MONTREAL – Corus Entertainment’s AM Info690 Montréal and AM940 Montreal’s Greatest Hits will sign off for good today at 7 p.m. Ten people will lose their jobs.
The two stations are unprofitable and have been for some time.
“Corus Québec and its employees worked to grow audience and revenues on both these stations while operating them as efficiently as possible. It is clear that these two AM stations are not viable, particularly in the current economic climate,” reads the press release.
This decision affects 10 positions, including eight positions at Info690: three journalist positions, two traffic reporter positions and three operations positions. At AM940 Montreal’s Greatest Hits, two positions were affected: one on-air host position and one technician position.
The Info690 Montréal newsroom, known as CorusNouvelles, will continue its activities as part of 98,5 FM Montréal. “CorusNouvelles will continue to invest in providing news content to the entire Corus Québec network and its clients,” adds the release.
The majority of journalist positions from the Info690 newsroom (five of eight journalist positions along with three of five traffic reporter positions) will be retained.
"We put tremendous effort into trying to find the right format and content to grow our audience base and operate profitably, but after years of effort it is clear these AM stations are not viable," said Mario Cecchini, vice-president, Corus Québec. "We would like to thank the employees affected by this decision for their hard work. We would also like to acknowledge the support of listeners and advertising clients of Info690 Montréal and AM940 Montreal’s Greatest Hits."
The operating licences for these two AM stations will be returned to the CRTC.
Corus Québec employs 466 people in Quebec, reaching more than 4.5 million listeners each week and operates 96,9 CKOI Montréal, 102,1 CKOI Quebec City, 104,5 CKOI Eastern Townships, 98,5 FM Montréal, CKAC Sports Montréal, 92-5 The Q Montreal, 103,9 CIME FM Laurentians and the Souvenirs Garantis network: 102,9 FM Quebec City, 107,7 FM Eastern Townships, 98,3 FM Saguenay, 104,7 FM Gatineau/Ottawa and 106,9 FM Mauricie.
