Rogers shutters six local radio stations

Rogers Sports and Media is shutting down its Sportsnet 650 radio station in Vancouver and Sportsnet 960 station in Calgary, as well as four other stations.

Calgary’s 660 NewsRadio is also being closed, along with Vancouver’s 1130 AM, Halifax’s 95.7 NewsRadio, and Kitchener’s 570 NewsRadio.

The company said the station closures will result in 80 employees losing their jobs. Those are among 230 total job losses at Rogers Sports and Media from these and other organizational changes announced Tuesday.

Rogers cited declining audience numbers and lower advertisement revenue for the decision.

“The media business continues to face headwinds driven by declining advertising revenue and changing audience habits. These changes are part of our plan to focus our investment in areas that will drive growth long-term,” said Rogers spokesperson Zac Carreiro in an emailed statement.

“After a thorough review of our radio stations, we have made the difficult but necessary decision to close six radio stations in four markets due to declining audience and revenue trends.”

Carreiro said Rogers will continue to own and operate 44 radio stations in nearly 30 communities and would “invest in local news in the impacted markets.”

Rogers will continue broadcasting Vancouver Canucks games on one of its radio properties in that city but will no longer produce Calgary Flames broadcasts for radio.

Sean Kelso, a spokesperson for Flames-parent company Calgary Sports and Entertainment Corp., said in an interview the Flames had learned of Sportsnet 960’s closure Tuesday and were looking at options.

From October to May of this past year, Rogers said its Calgary sports radio station had an average of just 1,200 listeners. The Vancouver sports station had an average audience of 2,100 listeners during that same period.

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The move in part reflects the evolution in how consumers consume audio content, particularly sports fans, said Christopher Waddell, former director of Carleton University’s School of Journalism and Communication.

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He said many listeners have migrated over to podcasts from traditional sports radio shows.

“For people who are interested in sports, almost everybody has an opinion about sports and many of them have podcasts now, too,” said Waddell.

“The audience may be declining and when audiences decline it gets more difficult to get advertising, obviously.”

Waddell added that sports radio stations are not only competing with new media for listeners and ad revenue, but also the teams they cover, too.

“The leagues themselves do a lot of their own work. They have their own websites, they have their own reporters at some games, they may be doing podcasts, athletes are doing podcasts,” he said.

“What came as an outgrowth of sports radio has now devoured sports radio.”

Rogers said its Sportsnet 590 station in Toronto will continue to operate.

Among the 230 total job cuts, Rogers said about half of those affect corporate and support roles such as sales, marketing and programming.

Rogers said the cuts would affect a “small number of other on-air jobs across TV and radio” due to programming changes. That includes some unionized TV newsroom positions in Toronto and Vancouver.

The TV newsroom changes will begin with a voluntary departure program, with departures taking place in August.

The company is also making “adjustments” on the non-media side of its business “to reflect current market realities as part of our multi-year plan to drive growth long-term.” It said the changes affect a small percentage of its workforce, including corporate and frontline roles.

For Vancouver, the news marks the latest blow for sports radio in the city after Bell Media shuttered rival station TSN 1040 in 2021.

Rogers launched Sportsnet 650 in 2017 as it acquired the radio broadcast rights to Vancouver Canucks games. The company signed a deal with Canucks Sports & Entertainment four years ago to remain the team’s regional TV and radio rights holders through 2033.

B.C. Premier David Eby said in a social media post that journalism is more important than profits.

“We all benefit from having local news outlets and this is a blow for British Columbians,” Eby said.

“B.C. is going to miss Sportsnet 650 and AM 1130. I’m thinking of all their staff, producers, and journalists today.”

A day prior to the announcement, Rogers announced it will acquire the remaining 25 per cent stake in Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment that it didn’t yet own for $4.35 billion.

MLSE owns the NHL’s Maple Leafs, NBA’s Raptors, MLS’ Toronto FC and the CFL’s Argonauts. Last year, Rogers closed a separate $4.7-billion deal with rival BCE Inc. to buy its 37.5 per cent stake in MLSE, making it the sports conglomerate’s majority owner.

In April, Rogers reported its profit rose in its latest quarter as total revenue was up 10 per cent year-over-year.

Rogers’ profit attributable to shareholders in its first quarter was $438 million, compared with $280 million a year earlier, as its revenue totalled $5.48 billion, up from $4.98 billion.

Despite higher media revenue overall, Rogers said its advertising revenue was lower for the quarter.

In 2024, Rogers cut what it said was “a few dozen” jobs in its audio business, citing an unpredictable advertising market that had led to declining revenue.

That same year, BCE sold 45 regional radio stations and ended multiple television newscasts as part of a larger shakeup that saw it slash nine per cent of its workforce.

Waddell said it was “discouraging” but not surprising to see more local news disappearing.

“There’s already been a big cutback in print versions of local news, or online versions of local news as traditional newspapers who went online have shut down,” he said.

“Radio still has a place and the public broadcaster, I think, does fairly well with radio still, but the private broadcasters are having more trouble, obviously.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 7, 2026.

Companies in this story: (TSX:RCI.B)

Note to readers:This is a corrected story. A previous version referred to comment from a Calgary Sports and Entertainment Corp. spokesperson in a quoted statement. In fact, the comment was paraphrased from an interview.