[ExDilbert]

Not sure if it's a new format. It's certainly a change for the people who worked at the station. Most of them were fired without warning yesterday. Some of them had worked for there over 30 years. Rogers purchased the station in the past year and started removing station equipment recently. The new personalities appear to be a mix of imports from regional Rogers stations and syndicated shows. They may not even be on site to do their shows but merely programming them remotely. Corporate takeovers, automation and remote programming have decimated employment in the broadcasting industry.

 

[Gentleman]

Judging from comments online, listeners are going elsewhere.

https://about.rogers.com/2018/08/15...101-easy-101-3-beginning-today/#comment-41812

 

[itcamrch]

...as always happens. The people who care enough to post were regular listeners for a reason - they LIKED what the station was doing. Existing listeners who like the change and potential new listeners aren't as vocal.

 

[Gentleman]

...as always happens. The people who care enough to post were regular listeners for a reason - they LIKED what the station was doing. Existing listeners who like the change and potential new listeners aren't as vocal.

I cannot disagree with your summary, however what I'm discovering is most terrestrial radio stations (in the Canadian market) are all sounding the same as they race to the bottom for programming content. Give a listen to radio stations state side and you'll discover a wide variety of programming content which is rapidly disappearing in the Canadian marketplace. If you are old enough to recall the hey day of stations like CKLW, CHUM, or CFRB, those were the golden days for Canadian broadcasters.

Everyday I thank my lucky stars that I am able to receive a plethora of radio and television stations OTA south of the border with quality content.

 

[jacjames]

One has to define "quality content" For every crappy Canadian Station the USA has fifty crappy stations. Radio is essentially dead and when old friends pass away try to remember their good points.

 

[ExDilbert]

I've been hearing radio go downhill for the past 40 years. The golden age for AM radio was probably prior to the 1950s. That was when TV replaced the radio as a popular broadcast entertainment medium. FM became a good alternative in the 1960s and 1970s due to it's existence as a non-profit sideline. Once FM became more popular and the stations turned into AM top 40 clones, it declined as well. During the 1970s the corporate owned network started to overtake the industry. Corporate ownership intensified in the following decades and has accelerated since the 1990s. That made radio significantly worse as staff and budgets were slashed due to declining revenues, and programming was homogenized and changed to catered to the lowest common denominator.

CKOT was one of the few remaining independently owned radio stations in Southern Ontario. It was launched in 1965 as an FM station that was on the air from 6pm to midnight. For a brief time it was simulcast on AM. The AM station was only allowed to operate during daylight hours and remained that way until 2013. CKOT was operated by the original local owners from 1965 until 2016 when it was sold to Rogers. It's demise is complete now that its local staff has been slashed and its programming replaced by corporate remote sweatshop programming. RIP CKOT.