Plus Pages

Monday, August 1, 2016

London ON Radio: No Joke..Funny 1410 AM Is Ceasing Operations



The second oldest AM radio station in the London, Onatario was once home to broadcast stalwarts such as Bill Brady and Peter Garland when it called itself CKSL.

According to lfpress.com, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) said Friday it would grant Bell Media’s request to revoke the licence of the station that plays recorded material by comics.

Bell said in its application to the broadcast regulator that Funny 1410’s transmitter site is in bad shape and requires more than $3  million in repairs and upgrades.

“CKSL-AM has consistently ranked last out of all 10 commercial stations in the London market, both in audience share and revenue generation, over the last several years,” Bell said in its application.

“Even with a significant investment in programming, this trend is unlikely to be reversed.”

It’s not known when Funny 1410 will go off the air. Don Mumford, general manager of Funny 1410 and 1290 CJBK, said he couldn’t comment on the CRTC decision. He said a news release will be issued.

No jobs will lost when the station closes.

CKSL 1410 AM (10 Kw, DA-2)
It will be a bittersweet ending for the man who kick-started the jokes on Breakfast with Brady.

“The emphasis was on having a good time and giving people a happy beginning to their day,” said Brady, 84, a former vice-president of the Blackburn Group who started working at CKSL in 1958, two years after the station launched.

“(Now) CKSL hasn’t been worth keeping on the air. . . It’s pretty salacious stand-up comedy,” Brady said.

It’s not the content that Londoners will miss the most, but the people behind the microphone, he said.

“We didn’t make enough money and it was a struggle but we were doing what we love,” Brady said of CKSL stars such as Garland.

No comments:

Post a Comment