CHNL - RadioNL Kamloops major layoffs (After Newcap purchase

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CHNL - RadioNL Kamloops major layoffs (After Newcap purchase

Postby KamloopsRadioDude » Wed Nov 15, 2017 9:45 pm

Seems the new management is cleaning house here in Kamloops. Coincidental with NewCap recently purchasing them.

https://www.kamloopsthisweek.com/layoffs-nl-broadcasting-including-departure-rick-bear-wile/
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Re: CHNL - RadioNL Kamloops major layoffs (After Newcap purc

Postby radiofan » Thu Nov 16, 2017 11:02 am

Layoffs at NL Broadcasting, including departure of Rick “The Bear” Wile
By Tim Petruk - November 15, 2017


Four people were given their walking papers on Wednesday at a Kamloops radio station, bringing to six the number of NL Broadcasting staffers who have left the company or been laid off in recent weeks.

NL Broadcasting general manager Garth Buchko told KTW the moves were part of staffing changes that also left longtime sports director Rick “The Bear” Wile without a job last month, around the same time veteran music director Tim Tyler’s retirement was announced in an internal company email.

“We’re restructuring,” Buchko said. “It’s our news department and our sports department and Bear was part of that.”

Buchko would not say which departments were impacted by the four cuts made Wednesday. KTW has learned the employees let go were senior copy writer Chris Doherty, on-air personality Matt Bellamy and two employees in the traffic department. Doherty and Bellamy were both longtime NL employees.

NL Broadcasting — which owns Radio NL 610 AM, Country 103 and 97.5 The River — was purchased earlier this year by Newcap Radio, a Nova Scotia-based broadcasting company with 95 radio stations across Canada, including three in Vancouver and one each in Kelowna and Penticton. The sale was finalized in June.

In May, when the sale was announced, Buchko told KTW the message from Newcap to employees was one of stability.

“When Ian Lurie [chief operating officer with Newcap] was in last week, he said there’s no foreseeable changes. We have a strong, profitable business,” Buchko said at the time.

In May, Lurie told KTW he had been interested in purchasing NL Broadcasting in previous positions with Standard Radio and Astral Media.

“Newcap has always wanted to expand in B.C. . . . When we looked at the stability of the economy, growth of the university, development going on, migration of people from Vancouver finding opportunities — we love the prospects for the town and the entrenched position NL has,” he said.

While Lurie acknowledged challenges of traditional media in the age of social media, he said in May that radio has fared better than newspapers and television.

NL had been an independent broadcaster prior to the sale. The station was founded in 1970.

Buchko said he’s not sure whether the restructuring is complete or more cuts are coming.

“I can’t answer that today, because no business can answer that,” he said. “But we’re pleased with our business and pleased with the staff we have. Only time will tell.”

Wile, who was inducted into the Kamloops Sports Hall of Fame in April, had been with Radio NL for nearly 39 years.

“I’m staying in Kamloops,” Wile told KTW, noting the terms of his departure from NL prevent him from discussing certain details. “I’m not retiring. I’m too young to retire. I’ll pop up some place. I’ve been doing too much around Kamloops for 40 years to just shut it down.”

Also a longtime on-air NL Broadcasting employee, Tyler retired last month after more than three decades with the company. He had been the music director at 97.5 The River and Country 103.

Editor’s note: This story has been updated to include information from a story in May, when the sale of NL Broadcasting to Newcap was announced.

https://www.kamloopsthisweek.com/layoff ... bear-wile/
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Re: CHNL - RadioNL Kamloops major layoffs (After Newcap purc

Postby sparky » Thu Nov 16, 2017 12:48 pm

Unfortunately, this doesn't come as a surprise. I believe it was predicted.

It was a sad day for radio in BC when this sale was announced. Like CKNW and the old CKIQ in Kelowna, once they were bought out by the big guys, it became a matter of time until once great stations were gutted and everything that was done was to satisfy the shareholders, not the public they supposedly serve or the staffs that had put their hearts and souls into providing great product on the air.

Before too long, NL will resemble anyone of the many cookie cutter stations that Newcap has scattered throughout secondary and small markets across Alberta.

A sad state of affairs.
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Re: CHNL - RadioNL Kamloops major layoffs (After Newcap purc

Postby Doug » Tue Nov 21, 2017 5:39 pm

On a semi-related note, is the position of "music director" or "assistant program director," as it seems to sometimes be called, somewhat of an "endangered species" now with all of the streamling, with the PD now assuming the MD duties?

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Re: CHNL - RadioNL Kamloops major layoffs (After Newcap purc

Postby jon » Tue Nov 21, 2017 5:51 pm

On most music-driven stations, Music Directors, or whoever is given the job, are kept busy entering the entire week's music on the computer system.

From what I understand, very few radio stations let the computer choose the music. Even Canada's most successful music service, Stingray, uses it as their major marketing point: everything they play is programmed in exactly the sequence heard by a human being.
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Re: CHNL - RadioNL Kamloops major layoffs (After Newcap purc

Postby Neumann Sennheiser » Tue Nov 21, 2017 10:00 pm

jon wrote:....everything they play is programmed in exactly the sequence heard by a human being.


..in the presumptuous assumption they will attract actual human beings that are interested in hearing it. Good luck with that.
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Re: CHNL - RadioNL Kamloops major layoffs (After Newcap purc

Postby jon » Tue Nov 21, 2017 10:15 pm

Neumann Sennheiser wrote:..in the presumptuous assumption they will attract actual human beings that are interested in hearing it. Good luck with that.

Not sure if you are referring to Stingray, but it appears as if they have the vast majority of restaurants in Canada playing at least one of their music channels.

Restaurant Managers are pretty sensitive to criticism of the music played in their establishments, so I think it is safe to assume that not too many of their patrons hate what they hear.
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Re: CHNL - RadioNL Kamloops major layoffs (After Newcap purc

Postby Doug » Wed Nov 22, 2017 11:50 am

I love Stingray but, I guess, the problem I have with them, with satellite radio and terrestrial radio to a certain extent is their choice in music. For instance, for "oldies"-focused genres, they often don't feature the "hits" I want to hear, i.e. they'll often have lots of Fats Domino, Ray Charles and other obscure artists and not enough "Mamas and the Papas", "Jefferson Airplane", etc.

So then if the MD is essential, is it the PD that is an endangered species? Further streamlining is inevitable and either the GM/Advertising Director assumes some of the PD's duties or the PD assumes the MD's duties. Which is more likely?

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Re: CHNL - RadioNL Kamloops major layoffs (After Newcap purc

Postby Neumann Sennheiser » Wed Nov 22, 2017 2:09 pm

jon wrote:
Neumann Sennheiser wrote:..in the presumptuous assumption they will attract actual human beings that are interested in hearing it. Good luck with that.

Not sure if you are referring to Stingray,


No, my bad, I was considering more generally the convoluted combinations of algorithms and focus group data used and misused by terrestrial radio interests.
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Re: CHNL - RadioNL Kamloops major layoffs (After Newcap purc

Postby pave » Wed Nov 22, 2017 2:15 pm

Radio is an industry made up of and managed by "cutters".
What they seem not to understand or experience is: They are also bleeding out - a result of their own slow-suicide behaviours.
Extreme blood loss, by the way, tends to influence the clarity of one's thinking, as well.
And it shows.
There is a lot of concurrence on the diagnosis.
The prognosis, however, is grim.
Prayer doesn't work.
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Re: CHNL - RadioNL Kamloops major layoffs (After Newcap purc

Postby jon » Thu Nov 23, 2017 6:03 pm

dmehus wrote:For instance, for "oldies"-focused genres, they often don't feature the "hits" I want to hear, i.e. they'll often have lots of Fats Domino, Ray Charles and other obscure artists and not enough "Mamas and the Papas", "Jefferson Airplane", etc.

While I would be hard pressed to name a Top 40 station that I listened to in 1968 that played, as an Oldie, anything older than The Beatles first U.S. hit (early 1964), Fats Domino is anything but an obscure artist, having sold more records than the Mamas and the Papas and Jefferson Airplane put together. Some even consider his first hit, The Fat Man, as the first Rock & Roll record ever made, though Rocket 88 generally gets the majority nod.

radiofan wrote:Domino ultimately sold 65 million records, which is more than any rocker of the '50s except Elvis Presley. His songs landed him on the Billboard pop chart 63 times and the R&B chart 59 times throughout his years.
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Re: CHNL - RadioNL Kamloops major layoffs (After Newcap purc

Postby the-real-deal » Fri Nov 24, 2017 1:18 am

it looks like my prediction about Newcap paring the once mighty 'NL to the bone, came true, after all.

I predicted that the former takeover of the former Giant FM in Penticton by Newcap was the freudian slip for future butcherings, including the purchase of 'NL.

Very sad development, including the canning of the long time Sports Director, Rick Wile.

For many years, Radio NL has prided itself on its outstanding breaking sports news and all of that will change, now.

Sorry, but news people cannot cover the sports beat, properly, when the main focus is covering news.

Let us see if the Kamloops listening public will buy into all of these cutbacks, either now, or later.

The butchering isn't over, yet, folks, I predict.
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Re: CHNL - RadioNL Kamloops major layoffs (After Newcap purc

Postby Doug » Fri Nov 24, 2017 7:12 pm

jon wrote:While I would be hard pressed to name a Top 40 station that I listened to in 1968 that played, as an Oldie, anything older than The Beatles first U.S. hit (early 1964), Fats Domino is anything but an obscure artist, having sold more records than the Mamas and the Papas and Jefferson Airplane put together. Some even consider his first hit, The Fat Man, as the first Rock & Roll record ever made, though Rocket 88 generally gets the majority nod.


Fair enough...poor choice of words. It's just that he's less oldies format, to me anyway, from the sort of stuff I want to here. Don't get me wrong, I like his music but I like it in small doses and only on certain days.

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