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.

Was this necessary?

The timing of this announcement doesn’t look great from Rogers, which just the day before announced it was spending $4.35 billion to buy the rest of Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment that was still held by Larry Tanenbaum. Surely if they have that kind of cash, they could afford to keep some radio stations running (especially when they broadcast those sports teams on some of those stations.)

But big companies don’t work that way. They’re not going to cross-subsidize just for fun or good will. If a money-losing piece can be cut without affecting the rest of the assets, they’re going to do that.

But were the stations losing money? Because station-level data isn’t made public, we have only aggregate numbers to go on. We know from Rogers’s 2025 CRTC financial report that its radio division as a whole was not profitable. It lost $13 million on $125 million of total revenue. And between expensive-to-program talk stations and music stations that are both easier to operate and have larger, younger audiences, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out how to fix that.

Market-level aggregate data show that Vancouver’s 10 AM stations as a whole have consistently lost money, as have the five AM stations in Calgary, and the 11 AM and FM stations in Halifax. Only the Kitchener market (which like Halifax isn’t split into AM and FM in CRTC public reports) made a profit.

If someone wants to buy these stations, these are the things they need to keep in mind. They would either need to reduce the cost of operations, find new sources of revenue, or live with bleeding money. (Or a combination of all the above.)

What’s left?

The cuts leave Rogers with only two talk stations, both in Toronto: 680 News and Sportsnet 590. Its only other AM station left is CKAT 650 Country in North Bay, Ont. It previously shut down its CityNews station in Ottawa, blaming the CRTC for being too slow and inflexible.

It still has dozens of music stations across the country, though you have to wonder if it might want to sell off some of those in the coming years, like Bell did two years ago for its smaller markets.

As for AM and talk radio, it’s clear the former is in long-term decline and the latter isn’t doing great. Bell Media has nine AM stations left, two of which are in Toronto. People at TSN 1200 in Ottawa, CFAX 1070 in Victoria and AM 800 CKLW in Windsor will continue to live with that thought that their sudden end could come any day. Shutdowns of TSN 690 in Montreal or 580 CFRA in Ottawa are also not outside the realm of possibility.

Corus owns six AM news-talk stations, and the Shaw family is about to lose control of the company to debt-holders who will be more interested in getting their money back than providing heritage stations.

Besides the Edmonton sports talk station, Stingray owns CHNL in Kamloops, VOCM in Newfoundland and CFLN-FM in Labrador (the latter two have a music/talk mix).

Rawlco has a network of talk stations in Saskatchewan, including AM stations in Regina and Saskatoon.

And Quebec still has some talk stations on FM, including Cogeco stations like 98.5 FM in Montreal, and RNC Media’s CHOI Radio X.

That’s about it. Outside the GTA and the list above, you’re essentially left with community and campus non-profit stations and the CBC.

If there’s a solution to reinvigorate AM radio, it has remained elusive. And so the industry simply continues to manage its decline.