The Victoria Day weekend brings up something I’ve long wondered about – stations going into endless rerolls for an entire day.
 
I turned on the radio Monday morning and I have to admit I was very surprised to hear CKTB in St. Catharines doing an actual live morning show, with a guest host, along with even a Roundtable on the :45s. Meanwhile, all the Toronto yakkers – with the exception of 680 News, which can’t take a day off, and The Fan - had reruns.
 
How is that CKTB regularly manages to have people working a stat (along with the overtime that inevitably ensues) but no one else either wants to or bothers? I’ve always been curious as to when we turned this corner, especially with a News/Talk format. The only thing staler than yesterday’s news is yesterday’s people commenting on it.
 
After that, 610 went into the same replay mode as everyone else. But here’s one other thing. Rather than doing a live morning show on a day when almost no one is getting up early, why not do a live drive home or evening show for all the people in cottage country who are stuck in the inevitable homebound traffic jam and for whom radio is probably the best way to pass the time?
 
I will never quite figure out why they don’t take the opportunity to have someone come in and entertain a de facto captive audience at a time when they just might need it most. (And by the way, it’s a holiday – I really didn’t expect 640 to reroll an old Employment Hour at 7 PM, but I guess paid time is paid time even on Queen Vicky's birthday.)
 
Hey, everyone deserves a day off. But sometimes catching the audience when they're likely to listen could be worth the extra bucks - especially if it means making an impression on them and that they might keep coming back when everything gets back to normal.