Bell slashes more jobs at Niagara station 610 CKTB
Niagara news-talk station loses producers and veteran reporter
After more cuts at its locally owned radio stations, Niagara Falls MPP Wayne Gates says Bell Media executives “should be ashamed of themselves.”
Gates blasted the media conglomerate after another round of layoffs at AM station 610 CKTB Wednesday, less than three months after layoffs at sister station 105.7 MOVE (formerly EZ Rock).
Two producers with CKTB along with veteran reporter Noelle Sinclair were let go Wednesday. In November, at least four EZ Rock staff members, including Niagara radio fixture Rob White, were terminated.
A source with CKTB said a receptionist and promotions employee were also fired Wednesday.
Gates said the radio staff were “hard-working and dedicated voices of local news in Niagara.”
He’s especially angry since Bell Media recently took $122 million in pandemic-related labour subsidies while increasing its dividend payouts to shareholders.
Gates said Bell accepted the money from “Canadian taxpayers” on the promise it would support local news.
“They’re liars and they’re greedy,” he said, “and it’s put good people out of work.
“They need to be accountable for taking these great local reporters away from us.”
CKTB program director Craig Pfeifer did not respond to a request for comment Thursday.
The local cuts were among several at Bell’s media outlets across Canada this week. Bell spokesperson Marc Choma told the Toronto Star Tuesday the layoffs reflected the company’s “streamlined operating structure.”
The company did not indicate how many jobs were lost, but union representatives for Bell Media outlets said at least 210 employees were let go in the GTA area alone.
Several employees took to Twitter to let their listeners know they were gone. In Windsor, Mayor Drew Dilkins praised radio veteran Steve Bell for his four decades on air: “After 41 years with the company, you think they would have let him at least say goodbye.”
Local employees were reluctant to speak for fear their severance packages could be affected.
But longtime Niagara talk show host Larry Fedoruk, let go by CKTB in 2019, said this week’s cuts further erode Niagara’s media landscape.
“People are losing the basic right to understand what is going on in their own community,” he said.
“They blame new platforms and the pandemic but have never reinvented or tried to reinvent. That costs money. The government and the CRTC should be stepping in, they are not.”