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.