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Rogers Sports & Media is shuttering six radio stations in four Canadian cities, as part of cutbacks to eliminate 230 jobs.
In a statement Tuesday, the company said the closures affect stations in Vancouver, Calgary, Halifax and Kitchener.
A Rogers spokesperson told CBC News the shuttered stations have 80 people losing their jobs directly. The other 150 jobs involve corporate roles, including in sales and marketing, along with a small number of positions in TV and radio, and an unspecified but small number from outside the media division as well.
The company said in a statement that the “difficult but necessary decision” followed a “thorough review of our radio stations across the country.”
“We are grateful to our listeners and to our team for their contributions to the local community.”
In Vancouver, the move means the end of Sportsnet 650 and News 1130, while in Alberta, 660 NewsRadio Calgary and Sportsnet 960 are affected.
Listeners in Vancouver tuned in Tuesday morning to hear a recorded message on News 1130, and re-runs on Sportsnet 650.
NewsRadio Halifax and NewsRadio Kitchener will also close.
News 1130 traffic reporter Alexander Carrigan said he learned of his station’s closure from a recorded message that was broadcast on air as he was driving to work. (CBC News)
News 1130 traffic reporter Alexander Carrigan told CBC News that he learned of his station’s closure as he was driving to work and he heard the recorded message played on air.
“I’m still not entirely sure how to process the news,” he said.
“I know through working with the traffic centre, we were getting dozens if not hundreds of calls every single day — I know that people relied on specifically the traffic service, of course, and there were a lot of very passionate news listeners as well.”
B.C. Premier David Eby responded to the closures on social media, writing that the province would miss both shuttered stations.
“We all benefit from having local news outlets and this is a blow for British Columbians,” Eby wrote.
“Journalism > Profits.”
‘News poverty’
The cutbacks are not a surprise for Jeffrey Dvorkin, former director of the journalism program at the University of Toronto.
“I think that what we’re seeing now is media organizations looking for ways in which they can return to some kind of shareholder satisfaction,” he said, explaining that Rogers is likely trying to converge together media platforms.
“What Rogers is doing is recognizing that they cannot make the same amount of money doing what they did before,” said Dvorkin.
In its statement, Rogers said the decision was due to “declining audience and revenue trends.” It also told CBC News recent audiences for over-the-air sports radio in both Vancouver and Calgary were low, with neither station having an average audience of more than 2,100 listeners.
A drone shot of Rogers Communications headquarters in Toronto in 2021. The company says it will continue broadcasting Vancouver Canucks games on one of its radio properties in that city but will no longer produce Calgary Flames broadcasts for radio. (Patrick Morrell/CBC)
April Lindgren, co-director of the Local News Research Project at Toronto Metropolitan University’s School of Journalism, said waves of cuts have left Canadians facing “news poverty.”
“This is continuing a trend that began with the loss of community newspapers … and now what we’re seeing is that broadcasters like private radio and television stations are really feeling the pain,” she said.
According to Lindgren’s research, Canada has seen a net loss of nearly 200 local news outlets since 2008.
She said that loss has a corrosive effect on democracy — both when it comes to informing the public and in holding leaders accountable.
“And of course, the fewer local news sources you have for people to turn to, the greater opportunity there is for mis- and disinformation to take root and start fuelling anger and resentment and conspiracy theories,” she said.
In Vancouver, Rogers added that it would move radio production of Canucks games to another Rogers Sports & Media owned station. It will not be moving forward with any production of Calgary Flames games for the radio.
Toronto’s Sportsnet 590 also remains in operation, and Rogers said it continues to operate 44 radio stations in close to 30 communities in Canada.
The moves comes one day after Rogers Communications announced it had become the sole owner of Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment, the parent company of the Toronto Maple Leafs and Toronto Raptors.
That deal saw the company pay $4.35 billion to buy out Kilmer Sports Inc. from its 25 per cent stake in the company.