OT SportsNet is ceasing operations of its Sports Radio Stations in Vancouver and Calgary

[Brawndo]

Calgary has no radio coverage for their games at the present time, the Canucks will switch to another Rogers Station 

[Porous Five Hole]

So the Sabres aren’t the only ones without a radio partner. 

[Eleven]

The 650 thing was announced last week, I think.  I didn't know about Calgary until now.

[Night Train]

I guess there's no $ in radio. 

[PromoTheRobot]

2 hours ago, Night Train said:

I guess there's no $ in radio. 

iHeart just lobbed off a bunch of folks last week.

[pastajoe]

As much as people complain, we’re lucky to still have a local all day sports station with WGR.

[PromoTheRobot]

 

[repster]

Sportsnet national games in Canada that involve the Sabres black out the MSG broadcast on Fubo here in the Niagara region of southern Ontario.  Having said that, they will sometimes show the MSG feed anyway, especially when it’s a home game, but not always.  If they’re playing Boston or Pittsburgh, they often select the Bruins or Pens feed, and always the Canadian feed when they play a Canadian team.  Usually they take ownership of around a quarter of the Sabres schedule, so I have to have both Fubo and SN if I don’t want to pirate and want to watch all the games.  It’s really annoying.  Bills coverage up here we get through Bell, so CTV or TSN has all the games, even if they are on Peacock, Netflix, Prime or anything else in the US.  One stop shopping is a lot better.   Crazy how the Bills are on 6 different US providers this year!

Edited July 8 by repster

[Sabres73]

I was down to two stations that I listened to regularly in my car. Yesterday both of them were axed so it's down to none. Roger's is the worst company in our country.

[PromoTheRobot]

8 hours ago, Sabres73 said:

I was down to two stations that I listened to regularly in my car. Yesterday both of them were axed so it's down to none. Roger's is the worst company in our country.

I get staffing a real station with decent reporters and talk hosts is expensive, but you can't turn a profit covering hockey in hockey-mad Canada??

Of course they can. But that isn't the problem. Just like in the US, they allowed several companies, like iHeart, Cumulus and Townsquare, to become regional monopolies, buying up all the stations at the peak of their value back at the turn on the century. 

So what is killing them now isn't unprofitablity, it's debt service. They're over leveraged. That and the pressure to increase profits year after year. This is the end result of pumping out an army of Harvard MBA's.

Edited July 8 by PromoTheRobot

[xzy89c1]

Sites like this, podcasts and YouTube are reason the stations died. I would rather come here and in 5 minutes catch up on things than listen to blowhards and endless commercials.

Harrington is such a tool. There is an insane amount of content about any NHL team on Twitter, podcasts, fansites or YouTube. The Hockey Guy YouTube and in ten minutes will tell you all you need to know about NHL transactions. He has some awesome jerseys too. Harrington is upset he is meaningless to those who follow the NHL. The days of the Beat Writers making up things using each other as "sources" is over due to ease of fact checking them.

8 hours ago, PromoTheRobot said:

I get staffing a real station with decent reporters and talk hosts is expensive, but you can't turn a profit covering hockey in hockey-mad Canada??

Of course they can. But that isn't the problem. Just like in the US, they allowed several companies, like iHeart, Cumulus and Townsquare, to become regional monopolies, buying up all the stations at the peak of their value back at the turn on the century. 

So what is killing them now isn't unprofitablity, it's debt service. They're over leveraged. That and the pressure to increase profits year after year. This is the end result of pumping out an army of Harvard MBA's.

Podcasts, YouTube are far Superior to any talk radio BS.

[mjd1001]

4 minutes ago, xzy89c1 said:

Sites like this, podcasts and YouTube are reason the stations died. I would rather come here and in 5 minutes catch up on things than listen to blowhards and endless commercials.

Harrington is such a tool. There is an insane amount of content about any NHL team on Twitter, podcasts, fansites or YouTube. The Hockey Guy YouTube and in ten minutes will tell you all you need to know about NHL transactions. He has some awesome jerseys too. Harrington is upset he is meaningless to those who follow the NHL. The days of the Beat Writers making up things using each other as "sources" is over due to ease of fact checking them.

The highlighted above is why I am having trouble with Talk radio...and it has moved from sports and even into news now.

20+ years ago, I think there were 2 types of talk shows.  A show where the host was the 'blowhard' who gave his opinion, challenged callers to disagree with him/her, complained about everything, and was rude to/hung up on people.   Then there was the other kind of show where the host would bring up a topic or two....take calls on it, and unless the caller was WAY out there with their opinion, would give time to discuss all opinions callers brought up.

Basically you had the 'blowhard host' and you also had the 'conversation facilitator'.  I have, and always will, like the 2nd.

We are getting less of the 2nd one (the conversation facilitator) and more of the first (the host gives THIER opinion and is going to talk down/talk back to someone who disagrees.)

I guess the 2nd type doesn't get the ratings maybe? But it is very much why I listen to a lot less talk radio than in the past.  Just like this forum...I am fine when some disagress with me, and I can go back and forth with them making my point and they can try to convince me of theirs. But I despise it when it comes to name calling and people throwing down the gauntlet on their own argument without anything to back it up and being arrogant about it.

[Sabres73]

I get what people are saying about this, but the fact is that the sports radio in Vancouver was excellent. These were professionals who did solid work and were put out of work by accountants maximizing profit when they could well afford to have these stations running. Rogers makes huge profits. Except from me as I've cancelled all my sports programming as a result of this.

[PromoTheRobot]

1 hour ago, xzy89c1 said:

Sites like this, podcasts and YouTube are reason the stations died. I would rather come here and in 5 minutes catch up on things than listen to blowhards and endless commercials.

Harrington is such a tool. There is an insane amount of content about any NHL team on Twitter, podcasts, fansites or YouTube. The Hockey Guy YouTube and in ten minutes will tell you all you need to know about NHL transactions. He has some awesome jerseys too. Harrington is upset he is meaningless to those who follow the NHL. The days of the Beat Writers making up things using each other as "sources" is over due to ease of fact checking them.

Podcasts, YouTube are far Superior to any talk radio BS.

True, but most of them a caca. Guys in their mom's basement tossing around hot takes. If you want quality content you need people who do the job full time. 

[xzy89c1]

13 hours ago, PromoTheRobot said:

True, but most of them a caca. Guys in their mom's basement tossing around hot takes. If you want quality content you need people who do the job full time. 

just need to find the good ones... I don't have time to listen to people stretch out a 5-minute topic into two hours. I want it quick, concise and accurate. YouTube and podcasts are my go to. Cannot remember last time i listened to a radio station.

[xzy89c1]

13 hours ago, Sabres73 said:

I get what people are saying about this, but the fact is that the sports radio in Vancouver was excellent. These were professionals who did solid work and were put out of work by accountants maximizing profit when they could well afford to have these stations running. Rogers makes huge profits. Except from me as I've cancelled all my sports programming as a result of this.

They were put out of business due to lack of listeners. IF they could sell advertising and make a reasonable profit they would still be going strong. Radio and TV are going extinct. Newspapers too. Adapt or die and they cannot adapt to a guy doing YouTube or a podcast type of expense level. With all the options we also don't need to listen to a person whose views are, let's be nice, not that intelligent. 

[LTS]

16 hours ago, Sabres73 said:

I get what people are saying about this, but the fact is that the sports radio in Vancouver was excellent. These were professionals who did solid work and were put out of work by accountants maximizing profit when they could well afford to have these stations running. Rogers makes huge profits. Except from me as I've cancelled all my sports programming as a result of this.

Rogers has to manage its share price. This is how its done. It's not done by subsidizing poorly performing segments of the business. If there was a market for sports radio I am sure they would have kept it around. However, that market is dying. I'm honestly amazed radio is even a thing these days. I think the only time I've listened to the radio in the past few years was to hear a Sabres game while driving.  However, now I just load up an app and stream the television broadcast. I don't watch it, but it's the same audio broadcast anyway.

There is no room for nostalgia unless it's profitable. 

[Eleven]

2 minutes ago, LTS said:

Rogers has to manage its share price. This is how its done. It's not done by subsidizing poorly performing segments of the business. If there was a market for sports radio I am sure they would have kept it around. However, that market is dying. I'm honestly amazed radio is even a thing these days. I think the only time I've listened to the radio in the past few years was to hear a Sabres game while driving.  However, now I just load up an app and stream the television broadcast. I don't watch it, but it's the same audio broadcast anyway.

There is no room for nostalgia unless it's profitable. 

On the other hand, it just spent 4.6 billion to acquire the rest of MLSE.

[Night Train]

18 hours ago, xzy89c1 said:

 

Podcasts, YouTube are far Superior to any talk radio BS.

I'm not a fan of WGR radio or talk radio in general. Only so much you can talk about before wandering off into personal stories which means nothing to the listener. 

YouTube podcasts are full of basement dreamers making up bogus trades and fake news on a daily basis. Total nonsense. See Pat Moran or Dan Mitchell. They need to get lives. 

[PromoTheRobot]

2 hours ago, xzy89c1 said:

just need to find the good ones... I don't have time to listen to people stretch out a 5-minute topic into two hours. I want it quick, concise and accurate. YouTube and podcasts are my go to. Cannot remember last time i listened to a radio station.

The best hockey pod is the Baker-Fairburn cast. They usually do 2/week but they are shutting down for summer. Real, knowledgeable takes. There isn't another Sabres pod close.

[mjd1001]

29 minutes ago, Night Train said:

I'm not a fan of WGR radio or talk radio in general. Only so much you can talk about before wandering off into personal stories which means nothing to the listener. 

YouTube podcasts are full of basement dreamers making up bogus trades and fake news on a daily basis. Total nonsense. See Pat Moran or Dan Mitchell. They need to get lives. 

And the podcasts and YouTube channels, the vast majority of them that present themselves as legitimate, aren't that much better. They have a large following because they tell their particular listeners what they want to hear. 

I guess it's the way that radio and television have gone. Also. Want to get highest ratings? Don't tell people the truth, tell them what they want to hear and they'll tune in.

[dudacek]

1 hour ago, LTS said:

Rogers has to manage its share price. This is how its done. It's not done by subsidizing poorly performing segments of the business. If there was a market for sports radio I am sure they would have kept it around. However, that market is dying. I'm honestly amazed radio is even a thing these days. I think the only time I've listened to the radio in the past few years was to hear a Sabres game while driving.  However, now I just load up an app and stream the television broadcast. I don't watch it, but it's the same audio broadcast anyway.

There is no room for nostalgia unless it's profitable. 

People talk about radio as a dying breed and they aren’t wrong.

Whats missing is that The radio programming was also available as podcasts or on streaming platforms - this isn’t about competing platforms.

The business model may not have been doing it for Rogers, but an audience is there for the programming.

The content lost here (particularly Halford and Brough) was excellent, among the best hockey listening out there.

Edited July 9 by dudacek

[Night Train]

2 hours ago, mjd1001 said:

And the podcasts and YouTube channels, the vast majority of them that present themselves as legitimate, aren't that much better. They have a large following because they tell their particular listeners what they want to hear. 

I guess it's the way that radio and television have gone. Also. Want to get highest ratings? Don't tell people the truth, tell them what they want to hear and they'll tune in.

Sports and politics. 

[LTS]

4 hours ago, Eleven said:

On the other hand, it just spent 4.6 billion to acquire the rest of MLSE.

Yes, the remaining 25% so they were the de facto owners.  But that's how it works. They shed expense in radio stations and pivoted to a more valuable investment. It's actually incredible how much they own in the Canadian sports market overall.

3 hours ago, dudacek said:

People talk about radio as a dying breed and they aren’t wrong.

Whats missing is that The radio programming was also available as podcasts or on streaming platforms - this isn’t about competing platforms.

The business model may not have been doing it for Rogers, but an audience is there for the programming.

The content lost here (particularly Halford and Brough) was excellent, among the best hockey listening out there.

One would hope they would self-invest and start their own thing. If they are good there would likely be sponsors lining up for it. It's an extremely low bar to get started and to distribute. 

As for the radio programming that's the thing. You can create the content without the radio and all of its licensing, etc. Better to just shutter that and use the Internet for distribution.

 

[Sabres73]

5 hours ago, Eleven said:

On the other hand, it just spent 4.6 billion to acquire the rest of MLSE.

Exactly - Rogers ruins lives because they're a disgusting company. It's never in Ontario, where their head office is located. They can more than afford not to. Not to mention the family are Trumpers.

Edited July 9 by Sabres73