Rogers Sports & Media has confirmed it’s moving to a remote operations model for some of its smaller market radio stations, starting next week.
Among the markets impacted are Fort McMurray [Country 93.3 (CJOK-FM), 97.9 Rock (CKYX-FM)], Grande Prairie [97.7 Rock (CFGP-FM)] and Canmore [106.5 Mountain FM (CHMN-FM)] in Alberta, in addition to Ontario stations in Timmins [Q92 (CJQQ-FM), KiSS 99.3 (CKGB-FM)] and Sault Ste. Marie [104.3 The Fox (CJQM-FM), KiSS 100.5 (CHUR-FM)].
Rogers’ Kingston radio stations, Country 93.5 (CKXC-FM) and K-Rock 105.7 (CIKR-FM), will join them early in the New Year.
A Rogers Sports & Media spokesperson told Broadcast Dialogue it will be business as usual in terms of the on-air product, with talent broadcasting remotely from the same local market. The spokesperson said there are no employee impacts, with sales teams also continuing to work remotely with local advertisers and partners.
“We are always looking for strategic ways to set our radio business up for long term success, and in this case it’s better optimization of our workspaces in a few of our smaller radio markets,” the spokesperson said, in a statement provided to Broadcast Dialogue.
Talent are being set up with in-home studios or will broadcast from an alternate location, according to Rogers Sports to Media. The spokesperson could not immediately confirm that the majority of real estate the stations are vacating is leased, as opposed to owned by the company.
