A graphic for the Edmonton Elks' section honoring TSN 1260 personalities. A graphic for the Edmonton Elks’ section honoring TSN 1260 personalities. (Edmonton Elks on Twitter.)
InternationalRadioBy Andrew Bucholtz on

On Wednesday morning, media company Bell Canada Enterprises suddenly shut down TSN 1260 Edmonton and five other AM radio stations across the country. That came as part of the elimination of 1,300 jobs across Bell’s divisions, including a six percent cut at Bell Media. And it came with TSN 1260’s The Nielson Show going to a top-of-the-hour commercial break as normal, only to never return. Instead, the station only played an announcement that it was shutting down:

The shutdown of a long-established station that had been in an all-sports format since 2002 would be a big deal in any case. But this particular cut was exacerbated by its suddenness, with station personnel seemingly not receiving any significant level of advance notice and not being able to use the station airwaves to say goodbye to listeners. (Which also happened with the sudden shutdowns of TSN Radio stations in Vancouver, Winnipeg, and Hamilton in February 2021.) Many TSN 1260 figures have since posted tributes on Twitter and elsewhere, and we’ll get to some of those shortly.

But before that, it’s worth noting that Edmonton’s CFL team, the Elks, has stepped up where Bell did not. On Thursday, the Elks announced that they’ve come up with a TSN 1260 section for their next home game, June 25 against the Toronto Argonauts. They’re offering tickets for that lower-bowl section for $12.60 (plus fees and taxes), and they’ll have TSN 1260 hosts there to spend time with listeners.

Elks’ senior manager (marketing and communications) Evan Daum added a note on this mentioning some of the hosts who will be there:

Elks’ president Victor Cui weighed in as well:

The TSN 1260 situation is just one of many media cuts lately. And it’s only one facet of those massive overall cuts by Bell. But the way this was done was highly unfortunate, providing little to no notice for many employed there and no notice for listeners. And that led to many TSN 1260 personalities having to say their farewells elsewhere. Here are some of those, starting with a 15-minute farewell from the afternoon show of Jason Gregor, Jason Strudwick, and Connor Halley:

And some more farewells:

https://twitter.com/jamieson1260/status/1669125006771511297

But, despite the way things ended at TSN 1260, there are certainly good things ahead for many of these talented people. And it’s great to see the Elks step up to recognize them and give them a chance to connect with and say farewell to listeners.

[Edmonton Elks on Twitter]

About Andrew Bucholtz

Andrew Bucholtz has been covering sports media for Awful Announcing since 2012. He is also a staff writer for The Comeback. His previous work includes time at Yahoo! Sports Canada and Black Press.

View all posts by Andrew Bucholtz