940 News R.I.P.

I was very disappointed to learn that 940 Montreal (a.k.a. 940 News, CINW, 940) will be flipping formats because of low revenues. Here's the official news release from parent company, Corus Quebec.

Change of format for 940 Montreal

MONTREAL, June 6 /CNW Telbec/ - Corus Quebec announced today that radio
station 940 Montreal will soon introduce a new format. The station will change
from talk radio to a Greatest Hits music format on June 14. Corus Quebec plans
to give the dial position a new voice to help maintain radio diversity in
Montreal.
"We have spent years building a strong team that developed strong content
for the 940 Montreal listeners. Unfortunately, continued disappointing ratings
have sent us the clear message from our listeners that a format change was
required" said Mario Cecchini, Vice President, Montreal and Quebec Regions.
"We will continue to keep two news journalists at 940 Montreal open and look
forward to serving our audiences with the new format."
The company confirmed that 18 people were affected by the format change.

About Corus Quebec

Corus Quebec is an integral part of Corus Entertainment Inc. and the
largest private content and information broadcaster in Quebec. It operates
CKOI Montréal, 98.5 FM Montréal, CKAC Sports Montréal, Info690, 940 Montreal,
Q92 Montreal, 103.9 FM Saint-Jérôme, 102.1 FM Montmagny-Lévis-Québec, 98.3 FM
Saguenay, 104.7 FM Outaouais, 106.9 FM Mauricie, 102.1 FM Estrie, 102.9 FM
Québec, CKOY Sherbrooke and Info 800 Québec, reaching more than 2.4 million
listeners per week. According to comScore Media Metrix, Corus Quebec websites
are visited by over 1.5 million French-speaking users and 3.2 million
English-speaking users in Canada every month. Corus Québec employs
578 individuals.

Corus was looking to make the announcement a week later but someone leaked word of the format change to the media and management was forced to act. I wonder if reporters from other news outlets were calling the 940 newsroom and asking about it. That would have been the worst possible way to find out.

Here's the on-air announcement made by Mario Cecchini. Notice how Barry Morgan has to drag it out of Mario. Just spit it out already Cecchini!

I realize 940 hadn't turned a profit for a long time and running a newsroom is a costly venture. And Corus is required by law to follow the interests of its shareholders. But I'm still disappointed. 940's transmission signal served a lot of people that didn't show up in the BBM ratings. When I was in Boston, I could pick up 940's signal at night. I think shuttering the newsroom is a loss for a huge swath of Quebec, Ontario and New England. I hope everyone losing a job gets a big severance check.