Vancouver's TSN 1040 off the air after Bell suddenly pulls the plug
Vancouver's most popular sports radio station shut down Tuesday morning, surprising fans and staff alike
Some of Vancouver's most enduring sports media personalities were unceremoniously dumped by Bell Media Tuesday morning with the sudden announcement it was shutting down radio station TSN 1040.
Gone from the airwaves are Donny & the Moj (Don Taylor and Bob Marjanovich) Matt Sekeres and Blake Price, morning team Mike Halford and Jason Brough, and veterans Jeff Paterson, Rick Dhaliwal, Brook Ward and Rob Fai.
At 9:30 a.m., the morning show cut away for a commercial break and then announced that the station would be "reprogrammed" as of Friday. The news was followed by Green Day's Good Riddance before the airwaves turned to music.
The move shocked fans and seemed to catch employees off guard.
On Twitter, Price riffed about his job loss referencing two of his show's regular segments: Tell Me I'm Wrong and Memo To:.
TMIW but this sucks! Memo to: the listeners and colleagues. thanks for an amazing run. Your words today are appreciated more than you know, thanks for taking the time to write and call. I love what I do, and I’ll be around to annoy you, and <a href="https://twitter.com/mattsekeres?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@mattsekeres</a>, before you know it.
—@BlakePriceTSN"TMIW but this sucks. Memo to: the listeners and colleagues. Thanks for an amazing run," he posted.
In a statement, Bell Media said, "It was a difficult decision, but the realities of the quickly evolving broadcast media landscape in Canada have made this change unavoidable."
According to reports, the station is switching to a comedy format.
TSN 1040 launched 20 years ago as TEAM 1040 and was the longest running and most popular of the two sport radio stations in the Vancouver market, consistently earning higher ratings than Sportsnet 650.
Sportnet 650 owns the broadcast rights to the market's top sports obsession: the Vancouver Canucks.
I was there on day 1 of TSN 1040 <br>20 years ago.<br><br>So many worked hard and built a special place for Vancouver which is sadly no more today.<br><br>Many many special people worked at 1040.<br><br>The city lost a jewel today.
—@DhaliwalSportsTSN 1040 had the broadcast rights to the B.C. Lions and Vancouver Whitecaps games.
been an incredible run. Will have more to say later 🎤
—@patersonjeffTSN sports radio stations in Winnipeg and Hamilton also suffered the same fate as Vancouver.
Last week, Bell laid off hundreds of employees at other media outlets across Canada.
With files from Canadian Press