30 years ago today, Canada's attempt at an all-news radio network failed. CKO signed off the air.
A more odd collection of characters could not have been put together over the life of the Vancouver station (born Nov. 21, 1977). Things happened that couldn't possibly happen anywhere else. Unfortunately, that isn't the story you're going to read below.
Here is a collection of newspaper stories about the abrupt end of the network. First is a wire story.
cArtie
News network bites the dust
TORONTO (CP) — The national CKO radio network died Friday after losing $55 million in a 13-year life during which it never managed to sell its all-news format to advertisers.
CKO's nine English-language stations abruptly signed off the air at noon eastern time with no explanation. Telephone calls to the chain's Toronto headquarters were answered by a recording saying the office was closed.
But at a news conference two hours later, a spokesman for the company that ran CKO blamed the demise on consistent losses including nearly $1.5 million in the last two months and the lack of any company willing to buy the network.
"The decision was made after a comprehensive study of the business alternatives, but there was no one who wanted to take over the financial risk," said Robert Dittmer, executive vice-president of Saskatoon-based Agra Industries Ltd.
He said CKO's stations in Calgary, Halifax, Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto, London, Ont., Winnipeg, Edmonton and Vancouver are closed and their licences will be turned over to the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission, the federal broadcast regulator. All but the Montreal outlet are FM stations.
The network also had FM licences for Regina, Saint John, N.B, and SL John's, Nfld.—relics of a never-realized expansion plan.
CKO and its subsidiary Newsradio, a news service for radio stations that was picked up in 1987, employ 225 people. Newsradio will operate until Nov. 24, but will close unless a last-minute buyer can be found.
Dittmer said employees will receive severance packages, but gave no details.
CKO stations consistently turned in low ratings in their markets, but Dittmer said there were recent indications audiences were increasing.
"We think we were producing a gradually improving product, and we had an audience," he said. "But we haven't been able to convince advertisers to accept our product."
Several Newsradio reporters learned of CKO's demise while covering the first ministers' conference in Ottawa, said Bob Quinn, Ottawa bureau chief for the service. They were told to pack up their gear and return to the office.
"We were shocked," Quinn said. "We didn't think in our wildest dreams it would ever close down."
Agra, with interests in food-processing, pharmaceutical and engineering firms in Alberta and Saskatchewan, received licences for its CKO stations in 1976 and began broadcasting a year later. Agra last year transferred the network to Cybermedix Inc., in which it owned a controlling stake.
Earlier this fall, however, Agra sold its interest in Cybermedix to Cogeco Inc., a Montreal-based media conglomerate that almost immediately announced CKO was on the auction block.
Cybermedix, which takes its name from a chain of clinical laboratories that Cogeco sold off, also includes a cable-television business that serves 200,000 subscribers in Ontario and Quebec.
Dittmer said the decision to close CKO was made this week by Agra, which retained control of the radio network pending CRTC approval of the Cybermedix sale. A Cogeco spokesman said the company supported the shutdown. "They (Agra) asked us if we had any magic solutions, which we don't," Michel Carter said from Montreal. "The only solution was to shut it down, so we regrettably concurred."
A spokesman for the CRTC in Hull, Que., declined comment on the closure, saying the commission is awaiting official notification.