The FAN 590 is undergoing a major shake-up as a raft of on-air personalities were let go Thursday morning.
According to sources, the departed include morning co-hosts Don Landry and Gord Stellick, mid-morning host Mike Hogan and news announcer Rick Ralph. In addition, Jack Armstrong’s mid-afternoon show has been killed, though Armstrong and co-host Eric Smith may remain on staff.
Rogers Sportsnet’s Daren Millard, host of the noon hockey show, has been replaced by Greg Brady. Millard will likely return to a full-time job at Sportsnet.
Brady was hired away from AM 640, where he co-hosted The Bill Watters Show. His departure from 640, which recently axed its noontime Leafs Lunch show, leaves Watters’ future in doubt as his show has languished in the ratings and has not made any headway against The FAN.
Brady will host a two-hour hockey show, followed by an hour of general sports talk leading into Bob McCown’s Prime Time Sports at 4 p.m.
That means the FAN has basically remade its entire schedule, with the exception of McCown’s show.
It is not known who will replace the morning duo who have been together since 2004, nor who will replace Hogan, another longtime FAN employee.
Greg Brady is entertaining, smart, and actually pretty funny. A lot like Jeff Marek (but not quite as good). Big improvement over Millard on Hockey Central.
No more Landry and Stellick in the morning though is gonna be weird to get used to. I've been listening to them every morning on the way into work for over two years now. I can understand how they can grow stale on people though.
I like Hogan a lot but he has an infinite hard-on for CFL football and loves to talk about it so I turn the radio off in the office when he does.
So they replaced everyone, except the one person they needed to give the boot (Bobcat)
I have no idea why the Fan didn't fire its highest rated personality who's actually getting more popular.
Quote:
While McCown soared in the recent ratings book with a 10.8 audience share among adult males, the rest of The FAN’s ratings were considered static. All fared relatively well in the last book, but much of that boost came from the Vancouver Olympics and was not expected to continue.
Sucks for Hogan. Always liked his show, good balance of different sports. Will be interesting who fills the morning slots. Am assuming Eric Smith stays, he does their live Raptors games, so even if he's not hosting a show, he likely stays on staff.
