Hamilton's 900 CHML radio station, one of Canada's oldest, closes
Hamilton's largest radio news station - and one of Canada's oldest - has shut down.
The Global News station, 900 CHML, posted an an‐ nouncement online about the closure on Wednesday. By early afternoon, the sta‐ tion was no longer on the air. Its parent company is Corus Entertainment.
In a statement sent to CBC Hamilton, Corus said the decision was made as the company faces challenges due to a "significant shift in TV and Digital advertising spending, with the increased and unregulated presence of foreign owned media platfor‐ ms."
Earlier Wednesday, the station shared a note of thanks online.
"We want to extend our profound gratitude to all of our listeners, valued advertis‐ ers and community partners - thank you for your steadfast support throughout the years," read the statement posted to social media site 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."
The station featured shows such as Good Morning Hamilton with Rick Zamperin, Hamilton Today with Scott Thompson and until 2023, the Bill Kelly Show.
According to archives from The Hamilton Specta‐ tor, the station opened in September 1927. The Gov‐ ernment of Canada's website says there were 77 commer‐ cial radio stations on-air be‐ tween 1922 and 1932, which would make CHML among the first in the country.
Mayor says station's clo‐ sure is 'devastating' loss
The loss of the station is "devastating," Hamilton May‐ or Andrea Horwath said on social media Wednesday.
"For close to 100 years 97 years next month - CHM‐ L'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 Polewski, a reporter for CHML, posted on X, say‐ ing she was "so grateful" for the chance to cover the city she loved.
"I've grown up through this job and have had a lot of spectacular opportunities be‐ cause of it, and I'll forever be grateful for everything. I loved reporting for you, #Ha‐ mOnt," she wrote.
Tom McKay, a technical producer with CHML, posted online too, saying it was his favourite job.
"Being able to work and exercise my creative muscles is a blessing," he wrote.
Clint "Bubba" O'Neil, sports anchor for CHCH, also posted online, saying he was in "complete shock."
"My very best to the amazing friends and profes‐ sionals past and present that made 900 CHML the legen‐ dary staple of Hamilton that is has been. So sad," he wrote on X.
Lisa Hepfner, a former CHCH reporter who is now member of parliament for Hamilton Mountain, said she is "gutted" to hear of the clo‐ sure and the journalists at the station are "exceptionally skilled and deserve better."
Peggy Chapman, who worked at CHML as a pro‐ ducer in the mid-90s includ‐ ing with the Roy Green Show, told CBC Hamilton on Wednesday generations of families listen to the station.
"Their people are in the community, they're not just behind a microphone," she said, also referencing the work of the station's chil‐ dren's charity.
Chapman, who now works with the Bulldogs Founda‐ tions, said many people would listen to the station immediately following Hamil‐ ton Tiger-Cats games.
And without its news cov‐ erage, she added, it will be harder to keep people in‐ formed and hold local institu‐ tions to account.
"The fewer people keep‐ ing their eye on politicians, the less people know what's going on," she said. "That has an impact on how gover‐ nance works."
'It's just bad news for communities:' media prof
In London, Ont., Global News's AM980 laid off two full-time and two part-time employees on Wednesday.
They were reporter and news reader positions.
During a quarterly earn‐ ings fall in July, the radio sta‐ tion's parent company Corus Entertainment said it was "aggressively" cutting costs, continuing layoffs and shut‐ ting down parts of its busi‐ ness.
It said by the end of Au‐ gust it expected to reduce its full-time workforce by 25 per cent - or nearly 800 jobs compared with September 2022.
By the end of May, Corus had cut about 500 employ‐ ees.
In the email statement from Corus, the company said it had "implemented some difficult but necessary changes to ensure a sustain‐ able future for Corus, specifi‐ cally within our Audio and News divisions. As a result, certain roles within our Audio and News divisions have been impacted."
Those changes included the closure of the station in Hamilton and "adjusting the format of CFPL in London," it said.
"These decisions were not made lightly and came after long and careful considera‐ tion of our business opera‐ tions."
The company said it re‐ mained committed to "serv‐ ing" its communities, "includ‐ ing the Hamilton Tiger-Cats, Corus Hamilton Children's Fund and more," but didn't provide further detail. It also would not confirm the num‐ ber of jobs being cut.
April Lindgren, a journal‐ ism professor at Toronto Metropolitan University who leads the Local News Re‐ search Project, said in past years, community newspa‐ pers were hit hard by clo‐ sures but there's been a re‐ cent trend of local radio and television newsrooms shut‐ tering.
For example, Lindgren says 36 radio news stations have closed in Canada since 2008, but nine of those have happened in the past yearand-a-half.
"I think post-pandemic the challenges of finding ad‐ vertising revenue are really hitting home," she said in an interview with CBC Hamilton.
She said a lack of local news also makes it challeng‐ ing for politicians who rely on the media to spread news of big decisions and announce‐ ments.
"Local journalism is some‐ thing that you don't know what you've got until it's gone and people are soon going to start noticing the consequences … it's just bad news for communities."