NorthEast Radio Watch 7/13/2026: After the Rogers Signoffs

In this week’s issue… After Kitchener and Halifax, what will Rogers eliminate next? – Family Life makes a bigger PA buy – Saga vs. LPFM – More NY AMs fade away

By SCOTT FYBUSH

*”Every day is another earthquake lately, isn’t it?”

That’s been the conversation lately among my colleagues in the business as we’ve tried to process the ongoing seismic shifts that seem to be daily events these days in an industry that’s belatedly coming to terms with a world that has changed faster than it’s been able to keep up.

This past week, the earthquake came from north of the border, where media giant Rogers dropped a bombshell with a C$4.35 billion deal to acquire the portions of Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment (MLSE) that it didn’t already own, giving the company full control over all of pro sports in the Toronto market, including the Leafs, the Argos, the Raptors and Scotiabank Arena along with its existing full control of the Blue Jays, Rogers Centre and Sportsnet.

But for a company now focused on pro sports along with its core businesses in wireless, cable TV and broadcast TV, radio seems to be fast becoming an afterthought, a reality made brutally clear on Tuesday when the company abruptly pulled the plug on all of its spoken-word stations outside the Toronto market.

After decades of building and growing the all-news format from coast to coast and after several stabs at integrating news radio with its CityNews TV and online properties, Rogers didn’t even give its anchors and reporters a chance to say goodbye as it shut down its remaining all-news stations in Vancouver (CKWX 1130) and Calgary (CFFR 660) along with its news-talk stations in Halifax (CJNI 95.7) and Kitchener (CKGL 570), leaving only Toronto’s 680 News (CFTR) in the format.

And despite its monopoly on Toronto sports (including Sportsnet 590 the FAN, CJCL), Rogers apparently didn’t see a future in sports radio anywhere else, signing off its Sportsnet stations in Vancouver (CISL 650) and Calgary (CFAC 960) and walking away from its rights deal with the Calgary Flames, who now need to find a new radio partner in a hurry.

While Vancouver and Calgary had competing news-talk stations, listeners back east aren’t so fortunate. In the Kitchener-Waterloo market, “570 News” had been a surprisingly vibrant news and talk voice, with a solid local news team and talk hosts addressing the issues of that growing area west of Toronto. Now its staff are among the 80 or so Rogers employees left jobless by the cuts, as are the staff at “95.7 NewsRadio” in Halifax, which had been the last place on local commercial radio where you could hear anything other than music formats and the last survivor of what had once been a three-station Maritimes news operation that included signals in Saint John and Moncton, now playing music formats. (Rogers had also turned off its all-news station in Ottawa, CIWW 1310/CJET 101.1, in a similarly abrupt fashion three years ago.)

The closures also take sports play-by-play off the air in both markets, a further reminder that even if Rogers owns the Jays and now the rest of the teams in Toronto, it’s much more interested in selling access to TV coverage than in providing it for free on the radio. (The Jays, in particular, had already been more aggressive than most MLB teams in trying to repurpose TV play by play on radio, which never works as well as anyone hopes it will.)

There’s still local news to be heard on the air in both markets thanks to the CBC, so they’re far from news deserts, but it’s still a shock to the system, and to community leaders as well who are asking the CRTC to look for ways to prevent further closures without some attempt to preserve vanishing media resources.

And for listeners to Rogers’ remaining radio stations beyond Toronto, including the FM music stations that survive in Kitchener and Halifax, there are no doubt questions about how long the company will stay committed to the medium at all, and more earthquakes likely yet to come.

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*The NEW YORK State Broadcasters Association has named its Hall of Fame class for 2026, with the usual mix of upstate-downstate and radio-TV.

The downstate contingent includes WABC-TV’s Bill Ritter, whose 28 years at the anchor desk came to an abrupt end last month with his announcement that he has early-stage Alzheimer’s, as well as veteran WNYW (Fox 5) anchor Rosanna Scotto, who’s been in the market for almost 40 years, lately as co-host of “Good Day New York.”

Then there’s Sid Rosenberg, who emerged from Florida to do sports in the big city on WNEW, then joined Don Imus on WFAN and followed him to WABC. After Imus’ retirement and the death of co-host Bernie McGuirk, Rosenberg became WABC’s main morning voice, where he’s been a contentious and controversial figure. On the heels of his Hall of Fame announcement last week, Rosenberg unleashed a profanity-laden tirade against Democratic political figures and other world leaders, which isn’t the usual tenor of a Hall of Fame inductee, to say the least.

The upstate contingent includes Dan Miner, who’s been a staple north of Albany for more than 40 years, first on the old WIPS/WXTY in Ticonderoga and then at both major station clusters in Glens Falls, where he’s currently station manager for WCKM, WCQL and WWSC.

It will be an especially big ceremony for WCKM, where morning co-host/sales guy Pete Cloutier is also being inducted, recognizing a career that started way back in 1966 on WWSC and continues every morning at the age of 81.

On the TV side, Bob Krummenacker is being inducted for his 44-year career at Binghamton’s WBNG (Channel 12), where he retired as VP/GM last fall. Krummenacker rose through the ranks there from his first job back in 1981 as an account executive.

And the induction of Chuck Samuels, who also retired last fall, completes a sweep of Hall of Fame members from Rochester’s WHAM-TV (Channel 13), which has sent a murderer’s row of talent into the hall over the years. Samuels came to channel 13 (then WOKR) as news director in 1996, moving from Buffalo’s WKBW-TV and gigs before that at KDKA-TV in Pittsburgh and at several stations in Florida. In 2006, Samuels took over as VP/GM, guiding the station through changes that included the retirement of Hall of Fame anchors Ginny Ryan, Doug Emblidge and Don Alhart.

*As we drove home through Elmira a few nights ago, we noticed a change on what’s left of the AM dial in that very FM-heavy market: Radigan Broadcasting’s WELM (1410) and WLVY (1600) have both dropped their formats and are running repeating loops directing listeners to new FM homes.

WELM, which had been simulcasting the “Patriot” talk format of WATS (960 Sayre PA), is sending those listeners to the HD4 of WOKN (99.5), Radigan’s country station that’s just added HD transmission.

1600, meanwhile, had been originating the top-40 “94 Rock” that moved over from WLVY’s original FM home at 94.3 before that was sold to Family Life Ministries. Who’s listening to top-40 on AM, especially on a signal that’s had no end of technical issues? Probably nobody – which is why “94 Rock” is now originating on WOKN’s HD2 to feed its translators in Elmira (93.9), Elmira Heights (106.5) and now on 102.5 in Corning, which had long been a translator for the main WOKN format.

The former “94 Rock” translator on 96.7 in Corning, which was permanently linked to 1600, is also running the redirect loop to send listeners to 102.5.

With all signage now gone from the former WELM building on Lake Road, we expect the property to be sold and the three towers out back to come down once the AM signals go away.

(And we congratulate Dave Radigan on his 20th anniversary of radio ownership in the region, which started in Owego at WEBO and now stretches from Owego through Waverly/Sayre into Elmira! Dave is also now simulcasting his other Sayre/Waverly signal, “Choice 102” WAVR, on WOKN-HD3.)

*Up the road in Bath, where WABH (1380) is silent, Tower Broadcasting is selling WABH’s former translator, W262CX (100.3), to Tom Hoyt’s WCJW LLC for $45,000, a deal that also includes the 106.5 Bath translator that carries Family Life. The 100.3 signal, which had briefly gone silent along with 1380, is now simulcasting WCJW’s country format via WVIN (98.3), which Hoyt also recently bought from Tower.

*In Rochester, Ed Musicus may not have been a familiar name to radio listeners, but behind the scenes he was one of the key executives of the Lincoln Group, arguably the most important local ownership group of the last half-century.

As VP of sales, Musicus brought in the revenue that helped power WVOR (100.5) and later sister stations WHAM (1180) and WPXY (97.9) to the very top of the market for years, working alongside an all-star executive team that also included Bud Wertheimer and Jack Palvino.

On a personal note, Musicus was one of the first radio people to take your editor’s interest in the business seriously, encouraging me to start documenting Rochester’s radio history as ownership and formats began changing quickly in the mid-1980s. In recent years, while long retired, he was a familiar face at the annual Rochester media holiday luncheon.

Musicus was 92 when he died June 30.

*In central NEW JERSEY, W264BT (100.7 Edison) is changing primary stations again – it’s now linked to the HD2 of WPRB (103.3 Princeton), which originates the “Radio Mirchi” south Asian format also heard on W224CW (92.7).

*Family Life Ministries is adding two more signals at opposite ends of PENNSYLVANIA, where it’s paying Cumulus $2.25 million to pick up WWKL (106.7 Hershey) in the Harrisburg market and WLLF (96.7 Mercer) along the state’s western border with the Youngstown, Ohio market.

Both signals continue Family Life’s quest to completely fill its turf across New York and Pennsylvania with nonstop coverage; in Harrisburg, the class B 106.7 signal will serve a considerably larger area (all the way down to the Maryland line) than the station Family Life had acquired and started to upgrade, WCDM (100.5 Elizabethville), which is currently silent. Along the Ohio line, the class A 96.7 signal will fill a hole between Family Life’s WCGT (88.7 Clintonville) in the Franklin/Oil City area and its newly acquired 92.1 Ellwood City, serving New Castle.

In both cases, Cumulus is dealing away just one station out of a larger cluster – WLLF has had a sports talk format as part of a larger Youngstown-based cluster that also includes AC WWIZ (Z104) on the Pennsylvania side, while in Harrisburg, “Hot 106.7” and its top-40 format have been part of a cluster that includes classic rock WTPA (93.5), hot AC “Wink” WNNK (104.1) as well as York-based classic hits WSOX (96.1), AC WARM-FM (103.3) and alternative WQXA (105.7).

*In Philadelphia, Jen Scordo is the new midday host at Beasley’s WXTU (92.5), her first full-time airshift in a decade with the cluster. Her other roles have included sports updates and fill-in work at WPEN (97.5 the Fanatic), as well as WXTU fill-in shifts and promotions work.

Scordo’s promotion fills the big shoes left by the exit of Matt “Razz” Radziewicz in May.

*In VERMONT, WGDR (91.1 Plainfield) outlived its original licensee, Goddard College, and now it needs to move out of its home on the college’s former campus.

Now a community station owned by Central Vermont Community Radio, WGDR tells listeners that the new owner of the campus, Ledgeworks, Inc., has told it it will need to move out by next March, ending more than half a century in the former college library building.

Station manager Llu Mulvaney-Stanak says WGDR is looking for a new location and is “ready to meet the moment,” having expected to eventually need to relocate.