TORONTO — It’s over … at least for now.
Bell Media last week received much press attention across Québec and Ontario for a substantial reduction in force at its heritage Anglophone News/Talk AM in Montréal following major shifts at its Windsor operations that reach Detroit listeners.
Now, a staff memo from the company’s president has emerged, indicating that a significant cull of Bell’s employee roll has ceased. And, it impacts its TV network, too.
As first reported by Canadian trade journal Broadcast Dialogue, recently appointed Bell Media President Wade Oosterman — who assumed operational leadership of the broadcasting, streaming, and content creation company in January — issued his first communiqué to employees since taking on the role.
In this internal memo, Oosterman assured Bell Media staff that restructuring at its radio division is “completed.”
The memo was distributed after no less than three “streamlining” moves at Bell Media. First, President Randy Lennox exited — as did Mike Cosentino, President of Content and Programming; Tracey Pearce, President of Distribution and Pay; Corrie Coe, SVP of Original Programming; Nanci MacLean, VP of Bell Media Studios; Scott Henderson, VP of Communications; and Kevin Goldstein, VP of Regulatory Affairs.
The departure of Cosentino is notable, as he was the man in charge of programming for Canada’s largest commercial broadcast network, CTV, and its associated CTV2 network and owned-and-operated TV channels. Development of original programming was also under Cosentino’s purview. He’d been with CTV since 1999 and as a senior executive for the last decade.
Commenting to Broadcast Dialogue, Bell Director of Communications Mark Choma said, “Bell Media’s updated structure is focused on making it easier to do business with us while also ensuring we’re ready to continue making the investments in content and delivery platforms necessary for Bell to remain Canada’s No. 1 in a fast-changing media marketplace.”
Battered by COVID-19 pandemic restrictions and advertising dollar dips, Canada’s broadcast media — including TV companies — are far from healthy. Government-funded CBC, meanwhile, has earned international acclaim for its development of quirky sitcom Schitt’s Creek, while CTV’s lauded Cardinal flopped in international markets.
DOLE WHIP
As Broadcast Dialogue reports, Bell Media’s Oosterman distributed the memo on February 9. He commented that the actions that were being carried out are part of “revitalizing the way we do business at Bell Media.”
The statement came after more than 200 employees were also introduced to the process of obtaining Employment Insurance submission forms.
The stations hit particularly hard are CJAD-AM 800 in Montréal, a perennial powerhouse competing against CBC Radio One … although “competing” is a term that should be lightly used. Among Anglophones in the most recent Numeris PPM-based ratings report, CJAD had a 30.3 share of listeners; Radio One was fifth overall with an 8.3 share.
The dominant role CJAD had couldn’t stop Oosterman from stopping the firings of several on-air veterans. Dr. Laurie Betito, who hosted Passion for 22 years, was cut. Reporter Shuyee Lee said goodbye after 28 years.
While CJAD’s staff cull was extensively covered in the Montréal Gazette newspaper, it later became known that Toronto Talk sibling CFRB-AM 1010, suffered staff cuts, too.
CFRB has been in a tight battle with CBC Radio One and all-News CFTR-AM 680, Rogers Sports & Media’s cume leader. Still, News Director Kym Geddes is out. So are anchors/reporters Hayley Cooper, Ashley Legassic, Tiffany Hendsbee, Russ Courtney, and Lucas Meyer.
The Ottawa market, where Bell Media owns similarly formatted CFRA-AM 580, weekend morning show “The Goods with Dahlia Kurtz” was discontinued.
Meanwhile, NorthEast Radio Watch publisher Scott Fybush reports three AM stations in large markets where TSN Radio — similar to ESPN Radio — had been present have seen format changes.
CKST-AM 1040 in Vancouver and CFRW-AM 1290 in Winnipeg are now all-Comedy under the “Funny” brand. It’s already in place on Hamilton, Ont.-based CHAM-AM 820. In that market, TSN Radio affiliate CKOC-AM 1150, once a Top 40 powerhouse, has become “BBN Bloomberg Radio 1150.” It is a Canadian take on the Bloomberg Radio format seen in the U.S., and has been present at CFTE-AM 1410 in Vancouver since 2018.
TSN Radio continue in Ottawa and Edmonton for Bell Media.
“As we’ve refined the mandates for Bell Media’s core content, technology and sales groups and completed our team restructuring, there have been a number of departures in several parts of the business, an unfortunate and often high-profile reflection of the change necessary for Bell Media to prevail in a transforming sector that has also been uniquely impacted by COVID-19,” Oosterman said in the memo.
Discussing the radio moves, Oosterman noted, “[T]hey align with our strategy of focusing on serving the largest possible audiences with the content they want the most while leveraging the efficiencies of our broader organization.”
As RBR+TVBR reported on Dec. 28, 2020, Bell Media erased 10 individually branded Adult Contemporary stations across Canada, with all now using the name “Move Radio.” The shift came just weeks after the company said goodbye to longtime New Rock brand “89X” in Windsor, Ontario — and, by default, Detroit — and introduced a new national brand in its place, Pure Country.
However, it was reported at the time that local on-air staff would be back, with Dave Daigle, VP of Radio and Local TV at Bell Media, and Rob Farina, Head of Radio Content, Strategy and iHeartRadio Canada, overseeing those changes.
As such, the staff cuts on the radio side seem to be impacting the spoken word stations the most. Oosterman’s memo, as such, includes commentary that’s sure to attract criticism for what sounds like a slap in the face to now-dismissed staffers.
“While these changes are now complete, it has been difficult to see any of our colleagues leave the company,” Oosterman wrote. “I should note up front that many of the recent changes would have happened last year if not for the work here at [Bell Media’s Media division] and across the company to help get the national Bell team through 2020 intact.”
The job cuts came even as Bell Media accepted the equivalent of $97.2 million from Canada’s version of the paycheck protection program many U.S. media companies have benefited from.
Oosterman addressed this in the internal memo distributed February 9.
“Considering the extraordinary losses in revenue across all of our media platforms and in many other parts of Bell’s business, we did apply for federal wage support in 2020 as a supplement to our cross-company program to redeploy affected team members into service and support roles, which successfully minimized the impacts on jobs last year,” he said.
With Bell Media intent on “maximizing the efficiency of the resources across our broader operations,” Oosterman concluded the memo by noting, “There’s never a right time to make these kinds of changes, other than when they’re required for the stability and growth of the business and the benefit of our broader team nationwide.”
Addressing Bell Media staff, he said, “Thank you for your dedication and perseverance as we’ve worked together to create a more agile, efficient and responsive organization that can thrive now, as our sector undergoes historic transformation, and into the future.”
Main reporting by Adam R Jacobson, in Orlando. Additional reporting by Carina Newton in Toronto.
