Bloodbath at Newcap Alberta

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Bloodbath at Newcap Alberta

Postby Rocky » Wed Aug 03, 2016 6:39 pm

This afternoon I spoke with some friends at Newcap in West Edmonton Mall and it's not a happy day there.

Workers from several departments were eliminated today. The most high profile was Audie Lynds, half of the Rob & Audie morning show on Capital FM.

Longtime W-1440 Wetaskiwin Morning guy Billy Williams is out, along with others from CFCW and CAM FM.

There was also cuts in Edson, with some of the workload coming to West Ed Mall HQ.

No word out of Calgary if there was cuts there, maybe this will speed up the retirement of XL 103's Morning Show.

Another not so fun day in the radio biz.
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Re: Bloodbath at Newcap Alberta

Postby 45 RPM » Wed Aug 03, 2016 7:47 pm

It'll be hard to imagine Rob without Audie. It was a stroke of genius on Pat Cardinal's part when he reunited the team of Rob & Audie at Capital FM.

Hopefully they have a good replacement in mind.

I'd like to see Nicola Crosbie join Rob, she'd be a much better fit at Capital than she was at Cruz with Lochlin Cross.
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Re: Bloodbath at Newcap Alberta

Postby Muzik » Wed Aug 03, 2016 8:12 pm

Sorry for Audie.
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Re: Bloodbath at Newcap Alberta

Postby jon » Wed Aug 03, 2016 8:25 pm

Pat originally put together, with Rob's help, a five person morning team for Capital-FM. Maybe six, if you count Patrick, as he was listening to every word and every song, and apparently did a debriefing every morning.

As well as Rob & Audie, there was Randy Broadhead, AKA Mr. Maynard, a person doing News (varied) and an off-air Producer.
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Re: Bloodbath at Newcap Alberta

Postby Cynthia J » Thu Aug 04, 2016 7:35 am

I have a feeling that what Newcap has done here will soon become the model for everyone else to follow.

It appears the bulk of Newcap's creative and production for their stations throughout Alberta will now be handled out of Edmonton. No need for local copywriters who know and deal with the clients in their
local markets.

Shut down the newsrooms, eliminate the news in places like Red Deer and Edson.

It would be interesting to go through the applications for these stations and see what their commitments were for news, local programming etc when they were licensed.

Who'll be next to take a stab at destroying what's left of the radio business?
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Re: Bloodbath at Newcap Alberta

Postby Tom Jeffries » Thu Aug 04, 2016 4:24 pm

Cynthia J., I think you hit the nail on the head. ALL the major chains will amalgamate as many departments as they can, and that means we are, sadly, to see a lot more job losses.

The loser (*besides the poor person that loses his/her gig) is the LISTENER.

The CRTC has forgotten what their mandate was. Instead, they adopted the disastrous American model - where one chain can own as many sticks as they want (within reason). That has destroyed the business model, that had been a gold mine.

The owners are reaping what they sewed.

I think a lot of people that were gassed (I know the feeling) are glad to be away from all this.

To those that just got canned?

IT WILL GET BETTER.

*I also suggest - those still working in the business.....have a Plan 'b' ready, asap.

Just a thought.
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Re: Bloodbath at Newcap Alberta

Postby the-real-deal » Fri Aug 05, 2016 9:46 am

Expanding on what Professor Tom Jeffries just said, here is the over all "plan" of Canadian commercial stations:

Using the McDonalds hamburger business plan, all radio/television stations owned by one entity will be modeled after the head office radio/television station.

including: centralized logo and musical format, so that the same programming can at be replicated at all 50 or more stations.

Don't forget to use software programming packages from consultants in USA to round out your Canadian radio or tv station !

Go one step further and steal the programming ideas directly from KTLA or WNYW !

Centralized accounting and billing. Make one sorry "engineer" supervise all 100 corporate sticks ! LOL If multiple stations go off the air, start with the stick that makes the corporate office the most amount of money, first !

Have only one newsroom, based in Toronto, serving the entire country. Fire the rest of the news department, saving them money.

Have your television news anchors read the radio news, like at CRFA Ottawa ! LOL

Give us more meaningful Toronto traffic stories from the Don Valley Parkway, got to love it !

Pair down the staff at each station, so that there will be three on air staff, only, at each station: (morning man slash PD/music director), afternoon drive man, get your two announcers to voice track the rest of the day. The third person will be a full time salesperson, also acting as copywriter and traffic.

There, voila ! The radio or tv station will now make the maximum amount of money, possible, for the shareholders, while nobody will find meaningful work.

Hire more BCIT grads, in lieu of polished veterans, and fire every veteran with over 10 years of experience, to save even more money !

Or: here's a better plan ? Hire everyone on contract, so that there is no benefits, such as EI and dental plan, paid out to the contractor, saving the company more money.

Then, have every radio/tv station employee work out of their frigging homes, thereby, eliminating the need for an office? Have a virtual office only, like call centres.

That will save even more money, right ?

Then, charge people to call in and make inquiries about the radio or tv station. If they want to speak to a live person, it will be $ 2.00 dollars a minute with their credit card.

Finally, have as little personal contact with human beings, as possible !

If one is looking for work, and you are management, don't forget to tell the person looking for work to cut them off and visit their corporate website and "apply online." Then, make your hiring decisions, on line, as well, using text messaging and emails only. That will save you management time and money, right. while in sit in your head office and do sweet f.a.

:yahoo:
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Re: Bloodbath at Newcap Alberta

Postby Jack Bennest » Sat Aug 06, 2016 8:05 am

Professor Tom Jeffries ??

Which University? lol

On topic one suggestion only CRTC should be asked - what can you do to de-corporatize broadcasting and provide incentives to independent owners to provide Canadian content without corporate messaging.

Sorry folks but since personality left radio and much of TV - I watch and listen only to CBC for news, PBS, Knowledge etc for entertainment. I went through the summer channels on TV on two contiguous nights and the same programming was on with minor exceptions.

Name one radio or TV star I should go out of way to listen to?

Yes the Okanagan is the back water of BC - thank God.

What does Vancouver/TO/Montreal have to offer - really folks :violent1:
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Re: Bloodbath at Newcap Alberta

Postby dogfish35 » Sat Aug 06, 2016 1:58 pm

Capital FM might as well fire their 3 remaining announcers, and run Rick Dees over and over again all day.
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Re: Bloodbath at Newcap Alberta

Postby jon » Fri Jan 06, 2017 4:44 pm

The most recent ratings are the first time that I can recall UP beating Capital-FM.

Just discovered that Billy Williams' replacement on W-14-40 Mornings is Gerard Murphy ("Murph") who is voice-tracking from P.E.I. where he still does Afternoon Drive on Ocean 100.

http://w1440.com/index.asp?mn=9&id=2890&cc=2
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