Wayne Bews
Wayne Bews, whose job as general manager of TSN Radio 690 was made redundant when Bell Media acquired Astral Media and CJAD’s Chris Bury was made its program director, will stay with the company.
CTV Montreal’s general manager Louis Douville confirmed that he has named Bews the station’s retail sales manager. Bews begins on Monday.
After the departure of Tony Ecclissi last month, Douville said he decided to split the position of general sales manager into retail (local) and national sales. Martin Poirier, a senior account executive for more than a decade, takes over the national sales job.
“Wayne is a very well respected person in our market, he has close relationships with many of our clients,” Douville said of his new hire, noting that he has 15 years of sales management experience.
Mike Cohen, who first reported the news, quoted Bews as describing his new job as a “very exciting new challenge.”
UPDATE (Oct. 2): Cohen follows up with an interview with Bews.
I wish Wayne Bews all the best in his new post at CTV. Wayne was one of the “glues” that kept The Team 990 (now TSN 690) alive and kicking for over a decade when so many critics were writing the obituaries for the radio station. He believed in the product, and in the team of broadcasters that they put together over the years. I’m sure it is was a difficult thing for him to have to pass over the reigns of the station, but at least he has a position to move to rather than being tossed to the curb, a fate that so often happens to many good people when takeovers such as what we’ve recently seen here happen.
Fewer people to do the same work, it’s the way of takeovers. Wayne Bews is one of the lucky ones, perhaps a guy with enough experience in the business that he was able to move from his VERY redundant position at TSN radio and into a newly created “part of a job” from before. Notice the other “part of the job” when to someone already in Bell as well – effectively removing and not replacing the expensive (and higher ranking) sales position that existed before.
WTG Bell! If you work really hard at it, you can get rid of everyone!
Congrats Wayne on the new responsibilities!
The station lost money every year during this tenure. Ratings reflected that. Bell confirmed it last year. It just makes sense he would continue with Bell.
I don’t think Bell confirmed the kind of link between ratings and profits that you seem to be implying. The station is a niche format, and so its audience and ad revenue is limited. But that’s out of the station manager’s control.
Congratulations Wayne! I have worked with Wayne for years and his commitment to the community and to deliver results to his clients is unparalleled. Bell has made a smart choice.
Wayne is one of the good guys. He deserves to land on his feet.
Why couldn’t they have kept Ecclisi, for example, in the national spot, and Bews doing the local…or was Ecclisi that expensive?