Corus Entertainment’s flagship news talk station, 980 CKNW Vancouver, has announced a refreshed scheduled following host Simi Sara’s move from middays to mornings on the station.

Familiar voices Mike Smyth and Jill Bennett officially join the schedule, creating room for two shorter shows, starting Mar. 30. 

Following Mornings with Simi, The Mike Smyth Show will air from 9 a.m. to noon, hosted by the longtime The Province columnist. Smyth is joining Corus Entertainment full-time and will also contribute as a columnist for GlobalNews.ca. His show will broadcast from the BC Legislature, where he’ll work alongside Global BC legislative correspondents Keith Baldrey and Richard Zussman.

Smyth has been a contributor and guest host on CKNW for more than two decades, acting as a provincial political analyst and hosting weekends and overnights, before helming his own overnight talk show, Nightline BC, from 2004-07. Following former host Christy Clark’s return to politics, he also stepped into her vacated early afternoon timeslot in 2010-11.

From noon to 3 p.m. weekdays, Global BC reporter Jill Bennett will host The Jill Bennett Show. For the past 11 years, Bennett has hosted CKNW’s Weekend Morning News on Saturdays and Sundays. She’s been a radio and TV reporter in the Vancouver market since 1997.

Corus has also announced that Jon McComb, who retired from the CKNW morning show in December, will be heard once again on the station as its new imaging voice.

The station’s revamped lineup includes:

5:30 a.m. – 9 a.m.         Mornings with Simi
9 a.m. – Noon               The Mike Smyth Show
Noon – 3 p.m.               The Jill Bennett Show 
3 p.m. – 6 p.m.              The Lynda Steele Show
6 p.m. – 6:30 p.m.         Global News Hour at 6 p.m.
6:30 p.m. – 7 p.m          Global National
7 p.m. – 10 p.m.            Charles Adler Tonight
10 p.m. – 5 a.m.            The Shift with Drex
5 a.m. – 5:30 a.m.         Global Morning News

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