In the middle of its morning programming, TSN 1260 Edmonton abruptly went off the air as a part of Bell Media’s planned adaptation for how the company disseminates information. At the moment, the company has ceased operations of six radio stations across the country and is selling an additional three. Moreover, 1,300 positions, which equates to 6% of Bell Media’s staff, have either been laid off or will go unfilled, marking another drastic and sudden blow to the job security of those working in media. The move is occurring because of changes in regulatory conditions and innovations in the media landscape, which the company has argued makes such decisions necessary.
“It’s a consolidation of news gathering [and] news delivery,” said Bell Canada Enterprises vice president Robert Malcolmson. “We are combining the news production function in a horizontal way so that you have one common platform that is serving news to the relevant outlet from one management team.”
Staff affected by the job cuts will be notified this week, which comes after Bell Canada Enterprises President and CEO Mirko Bubic divulged that the entity expects to lose over $250 million in legacy phone revenue. Its news operations currently produce a $40 million loss.
Bell Media is the latest North American company to announce job cuts, as the media industry has laid off over 17,000 employees in the United States in 2023 alone. That figure is the highest year-to-date mark on record, surpassing job cuts in 2020, according to Challenger, Gray & Christmas, Inc. Other stations affected by Bell’s changes include Calgary’s Funny 1060, Vancouver’s BNN Bloomberg Radio 1410 and London NewsTalk 1290 among many others. Bell Media previously shuttered radio sports stations in Vancouver, Winnipeg and Hamilton during job cuts in 2021.
The stunning and haste turn of events occurred during a top of the hour break, and it came out of the commercial announcing the closure of the radio station and the immediate cessation of all programming. It had been broadcasting in the all-sports format since its launch as The Team 1260 in 2002, and its official Twitter account has been deleted.
“The realities of AM radio in the broadcast media landscape have made this change unavoidable,” the station said in a statement. “We want to thank our advertising partners, sponsors and everyone who has contributed to this station over the years. But, we especially want to thank you – our listeners. Thank you for welcoming TSN 1260 into your homes, cars and lives for so many years.”
