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February 10, 2024 9:33 pm  #151


Re: Bell Media Cuts 4,800 Jobs, Selling 45 Stations

paterson1 wrote:

 I was surprised you didn't chime in with some questions Aaron. 
 

I don't have any. I know what's coming.

That's the neat thing about radio; an owner's approach is right out in the open for anyone to hear.

Last edited by RadioAaron (February 10, 2024 9:35 pm)

 

February 10, 2024 9:49 pm  #152


Re: Bell Media Cuts 4,800 Jobs, Selling 45 Stations

RadioAaron wrote:

paterson1 wrote:

 I was surprised you didn't chime in with some questions Aaron. 
 

I don't have any. I know what's coming.

That's the neat thing about radio; an owner's approach is right out in the open for anyone to hear.

Nice that you you know more about Jon's business than he does.  And thanks for telling me what else I disagreed with.  

 

February 10, 2024 9:52 pm  #153


Re: Bell Media Cuts 4,800 Jobs, Selling 45 Stations

paterson1 wrote:

RadioAaron wrote:

paterson1 wrote:

 I was surprised you didn't chime in with some questions Aaron. 
 

I don't have any. I know what's coming.

That's the neat thing about radio; an owner's approach is right out in the open for anyone to hear.

Nice that you you know more about Jon's business than he does.  And thanks for telling me what else I disagreed with.  

I don't know more about his business than he does, obviously. But from a product point of view, none of it's exactly a mystery to anyone who spends any amount of time with it.

CFLY reverts to FLY-FM branding, but otherwise stays the same
CKLC reverts to some form of alt-rock, branded as either DRIVE or FREQ
CJPT becomes Oldies 103.7 with the same sound as the rest of them
CFJR becomes LAKE-FM

 

Last edited by RadioAaron (February 10, 2024 9:56 pm)

 

February 11, 2024 10:50 am  #154


Re: Bell Media Cuts 4,800 Jobs, Selling 45 Stations

This morning I tuned into the trivia show on Montreal's CJAD with my old pal Ken Connors and he paid tribute to his regular co-host Dan Laxer, who was one of the victims of this week's Bell purge. Apparently Laxer had been doing the show for 25 years. Ken is scheduled to retire next month. I expect he's pretty happy to get out.

 

February 11, 2024 11:23 am  #155


Re: Bell Media Cuts 4,800 Jobs, Selling 45 Stations

I heard Jim Richards pay tribute to Laxer on his Friday NewsTalk Tonight show. Laxer was a frequent guest panelist and had been on every week for well over a year. He didn't actually reveal why he was saluting him, but it was pretty obvious if you put two and two together. 

 

February 11, 2024 11:30 am  #156


Re: Bell Media Cuts 4,800 Jobs, Selling 45 Stations

Toronto Mike is reporting that Richie Favalaro is one of the victims of the Bell cuts. He had been doing weekday mid-mornings. He also notes morning show producer and on-air contributor Caitlin Green is gone as well. 

 

 

February 11, 2024 1:33 pm  #157


Re: Bell Media Cuts 4,800 Jobs, Selling 45 Stations

SARCASM ALERT
I've been picking up dribs and drabs about some of my former co-workers who have been sh*t-canned, much as I was 15 years ago next month.  One glaring omission is who from the executive suite -- you know, the six- and seven-figure salary earners -- has been shown the back door. 
 

 

February 11, 2024 6:37 pm  #158


Re: Bell Media Cuts 4,800 Jobs, Selling 45 Stations

This is all related to what happened at Bell this week. And they're not going to quit until they get what they want, as they too often do. 

Telecom companies push back on CRTC moves to open access to networks

 

February 11, 2024 7:00 pm  #159


Re: Bell Media Cuts 4,800 Jobs, Selling 45 Stations

Broadcast Dialogue has a list of more names that have walked the plank at Bell stations. And it appears the TV Division got hit as hard as the radio section. 

Gone are anchors Lois Lee and Angie Seth.

Long time Parliament Hill reporter Kevin Gallagher is out. 

And Ramneek Gill, who was the GM at both CTV News and CP24 is also on the street. For many years, she was a producer at City TV's CityNews.

There are a plethora of other less-well-known behind the scenes people on that list, but all are being released into a world where there are fewer broadcasting jobs than ever. I wish them all luck. I suspect they're going to need it. 

Bell Media layoffs hit television hardest thus far
 

 

February 12, 2024 10:06 am  #160


Re: Bell Media Cuts 4,800 Jobs, Selling 45 Stations

Most of the time, when there's a big layoff at a media company, the powers-that-be make it known that they'd generally prefer it be given as little attention as possible on air. 

So it was quite remarkable when, at around 8:38 AM Monday morning, John Moore did a three minute editorial on the Bell bloodbath (my words, not his) of last week. He noted a lot of remarkably talented people, many whose names you've never heard of, were caught in this unemployment tsunami and that most have kids, mortgages and the same expenses as everyone else. 

And he attacked the "mainstream media" decriers, asking 'would you prefer to get your story about what's happening at Queen's Park from @john286 on Reddit or Robert Benzie from the Toronto Star?'

While never condemning his bosses, he concluded by noting that yes, radio is in a big time of change, but he believes it's a time of transformation not destruction, and it will bounce back stronger than ever, perhaps in a new form, in the future. 

You don't often hear him go on about a topic for quite so long, but it was a well written editorial and I hope they'll put it up on the website so you can hear it if you missed it. 

 

February 12, 2024 10:11 pm  #161


Re: Bell Media Cuts 4,800 Jobs, Selling 45 Stations

Well, it looks like at least one employee benefitted from all the moves at Bell. The anchor of the chain's Vancouver newscast is joining the CTV National News team, to provide reports from the west coast. It comes after one of their long time western stalwarts, Bill Fortier, was let go in the massive firings last week. 

Andrew Johnson won't need to go far to start his new job - he remains in the same news facility but will just be covering different stories and filing them to a different source. 

Vancouver was one of the many markets that lost their noon and weekend casts in the cost cutting. 

"It’s hard to move on": CTV Vancouver anchor leaving local newscast for national airwaves

As for Fortier, the new dad says he's still pondering what to do next. 

 

February 12, 2024 10:45 pm  #162


Re: Bell Media Cuts 4,800 Jobs, Selling 45 Stations

RadioActive wrote:

Toronto Mike is reporting that Richie Favalaro is one of the victims of the Bell cuts. He had been doing weekday mid-mornings. He also notes morning show producer and on-air contributor Caitlin Green is gone as well. 

 

Richie Favalaro had been a great utility player.  He did a good job everywhere they put him over the last decade or so.  My wife liked Caitlin Green on the morning show.

Last edited by Tomas Barlow (February 12, 2024 10:46 pm)

 

February 12, 2024 11:56 pm  #163


Re: Bell Media Cuts 4,800 Jobs, Selling 45 Stations

Centerline wrote:

CTV Kitchener noon news replaced by a game show, kind of ironic.

Yeah. It is kind of ironic. Did they let go of Daryl Morris who was the news at noon anchor? From what I can tell a few people at CTV London were let go according to what Carlye Fieset mentioned on the night the newscast aired about the cuts. They moved Amandalina Letterio to the 11PM anchor. At CTV Windsor Stefanie Masotti is just the sole anchor on the 6PM news and Ricardo Venenza does the 11PM news. Bell should have NOT bought these TV stations in Southwestern Ontario. Now the only weekend news on TV i will have to watch is CHCH which has an excellent newscast and it is not owned by a big greedy telecom company.

 

February 13, 2024 3:13 am  #164


Re: Bell Media Cuts 4,800 Jobs, Selling 45 Stations

haydenmatthews14 wrote:

Centerline wrote:

CTV Kitchener noon news replaced by a game show, kind of ironic.

Yeah. It is kind of ironic. Did they let go of Daryl Morris who was the news at noon anchor? From what I can tell a few people at CTV London were let go according to what Carlye Fieset mentioned on the night the newscast aired about the cuts. They moved Amandalina Letterio to the 11PM anchor. At CTV Windsor Stefanie Masotti is just the sole anchor on the 6PM news and Ricardo Venenza does the 11PM news. Bell should have NOT bought these TV stations in Southwestern Ontario. Now the only weekend news on TV i will have to watch is CHCH which has an excellent newscast and it is not owned by a big greedy telecom company.

For what's left of news, sports should be coming from a TSN Sports desk, done by sports people, not by the anchor in any of the markets. 
Toronto should have weather done from CP24 weather. It costs them nothing to use the same person who is already doing a weather report for CP 24 already anyway...


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

 
 

February 13, 2024 9:57 am  #165


Re: Bell Media Cuts 4,800 Jobs, Selling 45 Stations

Radiowiz wrote:

haydenmatthews14 wrote:

Centerline wrote:

CTV Kitchener noon news replaced by a game show, kind of ironic.

Yeah. It is kind of ironic. Did they let go of Daryl Morris who was the news at noon anchor? From what I can tell a few people at CTV London were let go according to what Carlye Fieset mentioned on the night the newscast aired about the cuts. They moved Amandalina Letterio to the 11PM anchor. At CTV Windsor Stefanie Masotti is just the sole anchor on the 6PM news and Ricardo Venenza does the 11PM news. Bell should have NOT bought these TV stations in Southwestern Ontario. Now the only weekend news on TV i will have to watch is CHCH which has an excellent newscast and it is not owned by a big greedy telecom company.

For what's left of news, sports should be coming from a TSN Sports desk, done by sports people, not by the anchor in any of the markets. 
Toronto should have weather done from CP24 weather. It costs them nothing to use the same person who is already doing a weather report for CP 24 already anyway...

Agreed. Common sense would suggest that this would be the correct course of action. Lack of common sense seems to be in abundance here.

 

February 13, 2024 9:58 am  #166


Re: Bell Media Cuts 4,800 Jobs, Selling 45 Stations

Nice to see that they updated the screen graphics to not promote weekend news in Windsor.  Sadly the person who does that was probably let go. 

Last edited by mcelotto (February 13, 2024 9:59 am)

 

February 17, 2024 7:12 pm  #167


Re: Bell Media Cuts 4,800 Jobs, Selling 45 Stations

Also part of the cuts. CFPL-TV London video cameraman Jim Knight was a victim of the Bell cuts. He worked at CFPL-TV for 46 years.

https://twitter.com/GlenPearson/status/1758850879027835072

 

February 17, 2024 7:21 pm  #168


Re: Bell Media Cuts 4,800 Jobs, Selling 45 Stations

mcelotto wrote:

Nice to see that they updated the screen graphics to not promote weekend news in Windsor.  Sadly the person who does that was probably let go. 

Sanjay Maru still works at CTV Windsor as a reporter. I think they do all of the on screen graphics out of London. Even the rebrodcast of the 11PM news in the mornings they still promote "CTV News Weekends" on the screen which no longer airs on the weekends. thanks to the "Bell Bloodbath" cuts to these legendary TV stations.

 

February 17, 2024 8:37 pm  #169


Re: Bell Media Cuts 4,800 Jobs, Selling 45 Stations

The graphics were updated as of Thursday.

 

February 22, 2024 8:26 am  #170


Re: Bell Media Cuts 4,800 Jobs, Selling 45 Stations

Unifor, the union which represented 800 of the 4,800 employees turfed, insists it's gearing up for battle over Bell's bloodletting. Exactly how it intends to effect any change or get anyone hired back is totally a mystery, but the head of the union insists she's mad as hell and isn't going to take it anymore. 

Unifor’s fightback against Bell

 

 

February 22, 2024 8:34 am  #171


Re: Bell Media Cuts 4,800 Jobs, Selling 45 Stations

Broadcast Dialogue reports more layoffs from Bell's cutbacks, including Atlantic Bureau chief Creeson Agecoutay, one of their higher profile Indigenous employees. Given the sensitivities of representative hiring these days, I'm surprised he's on the list.

Also gone: local Sudbury news anchor Tony Ryma, who had been at the CTV affiliate for 36 years. 

 

February 22, 2024 9:20 am  #172


Re: Bell Media Cuts 4,800 Jobs, Selling 45 Stations

I'm sure there will be a backlash against Creeson's dismissal in this current culture of reconciliation.