Rogers Sports activities and Media is shutting down its Sportsnet 650 radio station in Vancouver and Sportsnet 960 station in Calgary, in addition to 4 different stations.
Calgary’s 660 NewsRadio can be being closed, together with Vancouver’s 1130 AM, Halifax’s 95.7 NewsRadio, and Kitchener’s 570 NewsRadio.
The corporate mentioned the station closures will lead to 80 workers shedding their jobs. These are amongst 230 complete job losses at Rogers Sports activities and Media from these and different organizational modifications introduced Tuesday.
Rogers cited declining viewers numbers and decrease commercial income for the choice.
“The media enterprise continues to face headwinds pushed by declining promoting income and altering viewers habits. These modifications are a part of our plan to focus our funding in areas that may drive progress long-term,” mentioned Rogers spokesperson Zac Carreiro in an emailed assertion.
“After a radical evaluate of our radio stations, we’ve got made the troublesome however mandatory determination to shut six radio stations in 4 markets because of declining viewers and income traits.”
Carreiro mentioned Rogers will proceed to personal and function 44 radio stations in practically 30 communities and would “put money into native information within the impacted markets.”
Rogers will proceed broadcasting Vancouver Canucks video games on one in every of its radio properties in that metropolis however will now not produce Calgary Flames broadcasts for radio.
Sean Kelso, a spokesperson for Flames-parent firm Calgary Sports activities and Leisure Corp., mentioned in an interview the Flames had discovered of Sportsnet 960’s closure Tuesday and had been taking a look at choices.
From October to Might of this previous yr, Rogers mentioned its Calgary sports activities radio station had a mean of simply 1,200 listeners. The Vancouver sports activities station had a mean viewers of two,100 listeners throughout that very same interval.
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The transfer partly displays the evolution in how customers eat audio content material, notably sports activities followers, mentioned Christopher Waddell, former director of Carleton College’s Faculty of Journalism and Communication.
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He mentioned many listeners have migrated over to podcasts from conventional sports activities radio reveals.
“For people who find themselves thinking about sports activities, nearly all people has an opinion about sports activities and plenty of of them have podcasts now, too,” mentioned Waddell.
“The viewers could also be declining and when audiences decline it will get tougher to get promoting, clearly.”
Waddell added that sports activities radio stations aren’t solely competing with new media for listeners and advert income, but additionally the groups they cowl, too.
“The leagues themselves do quite a lot of their very own work. They’ve their very own web sites, they’ve their very own reporters at some video games, they might be doing podcasts, athletes are doing podcasts,” he mentioned.
“What got here as an outgrowth of sports activities radio has now devoured sports activities radio.”
Rogers mentioned its Sportsnet 590 station in Toronto will proceed to function.
Among the many 230 complete job cuts, Rogers mentioned about half of these have an effect on company and assist roles resembling gross sales, advertising and marketing and programming.
Rogers mentioned the cuts would have an effect on a “small variety of different on-air jobs throughout TV and radio” because of programming modifications. That features some unionized TV newsroom positions in Toronto and Vancouver.
The TV newsroom modifications will start with a voluntary departure program, with departures happening in August.
The corporate can be making “changes” on the non-media aspect of its enterprise “to replicate present market realities as a part of our multi-year plan to drive progress long-term.” It mentioned the modifications have an effect on a small proportion of its workforce, together with company and frontline roles.
For Vancouver, the information marks the newest blow for sports activities radio within the metropolis after Bell Media shuttered rival station TSN 1040 in 2021.
Rogers launched Sportsnet 650 in 2017 because it acquired the radio broadcast rights to Vancouver Canucks video games. The corporate signed a cope with Canucks Sports activities & Leisure 4 years in the past to stay the crew’s regional TV and radio rights holders by 2033.
B.C. Premier David Eby mentioned in a social media publish that journalism is extra necessary than income.
“All of us profit from having native information retailers and it is a blow for British Columbians,” Eby mentioned.
“B.C. goes to overlook Sportsnet 650 and AM 1130. I’m considering of all their employees, producers, and journalists right this moment.”
A day previous to the announcement, Rogers introduced it’ll purchase the remaining 25 per cent stake in Maple Leaf Sports activities & Leisure that it didn’t but personal for $4.35 billion.
MLSE owns the NHL’s Maple Leafs, NBA’s Raptors, MLS’ Toronto FC and the CFL’s Argonauts. Final yr, Rogers closed a separate $4.7-billion cope with rival BCE Inc. to purchase its 37.5 per cent stake in MLSE, making it the sports activities conglomerate’s majority proprietor.
In April, Rogers reported its revenue rose in its newest quarter as complete income was up 10 per cent year-over-year.
Rogers’ revenue attributable to shareholders in its first quarter was $438 million, in contrast with $280 million a yr earlier, as its income totalled $5.48 billion, up from $4.98 billion.
Regardless of greater media income total, Rogers mentioned its promoting income was decrease for the quarter.
In 2024, Rogers lower what it mentioned was “just a few dozen” jobs in its audio enterprise, citing an unpredictable promoting market that had led to declining income.
That very same yr, BCE offered 45 regional radio stations and ended a number of tv newscasts as half of a bigger shakeup that noticed it slash 9 per cent of its workforce.
Waddell mentioned it was “discouraging” however not shocking to see extra native information disappearing.
“There’s already been an enormous cutback in print variations of native information, or on-line variations of native information as conventional newspapers who went on-line have shut down,” he mentioned.
“Radio nonetheless has a spot and the general public broadcaster, I feel, does pretty effectively with radio nonetheless, however the personal broadcasters are having extra hassle, clearly.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first printed July 7, 2026.
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Observe to readers:It is a corrected story. A earlier model referred to remark from a Calgary Sports activities and Leisure Corp. spokesperson in a quoted assertion. Actually, the remark was paraphrased from an interview.