I have been buying Frank Magazine for years and years. I subscribed to it for a time, but in the last couple of years I have been buying it off the newsstands.
Today, I decided to renew my subscription, making it an online one. I couldn't wait to read the latest issue because I had a pretty good idea that they would be discussing the recent events at News 95.7
Hoo boy. Was I right!
They laid out in great detail, the events of November 5th. A staff meeting had been called for 12:30pm based upon an email advertising one the day before. (Remember that a well-placed source had given me a heads up about this meeting beforehand.) People were led in to the boardroom, with the exceptions of folks who were tapped on the shoulder and told not to go into the boardroom. Those professionals were led into another room and were informed that their service to Rogers had come to an end. They signed confidentiality agreements gagging them from speaking to anyone on pain of not getting their packages; but there were off-the-record reports. It is ironic that a station whose mandate is to foster communication should do everything it can to stifle it.
I have read Jordi Morgan's farewell to Maritime Morning in Facebook. He wrote an extremely classy message, one that must have been very difficult for him to write, but which merely reinforces what kind of a guy he is, and how big a bunch of jerks Rogers was to let him go. Given a bit more time, Maritime Morning with Jordi Morgan could have become a major voice for the city; it was well on its way to becoming so. But Rogers couldn't see past the end of its wallet and let him and so many others go.
I hate like frig how the official corporate message mentioned how they were "refreshing" their schedule. They did this by reducing their daytime local content by 2 hours and replacing it with piped-in sports content of interest to virtually nobody. Remind me not to invite Rogers management over to my house to refresh the living room.
I know some people at the station. I am loathe to comment on the place of their employment. People at Rogers have been nice to me over the years. But I can't help but think that the bean counters at Rogers are being short-sighted and that these layoffs will turn around and bite them in the bee-hind, sooner rather than later. The people who have liked News 95.7 will spurn the station because of these cutbacks. Ratings and revenue will decline further. More cutbacks will be made until the station resembles what it did when it went on the air in 2005 in the same way that a raisin resembles a grape. Then, Rogers will pull the plug and change the format to a musical one.
Which, come to think of it, makes me think that this is what they want to do anyway.
Sigh.
See you tomorrow.
Bevboy
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