Virgin Radio Montreal doesn’t have a lot of veterans, but while the weekday shows have gone through several shuffles over the years, one constant was the MC Mario show on Friday and Saturday nights.
Until now, that is. Mario posted on Instagram on Friday that, effective immediately, his show “will not air any longer on Virgin Radio Montreal” after an impressive 30 years.
No replacement has been announced. Friday and Saturday nights have a generic “Virgin Radio hits” show, along with DJ Vito V.
Virgin has also dropped afternoon host Tyler Barr from the schedule. Barr joined the station a year and a half ago, moving from western Canada. Lee Haberkorn takes over his 2-7pm shift.
In a Facebook post on Monday, Haberkorn wrote that Barr “decided to move back to Ontario to be closer to family. A decision we respect immensely!”
Another example of Bell Media not caring about anything except making money.
a Montréal Québec DJ Icon to drop Mario is like the Nordiques leaving Québec City. Decades ago in the NHL. This is brutal. Montréal & Québec nightlife is and always will be MC Mario!
I am stunned, wondered why no show tonight!! This means my Friday night’s will not be the same, MC Mario’s show was a staple, like an energy drink ending my week, ready to take on the weekend!! Thanks MC Mario for 30 years of dedicated beats, I cannot wait to see what you have in store!!
I’ve been listening to MC Mario since 2005. He will be truly missed! ? The radio station won’t be the same!
Bell Media’s annual blood-letting pre-Christmas celebrations now underway…an annual tradition!
The expensive “old-timers” are being slowly weeded out by the bean counters. This should serve as another warning to all Bell radio staff – especially in Montreal – that jobs are NOT secure – regardless, on in spite of your tenure. Just another nail in the coffin of “local” radio which is being replaced by nation-wide, generic stuff.
Actually, being an old timer is in fact a huge risk at this point. Senior staff tend to have bigger dollar contracts and even replacing “like for like” with a new, younger, lower cost person is good for the bottom line. You can be sure that Bell is looking closely at every piece of automation or any potential to share staff between stations to lower costs.
The first rule of working in private radio is to save 3-6 months income because you can and will be laid off at any time.
Tyler Barr also seems to be gone
His tenure took him through three iterations of CJFM (FM96, Mix96, Virgin). His heyday was probably the EuroDance boom of the 90’s.
Seems to me this was purely a $money$ decision by Bell bean counters.
Bell and COVID alike; they destroy whatever is good in life !
McMario, can’t wait to hear your side B (12 inch extended version) very soon, I hope !
Thanks for everything. Johnny since the early 80’s!
Mc Mario not being on the air has stopped me from listening to the station anymore. Thanks for the great music and vibes Mc Mario.
Try Z103.5. They have good stuff from the Toronto scene. They have a mix show at lunch time and in the morning on some days.
I found this difficult to grasp at first. I grew up listening to MC Mario on 95.9 as far back as the mid-1990s and this was one of the reasons I listened to CJFM for a long time. Not sure about tuning in as much after this announcement.
However, I was surprised to hear MC Mario back on the airwaves mixing on The Beat 92.5 for the Party Weekend on Saturday April 16th between 5pm-8pm. The weekend after, the station reverted back to the scheduled programming from before with a very popular radio personality. Like to find out what the reception was by listeners and what the outcome will be.
Cjfm has no respect for the listener. I am furious that they stopped the party shows with mc Mario.the station can now go to hell