Concern from Politicians, Shock from Staff as Radio Stations Close

[Editor’s note: Isaac Phan Nay previously worked at 1130 NewsRadio Vancouver.]

Radio journalist Raynaldo Suarez was driving into work when he found out he’d been laid off. The night before, a higher-up at the news station 1130 NewsRadio Vancouver — better known as CityNews Vancouver — had scheduled a mandatory virtual meeting with his team. The station is owned by Rogers Sports & Media, a subsidiary of the $25-billion communications company Rogers.

Suarez listened in while commuting to his Olympic Village office. The meeting was short, he remembered. He was told the Vancouver radio station would be closing. And when it was over, he turned his radio dial to 1130.

“There was a bit of a creepy voice that just said, ‘Thank you for listening. This is our last day on air,’” he said. “Then, boom — radio static. That's when I knew they weren't kidding. They didn't make a mistake. The station's done.”

On July 7, Rogers Sports & Media shut down its news radio stations in Calgary, Kitchener, Halifax and Vancouver, plus its Vancouver and Calgary sports broadcast stations. With the closures, the company laid off at least 80 people.

The layoffs come amid a wave of blows to local journalism broadcasters across Canada as radio and television stations struggle to match the audience numbers of other platforms. The job cuts also come about two and a half months after the Vancouver radio journalists at 1130 NewsRadio finished bargaining a first collective agreement with Unifor.

“These layoffs are another devastating blow to Canada's already fragile news industry," Unifor national president Lana Payne said in a press release the day after the layoffs.

The closures have sparked some members of Parliament to call for stronger oversight of telecommunications companies and question whether the layoffs align with the terms of the 2023 Rogers-Shaw merger, which required the company to create jobs in Western Canada.

Kitchener Centre MP Kelly DeRidder said in a public statement posted to social media that the closures would leave her area without an “essential platform for local journalism.”

“Despite commitments to preserve local media, Rogers has chosen to close stations anyway,” DeRidder said. “This underscores how the current federal government’s strategy for safeguarding local news and employment is simply not working.”

DeRidder is calling on the House of Commons to mandate Rogers to keep local radio stations open, designate local news and informational radio as essential public services, require licensed broadcasters to maintain local news operations and conduct a public inquiry into the Rogers station closures.

Back in his car, Suarez decided to head into work despite not knowing what he’d find at the now closed station. He had spent the past week preparing to cover the final FIFA World Cup game in Vancouver and had been excited to get in that day.

“It really didn't feel real,” Suarez said. “I was like, ‘Oh, this is like this is a weird episode of something I'm watching right now. Maybe I'm dreaming.”

Suarez has built his career in broadcast. Right out of college, he started working as an anchor and reporter at Rogers’ Calgary news radio station. In 2021, Suarez moved to Vancouver to continue his career in radio at CityNews Vancouver.

Now, after six years in journalism, both stations he had worked at were closed. The frequencies would no longer broadcast local breaking news and traffic.

Despite his disbelief, Suarez said he wasn’t surprised. Radio has not been lucrative, and broadcast audiences have been declining for more than a decade.

When asked about the closures, the telecommunications giant emailed The Tyee an article about the situation written by broadcast industry publication Broadcast Dialogue.

“The media business continues to face headwinds driven by declining advertising revenue and changing audience habits,” a spokesperson for the company said in an emailed statement.

“After a thorough review of our radio stations, we have made the difficult but necessary decision to close six radio stations in four markets due to declining audience and revenue trends.”

In an email to The Tyee, the company added that from October to May this past year, the Calgary sports radio station had a typical audience size of 1,200 listeners, while the one in Vancouver averaged 2,100 listeners.

Other broadcasters are also struggling with declining appetites for television and radio.

Corus Entertainment, the parent company of Global News, said in its latest financial report that its consolidated revenue decreased 16 per cent last quarter and 17 per cent so far this year.

On Thursday, the company confirmed plans to shut down television studios in Calgary and Edmonton and lay off an undisclosed number of people.

Still, Rogers’ closures bring increased scrutiny. In an open letter to federal Industry Minister Mélanie Joly, Simcoe North MP Adam Chambers said he’s concerned the closures clash with the terms of the Rogers-Shaw merger.

Chambers said the 2023 deal to merge Rogers and Shaw included a series of conditions. One was to create 3,000 new jobs in Western Canada by 2028 and maintain them for at least five additional years. Another was a commitment to build out connectivity in rural and remote regions of Canada. The deal did not include commitments to preserve local media.

Chambers noted the layoffs come three months after Rogers offered buyouts to 10,000 staff on its business units and corporate side — nearly half its workforce.

While Chambers does not allege the station closures directly break the terms of the deal, he asked the government to consider whether it benefited the public.

“Recall that upon approving the merger, your predecessor indicated that he would ‘watch Rogers like a hawk,’” Chambers told Joly, referring to former industry minister François-Philippe Champagne.

“We are also left to wonder whether the merger would have been approved if your government had advance knowledge of the announcements Rogers and its entities have made in the last few years.”

A spokesperson for Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada said in an email that so far, Rogers has not been out of compliance with its commitments under the merger and the government will continue to ensure it meets the requirements.

According to the department, the company has created 2,599 jobs in Western Canada since the merger.

A long, tough union drive

The Rogers closures also come within months of a first collective agreement for Vancouver news radio workers. Their union, Unifor Local 830M, did not respond to a request for comment.

But the workers’ collective agreement — available on the union’s website — sheds light on the negotiations between the union and the company.

Radio workers at the Vancouver news station unionized in 2022. It took nearly four years for employees to get a first collective agreement with Rogers.

Veteran broadcaster Renee Bernard said she had no indication her newsroom would be shutting down. After about two decades at CityNews Vancouver, the radio journalist was a veteran of the newsroom and a staple of the evening shift.

Bernard found out the station was closing in the same video call as Suarez. She had tuned in on her day off.

“I was a bit confused, to tell you the truth,” she said. “We just weren’t expecting it.”

In March, Rogers had paid to move the radio team from their station near Vancouver City Hall into the television studios in Olympic Village. With the new collective agreement, Bernard had just seen her first pay increase in two decades.

And when there were big events, traffic holdups or tragedies around Vancouver, Bernard said, listeners would still call into the station.

“People knew instinctively to call us to tell us, ‘You've got to put this on air,’” she said. “That gave me an indication that we were still important to some people.”