I am surprised that CHCH has not posted anything about the shutdown of 900 CHML on their website yet. Will they mention on their 6PM newscast?

But they posted this: https://www.chch.com/rogers-says-corus-business-model-broken-after-being-accused-of-predatory-action/

Last edited by haydenmatthews14 (August 14, 2024 6:03 pm)

In addition to the CHML radio closure, CORUS is also making further cost cutting  /streamlining announcements today...  Voluntary packages are being offered (read... you should strongly consider) to long term employees on the TV side.....   so far, a couple of people in Toronto at Barber Greene, and about a dozen positions out west at Global BC.

 

"This video contains the final complete radio newscasts at 9 AM and 9:30 AM on CHML, and its official (brief) sign-off."


 

Last edited by Hansa (August 14, 2024 7:15 pm)

Joe Warmington did a very touching tribute in today's Toronto Sun.  Personalities I fondly remember at CHML were Paul Hanover, Norm Marshall, Perc Allen, Bob Bratina, Tom Cherington and Gordie Tapp.  In terms of status, CHML was Hamilton's version of what CFRB used to be in Toronto a full service station with outstanding news & sports. During radio's golden years CHML was affiliated with CBC's Dominion network carrying a wide variety. of Canadian and U.S. programming. As an old time radio buff it is indeed very sad to see an iconic station go silent.

CHML wasn't always on 900, as this listing from 1939 proves. Notice also where CKOC was located on the dial.



CHML also wanted a TV station, but since Hamilton was assigned to get only one - and the CBC had dibs on it - government regulators turned them down. From 1948:



You have to wonder if this deal, announced in March 1970, would have saved CHML - although considering what Bell did to the other stations in town, the answer would probably have been no. (Not to mention we might have had a Channel 13 here. What would that have meant for Kitchener?)

Marc1178 wrote:

The combined population of both Hamilton and the Halton Region can support at least one Talk radio station of its own. This is especially true when you consider that CBC Radio One comes from Toronto rather than a from a local studio. When you call a Hamilton radio station Global News Radio in addition to 640 from Toronto, and air too much of syndicated programming on top of that, this is to be expected. I am now interested in seeing how either 820 or 1150 will react to this format hole. 

They cannot.

Even the biggest markets cannot support a talk station without the efficiencies of an FM or two providing the revenue - especially as a startup.

In fact, the demise of CHML might actually be *bad* news for 820/1150, unless they can sign on ASAP, as CHML listeners will be less likely to be punching around their AM presets or hitting 'seek' on the band.

Not a word on AM640 about what has become a fairly big story everywhere else. But a vacationing Hamilton native and station host Alex Pierson has weighed in. 

Alan Cross, who once worked in the same building as CHML when he was PD at Y108, calls it a sad sign of the times for radio.

A sad moment in Canadian radio: 900 CHML shuts down 

RadioActive wrote:

He also notes the void this will leave in the market. While CKOC and CHAM are still around, they're basically on auto-pilot. Other than a few traffic updates in drivetime, there's no news or info on anything happening in the Steel City.

And keep in mind that those traffic reports come from Markham, at the company I used to work at.

I really want to miss having been in radio, but had I stayed, it's amazing how much has change I might've been witness to, even since I left in April 2023.

I'm very sad to see CHML disappear, however, all of the people I remembered hearing are LONG gone.  I enjoyed Bob Hooper's morning newscasts, Bill Stirrup on the weekend, Bill Kelly talking with Marvin Ryder over business topics, and Sandy Bishop in the mornings.  Lately, it was largely 640 CHML Toronto (with all the networked stuff), so what I really miss are mostly past CHML memories; however, that's the case with most radio, as I now see it.

Saul wrote:

AM radio these days, and to some extent even FM - It's kind of like the grandeur of the theatre closed years ago, but the buildings are still open...
 

Well put

RadioActive wrote:

Today, August 15th, is the 80th anniversary of the day CKNW in Vancouver first went on the air. (The official sign-on wasn't until September, but they started test transmissions on this day in 1944.) How ironic it happens at a Corus station the day after they turned off the transmitter of a place that would have turned 97 next month. 

Given everything this company has done lately, you have to wonder: Will CKNW live to celebrate 81?

Ironic, yes. Did it matter? No.

RadioActive wrote:

Today, August 15th, is the 80th anniversary of the day CKNW in Vancouver first went on the air. (The official sign-on wasn't until September, but they started test transmissions on this day in 1944.) How ironic it happens at a Corus station the day after they turned off the transmitter of a place that would have turned 97 next month. 

Given everything this company has done lately, you have to wonder: Will CKNW live to celebrate 81?

From Global News:

News radio ‘Top Dog’ CKNW celebrates 80 years on the air

Also from The Daily Hive:

How a Vancouver talk station is defying "radio is dead" notion as it turns 80


 

I'll miss the local traffic report because 680's "busy from Ford Drive to Nicola Tesla Blvd" doesn't cut it. That's 35 kms! , busy to them really means it is crawling (and that exit will forever be Burlington Street to me).

TVO offers their perspective, too:

The closure of Hamilton’s CHML 900 an ominous sign — and the station’s loss will be devastating



PJ

Walter wrote:

I'll miss 'Canada History X', which I went to on weekends to escape the non-stop paid air time for fancy coloured diamonds, disability rights and wrongful dismissal advice.

You can still escape here, whenever you want.