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Bell Media sells some Niagara region stations

Yeziknoradio said:
It's all very interesting.
Bell's way of doing things might be why something is not viable.
Another business might do things differently and survive just fine.
It will be interesting to see what White Oaks actually does.
How well does 610 CKTB pick up in Buffalo?
I don't see them targeting Buffalo, but maybe they will pick up some American talk shows anyway to fill a void
now that CKTB will no longer be a CFRB (NT 1010) repeater anymore (where previously possible)
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There are three AM stations in Buffalo that do anything at all: WGR, WBEN, WECK do reasonably well in their format and (such as has been reported) generating revenue. Every other AM signal is insignificant. A gnat on an elephant's assets. Just because a (Canadian) signal "gets into Buffalo" doesn't mean it's viable. It's unlikely CKTB or any other Canadian AM or FM within the (former) Bell group will target Buffalo. Why target Buffalo when there's a much larger, in-country market just up the road, that being Toronto.
 
Rusty Bridges said:
There are three AM stations in Buffalo that do anything at all: WGR, WBEN, WECK do reasonably well in their format and (such as has been reported) generating revenue. Every other AM signal is insignificant. A gnat on an elephant's assets. Just because a (Canadian) signal "gets into Buffalo" doesn't mean it's viable. It's unlikely CKTB or any other Canadian AM or FM within the (former) Bell group will target Buffalo. Why target Buffalo when there's a much larger, in-country market just up the road, that being Toronto.
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It still might not be about targeting Buffalo, (regardless) but about what's cheaper to run...provided there's still a Canadian audience for it. I just wondered how the station picks up in Buffalo, just in case they decide to air content that relates better to Buffalo than Canadians. I recall MANY years ago 610 carried the Rick Emmerson show for whatever reason they had.
 
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One thing I should note is that Vista Radio was one of the 7 groups that Bell Media sold stations to. Vista used to own CFLZ-FM and its sister station CJED-FM for a few years in the 2010's; CFLZ burned through a few format changes in that time frame.
 
Theater of My Mind said:
Isn't Bell exiting the St Catharines/Niagara market entirely? It looks like the three radio stations are the only businesses in that building, a historically protected mansion built in the 1800's.

I assumed the terms of sale included the studios and all the assets, not just the licenses.

Maybe they could move the Hamilton station in with the other three? That would be strange since Hamilton is a separate, larger city and technically its own market. They are close enough to hear each other's signals but I don't know if the CRTC would even allow CKLH to be run out of St Catharines (or Toronto).

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This is what I assume. That cluster has changed hands several times over the years, including to Astral Media in 2007, which itself was acquired in whole by Bell Media in 2013 and my understanding is that at least that particular property has been transferred to the new owners each time. I'm pretty sure Bell isn't interested in the real estate.
 
Yeziknoradio said:
I didn't realize Stingray is Canada's number two radio owner. I thought Rogers was.
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Stingray purchased Newcap Radio a few years ago; that's how they built up quite a portfolio of stations. The vast majority are in Newfoundland and Labrador, as well as in Alberta...but they have stations in the majority of Canadian provinces.
 
ckg279 said:
Stingray purchased Newcap Radio a few years ago; that's how they built up quite a portfolio of stations. The vast majority are in Newfoundland and Labrador, as well as in Alberta...but they have stations in the majority of Canadian provinces.
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I am well aware that Stingray bought New Cap...I think I see what you mean though.
They bought a whole company's stations while Rogers only bought stations singly at a time (ie buying 92.5 in Toronto from Rawlco, but not actually buying Rawlco)
 
Bell has licensed the use of the iHeartRadio name and app in Canada (and even brands their stations on-air as “iHeart stations”). Just curious if they’ll continue this partnership when the contract with iHeart (ClearChannel) is up for renewal since they seem to be slowly exiting the radio business.

Maybe the silver lining is that Stingray, Rogers and the other broadcast groups can migrate away from the horrible Radio Player Canada app.
 
louis_p said:
Maybe the silver lining is that Stingray, Rogers and the other broadcast groups can migrate away from the horrible Radio Player Canada app.
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The Radio Player app/platform works well in the UK. Doubt that’s going to change in Canada. All it really needs is a couple tweaks/update and it should look better on the eyes/functionality.
 
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