• Get involved.
    We want your input!
    Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.

    After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
    If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.

    After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
    https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/

    Thanks in advance and have fun!
    RadioDiscussions Administrators

"BCE laying off 1,300 people and pulling plug on 9 radio stations across Canada" - CBC Canada

speer360 said:
Bell Media is also selling Hamilton's AM Radio 1150 and AM 820, as well as Windsor's AM 580, to an undisclosed third party, subject to CRTC approval.
Click to expand...
o_OAn undisclosed 3rd party?
Who could that be?
Religious? Multicultural?
I can't picture it being anyone in any big rush to do all that much more with AM radio in 2023...???
 
Last edited:
Yeziknoradio said:
o_OAn undisclosed 3rd party?
Who could that be?
Religious? Multicultural?
I can't picture it being anyone in any big rush to do all that much more with AM radio in 2023...???
Click to expand...

1150 and 820 are both in Hamilton and I don't know of any Canadian religious operators running multiple formats, so a multicultural operator might be a better guess.
 
RF101 said:
Don't forgot... CFVP, the 100-watt shortwave relay of CKMX will also go away...
Click to expand...

Wow, that's the takeaway from this? OK.

Meanwhile, it's a major loss for news at every level in a nation where the media is obscenely consolidated. Here's a list of some of the high profile talent that got the axe:

dailyhive.com

Big names from CTV National News axed amid Bell Media layoffs | Canada

CTV National News is going to look very different after many of its big-name reporters and producers were axed amid the Bell Media layoffs.
dailyhive.com dailyhive.com
 
Theater of My Mind said:
Wow, that's the takeaway from this? OK.
Click to expand...
For many of us who are radio geeks, that is significant and marks... as much as closing AM stations... the end of an era.
Theater of My Mind said:
Meanwhile, it's a major loss for news at every level in a nation where the media is obscenely consolidated. Here's a list of some of the high profile talent that got the axe:
Click to expand...
It's consolidated because the industry is so over-regulated that making money is very hard.

If you look at PUR or PUMM, you find that CanCon, in an era where so many streaming and on-demand alternatives are offered, is lower than the US making radio a less attractive medium to advertisers... and in the US it is less than in measured nations where there is less control over "dirty songs".
 
I wonder how much money they were losing on their AM stations. To be fair, most of these stations were entirely automated, with very little intervention from any employees. Notably, the "Funny" brand is nothing more than canned comedy bits on a rotating cycle, 24 hours a day. Obviously it isn't cheap to keep the transmitter up and running, but I'm surprised they didn't try to ride this out longer.

It will be interesting to see what happens to some of the transmission sites. CFTE and CKST have a very nice (and modern) site in British Columbia. Will they just tear it all down? It will be sad to see 1060 go. That station was a part of my youth when it was a country station.
 
RF101 said:
Don't forgot... CFVP, the 100-watt shortwave relay of CKMX will also go away...
Click to expand...
DavidEduardo said:
For many of us who are radio geeks, that is significant and marks... as much as closing AM stations... the end of an era.
Click to expand...
Canada used to have quite a few private shortwave stations that relayed a co-owned AM, much like what was common in Latin America decades ago. The demise of CFVP leaves only CFRX (CFRB) in Toronto as the sole remaining SW outlet in the country. Same situation in Mexico, which also had many SW stations but is also down to just one (XEPPM on 6185.)

The CBC international and domestic shortwave facilities were closed between 2012 and 2018.

Absolutely the end of an era.
 
CKST was also for a time home to David Marsden, formerly with CFNY, playing alternative music as "Coast 1040."

Coast 1040

Coast 1040 | Media | Coast 1040 was a short-lived alternative AM station which had a huge influence on many local bands. When it went off the air in 1993 many proclaimed it to be the death knell of the local scene. Usage | "My older brother introduced me to Coast 1040 and it changed my life forev
scoutmagazine.ca scoutmagazine.ca
 
Theater of My Mind said:
1150 and 820 are both in Hamilton and I don't know of any Canadian religious operators running multiple formats, so a multicultural operator might be a better guess.
Click to expand...
CJOY/CJMR. I wonder if they're the ones interested in Hamilton? One for religious and one for ethnic.
CJOY is Joy 1250, religious, CJMR 1320 is Ethnic or multicultural in Mississauga/Oakville, both same owner.
SOURCE:
 
Some of those stations hung on for a surprisingly long time in a country where AM radio's attrition rate has been far ahead of that in the U.S.

A lot of former AM radio stations in Canada migrated to FM years ago, leaving large areas without any remaining AM stations at all. Want a fun DX holiday? Head to the Canadian Maritime provinces where the AM band is virtually empty, and there are endless miles of saltwater coastline bringing in stations from the eastern to midwestern U.S., to Cuba, to Europe if you're lucky. That's why the CBC had its shortwave radio transmitters located in that region before they shut the service down.

Anyway, the "Funny" stations were throwaway automated formats running loops of standup comedy, which had no audience to speak of. Only two of the AM stations reportedly had any airstaff at all, one being CJBK which was apparently profitable, but it seems Bell did not want to be bothered with maintaining its large, aging 8-tower transmitter site.

The biggest tragedy here is not so much the shutdown of six AM radio stations which was all but inevitable anyway, but Bell's decimation of its news operations across all platforms, radio and TV. We've seen plenty of news organizations under pressure in the U.S. too, but it hits much harder in Canada which has far fewer news organizations to begin with, Bell running some of the largest.

dailyhive.com

Journalists decry "dark day" at Bell Media, voice concerns on future of Canadian news | Canada

Journalists are mourning the job cuts that just happened at Bell Media and expressing concern for the future of Canadian news and democracy.
dailyhive.com dailyhive.com
 
Theater of My Mind said:
1150 and 820 are both in Hamilton and I don't know of any Canadian religious operators running multiple formats, so a multicultural operator might be a better guess.
Click to expand...
Maybe Moses Z. has an idea for those two and CKWW given he operates CFZM and CFMZ almost entirely as a hobby (and what would he have to prove in the present day?).

It’s just a guess but I can’t believe there’s a long line of prospective buyers… yet there is clearly something that allowed Bell to spare them from falling silent for good.
 
DavidEduardo said:
It's consolidated because the industry is so over-regulated that making money is very hard.

If you look at PUR or PUMM, you find that CanCon, in an era where so many streaming and on-demand alternatives are offered, is lower than the US making radio a less attractive medium to advertisers... and in the US it is less than in measured nations where there is less control over "dirty songs".
Click to expand...
Weirdly, there isn’t that much of a drive by the Canadian government or the CRTC to keep AM around like it is stateside (given the recent political grandstanding around Ford and EVs and car stereos).

It’s telling that Bell outright sacrificed six AMs because (among other reasons) the marketplace can’t support them. If iHeartMedia or Cumulus were given that option here, they’d do the exact same thing and you couldn’t fault them for doing so.
 
Nathan Obral said:
Maybe Moses Z. has an idea for those two and CKWW given he operates CFZM and CFMZ almost entirely as a hobby (and what would he have to prove in the present day?).

It’s just a guess but I can’t believe there’s a long line of prospective buyers… yet there is clearly something that allowed Bell to spare them from falling silent for good.
Click to expand...

I don't think it's Moses. Maybe Neeti Ray? He has a long track record of running and brokering ethnic stations and programming, and he already owns CINA FM in Windsor. The addition of AM 580 could give him a multicultural cluster there, and perhaps the two in Hamilton could combine with his Flow 98.7 (CKFG) and CINA AM operations in Toronto. I'm not familiar enough with his holdings to know if there are any conflicts with that guess, though.
 
Last edited:
Maybe Moses Zaminer might buy the stations in Windsor, Winnipeg, Calgary, Edmonton, and one of the two Vancouver stations to turn his "Zoomer Radio" format national, perhaps with local morning shows in each of those markets.

It would be better than religious programming, or even worse, the stations shutting down for good.
 
Joseph_Gallant said:
Maybe Moses Zaminer might buy the stations in Windsor, Winnipeg, Calgary, Edmonton, and one of the two Vancouver stations to turn his "Zoomer Radio" format national, perhaps with local morning shows in each of those markets.

It would be better than religious programming, or even worse, the stations shutting down for good.
Click to expand...
Those six stations are pretty much goners and I’d expect Bell to wash their hands and promptly turn in the licenses as soon as possible.

Yes, the CRTC tried valiantly to resurrect three dead AMs in Montreal in the early 2010s but the process took forever, would it even be worth the trouble in these five markets?
 
Back
Top Bottom