640 mid-days," with no reference to the long departed Alex Pierson at all.
Oh, and Global's noon news is now an hour long show, replacing the 30 minute version that's been running for years. The new Morning Show Part Two debuts on Tuesday, with new hosts - including the now TV-oriented Mr. Smith.
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Thread Starter- Media Nerd
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Re: What Changes Will The End Of Summer Bring To AM640?
New PD has no power. Zip. Zero.
Only the weekend paid shows are keeping the lights on at 640. Though I’m not sure if anyone listens to them and wonder why these lawyers continue to keep a show with few listeners.
- Scarboroughbluffsradiof99
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Re: What Changes Will The End Of Summer Bring To AM640?
640's a dump compared to 1010 and CKTB.
- Walter
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Re: What Changes Will The End Of Summer Bring To AM640?
Scarboroughbluffsradiof99 wrote:
640's a dump compared to 1010 and CKTB.
Agreed, and 1010's been in the toilet for years.
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Re: What Changes Will The End Of Summer Bring To AM640?
Disappointed to hear a reroll of The Last Show and Shaye Ganam back in the noon-2PM slot on AM640 Wednesday.
Drex was on during those hours on Tuesday and I was hoping the local programming was permanent. Unless they're on a complete budget cutting spree (certainly possible for a troubled place like Corus), I hope they're eventually planning to replace these shows in the mid-afternoon. It's already been going on like this for way too long.
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Thread Starter- Scarboroughbluffsradiof99
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Re: What Changes Will The End Of Summer Bring To AM640?
640's a dump compared to 1010 and CKTB.
Agreed, and 1010's been in the toilet for years.
But, it atleest has live shows at all times during weekdays and more caller interaction on its shows.
- echomaster
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Re: What Changes Will The End Of Summer Bring To AM640?
What a dumpster fire at 640. Such a 'big' market and such lack luster pathetic programming.
Crap production, no caller input - disjointed segment after segment - ZERO continuity.
Thank heavens for the internet to capture other programs.
It is shameful there is no Canadian nation wide 'program' in this country.
I do think Ben could host such a program.
Come out to the coast, we'll get together, have a few laughs...
~ John McClane
- Radiowiz
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Re: What Changes Will The End Of Summer Bring To AM640?
What a dumpster fire at 640. Such a 'big' market and such lack luster pathetic programming.
Crap production, no caller input - disjointed segment after segment - ZERO continuity.
Thank heavens for the internet to capture other programs.
It is shameful there is no Canadian nation wide 'program' in this country.
I do think Ben could host such a program.
You're onto something. At this point, a CKO style AM 640 would work a lot better if it could be done.
- Scarboroughbluffsradiof99
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Re: What Changes Will The End Of Summer Bring To AM640?
What a dumpster fire at 640. Such a 'big' market and such lack luster pathetic programming.
Crap production, no caller input - disjointed segment after segment - ZERO continuity.
Thank heavens for the internet to capture other programs.
It is shameful there is no Canadian nation wide 'program' in this country.
I do think Ben could host such a program.
Ben's the only one on that dump that takes callers.
- RadioActive
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Re: What Changes Will The End Of Summer Bring To AM640?
What a dumpster fire at 640. Such a 'big' market and such lack luster pathetic programming.
Crap production, no caller input - disjointed segment after segment - ZERO continuity.
Thank heavens for the internet to capture other programs.
It is shameful there is no Canadian nation wide 'program' in this country.
I do think Ben could host such a program.
Ben's the only one on that dump that takes callers.
To be fair, I've heard Rob Fai and Greg Brady take callers (admittedly on a limited basis) on their shows.
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Thread Starter- RadioAaron
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Re: What Changes Will The End Of Summer Bring To AM640?
Attempting to take more calls would reveal that it's the same 5-6 people calling repeatedly.
- Scarboroughbluffsradiof99
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Re: What Changes Will The End Of Summer Bring To AM640?
Attempting to take more calls would reveal that it's the same 5-6 people calling repeatedly.
Are only 5 people calling in?
640 Neads a new format or to move to fm on 95.3.
I think corus should be brave and change 640 into an all ethnic format, not for southasians, maybe arabic or spannish or ukrainian.
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Re: What Changes Will The End Of Summer Bring To AM640?
I just listened to Ben Mulroney's Show and he had two segments with 15 minutes of calls each. So they do take callers and there was definitely a lot more than just a few of them.
Attempting to take more calls would reveal that it's the same 5-6 people calling repeatedly.
I think corus should be brave and change 640 into an all ethnic format, not for southasians, maybe arabic or spannish or ukrainian.
I simply do not understand your obsession with wanting to turn every single struggling station in town into an ethnic format. The GTA has more ethnic outlets than just about any place else I can think of.
There's CHLO 530, 820 CHAM, the recently returned CJMR 1320, CIRF 1350, CKHT 1430, CHIN 1540, CHHA 1610, CINA 1650, CHTO 1690 and even WTOR 770 and parttime CKNT 960. And that's just the AM band! There are a ton more on FM.
There just can't be room for yet another one.
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Thread Starter- Scarboroughbluffsradiof99
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Re: What Changes Will The End Of Summer Bring To AM640?
I just listed to Ben Mulroney's Show and he had two segments with 15 minutes of calls each. So they do take callers and there was definitely a lot more than just a few of them.
Attempting to take more calls would reveal that it's the same 5-6 people calling repeatedly.
I think corus should be brave and change 640 into an all ethnic format, not for southasians, maybe arabic or spannish or ukrainian.
I simply do not understand your obsession with wanting to turn every single struggling station in town into an ethnic format. The GTA has more ethnic outlets than just about any place else I can think of.
There's CHLO 530, 820 CHAM, the recently returned CJMR 1320, CIRF 1350, CKHT 1430, CHIN 1540, CHHA 1610, CINA 1650, CHTO 1690 and even WTOR 770 and parttime CKNT 960. And that's just the AM band! There are a ton more on FM.
There just can't be room for yet another one.
Ethnic radio is doing better than mainstream radio on AM.
So, instead of shutting the station down stations, why not broaker time to ethnic or religious producers?
There's no stations for a lot of communities, arabs, ukrainians are growing again, and no commercial spanish station.
We have to many southasian stations, if you want to do southasian on AM, your best bets are tamil, bengali/bangla, or even malayalam which is growing.
And I'm not saying every mainstream AM ones, just the ones in the dumps.
Or sell 640 to whiteoaks.
Here's which stations I think should go ethnic or be sold to better owners: 640.
If sports rites expire, TSN 150, and sauga 960.
1010 Just neads to be programmed better or just sold to whiteoaks before it turns to mush like 640.
Station owners should think before shutting AM stations down, sell it, broaker it, or better idea for all of us, program it like how talk radio was.
Last edited by Scarboroughbluffsradiof99 (September 10, 2026 6:32 pm)
- RadioActive
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Re: What Changes Will The End Of Summer Bring To AM640?
I just listed to Ben Mulroney's Show and he had two segments with 15 minutes of calls each. So they do take callers and there was definitely a lot more than just a few of them.
I think corus should be brave and change 640 into an all ethnic format, not for southasians, maybe arabic or spannish or ukrainian.I simply do not understand your obsession with wanting to turn every single struggling station in town into an ethnic format. The GTA has more ethnic outlets than just about any place else I can think of.
There's CHLO 530, 820 CHAM, the recently returned CJMR 1320, CIRF 1350, CKHT 1430, CHIN 1540, CHHA 1610, CINA 1650, CHTO 1690 and even WTOR 770 and parttime CKNT 960. And that's just the AM band! There are a ton more on FM.
There just can't be room for yet another one.Ethnic radio is doing better than mainstream radio on AM.
So, instead of shutting the station down stations, why not broaker time to ethnic or religious producers?
There's no stations for a lot of communities, arabs, ukrainians are growing again, and no commercial spanish station.
We have to many southasian stations, if you want to do southasian on AM, your best bets are tamil, bengali/bangla, or even malayalam which is growing.
There are only so many stations in the same format that any market can sustain, even the biggest one in Canada. And CHHA 1610 is a Spanish language station.
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Thread Starter- Scarboroughbluffsradiof99
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Re: What Changes Will The End Of Summer Bring To AM640?
I just listed to Ben Mulroney's Show and he had two segments with 15 minutes of calls each. So they do take callers and there was definitely a lot more than just a few of them.
I simply do not understand your obsession with wanting to turn every single struggling station in town into an ethnic format. The GTA has more ethnic outlets than just about any place else I can think of.
There's CHLO 530, 820 CHAM, the recently returned CJMR 1320, CIRF 1350, CKHT 1430, CHIN 1540, CHHA 1610, CINA 1650, CHTO 1690 and even WTOR 770 and parttime CKNT 960. And that's just the AM band! There are a ton more on FM.
There just can't be room for yet another one.Ethnic radio is doing better than mainstream radio on AM.
So, instead of shutting the station down stations, why not broaker time to ethnic or religious producers?
There's no stations for a lot of communities, arabs, ukrainians are growing again, and no commercial spanish station.
We have to many southasian stations, if you want to do southasian on AM, your best bets are tamil, bengali/bangla, or even malayalam which is growing.There are only so many stations in the same format that any market can sustain, even the biggest one in Canada. And CHHA 1610 is a Spanish language station.
Its a spanish community station, and now, punjabi has takin up most of its day with spanish getting lesser and lesser.
If not ethnic general, then ethnic talk like sherE punjab in Vancouver, CJMR is doing great with its ethnic talk programming, they do some segments in english or punjabi mixxed with english, and get lots of callers.
Meanwhile, 640 is a dump with few callers.
- RadioActive
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Re: What Changes Will The End Of Summer Bring To AM640?
You can't really compare 640 with CJMR. They have two very different business plans, even if the Corus one isn't exactly working for them.
There are at least 14 stations I've counted that are aimed at specific non-English speaking communities in the GTA. (And I could have missed a few.) They may have loyal audiences, but they don't have large ones. Adding more to the mix would further dilute audience totals.
Plus most of them are paid time stations. That's how they make their money. So there's room for all the languages you suggest if some ethnic group wants to buy an hour or two of airtime. CHIN has been doing this for decades. I know. I used to work there very early on in my career. I saw how it worked and the "talent" who hosted those shows, most of whom knew absolutely nothing about radio.
If it's just a matter of acquiring airtime somewhere for your self produced programming, there are already a ton of choices. Why would we need more stations? Most of the communities you talk about could be on the air somewhere tomorrow if they really wanted to.
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Thread Starter- RadioActive
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Re: What Changes Will The End Of Summer Bring To AM640?
Disappointed to hear a reroll of The Last Show and Shaye Ganam back in the noon-2PM slot on AM640 Wednesday.
Drex was on during those hours on Tuesday and I was hoping the local programming was permanent. Unless they're on a complete budget cutting spree (certainly possible for a troubled place like Corus), I hope they're eventually planning to replace these shows in the mid-afternoon. It's already been going on like this for way too long.
It's even worse than I thought. Not only have they gone back to the execrable Last Show reruns, but even the Drex programming that follows it was a repeat, as well. I briefly turned it on Thursday and heard the exact same call that they took the other day.
Meanwhile, Ben Mulroney, who just had Labour Day off with everybody else, will be away again on Friday. Gotta love those three day weeks! It almost seems he's away more than he's actually there. No idea who is taking over his show, unless they call on Drex.
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Thread Starter- RadioActive
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Re: What Changes Will The End Of Summer Bring To AM640?
Disappointed to hear a reroll of The Last Show and Shaye Ganam back in the noon-2PM slot on AM640 Wednesday.
Drex was on during those hours on Tuesday and I was hoping the local programming was permanent. Unless they're on a complete budget cutting spree (certainly possible for a troubled place like Corus), I hope they're eventually planning to replace these shows in the mid-afternoon. It's already been going on like this for way too long.It's even worse than I thought. Not only have they gone back to the execrable Last Show reruns, but even the Drex programming that follows it was a repeat, as well. I briefly turned it on Thursday and heard the exact same call that they took the other day.
An insider tells me that Drex had the flu and wasn't available for the broadcast, hence the rerun.
But this also brings up another concerning aspect of AM640 - the lack of back-up. If they have to air a reroll in the middle of the week because there's no one else to fill in, that's very telling about how bad things must be over there.
Hope no one ever wants a vacation or gets sick. It would seem there's no one to take their place.
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Thread Starter- Radiowiz
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Re: What Changes Will The End Of Summer Bring To AM640?
Hope no one ever wants a vacation or gets sick. It would seem there's no one to take their place.
Encore presentation, I guess.
Anyway, as I mentioned earlier, Global News Radio would work well CKO style, with AM 640 as part of the deal.
- RadioAaron
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Hope no one ever wants a vacation or gets sick. It would seem there's no one to take their place.
Encore presentation, I guess.
Anyway, as I mentioned earlier, Global News Radio would work well CKO style, with AM 640 as part of the deal.
What on earth do you mean by that?
- Radiowiz
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Re: What Changes Will The End Of Summer Bring To AM640?
Hope no one ever wants a vacation or gets sick. It would seem there's no one to take their place.
Encore presentation, I guess.
Anyway, as I mentioned earlier, Global News Radio would work well CKO style, with AM 640 as part of the deal.
What on earth do you mean by that?
I'll just let you think about that...
- RadioAaron
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Re: What Changes Will The End Of Summer Bring To AM640?
Encore presentation, I guess.
Anyway, as I mentioned earlier, Global News Radio would work well CKO style, with AM 640 as part of the deal.
What on earth do you mean by that?
I'll just let you think about that...
So you haven’t thought it through. Got it.
- Radiowiz
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What on earth do you mean by that?I'll just let you think about that...
So you haven’t thought it through. Got it.
Oh I thought it through, it's you that didn't or you wouldn't be asking.
Just because the original CKO went under doesn't mean that Global News radio doesn't have the ability to do more national topics with one voice for several stations. There used to be a talk radio net also.
One person on several stations instead of local talk.