If you notice some of your favourite shows have suddenly disappeared from CJAD’s schedule, it’s because they’ve been cancelled.
Montreal’s news/talk station has canned four of its shows:
- Kevin & Trudie (Kevin Holden and Trudie Mason), weekdays 2-4pm
- Holder Tonight (Peter Anthony Holder), weeknights midnight to 3am
- The Laurie & Olga Show (Laurie MacDonald and Olga Gazdovic), Saturdays 1-4pm
- Solid Gold Saturdays with Al Gravelle, Saturdays 4-10pm
In all, The Gazette reports, eight on-air personalities are leaving the station:
- Peter Anthony Holder, overnight host
- Laurie MacDonald, Laurie & Olga host
- Olga Gazdovic, Laurie & Olga host
- Kevin Holden, Kevin & Trudie host
- Al Gravelle, Solid Gold Saturdays host
- Jake Lawrence, Solid Gold Sunday Nights host
- Kathryn Coulombe, news anchor
- Rod Dewar, editorialist
Trudie Mason will remain with the station, expanding her morning news role.
Holder was the latest to get the news… yesterday. He received so little notice that he had to cancel a booked guest. Holder confirmed he’s been fired but wouldn’t comment further (UPDATE: See below). Laurie MacDonald told The Gazette they were told to give in their pass keys as soon as they were told they were fired.
As for what’s taking their places:
- Dan Laxer will be taking the Kevin and Trudie spot from 2-4 weekdays
- Laxer’s weekday evening slot is taken over by a syndicated show, The Ryan Doyle Show, from CFRB
- Ray Scott takes over Solid Gold Sundays from Jake Lawrence
- Former CBC host Anne Lagacé-Dowson takes over (on an interim basis) the spot left by Laurie & Olga at 1-4 Saturdays
- Saturday evenings will have “weekend” versions of weekday shows
Bendixen says other announcements will be forthcoming “in the next couple weeks.” Operations Manager Bob Harris told The Gazette that negotiations are ongoing.
Sports reporter Rob Martier has also left CJAD to move back to Chicago, though that move was for personal reasons and is unrelated to the shakeup.
More coverage:
- CBC.ca
- Coolopolis mourns the loss of Holder Tonight
- RadioInMontreal has some info from local radio watcher Sheldon Harvey
- The Suburban business columnist David Lisbona argues it’s just business
UPDATE (Aug. 11): Holder talks to The Gazette’s Kathryn Greenaway, saying “they can only fire you, they can’t kill you.” Holder’s fans are making themselves heard loud and clear, starting up a Facebook group, Facebook cause and commenting en masse on his Facebook wall. The Gazette piece resulted in lots of feedback from readers.
And The Mirror points us to “Why CJAD sucks“, published exactly 10 years ago this week.
Meanwhile, Kim Fraser, who survived the cuts, responds to criticism of her on the Radio in Montreal group.
Why are those people being FIRED?
What did they do that would warrant their being fired?
Did the commit a crime? Did they steal from CJAD?
Were they subordonate? Obnixous? Rude?
Roger Guitar
I think the biggest thing for me is not so much who was let go, aside from PAH, it’s who remains. Tommy S should be out on his derriere. Great voice for newspapers. He is arrogant and self centred. Laxer, ya gotta be kidding! Truly annoying. Leave him under the watchful eye of Dave Fisher on the Trivia show. A feed from Toronto for a key spot like 7:00PM! Unbelievable. Reruns of the shows. Hey, if I couldn’t handle Tommy & Laxer during their normal spots why hit me over the head with their reruns. They should have kept PAH and moved him to the earlier slot. How about the 11:00PM news feed from TO, especially the sports. Who wants to have a leadoff on the Blue Jays followed by the Toronto Scooer team. Ah, well, I’ll certainly find my radio somewhere else.
Laxer is a jerk and very insulting to his callers. They should have fired him ages ago. Holder is another arrogant one. And why on earth are they keeping Kim Frasier???? Annoying beyond belief. Her cackling laugh….always laughs at her own jokes….which aren’t even funny.
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What I miss is having interesting people interviewed about just about anything from favorite reciepes to whatever rather than listening to Tommy or Kim repeat themselves over and over just to fill the slot. I guess it is cheaper but it has sent me to 940 because I can`t stand it! Kevin and Trudie is no loss I used to think of them as dumb and dumber.The only thing that is good during the week is Andrew Carter.Kim is annoying and as someone else posted low class.The weekends are the best with Dave and Charmin and Dan.I used to enjoy Dr. Joe on friday afternoon. Could not understand why that was changed!Dan does not work by himself by himself during the afternoon.How Rick Peterson is even on the radio is beyond me. He does not have a radio voice. Put Cathy Coulombe in there somewhere she is good and has a nice voice.Untill something changes I am with CJAD until 9am then back to 940or 580 sometimes.
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Sirs
Your over night show stinks it makes no centa at all
Better to hav a show with CANADIAN content
How about some old westren music??
If you rember the old cfox show with Don paserby you will have a GREAT show
no one want to hear about the goings on in oter space just lissen to your over night show
They should et rid of Dan Laxer, what a BOOR he is. He’s rude and arrogant.
It did not bother me when kim’s show was shortened. Many times,
I caught her telling lies, due to her gross of exaggeration.
i hope you are not congratulating yourselves – you just ruined CJAD the best people were let go and you shouldnt brag
someone especially like peter anthony holder – you must be nuts – you dont know real talent – in the afternoon
for all the moms and dads with kids they were right on –
olga and laurie on saturday afternoon had more fans than the shopping malls
rod dewar – how could you
cathy coulombe nicest voice for radio and told the news so you could understand it in the calmest of voice – very confident
in herself
WELL YOU LOST ME I WISH YOU WOULD PRINT THE POPULAR NUMBERS OF CJAD NOW – YOU WOULDNT DARE WOULD YOU?
What a shame you let go of the best and kept the worst. Moise P GET RID OF HIM AND BRING BACK THE BEST,You have lost me as a faithful listener. BYE BYE
Your overnight show is such a joke and not even close to being as entertaining ad PDHolder. I don’t even know one person who likes to listen to that crap one night a week let alone every night. UFO’s probably exist but so what! There are so many more important and interesting issues to talk about. It is so obvious that all the changes are about money and not content. Get Laxer off. He needs to go to anger management school! The only good thing was finally getting rid of Laurie and Olga who never talked about ANYTHING! Maybe you should take a poll and you will find out how many people you have lost. If you get rid of Joey Elias then I will be gone forever!
OH yeah and the best part of CJAD and the only one I still care to listen to besides Joey is Andrew Carter. He rocks!!!
I think you should listen to what people what . The morning show is great to listen to. Tommys ok . Bring back Rick moffit with the hockey .Bring back the oldies show . But that will never happen. I quess the buck stops there. Thank you.
I’m a huge Kim Fraser fan. I know why some people may have an issue with her: she shoots from the hip and tells it like it is. She’s well-read, well-informed, and features relevant topics and fresh viewpoints. Plus, she’s sharp and quick-witted. I think some listeners may prefer a weaker female voice and viewpoint, so they’d do best to look for some old Saturday Night Live clips of The Delicious Dish. If they want to be challenged and respected, they’ll leave the dial on Kim.
When 12;00 noonarrives that is when I change station do not like Suzanne nor Aaron we used to have a great english radio now we have nothing please reconsider
Sorry to bring up this thread again, but does anyone know what Kim Fraser’s status with CJAD is at present? I know she said on her show a couple of weeks ago after her cruise that she was leaving her weekday job at CJAD but keeping her show on the weekends. Two Friday’s ago, they said it was her last day, and then she wasn’t on last weekend. While on Saturdays, someone filled in, on Sunday, they played “Best-of Repeats instead.)
This week, she was back on Saturday afternoons, but then Sunday, she was off and they just played “Best Ofs” again.
Is she only working one day a week now?
Yes, according to someone who posted at RIM, she’ll only be doing the Saturday afternoon shift (until Bell takes over, and then, who knows?) The Sunday shift was really just hours, not counting co-hosting Dr. Joe’s show.
Thanks Neil, for the answer? By any chance do you have a link to that RIM posting? I wish that they would find a suitable Sunday person to take over her show, rather than repeats of the Best of whatever show during the week.
Seriously they are rejigging their schedules, specifically their weekend ones every month or so. Now they’ve added Tech Talk as well as the Best of the BBC (to go along with the radio broadcast of 60 minutes and The Adventure show) Why don’t they have more live shows on the weekend to fill their repeat space? What about Eramelinda Boquer or Al Gravelle or Merv Williams? Couldn’t we have something light or airy or interesting on Saturday Night as it seems that nowadays, there is nothing really on the Television but hockey games (which I don’t necessarily watch or repeats that I have seen thousands of times. Sometimes I end up listening to Sirius radio instead.
If anybody has any suggestions, that would be great The weekend schedules on CJAD are a complete mishmash changing at the drop of a hat.
I read the comments, I’ll put it this way, keep Dave, Aaron, Tommy (some times, he can be rude) There is too much talk(Babble) Most of the time they talk about absolutely NOTHING. So I listen to Easy Listening on Galaxy.
Been out of the country for awhile…….what ever happen to Aaron and where has he gone ? .? ,!