As part of its ongoing corporate restructuring, Bell Media has eliminated the airstaff on Alternative “89X” 88.7 CIMX Windsor ON and closed its Detroit sales office.
Exiting with the cuts are morning hosts Cal Cagno and Gillian Reilly, midday hosts Phil “PK” Kukawinski, afternoon host Reed Petitpren and members of the promotions and sales departments. Only night host Mark McKenzie remains from the on-air staff.
The company is eliminating is US based sales office for the Detroit market and will focus its efforts on the Canadian side of the border. In addition to CIMX, Bell Media owns Oldies “AM 580” CKWW, News/Talk “AM 800” CKLW, and AAA “93.9 The River” CIDR in the Detroit/Windsor market. Of the four stations, only “89X” subscribed to Nielsen Audio’s PPM ratings for Detroit where it registered a 1.6 share in the February monthly.
In a press statement, Bell Media Director of Corporate Communications Matthew Garrow stated, “We have reduced a number of broadcast positions at Bell Media’s local TV and radio stations as part of a larger restructuring at Bell Media, including the closure of our Detroit satellite office supporting Windsor radio stations 89X, The River, Memories 580, and AM 800. The four stations will retain their current formats and their signals will continue to carry into the Detroit market. The restructuring is a response to the challenges we and other Canadian media companies are facing on multiple fronts: changing broadcast technologies and growing international competition, a tough advertising market, and ongoing regulatory pressure.”
I wonder if there might also be some cuts coming to the River: It looks like that station does better than 89X in the overall Numeris ratings for Windsor–but maybe not by a whole lot (and with both stations far behind CKLW). Steve Kowch’s site does have some official demo breakdowns from Bell; however, I’m not sure I’m reading those correctly.