One swell foop is all it took for Corus Entertainment to silence a 100-year old radio station.Barely a week after promoting a pair of DEI executives to its board of directors and executive council, Corus Entertainment has shuttered one of Canada’s oldest radio stations, slashed staff at another and filed a complaint with the CRTC blaming Rogers’ takeover of Calgary-based Shaw for allowing it to happen.On Wednesday, the erstwhile broadcaster closed Hamilton’s Global News 900 CHML radio with a simple statement on its website. By Wednesday afternoon it was off the air after continuously broadcasting since 1927."We want to extend our profound gratitude to all of our listeners, valued advertisers and community partners — thank you for your steadfast support throughout the years," it said on the statement which was posted to Twitter (“X”)."Your loyalty and this community have been the foundation of our station's legacy and we deeply value the connection we've shared with you.".Hamilton Mayor Andrea Horwath called the loss of the station on social media “devastating.”"For close to 100 years — 97 years next month - CHML's on-air personalities have been a part of our daily lives here in Hamilton and beyond .... this is a tremendous loss to our community," she wrote.Lisa Hepfner, a former CHCH reporter who is presently a Liberal Member of Parliament for Hamilton Mountain, said she was "gutted" to learn of the closure describing journalists at the station as "exceptionally skilled and deserve better."Meanwhile, layoffs were reported at another Corus radio station, 900 CFPL in London although the exact numbers weren’t disclosed. The company declined to comment on the moves or whether more cuts were coming.But it didn’t stop Corus from filing a complaint with the CRTC accusing rival Roger’s of “predatory” business practices in the wake of its $20 billion takeover of Calgary-based Shaw Communications last year..The irony is that the Shaw family remains a major Corus shareholder.In June, Corus lost lucrative programming and trademark deals with NBC Universal and Warner Bros. Discovery Inc. to Rogers, which also gained Canadian advertising sales rights for the Disney+ streaming app.“Rogers is attempting to imperil Corus in every market: content acquisition as buyer, and advertising and subscriptions as seller,” the Toronto-based company said in its complaint. “It is engaging in predatory behavior, enabled by dominant size and scale, to foreclose on potential competition.”The company, which was worth more than $2 billion as recently as five years ago, has seen its market capitalization plummet to around $30 million as its shares have sunk to an all-time low of about 10 cents.In response, Roger’s said Corus’ Complaints are “baseless.”“Sadly, Corus has not kept up with the demands of Canadians and is now looking for the regulator to protect their broken business model while we’re focused on meeting our customers’ changing viewing habits,” it said in a statement.“They’re trying to force service providers to carry and our customers to pay for channels they no longer want to watch. They need to compete in a fair system and earn each customer, just like every other company.”Last month, Corus reported a third-quarter loss of $769.9 million and slashed 25% of its full-time workforce by the end of August when it says it will be forced to default on debt covenants of more than $1 billion that could ultimately result in its bankruptcy.
