Vancouver AM radio station TALK 1410 announced Thursday it’s switching to an all-sports format — a move that saw 23 employees laid off.
The CHUM Radio-owned station is also changing its name to TEAM 1410, giving the company two sports stations with the same name. The other is the TEAM 1040.
CHUM Radio Vancouver vice-president and general manager James Stuart said the big differentiator is that one station will carry Vancouver Canucks games, while the other will carry the B.C. Lions.
“The challenge that we had before having both is when the two teams played on the same night, we’d have to move one of those games to another frequency,” Stuart said.
“The Canucks are staying on the TEAM 1040.”
The shakeup was necessitated by low ratings.
“Ratings for the TALK 1410 were low, bottom of the marketplace. The effort to create a winning product was there … but (we expected) to lose money from a business side,” Stuart added.
Of the 23 layoffs, 19 of the positions will not be replaced. Three of the laid-off people were offered new positions.
The new station says it will also broadcast NFL football and European soccer games.
