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December 28, 2021 12:20 pm  #1


GNR640's Bizarre Holiday Schedule/Jamil Jivani Gone From CFRB?

I can't quite figure out what the programmers at GNR640 are thinking during this dead time between Christmas and New Year's. On Monday, it was all repeat shows, which really doesn't work that well for a talk station that's supposed to deal with current issues. 

Then, on Tuesday, they had rerolls of Greg Brady's morning show until 8 AM, when Arlene Bynon took over with a live segment. I figured with the odd start time, she's probably going to be on until at least noon. Nope. She signed off for some reason at 10 AM after just two hours on air and they went back to best-ofs, featuring usual time slot occupant Kelly Cutrara. 

Even the top-of-the-hour news is from CP and not their station newsroom. Look, I get it that this may be the week of the year with the lowest listening levels. But this on-again/off-again live programming makes no sense. I wonder how much of this stems from them not having a lot of fill-ins. Without Peter Shurman, only Bynon is left. (I've heard Yonah Budd a few times last week, but he's not really an experienced talk show host.) Perhaps they just don't have the horses to fill the barn. 

But Bynon definitely should have gone longer. 

Meanwhile, CFRB, with a better bullpen, has been muddling through with Jason Agnew in place of John Moore and CJAD's Dave Kaufman filling in the Jerry Agar slot from 9 AM-noon for the week. Mark Towhey has been doing The Rush, followed by reruns of Jamil Jivani in the less important 7 PM slot. 

While Monday and Tuesday are technically federal holidays (because Xmas and Boxing Day fell on a weekend) and radio comes under that umbrella, that's still no reason for 640 not to be live at least a good part of the day. I'm wondering why they bothered having Bynon in at all and whether any other live bodies are looming at the place any time before Jan. 1. That is a very long week to just air repeats on the radio.

 

December 28, 2021 1:57 pm  #2


Re: GNR640's Bizarre Holiday Schedule/Jamil Jivani Gone From CFRB?

Maybe it's part of the Corus mentality. I just tried to tune into Global's noon newscast. They didn't do one at all on Monday, preferring to fill half an hour with "A Conversation With The Prime Minister." I expected it would be back on Tuesday, but instead was greeted by "The Best of Global News Weekend." 

It's bad enough their radio division is airing reruns, but really, the best of news? That is definitely stretching it. 

     Thread Starter
 

December 28, 2021 4:04 pm  #3


Re: GNR640's Bizarre Holiday Schedule/Jamil Jivani Gone From CFRB?

I wouldn't want to be the manager who threw money at fill-ins and paid overtime for a week where going on autopilot gives you the exact same result (null).

Most businesses have periods where being open doesn't make sense. Many hair salons don't open Mondays, for example.

I understand there's a public service element to radio, but the options are  running a station like 640 the way they are, giving it public funding to operate in a way that would otherwise lose money (probably not much support for that one) or shutting it down. 

 

 

December 28, 2021 4:12 pm  #4


Re: GNR640's Bizarre Holiday Schedule/Jamil Jivani Gone From CFRB?

I fully understand that and it makes perfect sense. Yet the format almost demands that the programming - about current events - be current. It's a lot easier to get away with this on a music station.

It is very off-putting to hear hosts hope their guests will have a good Christmas 'next week.' At the very least, call it the "Best Of [Insert Host Name here] to at least explain it to listeners.  

On the other hand, it could be argued that people who normally work during these hours never get to hear the morning and mid-afternoon talent, so this could be their introduction to them.

I'm guessing this is their plan for the entire week, which is a long time to go with almost no original shows. Even Roy Green on the weekend is in repeats. But you have to admit on the TV side, "best of the news" is taking the idea a little too far. 

     Thread Starter
 

December 28, 2021 9:14 pm  #5


Re: GNR640's Bizarre Holiday Schedule/Jamil Jivani Gone From CFRB?

I listen to  a lot of UK radio and it is amazing how they stay on 24/7/365 right through Christmas with all live programs. This notion of taking a week off must seem ridiculous to them. Toronto is so small time when compared to other cites. 

 

December 29, 2021 12:43 am  #6


Re: GNR640's Bizarre Holiday Schedule/Jamil Jivani Gone From CFRB?

Speaking of rerolls why does this conversation get repeated every year?

Talk radio is expensive particularly when people are earning time and a half to entertain almost nobody.

The answer will be the same next year.

 

December 29, 2021 8:51 am  #7


Re: GNR640's Bizarre Holiday Schedule/Jamil Jivani Gone From CFRB?

I guess it’s a lot like the “they just started playing Christmas music way too early” thread that happens every December - or God help us - in November or even October. Like the holidays, it comes up every year.
 
But in this case, there’s a small difference. After the bloodbath at Bell last February that decimated NT1010’s newsroom, I felt 640 really upped its game. They leveraged the resources of Global and beefed up their newsroom and it was a huge improvement. So I guess I just expected more this time.
 
I get them taking Christmas and Boxing Day off, and I expect nothing on New Year’s Day. But having Arlene Bynon on for three hours as the only live content for an entire week(!) is ridiculous. If you’re going to do the format properly, you can’t take seven days off, especially during a rapidly spreading chapter three (or is to four?) of the pandemic. Normally, this is the dullest time of the year. But 2021 is filled with headlines and this time, that includes the holiday season. (Yesterday's change to long term care rules is just one example.)
 
Not only that, but if you are going to air rerolls, at least try to keep them generic or undated. I heard an Alex Pierson show on Tuesday that previewed “tomorrow’s federal economic statement.” That happened on Dec. 14! Meanwhile, over on CFRB, a Jami Javani replay was making references to the upcoming federal election. That took place on Sept. 20th! What a disservice to listeners, however few there may be.
 
I’ll give credit to 1010 for staffing most of the dayparts with live substitutes. But my position is if you’re going to adopt this format, you have to service it. And that includes not abandoning it for seven or more very long days. Corus has a ton of stations across the country and could have mitigated costs by doing national shows from Edmonton, Calgary, Hamilton, Winnipeg, Toronto or Vancouver across their network. One crew feeds six stations, and it's all live. That wouldn't cost that much and they would have had live shows for those that cared. 

Do it right or don’t do it at all.
 
This year, I maintain 640 didn’t do it at all. 

     Thread Starter
 

December 29, 2021 10:51 am  #8


Re: GNR640's Bizarre Holiday Schedule/Jamil Jivani Gone From CFRB?

Charlie wrote:

The guy in for Agar is bland, but an improvement on the usual bombast ..

Yep, the guy this week [think it's Dave Kaufman] & Leslie Roberts last week are both such a welcome change from the regular Agar condescending bombast show.

I just can't/won't listen to Agar's show & begrudgingly tolerate him when he sullies a John Moore round table.  I don't get why "rude/insult radio" is a thing .. 

 

December 29, 2021 6:26 pm  #9


Re: GNR640's Bizarre Holiday Schedule/Jamil Jivani Gone From CFRB?

Worth noting that GNR640's reroll schedule led them to miss two huge breaking stories on Wednesday - the cancellation of the World Juniors due to COVID and the conviction of Jeffrey Epstein cohort Ghislaine Maxwell. She essentially faces the rest of her life in prison. 

Alex Pierson particularly had been following this sordid story for weeks on her show. Now she's not there when it counts and the case ends. By the time she returns, it will be more than yesterday's news. 

They can't report them if there's no live host or news person on duty. Another casualty of keeping the station in stasis over the holidays.  

     Thread Starter
 

December 29, 2021 8:13 pm  #10


Re: GNR640's Bizarre Holiday Schedule/Jamil Jivani Gone From CFRB?

Nice to hear RB and its iHeart Radio Network go live on the Jamil Jivani Show for the rest of the week, with Matt Cauz taking his place. It's also serendipitous, since the World Juniors cancellation is the lead story and Cauz is normally a sportscaster.

     Thread Starter
 

December 29, 2021 9:32 pm  #11


Re: GNR640's Bizarre Holiday Schedule/Jamil Jivani Gone From CFRB?

Today, (Wednesday) marks 3 full weeks absence of Mr Jivani from his show which made its debut 10 months ago.

 

December 29, 2021 11:26 pm  #12


Re: GNR640's Bizarre Holiday Schedule/Jamil Jivani Gone From CFRB?

RadioActive wrote:

But my position is if you’re going to adopt this format, you have to service it.

Why?

Do it right or don’t do it at all.

So would we be better off if 640 shut down? Because those are the options.

Last edited by RadioAaron (December 29, 2021 11:27 pm)

 

December 30, 2021 10:06 am  #13


Re: GNR640's Bizarre Holiday Schedule/Jamil Jivani Gone From CFRB?

RadioAaron wrote:

RadioActive wrote:

But my position is if you’re going to adopt this format, you have to service it.

Why?

Do it right or don’t do it at all.

So would we be better off if 640 shut down? Because those are the options.

My position on this is, admittedly, because I'm so annoyed with Corus for essentially shutting the place down - and not just for a couple of days. I fully expected them to air nothing but filler during Christmas, Boxing Day and New Year's Day. But I've never heard of a station so completely abandoning their audience for such a long time. 

Consider: outside of a three-hour window from 7 AM -10 AM, they have not had a single live show on the station for more than a week. They started their Xmas radio shows at 6:30 PM on Dec. 24th. By the time regular programming returns (assuming it will) on Monday Jan. 3rd, they will not have had more than a few minutes of a live host for well over a week. I have never heard of any station, especially in a market like Toronto, doing that. 

And it's not like any ordinary Christmas holiday, which is usually devoid of breaking news that might be important to listeners. We're in the middle of what the experts are calling the worst part of the pandemic (as if the stuff before wasn't bad enough) with people looking for boosters, tests and getting together for celebrations they probably shouldn't hold. The virus has cancelled the World Juniors. Official New Year's Eve celebrations are altering by the hour. The Ghislaine Maxwell trial is over. None of which you would have heard much about on 640, since except for a three hour window in the morning, they're not even staffing their newsroom for local stories.

(Ironically, I heard Arlene Bynon and lone newsman Dave Bradley talking about how strange the news flow has been this December and how much of it there's been. Too bad there's no one in their station to cover it.)

But perhaps worst of all, the urgent decision on whether kids are going back to school is being made Thursday afternoon, and while Bynon in her little mini-morning show keeps referencing how important this decision is for parents across the city, and reminds us the province's chief doctor will be revealing what happens at 3PM, you won't hear about it on GNR640 because there won't be anyone live to tell you what he said. That's just wrong.  

Yes, radio is a business and clearly Corus a) doesn't want to pay anyone to be there, b) has too few replacements to fill-in and c) thinks any audience that exists will be satisfied to hear talk about a three-week old "economic statement" preview or last September's "coming federal election" (to be fair, that was RB's issue, but you get the idea) and not care that it's totally dated. 

And contrary to popular opinion, there are people working this week, there are people out there shopping or visiting or waiting in line for a booster, and there are people travelling in their cars, all potential audience members for a talk station. This week, that station won't be 640. 

And yes, my response is way over the top. But it really bugs me when I see a company completely disregard its audience so egregiously. 

A licence carries a responsibility with it to serve the public. The evidence is clear that 640 has definitely not been doing that for over a week. Consistency is the #1 rule of any format - give the audience what it's expecting whenever they happen to tune in. That's why I say if they're not willing to live up to that public good, they should go back to being CHOG and just playing music. Then no one will notice - or be listening. 

     Thread Starter
 

December 30, 2021 10:46 am  #14


Re: GNR640's Bizarre Holiday Schedule/Jamil Jivani Gone From CFRB?

Charlie wrote:

Didn't 640 recently hire a new Program Director?  Maybe the station took advantage of the holidays to more or less shut down for a couple of weeks while she makes some big changes.  It might be interesting to see what they look like in the new year.

That's certainly a possibility. But my argument is that in a market like Toronto, essentially shutting down your entire station for over a week is irresponsible to your loyal listeners - of whom, I tend to be one. We'll see what January brings. Certainly, their ongoing ratings (rarely above a 2) show there's room for improvement. At the very least, beef up their fill-in roster. If Arlene Bynon ever gets sick when someone else is away or also ill, they're off the air. Wonder where Phil In is these days?

[Update: Judging from her sign-off on Thursday, it sounds like Bynon is done in the morning run. Which means Friday could well be all rerun all day.]

Last edited by RadioActive (December 30, 2021 11:06 am)

     Thread Starter
 

December 30, 2021 11:08 am  #15


Re: GNR640's Bizarre Holiday Schedule/Jamil Jivani Gone From CFRB?

Charlie wrote:

Didn't 640 recently hire a new Program Director?  Maybe the station took advantage of the holidays to more or less shut down for a couple of weeks while she makes some big changes.  It might be interesting to see what they look like in the new year.

That's a very good point.  Any change of format or programming usually happens around Labour Day or the New Year.
                                                                                                                                                                   
 Everything that RA is saying is true, except we have the various news channels, news websites, social media for any late breaking news.  The new variant of COVID is being covered to death by the news networks, websites and newspapers.  As long as I can still hear the news or weather in the car over Christmas would be all I would care about. Over this time of year the CP newscasts are fine as far as I am concerned.  Regular talk programming, opinion pieces or regular features wouldn't be heard by people anyway since they are not listening in the first place.

This is nothing new by the way.  In 1976 when I was working as an operator at CHYM AM in Kitchener, we were all Christmas specials, and  recorded programming from all of our on air staff,  This programming was repeated at various times from Christmas Eve until the New Year.  Like 640 we had next to no live programming for days.  And this was in an era when AM radio still had the big ratings and with far fewer radio stations available.  


 

 

December 30, 2021 1:00 pm  #16


Re: GNR640's Bizarre Holiday Schedule/Jamil Jivani Gone From CFRB?

paterson1 wrote:

Charlie wrote:

Didn't 640 recently hire a new Program Director?  Maybe the station took advantage of the holidays to more or less shut down for a couple of weeks while she makes some big changes.  It might be interesting to see what they look like in the new year.

That's a very good point.  Any change of format or programming usually happens around Labour Day or the New Year.
                                                                                                                                                                   
Everything that RA is saying is true, except we have the various news channels, news websites, social media for any late breaking news.  The new variant of COVID is being covered to death by the news networks, websites and newspapers.  As long as I can still hear the news or weather in the car over Christmas would be all I would care about. Over this time of year the CP newscasts are fine as far as I am concerned.  Regular talk programming, opinion pieces or regular features wouldn't be heard by people anyway since they are not listening in the first place.

This is nothing new by the way.  In 1976 when I was working as an operator at CHYM AM in Kitchener, we were all Christmas specials, and  recorded programming from all of our on air staff,  This programming was repeated at various times from Christmas Eve until the New Year.  Like 640 we had next to no live programming for days.  And this was in an era when AM radio still had the big ratings and with far fewer radio stations available.

I don't take issue with a lot of what you have to say, although I discovered a long time ago that when you say nobody's listening, you might be surprised. I once got stuck on an overnight shift fill-in for a few weeks on a station that did not have very high ratings even during the day. Despite being on near auto-pilot overnight, with an occasional interruption from me, we got a ton of phone calls from listeners I had no idea were tuned in. Hardly a scientific survey, I'll admit, but I remember being surprised by the number of them. 

Yes, there are other places to hear the news and there always were. But as a place that boasts in its promos that "you don't need to tune in five or six times a day to hear the news, because we'll keep you hooked all day long," (an obvious reference to CFTR), they're not living up to that promise to listeners.

As for CP, it's a great service. But it's never going to tell me about the fire that killed someone in the downtown core, the missing senior in Etobicoke who's not dressed for the winter, the accident at Yonge and Finch that's tying up traffic and sent three people to hospital, or the latest pop-up booster shot clinic that just opened around the corner. Or more importantly, the latest government edict about COVID that affects my plans that night. That's a service only a local newscast can provide. If I happen to be listening to 640 at the time, I'm not hearing it. And if I don't know it's happening, I won't know to tune the dial to hear more about it. 

And while I respect the great radio made in Kitchener, it's not quite comparable to Toronto, the major market in all of Canada. There is simply no reason for a station to spend an entire week in reruns, especially given their resources at other outlets across the country. CFRB, as an example, is levering CJAD's Dave Kaufman for a show that runs across Canada. One crew for a huge number of stations - that's a bargain in my mind, and still provides original programming. CHQR, CHED, CKNW, CJOB, even CHML all have talented hosts who could do something new nationwide if only Corus wanted to. 

As for the format change possibility, I guess we'll see (hear?) But I'm pretty sure they're still going to be all talk in the coming weeks and months. So don't chase away that audience in the meantime by providing months-old shows that are no longer relevant.  

     Thread Starter
 

December 30, 2021 1:10 pm  #17


Re: GNR640's Bizarre Holiday Schedule/Jamil Jivani Gone From CFRB?

And by the way, it's not just radio where Corus is cheaping out. They have not aired a single noon newscast on Global Toronto all week. 

     Thread Starter
 

December 30, 2021 1:31 pm  #18


Re: GNR640's Bizarre Holiday Schedule/Jamil Jivani Gone From CFRB?

Pretty sure the businesses that bought airtime won't be happy with this slipshod programming, paying good money in the middle of a pandemic and this is what is surrounding their spots?

Major local advertiser: Hello 640? Make-up spots when the regular hosts return or I won't be buying again.

 

December 30, 2021 5:45 pm  #19


Re: GNR640's Bizarre Holiday Schedule/Jamil Jivani Gone From CFRB?

I will give 640 some small credit for actually taking Dr. Kieran Moore's presser live on Thursday, although it was a delayed feed and came pretty much out of nowhere. They had a 1-minute summation at the end, featuring a voice I didn't recognize. 

They then cut it off in mid-question, went to the 4 PM CP news, played the wrong cast (the shorter update version, that's supposed to run at the half hour) and then went straight back to interviews from two or three months ago featuring John Oakley, with, of course, not a single word about what they just featured for half an hour or what it means. 

CFRB, meanwhile, was taking live calls from employees and parents about what the new school start date will mean to their families and breaking down the presser, which featured a ton of new and important info. Again, 1010 was the winner by a clear margin and again, this was not a good day to be host-less on a talk radio station. 

     Thread Starter
 

December 30, 2021 10:19 pm  #20


Re: GNR640's Bizarre Holiday Schedule/Jamil Jivani Gone From CFRB?

I've noticed in the past few months, he's been doing more segments about generic historic incidents, like Al Capone, Billy The Kid, a light bulb that's been burning since the 1900s, etc. They tend to run those on the weekend best-ofs as undated material, which air on Sunday. So I'm guessing that's where they were culled from. 

But you're right, they're not all that worthwhile the first time. The second go-around is almost unlistenable. 

     Thread Starter
 

December 31, 2021 8:16 pm  #21


Re: GNR640's Bizarre Holiday Schedule/Jamil Jivani Gone From CFRB?

What's your solution? Why should Corus throw money at things that have no effect on ratings or billing? I don't think, with your conservative lean, you'd be in favour of the government telling them to?

 

January 1, 2022 9:48 pm  #22


Re: GNR640's Bizarre Holiday Schedule/Jamil Jivani Gone From CFRB?

I'm not sure why you think I have a "conservative" lean. I listen to all points of view from John Moore, who almost certainly leans left, to Marc Patrone, who still thinks the U.S. election was stolen. Doesn't mean I agree with them, but I like to hear differing sides, no matter how out there they may be. 

With that out of the way, my final point on this remains what it has been all along. There is simply no excuse for a radio station in the major market in Canada to go into a nine day (!) rerun cycle, regardless of listenership size. If that's the only criteria, then it could be reasonably argued they should just sign off at midnight, because the audience is so small. But of course, that would be unthinkable. 

So what could they do that wouldn't cost them very much? I'll go back to my original suggestion of leveraging one crew at one of their stations for a nationwide (well, as nationwide as Corus gets) broadcast, which is essentially what Bell did with Dave Kaufman's show out of CJAD. One host, one screener/producer (it's possible to just have one person do both - I know, I've done it) over every one of Corus' talk stations. The result - new content on all stations for one small paycheck or two. That's a win/win in my book. 

Or how about what they've been doing this weekend? They've been programming a series of podcasts that don't normally hit air. One was about the first year of The Simpsons and I found it especially appealing. It cost them nothing and had the added bonus of promoting their podcast titles and other shows they do online. It could have easily been done, especially in the days after Christmas. And that would have meant no dated references to an economic statement preview that was delivered weeks ago.

CFRB also packaged some of its generic interviews in a collection and presented a few new ones with it. That worked better, too, than what 640 did. 

There is simply no reason for Corus to go on autopilot for over a week. There may not be a huge audience during the holidays, but those who do listen deserve to have something undated or different to hear. It's about fulfilling the audience's expectations. Something they clearly did not do these past 7 days-plus.

     Thread Starter
 

January 1, 2022 9:56 pm  #23


Re: GNR640's Bizarre Holiday Schedule/Jamil Jivani Gone From CFRB?

Speaking of 640's performance during this fallow period, it might have been perfectly summed up best by what happened on New Year's Eve. I turned the station on at around 10:15 PM Friday night, and they were running The Year In Sports hour-long review with Greg Brady for about the 5th or 6th time. But this airing was unlike any I'd heard before. 

The show was playing in the background, while an endless series of spots played directly over top of it. You could barely hear the show, as the commercials went on and on and on - at least seven minutes, and that's only the total I noticed from the time I tuned in. It's possible it could have been going on longer than that. 

Eventually, the automation seemed to fix the glitch and the commercials stopped, leaving the show in progress. But as fate would have it, they came back to Brady, who promptly threw to a break, and yep, another four minutes of spots began. But even that didn't go smoothly. In the middle of a Pizzaville commercial, the last ten seconds or so were cut off, and then that went into a Global newscast on the half hour, which originated in B.C. After that it was back to the sports recap, which - when I finally turned it off - was running smoothly. 

That, to me, encapsulates everything Corus did this past seven days plus to scare away what few listeners might have been tuning in.

     Thread Starter
 

January 2, 2022 8:43 pm  #24


Re: GNR640's Bizarre Holiday Schedule/Jamil Jivani Gone From CFRB?

It's interesting to me to see how the holiday coverage situation seems to differ on opposite sides of the border. 

Here in Rochester, up until this year, it was unimaginable that the local daily newspaper wouldn't publish every single day. There's a lot of local disappointment that the Democrat and Chronicle here decided (as part of a national mandate from its owner, Gannett) not to publish on the 24th/25th and again on the 31st/1st. It's seen as one part of a larger decline in that paper's reputation here. It's still unusual in a larger US city for the newspaper to take a holiday off, the way the Toronto papers all did on Christmas (and did they do it again this weekend for New Year's?) The Buffalo News still publishes every single day, and I've taken to reading it on the days we don't have a local paper here anymore. 

As for radio and TV, the general expectation on this side is still that most of the local TV newscasts keep going right through the holidays, even if it's usually with a lot of second-stringers and an overall reduced staff. 

I can testify that on radio, we didn't miss a single newscast at WXXI all the way through the holidays - and 
I know that for sure because I was the one filling in for most of them, including on Christmas morning. (It's fine, really... for 30 years now I've happily been the "newsroom Jew" working that day so my colleagues can have it off!)

Our local talk show on WXXI scaled back for the holidays - we had a couple of days when we ran holiday specials for those two hours, and we did some "best ofs," but mixed in some fresh shows as well. 

The theory here, I think, is that even if there's an expense involved in staffing those days that doesn't immediately return to the bottom line, there's a longer-term value to making sure our listeners know that they can depend on us all the time - and that keeps them engaged with us and listening and donating into the new year when we get back to a regular schedule. 

So, yes, it's a little surprising from where I sit down here to see how completely things shut down up there. Especially because you never know when important news will happen. One of our biggest local news stories of the last decade happened on Christmas Eve morning in 2012, when a hostage situation in a suburb ended with the guy killing two firefighters who responded after he set his family home on fire. It was an exhausting day and we covered it all relatively short-staffed, but we were there for our listeners every step of the way. 
 

 

January 2, 2022 9:15 pm  #25


Re: GNR640's Bizarre Holiday Schedule/Jamil Jivani Gone From CFRB?

Thanks for the Bongino update. Not sure I was aware it happened quite that way. 

As noted, I also have trouble with stations abandoning their audience over Christmas and New Year's. I fully understand why they might take Dec. 25th and Jan. 1st off, but GNR640 has been essentially in reruns for nine days straight. (If they try it Monday, that would make it an even 10.) No matter the expense, that's just too long and a disservice to whatever audience they have - some of whom may eventually look elsewhere. 

I was always taught since I was a radio rookie that when the listener turns on your station, what they expect better be there. So CFTR should be doing news and not playing country music, and JazzFM should be pumping out that genre to its audience, as opposed to say, AC/DC. Similarly, a current affairs-oriented talk station should not be airing a lookahead for a federal election that took place three months ago. 

As for your other query, the Toronto Star published on New Year's Day. I think it's only on Christmas (and maybe Good Friday?) when they don't put out an actual paper. The website stays up to date, albeit with a skeleton staff. Subscribers get their Saturday edition as part of Friday's paper, with many of the weekend features added for that one day. 

I can't say what the three other main papers do, but I'm guessing Xmas is a no-go for most of them. 

Not sure if you knew, but most of the so-called Sunday features you're used to in American papers generally appear in the Saturday ones up here. The colour comics, for example, have long been a staple of the Saturday paper in Canada. That's primarily because for many years, there were no Sunday papers in Canada, until the Toronto Sun broke the taboo a few decades ago. (There was a time no stores were allowed to open on "The Lord's Day" and it was a pretty dull place until politicians bowed to demand and finally "tested" Sunday shopping here. The crowds were so big during the early outings that it pretty much settled the question once and for all.)

     Thread Starter
 

January 2, 2022 9:32 pm  #26


Re: GNR640's Bizarre Holiday Schedule/Jamil Jivani Gone From CFRB?

The Sun introduced their Sunday edition in Sept 1973. The Star followed suit in Oct 1977. However, the Telegram experimented with a Sunday paper in March 1957. The Attorney General threatened to lay charges for violating the provincial Lord's Day Act. The Sunday Telegram ceased publication after four months.

 

January 2, 2022 11:26 pm  #27


Re: GNR640's Bizarre Holiday Schedule/Jamil Jivani Gone From CFRB?

I am indeed well aware of the Saturday paper being the main weekend edition in Canada. I remember visiting Ottawa in the 1980s when the Citizen published Mon-Sat and there was a Sunday-only paper, the Sunday Herald. (I believe it eventually became the 7-day Ottawa Sun.) I recall the Citizen and the Montreal Gazette experimenting with Sunday editions later on that didn't succeed, too. 

(I note also that the Buffalo News never had a Sunday paper for most of the time it competed with the morning Courier-Express. It was only with the demise of the C-E that the News shifted completely to 7-day morning publication, and even at that it continued to put out an afternoon edition for home delivery well into the 1980s.) 

Interestingly, with the start of the pandemic, some of the smaller dailies down here that had added Sunday papers in the 1980s or 1990s pulled back - the papers in Niagara Falls NY, Geneva, Jamestown and Dunkirk went to a "weekend" edition that's published on Saturday. The more things change... 

 

 

January 3, 2022 5:52 am  #28


Re: GNR640's Bizarre Holiday Schedule/Jamil Jivani Gone From CFRB?

mace wrote:

The Sun introduced their Sunday edition in Sept 1973. The Star followed suit in Oct 1977. However, the Telegram experimented with a Sunday paper in March 1957. The Attorney General threatened to lay charges for violating the provincial Lord's Day Act. The Sunday Telegram ceased publication after four months.

There was also a short-lived Toronto paper called the Sunday Sun in 1969 (no relation to today's Toronto Sun).It had a good look, but didn't last.
 


"Life without echo is really no life at all." - Dan Ingram
 

January 3, 2022 9:38 am  #29


Re: GNR640's Bizarre Holiday Schedule/Jamil Jivani Gone From CFRB?

I couldn't believe my ears when I turned on GNR640 Monday morning. Yep, incredibly, another reroll of a very dated morning show! That's 10 days in a row with almost no new programming. Even Arlene Bynon didn't show up this time.

You can claim - as some here have - that it's not worth it financially to bring replacements in on the holidays. Fair enough. But it's now January 3rd! People are going back to work, we're officially out of the Xmas season and if it weren't for COVID, kids would be going back to class. But you wouldn't know that on Corus Toronto's main AM "information" station. 

Worse yet, there was no local news, only the Canadian Press national report. And I didn't even hear any weather, despite this being the first real deep freeze of the winter. (I actually heard an interview when the guest asked how cold Canada was - and Brady told her it was 15C or about 58F. That will come as a surprise to anyone who's been out this morning. In another replay in the 7 AM hour, Brady promoted a segment coming up "once we reach 7 o'clock." They didn't even try to hide what they were doing.) 

But perhaps most inexcusable, it now appears as of this posting schools might turn to virtual learning again, affecting hundreds of thousands of parents. Not a word about a coming press conference to confirm it on 640 or that it's even happening at all. 

And yes, technically, the New Year's Day stat was on a Saturday, meaning federal employees are off Monday. But for most people, regular life is back. Radio should be, too. 

What an embarrassment.

     Thread Starter
 

January 3, 2022 10:16 am  #30


Re: GNR640's Bizarre Holiday Schedule/Jamil Jivani Gone From CFRB?

The ads are old and expired. There's even an ad announcing a text number to donate to the toy drive... they did not sell time for this encore presentation programming???


RadioWiz & RadioQuiz are NOT the same person. 
RadioWiz & THE Wiz are NOT the same person.