| Media, Radio, TV

Bell Media cutting hundreds of jobs, including 110 in Montreal

Updated Nov. 23: Here are the cuts we know so far, broken down by region:

Victoria

Vancouver

Most of the above names from this Vancouver Sun blog post

Edmonton

CTV Edmonton noted on air that the first four departures noted above are all voluntary.

Calgary

Saskatchewan

From Unifor:

In Saskatoon a Tech and Administrative Assistant took early retirement, two vacant part-time positions won’t be filled and a temporary contract employee was let go a year early. In Prince Albert, two operations positions were eliminated. In Yorkton, a part-time camera operator position was eliminated. As far as out of scope employees are concerned The Traffic Department manager has retired, and a financial manager was let go.That’s a total of 10 union positions and 2 out of scope positions. Regina is not unionized but I had heard 13 layoffs.

Winnipeg

  • CTV: Operations manager, promo manager, payroll manager, shooter, editor, floor director, feed and play operator, web producer, manager of traffic and receptionist.
  • Radio: 9 in total, including in production, sales, street team, and engineering.

Above information via ChrisD.ca.

UPDATE (May 12, 2016): CTV Winnipeg’s promotions director emails me to say that position was not, in fact, eliminated.

Windsor, Ont.

London, Ont.

  • CJBK 1290 AM host Steve Garrison
  • CTV Two health reporter Jan Sims
  • Three news editors, two cameramen, and engineer and technical director at CTV Two
  • Several managers in both TV and radio

Toronto

In addition, TSN is downgrading Off the Record from its own show to a regular segment on SportsCentre. TSN spins this as a positive.

Barrie, Ont. (CTV Two)

  • Weatherman Bob McIntyre (retirement)
  • Creative Service Writers – 2
  • Creative & Promo Editors – 2
  • Promotion Producers – 2
  • ENG/EFP Camera -1
  • Librarian – 1
  • Receptionist – 1
  • Announcer – 1
  • News director, accounts Manager, salesperson and P.T. Executive Secretary

The union says the Barrie station lost a quarter of its workforce with this cut.

St. Catharines, Ont.

Ottawa

Stories in the The Ottawa Citizen and the Ottawa Sun. The Sun also reports that CFRA will have its newscasts read by CTV Ottawa personalities. And Unifor says CTV Ottawa will no longer have a local sports segment at 11:30pm weekdays.

UPDATE (Dec. 4): The Ottawa Sun has an interview with Meehan. As does the Ottawa Citizen. And CBC.

Montreal

Sherbrooke

Quebec City

The Journal de Québec has a roundup of cuts at Énergie and Rouge FM stations, including Marie-Josée Longval at Rouge in Quebec City and Patrice Henrichon at Énergie in Sherbrooke.

Atlantic Canada

Two positions affected at 21-M in Halifax/New Brunswick/Cape Breton. One each in TV and radio.
A swing traffic/receiptionist was lost in TV, and an on-air person in radio. Two might not seem like a lot, but in TV for example 21-M is down to fewer than 20 members.

This is a very incomplete list, based on names reported so far. It doesn’t include probably scores of behind-the-scenes staff like cameramen, producers, editors, support staff and more. If you have names to add to this list, or to confirm, or links to other reports, send them my way.

Original post

Since the word first came out that Bell Media is taking a chainsaw to its workforce, cutting 270 jobs in Toronto and 110 in Montreal, plus probably more in other cities, I’ve been asked countless times what I know about this. But it’s hard to answer because staff themselves don’t know that much. Information is only starting to trickle out now.

The news came out because of a requirement in the Canada Labour Code that employers notify the government if they plan on eliminating 50 or more jobs in one location. This means in other cities, where they would cut fewer than 50 people, they haven’t had to notify anyone yet.

Bell Media is saying little about its specific plans, other than outlining the breakdown:

  • In Toronto:
    • 220 positions in production, editorial and operations
    • 45 positions in sales and marketing
    • 5 positions in administration and clerical roles
  • In Montreal:
    • 70 positions in production, editorial and operations
    • 35 positions in sales and marketing
    • 5 positions in administration and clerical roles

Affected staff at first hadn’t been told which positions will be cut, and which properties will be affected (though at these numbers you’d have to expect most would be). That led to a lot of speculation internally.

These cuts are the continuation of an across-the-board (euphemism for mass firing) that began during the summer with the departures of CTV veterans like Phil King, and continued this fall with lower-level managers like CTV Montreal general manager Louis Douville.

In the coming weeks we’ll know which positions are being eliminated. After that, collective agreements establish processes that must be followed including having employees bump others with less seniority. It could be a few months until everything is figured out on the individual employee level.

Bell Media can make its cuts in one of three ways:

  • Attrition: Cancelling plans to fill jobs that are vacant or replace people who are retiring
  • Voluntary buyouts: Offering enhanced severance to those who agree to leave
  • Layoffs

It’s not clear how much Bell can achieve by attrition. I am told a buyout offer is being planned.

Keep in mind the cuts in Montreal won’t be just CTV. Bell Media also owns RDS, TSN, plus all the resources it acquired from Astral media, like Canal Vie, Canal D, Vrak.tv, Super Écran, CinéPop, plus radio stations CJAD, CHOM, Virgin Radio, Énergie and Rouge FM. All of these have employees based in Montreal, as do other national divisions including the Astral Out of Home outdoor advertising network.

This news is just the latest in rounds of triple-digit cuts at major media companies in the past few years. You have to imagine it won’t be the last.

In a publication created for a conference this month of the Fédération professionnelle des journalistes du Québec, Bell Media has a small ad pointing out that it has more than 100 journalists in Quebec. I have a feeling that may be the last time they’re able to say that.

Also, this is a somewhat ironic email to send out to Bell subscribers:

top-employers

On Friday, Majic 100’s Stu Schwartz posted this rant to Facebook, decrying haters who are taking Bell’s cuts out on the remaining staff:

55 thoughts on “Bell Media cutting hundreds of jobs, including 110 in Montreal”

  1. Media Man

    I wonder how Jean Pierre Blais feels today about making the worst decision ever in the history of Canadian broadcasting..

    I think he’s been on the ball for most decisions for our changing times.. But this was the worst. I’m not surprised the greed of shareholders being more important..

    Reply ↓
    1. Fagstein Post author

      I wonder how Jean Pierre Blais feels today about making the worst decision ever in the history of Canadian broadcasting..

      The Bell-Astral decision? How is that worse than Canwest buying Alliance-Atlantis, or Bell buying CTV, or CTV buying CHUM, or Quebecor buying Videotron? Or whoever decided that DAB was the future of radio?

      Considering the state of the media, I doubt the news would be much different if Bell and Astral were still separate companies.

      Reply ↓
      1. Yannick

        Sorry, Fagstein, maybe once your butt gets cut you’ll think otherwise. What did you think was going to happen once Blais cut Cancon down to 35% ? Did you really think we’d see an increase in Canadian programming?

        Even French TV has an huge increase in dubbed american shows and tv commercials. A cheap voice-over sure beats spending thousands in writers, cameramen, technicians, directors etc.

        Meanwhile, the same cable companies are raking in billions. I haven’t seen my monthly bill go down. Have you?

        Reply ↓
        1. Fagstein Post author

          Sorry, Fagstein, maybe once your butt gets cut you’ll think otherwise.

          I’ve been laid off more than once in this industry. My opinion hasn’t changed.

          What did you think was going to happen once Blais cut Cancon down to 35% ?

          There are several problems with that statement, so it’s hard to answer it. For one thing, broadcasters are still required to spend the same percentage of income on Canadian programming, so I don’t know why that alone would result in substantial job losses at Bell Media.

          Even French TV has an huge increase in dubbed american shows and tv commercials.

          I have no data on TV commercials, but if you compare the ads on now to the ones that were on 20-30 years ago, I would guess that there are far fewer dubbed ads than there were.

          As for TV shows, we do have data on the subject. In 2010, private conventional television in Quebec (i.e. mainly TVA and V) spent $195 million on Canadian programming vs. $52 million on non-Canadian programming. In 2014, it was $196 million vs. $56 million. Is that such a huge increase?

          Maybe the change happened more on the specialty channel side? In 2010, French-language specialty channels spent $236 million, or 44% of total revenue, on Canadian programming. In 2014, it was $316 million, or 47%.

          Meanwhile, the same cable companies are raking in billions. I haven’t seen my monthly bill go down. Have you?

          Nope. Though others might if they ditch large packages and replace them with just a few pick-and-pay channels.

          Reply ↓
          1. Yannick

            Sorry, but your numbers are wrong. And you fail to recognize creative accounting. Left-pocket and right-pocket of the same pair of trousers. But then again, you do work for Bell !

            Reply ↓
            1. Fagstein Post author

              Sorry, but your numbers are wrong.

              Oh, I see. What are the right numbers, then? And where do they come from?

              And you fail to recognize creative accounting. Left-pocket and right-pocket of the same pair of trousers.

              How does creative accounting work here to artificially inflate French-language Canadian programming? Can you give an example?

              But then again, you do work for Bell !

              I don’t work for Bell. Never have.

              Reply ↓
              2. Dilbert

                The real numbers are very hard to define because you would have to look into each Canadian spend, see who is the beneficial creator (who actually get paid) and who actually owns and controls those companies.

                Simple example: Let’s say TVA pays for a show. That show is produced by Company X, using Mel’s Cite de la Cine as it’s shooting location. or rents equipment from them and uses their post production services. So one part of Quebecor pays another part for a “canadian production” and the profits go right back into Quebecor’s pocket.

                So let’s say, just for fun, that Mel’s charges TVA 25% more than the market rate because they are a “premium” supplier. Now you Canadian programming costs are up, but in the end it doesn’t matter because the difference comes back to Quebecor as profits. They would be meeting their “dollar commitment” and still reaping the benefits.

                Now consider that TVA, Quebecor, and all of their other companies hold and operate whole bunches of limited production companies, service providers, and the like. Within reason, they can easily manipulate the costs of productions to fulfill the CRTC mandate while actually turning that mandatory spend into bottom line profits.

                It would be very interesting to see the full financial breakdown of some of the productions, and not just the topline number which is effectively meaningless.

              3. Fagstein Post author

                Now consider that TVA, Quebecor, and all of their other companies hold and operate whole bunches of limited production companies, service providers, and the like. Within reason, they can easily manipulate the costs of productions to fulfill the CRTC mandate while actually turning that mandatory spend into bottom line profits.

                Good thing the CRTC requires that most production spending be done through independent companies, then.

    2. Yannick

      Brilliant decision, wasn’t it?

      The surest way to benefit consumers is to reduce competition and help create a quasi-monopoly.

      Reply ↓
      1. ClearChannel

        The surest way to benefit consumers is to have Bell stick to telephones only. The majority of Canadians are losing when the only way to watch television is through Pay TV. All residents of apartment buildings and condos are
        “Pay TV Prisoners” as these buildings are wired for Pay TV only. Whatever happened to “Freedom of Choice”? residents of New York City have 104 TV channels absolutely free available Over-The-Air and the only requirement is a TV antenna! Los Angeles has 155 channels available. Its about Canada and Canadians woke up and look at what is going on south of the border.

        Reply ↓
        1. Fagstein Post author

          The surest way to benefit consumers is to have Bell stick to telephones only.

          If it wasn’t for Bell, we wouldn’t have serious cable TV competition in Montreal, Ottawa and Toronto for the first time.

          Reply ↓
  2. Bill

    I can see CJAD and TSN690 taking substantial hits.

    In the case of CJAD, they are effectively the number one station for anglos and have almost zero competition in the news/talk field so bodies can be cut there, they could pipe in syndicated shows (assuming they are allowed to?) and people will still listen for their news updates.

    690 could see a bigger axe, so many unproductive assets there…and, again, you could pipe in syndicated shows as they already do with their overnights.

    Reply ↓
    1. Fagstein Post author

      they could pipe in syndicated shows (assuming they are allowed to?) and people will still listen for their news updates.

      They could, but past experience has shown that listeners don’t react well to non-local shows on their local radio stations.

      690 could see a bigger axe, so many unproductive assets there…and, again, you could pipe in syndicated shows as they already do with their overnights.

      TSN 690 has a lot of people who are scandalously underpaid, especially for the amount of work they do. Putting syndicated shows during the day would probably alienate listeners who want to talk about local sports teams.

      Reply ↓
      1. Graham

        TSN 690 has also a few generously overpaid people, especially for the amount of work they do. Cuts are inevitable, it will be interesting to see what direction Bell goes.

        Reply ↓
      2. Bill

        I don’t disagree that they are probably underpaid but Bell still expects to make a profit.

        I can see a body being axed from the morning show.

        As for the mid morning and early afternoon, I could see some of that underpaid talent anchoring those shows. Again, 690 is the only anglo sports station so it’s not like anglo listeners have an alternative to talk local sports (at least 90% Habs).

        The late afternoon show is the main driver and even it could drop a body and still not miss a beat.

        Bell will prob just use the oft touted line of “Doing more with less” but I don’t see where they have a choice if they are all about satisfying shareholders.

        Reply ↓
  3. Dilbert

    Here’s my take: Bell is working to make their huge company “too hard to break up”. That is making the individual pieces so integrated and so dependent on assets and services from other parts of the company that they cannot easily break it up. That said, here’s my guess as to what is to come:

    CTV: The sports department is doomed, plain and simple, and may be doomed in all local newscasts in Canada. It’s much easier to have a small group of people at TSN produce a package that is 90% generic, and 10% tailored to the local market, and run it on all newscasts. I am also guessing the usual type of cutbacks like less local editors, maybe one less reporter, things like that.

    Moreover, don’t be shocked to see the two anchor 6pm news turn into a one anchor newscast. If i was Mitsumi, I would be very worried that someone is coming down the hallway with a golden handshake that will seem more like a slap in the head.

    Radio: I suspect more integration here, not only local station to local station, but nationally. Less variation in formats, more top down management choices on content and such. Don’t be shocked to see all stations in Montreal end up with a single station manager / brand manager with more integration of the individual station brands into national niches. I wouldn’t be shocked to see CHOM and Virgin go back to entirely automated overnight formats, and for CJAD to perhaps lose 1 to 2 hours a night of local programming, and possibly even more on the weekends.

    More than anything, the list for the cuts makes it pretty clear that this isn’t office cutbacks, but cutting the meat and shaving the bones of the operations. rebuilding all of the structure in a way that they cannot remove any piece without causing issues at other places. It’s what Bell did already with their local channels, eliminating all of the independent switching, editing, scheduling, programming choices, and such, and making it so that they cannot sell a local station because it no longer has the tools to operate.

    Congrats the the CRTC for a series of seriously stupid choices that are have taken Canadian media down the path to hell.

    Reply ↓
    1. Fagstein Post author

      Here’s my take: Bell is working to make their huge company “too hard to break up”. That is making the individual pieces so integrated and so dependent on assets and services from other parts of the company that they cannot easily break it up.

      Or, you know, they’re trying to make more money.

      Moreover, don’t be shocked to see the two anchor 6pm news turn into a one anchor newscast.

      I wouldn’t be shocked, but I don’t see how that would save any money unless they cancel either the noon news or the 11:30 show. It’s not like they can have one anchor do all three.

      Don’t be shocked to see all stations in Montreal end up with a single station manager / brand manager with more integration of the individual station brands into national niches.

      Bell doesn’t really have station managers anymore. We’re seeing a move toward national brands with Virgin Radio and TSN, but each market is different, which makes it difficult to have national brands. CHOM’s music format, for example, wouldn’t work in markets where there are other stations in the classic rock, rock or alternative formats.

      they cannot sell a local station because it no longer has the tools to operate.

      Then they just need to buy the tools that are missing. We saw with the aftermath of the Bell/Astral sale that it’s actually not that difficult to sell a radio station to another company despite all the centralization. You end up selling the brand, the transmitter and the studio equipment, but other companies have their own centralized back-end resources.

      Reply ↓
      1. Dilbert

        “Or, you know, they’re trying to make more money.”

        The process by which they are trying to make money isn’t one of offering a better product or attracting better advertisers, but one of squeezing pennies out of the bottom. It’s the logic under which mega-gloms are created, using the old synergy and avoiding duplication buzzterms to explain it. But what it really means is turning large numbers of properties into “same flavor of vanilla” by making them all generic. When you intermingle CTV, CJAD, CHOM, Virgin, and TSN radio to the point where they all have about the same content (with different presentation flavors) have you really done anything positive?

        It’s not profits by improving the product or innovation, it’s cutting jobs and providing pap content because you have little or no real competition in the marketplace.

        “Bell doesn’t really have station managers anymore. ”

        Of course they don’t, because part of this massive integration is to get rid of local level decisions on anything and everything. It’s the old “why is the toilet paper two ply? Because one copy goes to Bell head office”. It makes them less and less in touch with the individual local markets, they are protected only because they have no real competition.

        “Then they just need to buy the tools that are missing. We saw with the aftermath of the Bell/Astral sale that it’s actually not that difficult to sell a radio station to another company despite all the centralization.”

        If you are selling the station to another huge glom station owner, then it’s easier – because they likely have their own brand of pap programming support (news, sports, weather, traffic) that they can use. However, there is no simple way to extract a single station and make it operate alone. It’s equipment, staff, structure…

        Moreover, I realize something important about all of these cuts. Let’s look at a sample case, Carolyn Waldo. cut from CTV local sports, where does she go? Bell owns the major talk and sports radio in Ottawa, they own more than half of the TV sports market, and a significant portion of the radio stations in the local market. For Ms Waldo, her chances to continue her career are extremely limited. She could always relocate to Vancouver…oh wait, Bell owns a whole crapload of the market there too. Unless she is incredibly lucky, it’s doubtful that Ms Waldo will end up back on the air any time soon. It’s sad, but that is what happens when one company owns a huge chunk of media in the marketplace.

        “CHOM’s music format, for example, wouldn’t work in markets where there are other stations in the classic rock, rock or alternative formats.”

        Montreal’s market is somewhat unique because of it’s lack of competition – with more than 50% of the radio dial in the French market, and Bell owning about 75% of the commercial anglo market, there is no real need to any of their properties to be great. Passible is okay. But it is very likely that musical formats from other cities in the classic rock or alt rock may be combined to update CHOM over the next while, as control of the station will be effectively from an office somewhere in Toronto and not someone in Montreal. Since there isn’t much competition in the marketplace, Bell has little to lose if they slowly evolve the CHOM format to match a more national package.

        Oh, don’t be shocked if they evolve to a national “Rock overnight” package for all of their stations, a semi-automated format that gets rid of the over night jocks and gives the head office a package that can be sold to national advertisers looking to get enough combined reach to make it work out.

        Reply ↓
        1. Fagstein Post author

          When you intermingle CTV, CJAD, CHOM, Virgin, and TSN radio to the point where they all have about the same content (with different presentation flavors) have you really done anything positive?

          The radio stations share traffic reports and news, but most of their content is unique to those stations.

          Reply ↓
    2. Media Man

      Dilbert, I definitely agree with your last paragraph.
      I’m not sure I agree with your sports development possibility.
      What I can see possibly is music directors in FM stations getting canned.
      With digital music distribution systems de rigueur, they’ve become redundant.
      The Virgin PDMark Bergman for example won’t make a music addition without checking with head office.

      Reply ↓
  4. ClearChannel

    Bell is a bloated company in my view and never should have bought CTV in the first place. They control too much as do the other companies Rogers and Shaw. Having only a handful of companies controlling everything ultimately hurts consumers. “Making the worst decision ever in the history of Canadian Broadcasting”. The only true broadcaster left in Canada is the CBC. Broadcasting means to send out signals over a wide area like a farmer sowing his field – over-the air exclusively and free of charge. Having Pay TV owning and operating Free TV or OTA is a gross contradiction and a conflict of interest. People in my view should try TV antennas again where possible. The picture quality is the best ever seen and I’m picking up 24 channels for free which suits me fine being retired.

    Reply ↓
    1. Anonymous

      But on the TV side, the CBC is not a true broadcaster by your definition, since it only maintains free OTA broadcasts in cities with production centres. The only non-production centre broadcasting CBC TV after February will be the CBC affiliate in Lloydminster, and the SRC affiliate in Noranda.

      Reply ↓
  5. Craig McPherson

    Did I miss one of your updates concerning Nathalie Nanowski? She used to be with CTV Montreal News, but is now on CJAD, both owned by Bell. One wonders if she could be on the bubble given this latest news.

    Reply ↓
  6. Marc

    Melanie Joly is now in charge of the CRTC and I have a feeling she’ll be thanking Jean Pierre Blais for his services rather soon.

    … or Quebecor buying Videotron?

    Well let’s not forget how that happened back in 2000. The Chagnon family had a preliminary agreement with Rogers but the PQ government of the day put a quick stop to the possibility of Videotron being owned by Ontarians. So Quebecor didn’t exactly buy Videotron by choice.

    Reply ↓
  8. Craig

    I think the CRTC needs to allow foreign competition in Canada now. It has become clear there are too few Canadian companies and no competition, who are all just willing to eliminate their products (on all fronts) in the media. The result will be little or no media in Canada. Could allowing foreign companies in help?

    Reply ↓
    1. Fagstein Post author

      Could allowing foreign companies in help?

      Maybe, maybe not. Increased competition drives down consumer prices, but for TV they’re already pretty low (in the case of network TV, they’re zero). It also drives up content acquisition costs, which would put increased pressure on Bell and others to cut costs.

      Reply ↓
      1. Dilbert

        ” It also drives up content acquisition costs, which would put increased pressure on Bell and others to cut costs.”

        It only drives up those costs if you are all trying to buy the same product (ie, US made network series). If you are producing locally (as should be the case) the costs don’t really change. In fact, with more demand, there might be an increase in independent suppliers who would produce the content for less.

        As I mentioned in the other post, when companies such as Quebecor hold such a large piece of all phases of a marketplace, the dollar spend is almost meaningless. No matter how big the figures, the money is just circling around and heading back home where it came from.

        Blocking competition at this point is only to protect the bottom lines of the gloms, and not in the interest of the Canadian public.

        Reply ↓
        1. Fagstein Post author

          If you are producing locally (as should be the case) the costs don’t really change. In fact, with more demand, there might be an increase in independent suppliers who would produce the content for less.

          There’s a reason why local English-language TV stations in Canada don’t produce their own content. It’s much more expensive to do that than acquire programming that is already very well marketed.

          Reply ↓
  9. Media Man

    Wow. Some good Toronto people I know there and respected national names.

    But anything out of Montreal yet, is it that slow, or they’re mostly off the air folks?

    Bell has truly lost its mind all for the sake of shareholders’ pockets.

    Reply ↓
  11. Helen Shapiro

    If they cut Carol Ann Meehan in Ottawa I can’t help but wonder if Mutsumi Takahashi in Montreal is going to be next. They served essentially the same role in their respective cities with similar levels of seniority.

    For what its worth, I know someone who works for Bell in Toronto and insists on using Rogers for all of her phone, internet and TV services because she says Bell is a nasty company to work for.

    Reply ↓
  13. Sheldon Harvey

    I can still hear the words of Ian Greenberg, co-founder of Astral, at the CRTC hearings on the takeover of Astral properties by Bell Media. Greenberg stated to the CRTC commissioners that Bell taking over Astral properties would be the best thing for his Astral employees. Well, for a lot of them, it meant having time to spend at home with their families while they were waiting for the next job offer to come along. And the cuts just keep on coming!
    I know it’s all about business, but there was a time when the people were a major part of your success or failure. Now it just seems that it’s about making as much money as possible with as few people as you can manage to get by with. Employee/employer relationships and loyalty were vital. Now it comes down to “well, we can find someone else to do that job for less money”.

    Reply ↓
  14. Craig

    I hate to say this, but most likely the only way they will find new jobs in journalism or in the media is to look outside of Canada. They might want to check to see if they are eligible for visas abroad. I know the US has many jobs available.

    Reply ↓
  15. Stéphane Dumas

    The well known commentator of Quebec city, André Arthur did a rant about Bell media. http://www.radioego.com/ego/listen/19950

    And earlier this month, it was Telus, who did 1500 layoffs across Canada. http://www.lavantage.qc.ca/Actualites/Economie/2015-11-05/article-4334080/TELUS-couperait-1-500-postes/1
    http://ici.radio-canada.ca/nouvelles/Economie/2015/11/05/003-telus-coupes-postes-reduction-couts-personnel-departs-retraites-3e-trimestre-benefices-revenus.shtml

    Reply ↓
  17. Joanne B

    I only know that during the Paris raids, CTV National News had Lisa LaFlamme standing there, delivering OLD, repeated news for hours on end. It is embarrassing. CBCNN went with “freelance reporters” during the killing spree, which is equally embarrassing. I mean, it’s Paris, not the Maldives. You’d think they’d have someone with credentials to comment. The point is, these organizations are being cut and they are barely making the grade as it is. Watching old news all night – especially when it’s presented as “live” – is shameful. As we have seen this week, the world does not stop when Toronto’s sun goes down.

    Reply ↓
    1. Frank Schwimmer

      How many stories can they file from Paris weekly to justify having a full-time correspondent there?

      CBCNN had Nahla Ayed, who travels everywhere, and she was supported by other reporters such as Heather Hiscox who did a good job and can actually speak French

      Reply ↓

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  22. AJ

    The company is a Bell hole. This is what happens with consolidation. Cuts like these always just precede the holidays to prop up the bottom line now that the financial year is coming to a close. The P&L statement will look much better with all those salaries now left in Bell’s bank instead of the employee’s accounts. It’s all about satisfying the shareholders.

    Reply ↓
  23. Sheldon Harvey

    To all the good radio people who are now unemployed, and just prior to the holidays to boot, some of you may already know of this source of job postings, but for those who don’t, the Milkman Unlimited webpage has one of the most extensive job postings boards I have seen. Surprisingly there are quite a lot of various radio jobs out there across the country. So, of those people looking for jobs in Canada in the industry, I would seriously check out the following webpage: http://www.milkmanunlimited.com/MilkmanUnLimited/Job_Postings/Job_Postings.html

    Good luck. Just maybe opportunity will knock for you.

    Sheldon

    Reply ↓
  25. Jofus

    Might CKVR’s local news eventually be reduced to a brief cut-away on what otherwise would be a simulcast of CFTO’s local newscasts?

    Reply ↓

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  28. CHTZ Listener

    Jonathan confirmed in a a text chat on the 977 CHTZ St. Catharines listener line (977977) today about being an old man this afternoon that Steve, the very sarcastic on air personality with the conspiracy theories was let go. All this happened a couple weeks or months ago while Steve was away on his honeymoon. Obviously Steve mouthed off about the wrong thing or offended the Bell Media executives. His replacement, TJ Connors comes from a Corus station in Winnipeg, Manitoba.

    Reply ↓

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