Monthly Archives: July 2026

| TV

Montreal morning news show among Global TV cuts

As it awaits approval for a plan to hand over the company to its debt holders, Corus Entertainment made another round of cuts this week in TV and radio, and announced changes to how local Global News newscasts would be produced in local markets.

Unifor says 43 positions were cut among its members, more than half in Alberta, where Corus says it will move production of local news to its facilities in Toronto.

The union representing employees at Global Montreal, which is part of the SCFP (CUPE) union federation, tells me two of its employees will be affected by the de facto cancellation of Global Montreal’s morning newscast.

The union said it couldn’t specify what kind of positions were being cut. As this is a union shop, the actual identities of who will get cut could change.

(UPDATE July 30: Host Laura Casella confirmed in a statement on air this morning that she and reporter Brayden Jagger Haines would be remaining with the station, with Casella moving to a new role as anchor of the local evening news and Jagger Haines contributing to the new morning show.)

“We are disappointed by Corus’ decision to eliminate additional positions at Global News, including two in Montreal, and to end Montreal’s only English morning television show. These cuts affect dedicated media professionals who have devoted themselves to serving the public and delivering trusted local journalism,” the statement read.

“This is not only a difficult day for our members and their families, but also for viewers who rely on local news. The loss of another local program further reduces the diversity of voices and coverage available in Montreal’s English-speaking community.

“We, at Local 4502, stand in solidarity with every member affected by these layoffs and will continue to advocate for the value of local journalism and the people who make it possible.”

Global Montreal’s morning news was already a Frankensteinish blending of local and national segments produced on a shoestring budget, with about 20 minutes per hour of local content (and much of that repeated). Now those local segments will disappear too.

“We continue to face audience and revenue challenges related to Global News morning shows, particularly in our smaller markets. As a result, we have decided to introduce one centralized morning show to broadcast across all Eastern stations, with implementation targeted for end of July,” reads an internal Corus memo. ‘While this is a significant change, it allows us to strengthen and sustain local journalism by focusing investments where they can have the greatest impact. Local storytelling will remain a core part of this new regional morning program.”

(Corus later clarified that a single morning news show will be produced for its stations in Regina, Saskatoon, Winnipeg, Toronto, Montreal and Halifax, while B.C., Edmonton and Calgary will maintain their morning shows.)

Out west, where Global News is more popular among audiences, it still had local control rooms in Calgary and Edmonton producing their local evening newscasts (as well as Lethbridge). Now that ends and those will also be produced out of Toronto.

And on the radio side, while they’re not shutting down stations like Rogers did last week, they will be using more voice tracking and syndication.

The changes are part of a long train of centralization moves going back 20 years. Each time Global talks about investing more in local news by shifting resources from technical positions to editorial ones. But the result always seems to feel less local. First, production of the evening news was centralized. Then they had the local news anchored out of Toronto. (A change they partially backtracked on.)

Things looked optimistic in 2013 when a local Montreal morning show launched, a first in many years (CityTV Montreal would launch a short-lived local Breakfast Television later that year.) The new show was part of tangible benefits promised to the CRTC when Shaw bought the Global network from Canwest. And to Global’s credit, it kept the show going after its CRTC commitment expired.

But with the company in financial crisis and about to be handed over to finance people, the cuts are becoming more desperate.

| Radio

CRTC approves Arsenal Media’s acquisition of BPM Sports

Arsenal Media, already Quebec’s largest radio broadcaster by number of stations, has been given the green light by the CRTC to acquire BPM Sports, the network of French-language sports talk stations in Montreal, Gatineau and Quebec City.

The transaction, worth $1.45 million for all three stations, can now go ahead and should close in the coming weeks, Arsenal Media said in a press release. The result will see Arsenal owning 29 stations, while RNC Media’s radio family, which once numbered 15, will be down to two: CHOI Radio X in Quebec City and CHLX-FM, its Rhythme FM affiliate in Gatineau. (It also owns TVA and Noovo affiliate TV stations in Gatineau and the Abitibi region.)

The good (or maybe bad) news for listeners is that Arsenal is not planning major changes. The stations will retain the BPM Sports branding and continue to have most of their programming originate from Montreal, though there would be some local programming on weekends at the Quebec City and Gatineau stations.

“This acquisition is fully aligned with our strategy to strengthen the presence of sports across all our platforms and stations. Our ambition is clear: to quickly propel the BPM Sports brand throughout Quebec and offer fans an essential sports destination, both on radio and on our digital platforms,” Arsenal CEO Sylvain Chamberland is quoted as saying in the company statement.

The one change mentioned in the application adds some music programming, particularly on the non-Montreal stations. CFTX-FM (96.5 in Gatineau) would broadcast country music on weeknights and weekends (Arsenal owns the Hit Country network, which doesn’t have a station in the Outaouais), while CHXX-FM (100.9 in Quebec City) would broadcast adult pop music. CKLX-FM (91.9 in Montreal) would also have some unspecified music on weekend evenings.

While Arsenal is not planning to take away much from the stations, it also isn’t planning to add much either. It made no commitments to increased programming or new investments. Instead, it argued it was saving the stations from being shut down, and for that reason it should not have to pay tangible benefits, one of a few issues the commission had to look at with this sale, and that prompted a dissenting opinion from a commissioner.

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| Radio

CRTC approves plan to turn Quebec City’s 92.7 FM into a country station

Fans of country music in Quebec will have reason to celebrate today, though it will be at the expense of fans of classical music in the provincial capital.

On Wednesday, the CRTC approved the sale of CJSQ-FM 92.7 to Arsenal Media, and its proposed licence change from a specialty classical music format to a mainstream format, which Arsenal says it will use to turn the station into a country music station.

Arsenal currently has four country stations under its Hit Country brand — CKGS-FM 105.5 in La Baie, CKYQ-FM 95.7 in Plessisville, CHCT-FM 105.3 in Sainte-Marie and CJIT-FM 106.7 in Lac-Mégantic, plus CRTC approval for a fifth station at 107.9 in Joliette. The Quebec City station will be its largest market for country, though the station’s transmitter is in the mid range at 2,840 watts.

It wasn’t long ago that Quebec was a wasteland for country radio, with a few independent stations and a few time slots on community stations like CKRK in Kahnawake. The biggest reason for this was CRTC regulations that require French-language songs on French-language stations. There just weren’t enough popular francophone country music songs to make that format work.

But Arsenal has decided it can work, and is investing in it. And in an era where even major-market radio stations are being thrown in the trash, that’s worth acknowledging.

The company, which is less than 15 years old, has grown through various acquisitions to become Quebec’s largest radio broadcaster by number of stations. And it isn’t done. It’s also waiting for approval to buy BPM Sports from RNC Media (a CRTC hearing was held in April). And it’s always ready to pounce on other opportunities.

But what’s great for Arsenal and country music sucks for classical music fans in the Capitale-Nationale region. The writing has been on the wall ever since Radio Classique’s sister station in Montreal (CJPX-FM 99.5) was sold to Leclerc in 2020. Even owner Gregory Charles’s love of classical music can only sustain a money-losing station for so long. And so with the $525,000 purchase price, he’s out.

| Opinion, Radio

Rogers strikes another big blow to AM talk radio

It was just over three years ago that Bell Media announced it was shutting down a bunch of AM talk radio stations in markets like Vancouver, Calgary and Hamilton.

This week, it’s Rogers’s turn to do the same.

As part of cuts to 230 jobs across the country, Rogers Sports and Media is shutting down the following stations:

  • CKWX 1130 NewsRadio Vancouver
  • CISL Sportsnet 650 Vancouver
  • CFFR 660 NewsRadio Calgary
  • CFAC Sportsnet 960 Calgary
  • CKGL 570 NewsRadio Kitchener
  • CJNI-FM 95.7 NewsRadio Halifax

Rogers tells Broadcast Dialogue that it will return the stations’ licences to the CRTC. I wouldn’t be surprised if there is some interest in buying them, particularly the FM station in Halifax (though it does come with a specialty talk licence, so a buyer would need to either change that or propose a talk format). Though Bell and Rogers don’t see much of a future in AM outside Toronto, others might. Akash Broadcasting, for example, bought the station that used to be TSN Radio in Winnipeg and tried to buy an AM station in Calgary from Bell Media. If you’re interested, get in touch with Rogers now before they hand back the licences.

The dozens of people laid off as a result of these closures may struggle to find other jobs. Vancouver’s other sports radio stations, both TSN, switched to other cheaper formats in 2018 and 2021 and were eventually shut down. Radio news people in Vancouver and Calgary could maybe look for jobs at the Corus talk stations in those cities, but Corus isn’t exactly swimming in extra cash these days.

Some media outlets have sprung up to take over some of the slack from these cuts. Stingray started Sports 1440 in Edmonton in the wake of TSN Radio’s shutdown in that city. CHEK TV in Victoria brought in TSN orphans Rick Dhaliwal and Don Taylor after TSN Radio in Vancouver pulled the plug. But no one in radio has infinite money and they can’t hire everyone.

There’s also the question of what happens to sports radio broadcasts where Sportsnet had the rights. The Vancouver Province says Canucks games will remain on a Rogers station, which would mean either Kiss 104.9 or Jack 96.9. But Flames games are up for grabs. Without a sports station in the market, the most logical landing spot would be the remaining commercial talk station, Corus’s CHQR 770. But we’ll see what happens.

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