TSN 1260 shut down as Bell Media announces layoffs

TSN 1260 goes silent Bell Media has shuttered TSN 1260. David Ewasuk has more on the history of the station and what it means for the community.

Edmonton sports radio station TSN 1260 went off the air Wednesday morning.

TSN 1260 shut down at 9 a.m. MT along with five other Bell Media radio stations.

"The Realities of AM Radio in the broadcast media landscape have made this change unavoidable," a message said on TSN 1260 after 9 a.m. "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."

The following radio stations also went off the air: Funny 1290 in Winnipeg, Funny 1060 in Calgary, BNN Bloomberg Radio 1410 in Vancouver, Funny 1040 in Vancouver, and NewsTalk 1290 in London.

These radio stations are being sold: AM Radio 1150 in Hamilton, AM 820 in Hamilton, and AM 580 in Windsor.

"Across Bell Media’s news operations, despite being Canada’s news leader, we incur $40 million and growing in annual operating losses, and the profitability of our radio business has been cut in half since the onset of COVID," said Mirko Bibic, Bell Canada and BCE Inc. president and CEO. "These are three examples, but they show that to succeed in today’s challenging economic, regulatory and competitive environment and be ready for what comes next, we need to accelerate our shift away from how telecom and media companies have operated in the past."

"It is for this reason that we will be implementing significant reductions on our team at all levels of the company. These changes will reduce our workforce by 1,300 positions, where possible eliminating vacant positions to minimize the impact on our team."

The 1,300 positions are across BCE Inc.

'SHOCKING NEWS'

Long-time listeners were sad to hear their favourite radio station has gone away.

"We're going to miss it…it's shocking news," Terry Bittman said.

"Everybody's opinions, everybody calling in and talking…it was pretty good," said Lawrence Bittman.

Marty Forbes co-created Team 1260 20 years ago, but the station actually goes back 89 years.

"It's one of the oldest signals in Canada," Forbes told CTV News Edmonton. "It's sad, it's the evolution of what's happening out there, unfortunately."

CTV News is a division of Bell Media, which is part of BCE Inc.