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Bell Does St. Catharines Listeners A Disservice On Weekend Mornings
Not sure if this is a new thing or not, but on Saturday morning, I was tuning around trying to find something worth listening to (always a big challenge on the weekends) when I landed on CKTB in St. Catharines.
What were they airing from 6-9 AM on Saturday (and again on Sunday)? The three hours of audio from CP24, the same one that runs on sister station CFRB. I'm not crazy about the TV-audio-on-the-radio as essentially a filler, so Bell doesn't have to hire anyone to, God forbid, actually produce a radio show in the #1 market in Canada. But at least, it IS for a Toronto audience.
I can only imagine what someone turning on 610 on the weekends thinks when they hear about that big fire at Queen & Bay, the accident on the Lakeshore or one of Mayor Tory's frequent appearances. Nothing could be less relevant to a Niagara-area audience than three straight hours of news from Toronto, yet that's what they serve up to their listeners.
If, that is, they still have any.
I hate rerolls, but I'm pretty sure reruns would be better than an out of market extremely local newscast airing for 6 hours on the weekends. I just hope they don't do this in other markets, as well.
- Dale Patterson
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Re: Bell Does St. Catharines Listeners A Disservice On Weekend Mornings
It's all about money of course, and how to do things as cheaply and with as little effort as humanly possible. Radio has become - as former FCC Chairman Newton Minow once said about television - a "vast wasteland."
Last edited by Dale Patterson (February 4, 2023 10:06 pm)
"Life without echo is really no life at all." - Dan Ingram
- RadioAaron
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Re: Bell Does St. Catharines Listeners A Disservice On Weekend Mornings
It's actually quite surprising that this station is still on the air at all. The economics barely support it. Any money spent outside of weekday drives would be a loss, and the drives will be within a year or two, too.
- RadioActive
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Re: Bell Does St. Catharines Listeners A Disservice On Weekend Mornings
Hmmm. On Saturday, CP24 was not only being broadcast over CKTB, it was listed on their website. It was also noted as scheduled for Sunday from 6-9 AM.
But instead, they actually appeared to have live and local programming on the final day of the weekend instead, and the rundown had been updated online. Could the 24 simulcast have been an emergency replacement for a host who couldn't show up for some reason?
Hard to say, but whatever the reason, happy to see they've actually gone back to actual live programming, instead of a Toronto newscast that was largely irrelevant to the market. Now if only their Toronto counterpart would follow suit!
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Thread Starter- Johnny B
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Re: Bell Does St. Catharines Listeners A Disservice On Weekend Mornings
what's sad is that besides a few folks on this board and some diehard geriatrics that listen to CKTB cause they don't know how to change their radio settings...no one gives a crap about their weekend programming anymore...