Bell Quick to Centralize Station Studios and Plan Layoffs

[jon]

CFRB heading downtown to join Bell’s other Toronto media
STEVE LADURANTAYE - MEDIA REPORTER
The Globe and Mail
Published Tuesday, Jul. 30 2013, 5:00 AM EDT
Last updated Tuesday, Jul. 30 2013, 5:16 AM EDT

After 50 years as a high-profile beacon in midtown Toronto, one of the country’s most historic radio stations is moving to the city’s downtown to be closer to other media outlets owned by its new proprietor, Bell Media.

Newstalk 1010, also known by its call letters CFRB, will vacate its studios at Yonge Street and St. Clair Avenue in March and move into a Queen Street West building best known as the home of MuchMusic. The building now houses several Bell-owned specialty channels and serves as a hub for Bell’s media holdings.

The station – which commands about a 5 per cent share of the city’s radio market according to measurement firm BBM and is home to Toronto Mayor Rob Ford’s weekly radio show – is one of more than 80 radio stations and several television speciality channels acquired by Bell Media’s parent company BCE Inc. in June in a $3-billion deal for Astral Media.

The address change was announced in a memo to employees from Bell Media president Kevin Crull, who said it was one of a series of moves that are “important to bring new teams together, to refresh the working dynamic in our company, and to be able to efficiently utilize the properties that we own.”

“We have carefully planned how to provide minimum impact for the work lives of our team members as we execute these changes,” he wrote.

Bell’s parent company, BCE Inc., owns a 15-per-cent stake in The Globe and Mail.

CFRB was founded in 1927 by Ted Rogers Sr. to showcase his invention that allowed radio to be broadcast with household electricity instead of relying on battery power. Its call letters are a tribute to the invention: Canada’s First Rogers Batteryless.

The move downtown is part of the first wave of changes to hit former Astral properties, but will be one of the most noticeable to consumers because the radio station makes frequent mention of its location in its news and weather reports.

99.9 Virgin Radio will also be moved to the Queen Street building, where Bell has been consolidating its media holdings (most recently selling the downtown Masonic Temple that housed MTV Canada).

In a memo to Minister of Labour Lisa Raitt that is required by law when layoffs are planned, the company said it intended to eliminate about 100 jobs in Toronto and another 80 in Montreal.

“In view of mechanisms provided for and redeployment and career transitioning services we are not yet able to confirm the exact number of positions that will be eliminated,” Bell Media vice-president of human resources Anne McNamara wrote.

Other changes include merging sales staffs in both Toronto and Montreal, merging the Montreal programming, marketing and communications teams for its non-sports speciality and pay television channels and moving the Movie Network from its current Toronto home to the CTV building in Scarborough.

Astral Media had 2,713 employees at the end of last year, while Bell Media has approximately 3,000.

Bell had no comment on the moves.

[hagopian]

The question I have is simple: With slashing of jobs in all parts of the media - how does BCIT and Ryerson and their ilk, get these kids to pony up a ton of green, and there are no jobs, when they graduate?

I was disgusted when I found out (a few years ago, mind you - I don't know if it it has changed) that one of Vancouver's Top Network TV outlets was overloaded with staffer 'volunteers'.

So new grads have to try and get gigs ahead of people that will work for FREE. They call them 'internships' in some places.

Really sleazy.

[slowhand]

Layoffs are the big news and probably the biggest numbers. Another trend is actually a good thing for recent graduates where we see the replacement of people who have been around for a long time with lower paid newcomers.

Technical schools are becoming more like universities who generally refuse to talk to students about chances of being hired in whatever degree they are aiming for. In my day, I watched all the newly-minted Bachelor degrees in Anthropology, Sociology and even Psychology numbering in the thousands each year across the country without maybe a dozen jobs available in their field. At least with Psychology, you could go get a Masters degree and hang out a shingle. The rest needed Doctorate degrees to get the only jobs available, as professors teaching the next generation of unemployables.

Radio is not alone.

[hagopian]

Slowhand, nice perspective. I had no idea. I just learned something - thanks.

[Mike Cleaver]

Again, it's all about cheapdom.
Radio stations don't need a lot of space any more because almost no one works there.
Otto Mation doesn't need much space and does not require CPP, EI or Workers Compensation or pension contributions.
You can have one sales staff for your four radio stations, one office staff, one engineer (if that).
You don't need a newsroom or news staff for FM and control rooms and studios are no more than large closets.
The biggest chunk of space goes to managers, brand managers, sales people and their support staff.
In Vancouver, CKNW has two floors of the TD Tower, more control rooms and studios than you can shake a stick at and a huge newsroom.
Most of the studios and control rooms are mothballed.
They'll be moving to a much smaller space soon.
Consolidation always means fewer jobs and smaller spaces.
These Bhell cuts only mention Toronto and Montreal but will be rolled out across the country.
They already made two rounds of deep cuts at the Ottawa radio and tv properties, starting two years ago.
And yes, they're all into the "free labour" with the output of the broadcasting schools.
CTV in Vancouver was the worst when I worked there, promising the possibility of a job when the "internship" was over and stringing the students along to keep them there past their official internment period.
As for broadcasting schools, nothing has changed from the '70s when I started teaching.
No matter the size of the class, usually about 40, there are two or three students who actually will make it on air and manage to have a successful career, if they decide to stick with it.
When they find out how much money they'll actually make, they usually lose interest.
The rest end up in support rolls or a completely different career.
BCIT was churning out 40 grads per year in each of the three career paths, radio, tv, journalism.
Multiply that by the number of broadcast schools across the country.
Then ask yourself if it's worth spending the thousands of dollars a year for a two or three year course to learn a job that's rapidly disappearing from the landscape.

[Mike Cleaver]

And I'll post this again,
If you want an entertaining look at what's happening to broadcasting, watch the great old black and white movie, Executive Suite.
It contains the great line "It's NOT all about the shareholders."

[hagopian]

I remember when you would be able to sustain yourself, by doing weekends, in major market radio. *true!

CFAX was truly V/T'd back in the 60's- so it is no new thing - but now, the computer has allowed people to be dialled out of the workspace. The Companies love it. No more benefits. No more wasting money on medicine for sick workers. In the end, it is all about the shareholder.

The listener? Who cares? BTW - if you are not 25-54 - Radio doesn't care. These morons are trying to all sell to the same cohort, many of these folks are still living in Mom and Dad's basement - because there are no jobs - and the student loan is still not paid off.

This is how short sighted these radio guys are. Brand managers? Screw that. Give me someone who knows how to communicate on the box, Jack, not some jerk with a swell tee shirt telling me we need to be cross platform, 'man'.