Workers at 940 News (including host Dennis Trudeau above) came in today to find out that the station is switching to an all-music “greatest hits” format as of the end of next week, eliminating its news division and most of its anchors.
18 people, including 14 journalists, will be out of a job.
Apparently the week’s notice they did get wasn’t the company’s idea. They had to spill the beans because of a leak.
Info 690 is unaffected.
UPDATE: Here’s the Gazette story from Paul Delean. Dennis Trudeau is out of a job. And here’s 940’s announcement. And a Canadian Press story.
The change takes effect 8pm next Friday.
UPDATE (June 10): Host Jim Duff says his goodbye.
UPDATE (June 11): From Mike Cohen of the Suburban:
940 Montreal officially becomes AM 940 — the Greatest Hits on Friday night. While the station let a lot of staff go, staying put are program director Chris Bury, newscasters Barry Morgan and Caroline Phaneuf and traffic reporters Greg Charlebois and Sean McMahon. I will miss the talk format, but I look forward to hearing the greatest hits from the 60s, 70s and 80s…
UPDATE (June 13): It’s over. CBC discusses how this move relates to the overall gutting of private broadcaster newsrooms in Canada.
Funny! Global shuts down it’s bureaus in Sherbrooke and Quebec City, cancels its morning show, fires 65-people, hires interns as reporters, and runs feature stories from NBC and CNN at 6:15 pm during its LOCAL news show.
Not a word from The Gazette.
940 News changes format (AGAIN!!!!!) and The Gazette does 10-paragraphs with quotes.
Montrealers are being increasingly poorly served by all their media.
940 News was more interesting as an all-news station than it was in its subsequent incarnation as a news/talk station. Talk radio tends to be more babble than anything else.
The Gazette’s story about Global’s layoffs is here. It has many words.
The 940 News story will be on Page A2 tomorrow (Saturday), after some enthusiastic selling of its importance by yours truly. I’d hardly call that burying it.
I stand corrected.
But go re-read The Gazette report. No word on the closing of the Sherbrooke bureau. No word on the complete shutdown of the Quebec City office.
No word on the cancellation of the morning show.
No word on 65-people being laid-off.
A quote from management saying everyone is hugging each other.
Why not a piece on how english-speaking Montrealers who want their news in english are getting shaffted!
940 tried to be a copycat of CFTR 680 News in Toronto (most listened to station in Canada) and failed miserably. Their “traffic on the 1’s” was never on the 1’s. Their format wasn’t very tight. They had syndicated news all overnights and weekends. When they shifted to news/talk, again lots of syndication. There’s no denying that CJAD has owned the English full-service news/talk format for over 45 years. That’s brand power. It seems evident that there isn’t enough room for two news/talk stations for a market of 750,000. And sadly, that market will only decrease in size what with radical extremist groups like the MMF doing whatever possible to acheive their goal. Anyways, I, for one, welcome the change. I’ll be tuning in and, if done properly, the 60s-80s format can be a big winner. What they must NOT do, is what Oldies 990 did during its final year – play the same 10 songs in the same order non-stop.
680 News is horrid.
940 is doomed. Why? The same man involved in the demise of CKGM is running 940.
whats witht the format change?why would people listen to music on am when u can hear it on fm stereo ?
It is a shame that 940 News/Talk is moving into a format even more passé than News/Talk. I haven’t been listening to the station very much since the Team came on the air in ’01 (I think), But I have appreciated the fact that I had an option for English language news beside the Rob-Braid-Butt-kissers at CJAD. I have rarely agreed with Jim Duff, but I have cherished his opinion, no matter how whacked, as it was at least his own. Aphrodite Sales was developing into a solid broadcaster. Joe Cannon & Denis Trudeau are iconic Montreal professionals, each of whom I will miss dearly, but hope to hear them on other airwaves soon. I also liked the fact that 940 (unlike CJAD) seemed to realize that they were broadcasting to Montreal and not just the west Island.
Rob
The only good thing about the format change is that a couple of 940 regulars are looking for work. I’ll miss Joe Cannon and the top and bottom of the hour newscasts.
Well, I see this as a good thing. At least Tracey Mckee now doesn’t have a chance in hell of nabbing an on air slot at CJAD as she recently tried. Too much better talent will be competing against her.
Joe Cannon and all the rest I will miss you. talk show for me sadly is now CJAD, not as good as you guys someone let me know If Joe is joining a talk format. Joe they even closed Chorus Country in Cornwall your old alma mater. I might have to move to Cornwall to hear you, Someone let me know where ol Joe went.
Thanx
Changing the format is a shame we don’t need another music station. 940 News/Talk kept the English community in this province informed about what was going on in Quebec the good and the bad. I wouldn’t be too surprised if the station was forced to close down due to political reasons, more of the english rights taken away.
I just loved the News/Talk 940 adopted in the latter part, and miss those guys sorely. I gave up on CJAD a long time ago, and only listed to its Saturday / Sunday mornings once in a while. CBC is great for news but pontificates way too much in my opinion. Now I just discovered Vermont Public Radio, and while it is not “local” to Montreal, it does have some REALLY great talk. So while I miss the 940 Talk/News, I am slowly getting used to the CBC/VPR combo. For 940 music, hmm, let’s say I can’t find it on my dial.
The musid statin is not worth listening to. The only thing of interrest is Coast ot
coast AM and the presentation of that is poor enough so that it it is easier
to listen to a station in Hartford . At least tone gets the program on the right
night.:
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