Vancouver Radio: Mike Halford, Jason Brough Get Wake-Up Duty At CISL

Mike Halford, Jason Brough

CISL Sportsnet 650 Vancouver’s remaining sports radio station announced Thursday that it has hired four former Bell Media on-air personalities and has reshuffled its lineup as a result. The new schedule launches next Monday, reports The Province.

Jason Brough and Mike Halford, whose morning show had been growing its audience even as Bell Media was making plans to shut down TSN 1040, are the biggest addition, as they take over the 6 to 9 a.m. show slot, replacing James Cybulski and Perry Solkowski. The show will be called, unsurprisingly, “Halford and Brough in the Morning.”

Karen Surman is also joining 650 full-time and will join Scott Rintoul from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. for a rebranded “Rintoul and Surman” show, which will also air in Calgary.

Bik Nizzar is sliding into the host’s chair alongside station director Craig MacEwen from 1 to 3 p.m. for “Bik and the Boss.”

The afternoon drive-time show is also seeing changes as Andrew Walker, who was an original afternoon host from the station’s founding in 2017, is out. Sat Shah, who shifted into the drive-time slot in October 2019, remains, but is joined by the former hosts of Reach Deep — which had aired from 1 to 4 p.m. — Randip Janda and Dan Riccio. The new show, called “The People’s Show,” will run from 3 to 7 p.m. and will feature former TSN 1040 host Don Taylor as a regular contributor as well. (Taylor and former 650/1040 host Rick Dhaliwal are also launching a new show with CHEK TV.)

“In making these changes, we have made the difficult decision to part ways with some talented and dedicated broadcasters,” MacEwen said in a statement. “We want to sincerely thank James Cybulski, Perry Solkowski and Andrew Walker for their passion and unwavering commitment to helping build Sportsnet 650 into the station it is today. We wish them all the very best in their next chapter.”

The changes by 650 come a couple weeks after the latest ratings “book” showed that 650 had picked up about 40 per cent of TSN 1040’s previous audience. TSN 1040, which was soon going to celebrate its 20th anniversary, was unceremoniously closed with no notice by Bell Media in February. 

Despite posting solid ratings and still holding a stable of advertisers even through the COVID-19 pandemic, Bell cited continuing losses at the station — sources have estimated as much as $12 million over the last decade — as the key factor in their decision.

Walker said the news of his firing caught him by surprise, but he also recognized that the radio business is a brutal one at times.