Скачать или смотреть CKST - Sign Off of Team / TSN 1040 and Format Stunting - Aircheck & Legal IDs (09/02/2021)

Over the past few couple of weeks, Bell Media has been cutting hundreds of jobs across the country, including 210 jobs in their properties in Toronto. Last week, we saw Bell making huge cuts on their news/talk radio stations including CJAD Montreal, CFRB Toronto and CFRA Ottawa. Radio hosts, reporters, producers and numerous other staff were let go. On the TV side, weekend newscasts on CIVI Victoria and CHWI Windsor were gutted. These cuts come less than a week after Bell held their mental health awareness day, "Bell Let's Talk". If you ask me, it's kinda ironic since firing hundreds of people does nothing to improve their mental health.

Yesterday, Bell made another huge round of cuts at their sports talk radio stations (TSN Radio) across the country. The format was dropped at CKST Vancouver, CFRW Winnipeg and CKOC Hamilton with almost all of the staff associated with these stations being let go. Stations in Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal and Edmonton retain the TSN Radio format. CKST and CFRW will flip to Bell's 24/7 all-comedy radio format "Funny" while CKOC will flipped to BNN Bloomberg Radio. In the case of Vancouver, most of the staff began their day as usual, no indication of the format switch was given to the staff beforehand. At 9 AM, the station's master control was taken over remotely and aired a message saying there will be a major announcement at 9:30 AM. The local morning show, The Halford and Brough Show was dropped mid-show in favour of a simulcast of ESPN Radio. At 9:30 AM, the announcement at the beginning of this video aired, immediately followed by Green Day's "Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)". This marked the end of almost 20 years of sports talk on CKST. The station then began airing a variety of music with voice overs saying a new format will come on Friday at 7 AM. Staff were then given 30 minutes to gather their personal belongings and were escorted out of the building by security.

The move has drawn huge backlash across the country. Fans of the station expressed their outrage on social media. The move leaves the Vancouver radio market with only one sports talk station, the much lower rated CISL "Sportsnet 650". The expected "Funny" format isn't expected to do well in the ratings, with similar stations in Calgary and Hamilton being at the bottom. However, the format is cheap and doesn't require many staff to run. In my opinion, this is pretty much a waste of perfectly good frequency.

Shutdown / Good Riddance recorded by Emad Agahi:   / 1359292989357572107  

Format stunting recorded by me.

Photo credit, gotovan (Creative Commons): https://www.flickr.com/photos/gotovan...

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