If you were up early for some reason on holiday Monday and were looking for something - anything - on the radio that wasn't a reroll (with the exception of 680, which obviously can't go into repeat mode) it was slim pickings. Replays of Greg Bray filled AM640, while 1010 was busy airing a CP24 simulcast. The music stations had their usual content, much of which I'm betting was either voicetracked or automated. 

But there was one hidden gem tucked away in a sea of repeats and it was on 610. CKTB in St. Catharines has a history of staffing live morning shows on stat holidays and Victoria Day was no different. They filled several hours with a Seinfeld-like morning show about nothing, but it was a fun nothing. (They did an entire segment trying to get anyone named "Steve" to call or text, for some reason.)

Karl Dockstader and his producer provided some entertaining filler with an almost regular version of Niagara In The Morning, and just the fact they were live and kidding around on the air was enough to keep it light and fun. But as I walked the dog early on a day when nothing was happening, it was nice to be able to tune into something that was live and wasn't TV audio filler.

Not only that, but they also had a live newscaster and - be still my heart! - an actual sportscaster.

I'm not sure why, but I've noticed this before on 610. Of all the stations in the Bell Media chain, this is the only one I know of that almost always has live programming on holidays. I'm frankly surprised Bell management allows it, because it usually means overtime pay and a day off in lieu if you work the stat. But that hasn't stopped 610 and even if the listener base was small, I, for one, appreciated what they were doing on Monday.