Calgary Radio: Dave Rutherford OUT At CHQR

Dave Rutherford

Talk-show host Dave Rutherford’s longtime morning show on NewsTalk CHQR 770 has been cancelled by Corus Radio one day after the conservative commentator criticized his station’s coverage of Calgary’s flood crisis, according to the Edmonton Journal.

Garry McKenzie, regional general manager for Corus Radio Calgary, Edmonton and Winnipeg, confirmed that Corus will no longer be carrying The Rutherford Show. He would not confirm it was because of the criticism, saying only it was a “personnel” matter and due to “a variety of reasons.”

When reached Tuesday afternoon, Rutherford said he was given no explanation as to why he was taken off the air, nor was he told if the removal was permanent. He was set to leave the station anyway. His last show was scheduled for July 26.

“I got a call three or four minutes after 7 this morning and they said ‘You’re not on the air. You’re off the air,’” Rutherford said. “I obviously said ‘Why?’ They said ‘Well, we can’t discuss that, legal will be in touch with you.’”

I have just been taken off the air on Corus radio. Message: don't criticize management.
— Dave Rutherford (@RutherfordShow) June 25, 2013

“At the time, that was my guess,” Rutherford said later in the afternoon “But I was thinking about it later in the day: They pay me to have opinions. They pay me to be a loudmouth. And I was. So what changed?”

On Monday, Rutherford told listeners that he would “completely understand” if they went somewhere other than NewsTalk 770 to get information about the flooding disaster.

Rutherford hosts his show from a home studio in Calgary. NewsTalk 770 was broadcasting out of a building in Calgary’s Eau Claire district, which was evacuated amid the Calgary flood. It has been running the Edmonton CHED630 feed, whose anchors have covered the flood.

On Monday, Rutherford said, “I was concerned about the decisions they were making regarding the information station, NewsTalk 770, because they had put resources obviously into the music stations, Q107 and Country 105 are their two FMs. And they are on the air running live, current stuff,” Rutherford said. “It’s unfortunate they made this decision to put all their resources into the music station in the middle of the biggest crisis the city of Calgary has ever seen. And they chose music over information.”

McKenzie would not address Rutherford’s comments directly, but he defended NewsTalk 770’s coverage of the flood.

“All of our news people have literally been surviving on five hours a night since Thursday to try and keep us going while the whole city of Calgary downtown was without power,” McKenzie said. “Some things people don’t realize, and I’m not going to give you Radio 101, but we did the best thing we could with our chief engineers and whole engineering team. If we wanted to connect and give the whole story it was best to go simulcast through CHED, our sister station in Edmonton, because we didn’t have the capability to provide the right kind of connectivity and content that we needed for Calgarians.”

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