Most people are saying what's the big deal. It was a minor earthquake. No one was injured. No one was (thankfully) killed. No damage. Why do we need wall to wall coverage of a nothing story and listening to people react to a non news story.

The point being missed - even by students of journalism - is that the role of the media is to inform 24/7. Especially radio stations like a CJAD that is supposed to be the station of record in Montreal.

Inform those shaken awake in their bed during the middle of the night who would instinctively go to their radio to find out what happened. In most cases Montreal radio didn't meet their needs.

I never advocated wall to wall coverage all night. The window of opportunity in a story like this is about 60 minutes. Tell people what happened ... take some calls because believe it or not when things like this happen, people want to talk about it, share their stories of dogs barking, plates rattling, waking up a bit frightened etc.

Like it or not, this is what newstalk radio does. Get the expert on ... tell the story. Calm people down and tell them it's OK folks. Go back to bed. No one was hurt. No damage.

But that didn't happen on most of the LOCAL radio stations. Local Montreal radio let listeners down by not being there for them when they turned on the radio to find out what happened.

Steve, you are right. CBC national news mentioned it in the 1am newscast - 40 minutes after people would have gone to the radio to find out what happened. CBC is a network radio station. Not a local station. Local stations should have been all over this when it happened.

That was my point.

I'd say all we'd have are looped interview with the authorities saying nothing major happened.

And that would be fine. I'm not suggesting that all programming be eliminated and that anchors fill time for six hours talking about this. But an update at the top of the hour saying there was an earthquake and that there was no damage reported would have been more than sufficient. CBC News Network did just this at 1am.

As for your reply below, I'd say all we'd have are looped interview with the authorities saying nothing major happened. At best, other then an update at the top and bottom of of the hour saying what happened, I don't think it deserved anything more then that. Only our culture of dissecting all news items with the same level of scrutiny no matter how unsignificant would demand that this be covered as it it was a repeat of Japan's earthquake.

This page game out on Facebook after the earthquake happened, and quickly grew, it was mentioned in The Gazette as well!

we all hope there is some competition in town soon..so we can find out what's going on...it's that sense of security that people want, is they key here. good luck to TTP Media with their licence application.

You are so cute when you get riled up.

All you'd get is speculation at 12:30 am would have been endless speculation.

By then there had already been official word from both Earthquakes Canada and the USGS that an earthquake had occurred. We already had an idea of its magnitude and location of its epicenter. And, most importantly, journalists could have called local police and firefighters to determine if there had been any major damage.

I don't think it's a big deal that the media largely ignored it precisely because it was minor and there was no damage.

And yet it was mentioned on every newscast the next evening. So was it a story or not?

Common sense would apply to this question. If if was a major earthquake where the Autoroute Métropolitaine was severely damaged, and 1250 Rene Levesque was on the verge of collapse, no question there would still be rolling coverage of this event at this time. But it wasn't. It was a jolt that didn't result in anything. Nothing was damaged, no one was hurt, nobody died. If some TV or radio news outlet did bother to do some rolling coverage, it would just be speculations in the form of phoners, tweets, and rambling streeters.

Having said that, yes CJAD, CTV Newschannel, LCN, RDI, et al should have at least mentioned it on air. CJAD and CBC, in particular, should have updated their hourly newscast.

It pains me to see how low CJAD has fallen from the day when it was the go-to English radio station when something happened to sleeping through an earth quake or ignoring a weekend hurricane.

How has this happened?

I spent too many years at CJAD in news covering breaking stories at all hours of the day including overnights and weekends to not say something. I loved covering breaking news stories overnight.

I hope the CRTC takes notice of CJAD not doing anything about the earthquake because we need the license for 600 AM to fill the gap left by a complacent CJAD. I don't believe they're lazy ... they just lost their way and the fire in their belly to get out of bed and cover the news.

I know when I was PD at CJAD there is no way we would not have hauled people out of bed to cover the story or do a newscast or take calls.

So, for those who think I'm in a conflict of interest or just jumping all over CJAD because I have an agenda ... you're right. My agenda is very clear and I spelled it out at the CRTC hearings. It's time anglos in Montreal (and francophones too because TTP MEDIA will have a French news and talk station) get the news when it happens 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Be patient Montreal radio listeners .... cross your fingers the CRTC will hand down its decision soon about granting TTP Media the 600 AM frequency.

OK ... I feel better now. Thank you CJAD for giving me the opportunity to promote 600AM.

98,5 should have pushed on the breaking news button and let the top of the hour news anchor do a special report. And then, open the lines, interview a police spoke person, and reasure people quicker. Fabi lost his touch, I guess.

Thankfully I went on reddit.com's montreal section and I found people discussing it and soon after someone posted the link to the government's earthquake site.

It was nice to have someone talking about even if we weren't sure of the W5.