It's fascinating to watch the chess game going on between CFRB and AM640. As the ex-boss of the former and the new guy in charge of the latter, it looks like Mike Bendixen is trying to equal if not outdo his former colleagues with some interesting new hires. 

I'll be watching to see what else he'll do next to counter 1010. He has a bit of an advantage, because he knows the way RB works. 

Maybe he can tell us who killed Barry and Honey Sherman. Oh wait, they don't have a clue. 

RadioActive wrote:

Or maybe he'll be able to tell a lot more now that he's no longer on the force!

I'm not commenting on whether or not the police have or have not handled the Sherman case adequately. Just that, in general, the police could very well have solid reasons to be cautious about what info they let out in the course of a complex investigation. Not to lose sight of that ....

This reminds me of my radio upbringing in Vancouver when CKNW and CJOR were bitter adversaries.
They were constantly trying to one-up each other.
If one station got a former premier or cabinet minister to be a talk show host the other had to entice another one.
If one station reported on an accident where somebody was taken to hospital the other had to do hospital checks to find out what happened to that patient first.
Actually although it got petty it made for good radio.
Hopefully Hank Idsinga will be coached to be more interesting as time goes on.
He needs to have the "cop" taken out of him and the entertainer brought out.
By the way he really turned out to be a really good cop.
After Toronto police initially bungled the Bruce MacArthur murders Hank really took over and solved the case.
As I remember he took it on as a detective constable, then an acting sergeant then an acting inspector before retiring as an inspector.

 

To be fair, that is my speculation and I can't speak for what Mr. Bendixen is really up to. It just seems to me that what I've heard is him countering his old employer in various ways - i.e. putting "Think Tank" on AM640 at 7:35 AM with no commercials and some well known names, hoping people will be interested enough to forget The Roundtable starts down the dial at 7:45. 

1010 has a cop who is a crime expert (Mark Mendelson.) Now 640 has one, who - if anything - is even more high profile. 

'RB has Chris Lewis, the former head of the RCMP. Hard to say how the Corus chorus might find one of their own, but it wouldn't surprise me if they were looking.

If my theory is true, perhaps he's hoping to best his old stomping ground not merely equal it. I will say I find myself listening to 640 a lot more than 1010 these days. That never used to be the case. So whatever he's doing, at least for me, it seems to be working.

newsguy1 wrote:

 
 
 
By the way he really turned out to be a really good cop.
After Toronto police initially bungled the Bruce MacArthur murders Hank really took over and solved the case.
As I remember he took it on as a detective constable, then an acting sergeant then an acting inspector before retiring as an inspector.

 

I agree with you newsguy1

He did a professional and meticulous job with the Bruce McArthur case

And for RA -- wasn't Chris Lewis head of the OPP?

Lewis is one guy who is NOT afraid to call a spade a spade

RadioActive wrote:

But what 640 really needs to do is not copy 'RB or match them at every turn but leap ahead of them and force Bell to play catch up. Which given how cheap Bell has been with all the cutbacks there over the years (remember what a great newsroom they once had?)  isn't something they're likely to do. 

Agreed on both points. I don't think 640 would have to work all that hard to leap ahead of 1010 (if they haven't already) but that shouldn't be how they go about it. If they put the pedal down, they'd widen the gap at a time when Bell has appeared to have thrown in the towel.

To the main topic - I'd have a beer with Idsinga any day of the week.

Didn't 640 give former Toronto Police Association president Craig Brommel a show at one point?

A great deal of crime and community safety issues occurring in Toronto and I have not heard from or seen Mr Idsinga on Corus media. I don't think this hire panned out.

67GreenRambler wrote:

A great deal of crime and community safety issues occurring in Toronto and I have not heard from or seen Mr Idsinga on Corus media. I don't think this hire panned out.

He was on for the first time in a while on Thursday afternoon, when Oakley interviewed him about about the horrific murders in Ottawa. Tellingly, he did intro him as 640's Crime Expert.