Edmonton’s TSN 1260 among six Canadian radio stations slashed by Bell Media

Today is a dark day for Canadian sports radio.

A few hours into the station’s regular programming for the day, TSN 1260 announced that it would be going off the air. A generic voice told listeners that “the realities of AM Radio in the broadcast media landscape have made this change unavoidable” and then thanked sponsors, contributors, and listeners for supporting the station over the years.

This comes as part of a larger slash by Bell Media as the telecom company plans to “significantly adapt” how it delivers information. Bell is shuttering six radio stations across Canada and is selling three more, with 1,300 positions and three percent of the company’s workforce being cut.

The plan entails “moving to a single newsroom approach across brands, allowing for greater collaboration and efficiency,” said Richard Gray, vice-president of news at Bell Media, in an internal memo distributed to staff Wednesday morning and provided to The Canadian Press.

Along with Edmonton’s TSN 1260, Winnipeg’s Funny 1290, Calgary’s Funny 1060, Vancouver’s BNN Bloomberg Radio 1410 and Funny 1040, along with London’s NewsTalk 1290 have been shut, while Hamilton’s AM Radio 1150 and AM 820, as well as Windsor’s AM 580, are set to be sold to an undisclosed third party, subject to CRTC approval. TSN now only has a radio station in three Canadian cities: Toronto, Ottawa, and Montreal. The TSN stations in Vancouver, Hamilton, and Winnipeg were axed back in 2021.

We at The Nation Network offer our condolences to those affected by these cuts and wish everyone the best through this difficult time. TSN 1260 put out excellent content over the years and this is an incredible loss for sports fans in our city and beyond.