(Via G&M)
One of the longest-running and most successful acts in Canadian broadcasting is looking at a curtain call.

Bob McCown, the ringmaster of the afternoon drive-time radio show Prime Time Sports since it hit Toronto’s airwaves in 1989, says he has no plans to continue with the show when his contract with Rogers Communications Inc. expires in early 2018. He will be 65 then but does not expect to retire, just turn to something different, such as the Stoney Ridge winery he bought 18 months ago, or television projects with his company, Fadoo Productions Inc.

The one constant in Prime Time’s various incarnations over the years is McCown. He’s had a remarkable run in a business known mostly for turnover, but he says it feels like a long time and “that leads me to where I am now, which is a little bit bored.”

Listeners across Canada well know the McCown persona: the cranky, sarcastic radio host now seen on television screens in headphones and sunglasses (he doesn’t like the studio lights). What they probably don’t know is that the persona is a creation – a character McCown plays for fun and profit. It has made him the highest-paid broadcaster in Canada, according to some sources, with an annual salary believed to be more than $1-million.

“He’s created this character that’s embedded in listeners’ heads,” said sometime co-host Stephen Brunt. “It’s Bob of the imagination.”

In the process, McCown has helped stoke a very real phenomenon: the exponential growth in the sports-talk radio business in Canada. When Toronto’s CJCL went all sports as The Fan 1430 in 1992, the first voice on the air was McCown’s. Over the next decade, all-sports radio stations popped up in most major Canadian cities – Toronto and Vancouver each have two. (Full disclosure: I have been on McCown’s show as both a paid guest and co-host many times over the past 15 years or so.)

These days, listeners might think their favourite curmudgeon is a little extra grumpy. Taking shots at Rogers bigwigs has been a McCown staple, but it seems to happen more frequently now as the 12-year, $5.2-billion contract Rogers signed with the NHL to be its Canadian national broadcaster has caught Prime Time in its wake.

The roster of co-hosts was shaken up, with Brunt and Damien Cox, who once alternated as co-hosts, heard less and less. Appearances on Sportsnet’s hockey broadcasts mean Cox no longer has time to be a co-host and Brunt’s television obligations mean he will only be at McCown’s side for 20 weeks this year. Also limited is Hockey Night in Canada broadcaster Elliotte Friedman, who, like Cox and Brunt, has good chemistry with McCown.

“There’s no question the hockey contract has changed things and not for the good for me,” McCown said.

Sportsnet television anchor Ken Reid has taken Cox’s place and tries to bring a hip, pop-culture sense of humour to the show. The kindest thing to say is the chemistry with McCown is still developing. However, when Brunt or old hand John Shannon or Sportsnet broadcaster Arash Madani are in the co-pilot’s seat, McCown is still at the top of his game.

Some of McCown’s colleagues also say he is not pleased with the move of The Fan’s popular afternoon duo of Tim Micallef and Sid Seixeiro to Sportsnet television. They went from a strong lead-in to McCown’s radio show to direct competition from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. on weekdays.

Management’s thinking is that Tim and Sid appeal to a younger and less sports-oriented audience, so they will boost Sportsnet’s numbers while not stealing McCown’s audience. “There’s room for both,” outgoing Rogers Media president Keith Pelley said in an e-mail message.

McCown said Rogers executives did not consult him about any of those moves. While he said he likes working with Reid and would have resisted if he did not, he also said, “I’m at the point in my life where I don’t fight any more. I spent my whole life trying to fight people who, quite frankly, don’t know much about broadcasting.”

At the same time, Pelley is one of McCown’s best friends. He left the direct McCown wrangling to Scott Moore, Rogers’s president of Sportsnet and NHL. But both men regard McCown’s kvetching as part of his schtick. McCown’s long-term success also makes the shots easier to digest.

“Part of what makes Bob so great is that he doesn’t pull any punches,” Pelley said. “He calls it as he sees it – even if it means questioning company management or the teams/players in which the company has an ownership stake.” Pelley added that Rogers will support McCown in any new venture: “I’ve got all of the time in the world for Bob. He’s a genius at his craft and has moulded the Canadian sports radio scene.”

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