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September 12, 2022 8:55 am  #1


1010 Returns To Live Weekday Programming After 7 PM

It's been a while since there was any live programming on CFRB after 7 PM, a time usually populated with often dated rerolls of John Moore, Bill Carroll and Elias Makos best-ofs. That ends this week when, for whatever reason, Bell Media has decided to add and not subtract from its programming by including Mark Towhey in the schedule in that time slot. (It also replaces the rerun of Evan Solomon, since the show runs until 11 PM.)

Ironically, he won't actually be there for his first show (with Deb Hutton subbing,) but will officially take over on Tuesday. The last time they had anyone live there was Jamil Jivani, who is now suing Bell Media for wrongful dismissal, and Barb DiGiulio, who occupied the slot for many years before being caught up in the seemingly endless rounds of layoffs that have decimated 1010 over the past few years. MyFM owner Jon Pole was also sometimes featured during those hours. 

Towhey most recently filled in for Jerry Agar on his week off, and once had his own show on weekends. It took years, but he finally made it to a regular on weekdays! "Newstalk Tonight" begins Monday at 7 PM. How long it lasts is up to the seemingly mercurial whims of Bell Media management. 

 

September 12, 2022 9:19 am  #2


Re: 1010 Returns To Live Weekday Programming After 7 PM

It occurs to me that this is the first time in years there's been any real competition between the two talkers in town - CFRB and AM 640 - in the 7 PM timeslot. 640 has had its "On Point" show (formerly hosted by Alex Pierson) on at 7-10 PM for a while. 

But how's this for a strange irony - while 'RB is returning to live programming in that daypart, 640 has been promising to name a permanent host for their program for months. Pierson left last April. It's now September and despite promises they'd appoint a regular host, there's still no heir apparent on the horizon. So a new show has a named host and an old show doesn't. 

I was a big fan of On Point when Pierson hosted it. The fill-ins have not been very good and there's no way they can put an imprint on the slot when they're only there for a few weeks at a time.

It's time for Corus to put up or shut up by finally deciding who should be hosting the 7 PM show. Especially now that, after so many years of not really competing, CFRB looks set to try and give them a run for their money. 

     Thread Starter
 

September 12, 2022 11:10 am  #3


Re: 1010 Returns To Live Weekday Programming After 7 PM

so this runs from 7-11 pm?

 

September 12, 2022 11:37 am  #4


Re: 1010 Returns To Live Weekday Programming After 7 PM

Seems the overnight show(gram) is also gone from 1010.
Not sure if it is on elsewhere over the Bell Talk Network or has been another victim of the bean counters who now control Bell.
I was hoping they would bring back Jim Richards for the overnight show at the very minimum.
Good luck to Mark Twohey.  He did an admiral job in that time slot leading up to the Provincial election.

 

September 12, 2022 2:06 pm  #5


Re: 1010 Returns To Live Weekday Programming After 7 PM

Now if CFRB (Bell) would return to it's original "newsroom" status by hiring reporters, news readers with some authority and divorce itself from CTV News.  It's a disaster and an insult to the intelligence of the listener what Bell President and CEO Mirko Babic did to destroy the newsrooms of major market stations.  That's what happens when you are out of your element. 

 

September 12, 2022 2:31 pm  #6


Re: 1010 Returns To Live Weekday Programming After 7 PM

laffin wrote:

Now if CFRB (Bell) would return to it's original "newsroom" status by hiring reporters, news readers with some authority and divorce itself from CTV News.  It's a disaster and an insult to the intelligence of the listener what Bell President and CEO Mirko Babic did to destroy the newsrooms of major market stations.  That's what happens when you are out of your element. 

The only "news" they're interested in is how much the stock has gone up and how much BCE shareholders are making. As the recent Toronto Star article noted, what works for the telco industry is not necessarily how the broadcasting biz works. 

     Thread Starter
 

September 12, 2022 4:32 pm  #7


Re: 1010 Returns To Live Weekday Programming After 7 PM

JB866 wrote:

Seems the overnight show(gram) is also gone from 1010.
Not sure if it is on elsewhere over the Bell Talk Network or has been another victim of the bean counters who now control Bell.

Cooper has tweeted that he'll be back the night of Sunday, September 18th.

Dave Kaufman was filling in but perhaps wasn't available or they're giving him a few days off?
 

Last edited by AspectRatio (September 12, 2022 4:35 pm)

 

September 12, 2022 4:44 pm  #8


Re: 1010 Returns To Live Weekday Programming After 7 PM

Well, that's interesting. I guess they didn't want to shell out two salaries, so in with Tohwey and out with Cooper. Although the post above suggests Cooper will be back. If so, why the RIP image?

I just checked CFRB's shows page and guess what - that 7 PM reroll package has been moved to the all-night slot, with John Moore at midnight, Bill Carroll at 1 AM and Elias Makos at 2. After that it's a rerun of that day's new Mark Towhey show, which is cut down from four hours to two, leading into Moore in the Morning live at 5. (Oddly, the other iHeart stations across the country are still listing the Showgram with David Cooper as being on in that daypart - or should that be nightpart?)

Just when I thought they'd actually gone back to full live programming. Silly me. But at least the all-night time slot rerun-palooza will be heard by fewer people. Still, I hope they haven't abandoned the all-night crowd. There are more people up at those hours than you'd think. 

     Thread Starter
 

September 12, 2022 4:51 pm  #9


Re: 1010 Returns To Live Weekday Programming After 7 PM

RadioActive wrote:

Well, that's interesting. I guess they didn't want to shell out two salaries, so in with Tohwey and out with Cooper. Although the post above suggests Cooper will be back. If so, why the RIP image?

I interpreted Cooper's "RIP" as being for his own show. I now believe it was, of course, for the Queen. I found the later Tweet and linked to it (and revised my post) that he'll be back late night September 18th into September 19th.

 

September 12, 2022 8:26 pm  #10


Re: 1010 Returns To Live Weekday Programming After 7 PM

NT1010 could not have timed it better to introduce a new live show in the timeslot. They were able to carry the press conference of several police chiefs on the murder of a constable Monday night. If they'd been in reroll mode, there wouldn't have been anyone to intro it, let alone host it. 

There's far less excuse for 640, which also had a live show going. Instead of taking the breaking news presser live, they were interviewing a guest on God knows what. They missed the story and RB had it - but only because of a quirk of timing for their new live show. 

     Thread Starter
 

September 12, 2022 8:34 pm  #11


Re: 1010 Returns To Live Weekday Programming After 7 PM

AspectRatio wrote:

RadioActive wrote:

Well, that's interesting. I guess they didn't want to shell out two salaries, so in with Tohwey and out with Cooper. Although the post above suggests Cooper will be back. If so, why the RIP image?

I interpreted Cooper's "RIP" as being for his own show. I now believe it was, of course, for the Queen. I found the later Tweet and linked to it (and revised my post) that he'll be back late night September 18th into September 19th.

I'm happy to hear they haven't cancelled the show, although I rarely get to listen to it. As noted, there are a lot more people who are up overnight looking for something to listen to than you'd think, either because they're working or on their way to their job, can't sleep, up with a child or a sick family member or for any number of reasons.

I use to hear from them when I once filled in for a few weeks on the graveyard shift. The phones never stopped ringing, although that was in the pre-Internet days when most TV stations were off the air by 2 AM. There are way more options now than there were then. 

Still, it's nice not only to have live programming to listen to, but also a choice, since Corus has its own all night live show, as well.

It's been a very long time since Larry King was the only live talk show on the radio overnight.

     Thread Starter
 

September 15, 2022 9:03 pm  #12


Re: 1010 Returns To Live Weekday Programming After 7 PM

I've been listening to Towhey's show on Thursday night, now that he's finally going solo. It's been OK, but he keeps referencing how it's on 8 iHeart stations "coast to coast." That's fine, but so far, way too many segments have been Toronto-centric. 

He did one on the new police chief being named in the city and another on the planned hovercraft service between Toronto and St. Catharines. If I'm in Calgary or Montreal, why would I care about this? In fact, if I'm in Windsor, it's mostly irrelevant to me. 

He needs to take the spotlight off T.O. unless there's a breaking story, if he hopes NewsTalk Tonight gets an audience outside of the GTA. 

     Thread Starter
 

September 16, 2022 2:12 am  #13


Re: 1010 Returns To Live Weekday Programming After 7 PM

Towhey has quite a ways to go as a broadcaster. One of my biggest pet peeves is each time he joins John Moore for morning "Moore in the Morning" live segments, he's heard loudly clearing his throat (and sometimes coughing) about every 2-3 seconds while Moore is talking before throwing back to him. Does he think he's not still on air and producer is dialing him down? He doesn't have a "cough switch" or mute control handy to take care of this at his side? This has been going on for months with seemingly no awareness from his side or a "Moore in the Morning" producer that's too kind to tell him this. It doesn't inspire confidence in broadcaster acumen if every loud throat-clear or cough every few seconds is constantly going out live on-air.