Grinch strikes early in Saskatoon

[SKradiophile]

Dan Kerslake of CBC has just tweeted that Wired 96.2 has just fired all of its on air staff and is switching to all Christmas music now. Ho Ho Ho!

[radiofan]

Wired 96 pulls the plug

BY JEREMY WARREN, THE STARPHOENIX NOVEMBER 15, 2012 7:03 PM


Saskatoon radio station Wired 96.3 will be replaced with Christmas music at midnight tonight.

Harvard Broadcasting has pulled the plug on Wired 96.3, one of Saskatoon’s newest radio stations.

On Thursday, several on-air staff were laid off and told the company planned to shut down Wired 96.3 at midnight. The radio station, which launched in April 2008, plans to play Christmas music until the new year while the company figures out a new programming direction, says a now former DJ.

“We were always kind of the underdog in Saskatoon,” said Toby Johnston, who hosted the Wired 96 Mornings with Toby and Sasha. “We had a lot of fun and we were a tight-knit group.”

Fans of the station were sending notes of condolences to its on-air talent through social media on Thursday afternoon as news trickled out about the Wired 96’s demise.

Harvard Broadcasting — part of Regina’s Hill Group of Companies — declined to comment on Thursday about the reasons for ending programming, but a Wired 96 representative said the company would distribute a news release Friday. The company confirmed that at least four people were fired on Thursday.

Johnston and Spencer were brought into a manager’s office Thursday morning after their show and told they no longer had jobs. The fired employees let go did receive severance packages, Johnston said.

“It’s about as nice a way to get fired without actually getting fired because it wasn’t performance-based,” Johnston said. “I have no hard feelings. I had a lot of fun and have fond memories. I love Saskatoon and would love to stay here, but it’s radio and that’s the business we’re in, living out of a U-haul for the most part.”

The fired staff weren’t told the details of the station reformatting other than that the station planned to play Christmas music until a decision is made. Wired 96 played Christmas music as Santa FM for several days before it launched to tease the upstart station’s first broadcast.

The contemporary hits station that targeted a younger demographic did good work in the community, especially for the gay community, Johnston said. It was the first local station to support the Saskatoon Pride Parade and also introduced the first gay bachelor contest in Canada, he said.

“We’ve done a lot of ground breaking with the gay community,” Johnston said.

He doesn’t know the exact reasons why the station is closing, but ratings and strong competition in the contemporary hits market likely factored into the decision.

“An old boss told me that there are two types of radio DJs: Those who have been fired and those who haven’t been fired yet,” Johnston said. “It’s part of the industry. There is no such thing as job security in media, but it’s the life we chose.

“At least I can sleep in now.”

Harvard Broadcasting operates 11 radio stations in Saskatchewan and Alberta, including the Wolf 104.9 and My 92.1 in Regina.

jjwarren@thestarphoenix.com

Twitter.com/WaywardReporter

© Copyright (c) The StarPhoenix

http://www.canada.com/news/Wired+pulls+ ... story.html

[hagopian]

Best to all those newly "available".

Chin up.

[Dan Sys]

Lance Venta at Radio Insight is reporting that Harvard has registered domains with several different variations of 96.3 CRUZ FM (as well as the temporary 96.3 SANTA FM). If they do indeed go with Cruise FM that would likely indicate the new format will be Oldies/Classic Hits. There is a definite hole in the Saskatoon market for such a station as it's only available on regional AM's such as CKJH 750 Melfort and CJYM 1330 Rosetown.

[Bigbangboom]

Cruise FM - maybe they plan to play tunes heard exclusively on Cruise Ships?

[MonteVideo]

What a load of bastards at Harvard. Just over a month til Christmas and half a dozen in the wind in Saskatoon. Jeezus. It's like the effing print media. Oh wait. 500 people lost jobs in print this week at SunMedia. Did they all get mentioned by name? Never mind. Effing Harvard.