Vancouver has lost its last all-sports radio station.
Five years after Bell pulled the plug on TSN 1040, Rogers has done the same with Sportsnet 650, Daily Hive can confirm.
Sportsnet 650 has been playing reruns all morning, and its social media accounts have gone silent.
In an emailed response to Daily Hive, a Rogers Sports & Media spokesperson said Sportsnet 650 was one of six radio stations in four markets closing due to “declining audience and revenue trends.” Among the other stations shut down are News 1130 in Vancouver and Sportsnet 960 in Calgary. News stations in Calgary, Halifax, and Kitchener are also affected.
Rogers continues to own and operate 44 radio stations in 30 Canadian markets.
“After a thorough review of our radio stations across the country, we have made the difficult but necessary decision to close Sportsnet 650 and News 1130 in Vancouver,” reads a statement from Rogers Sports & Media. “We are grateful to our listeners and to our team for their contributions to the local community.”
Sportsnet 650 launched in Vancouver on April 25, 2017, as a competitor to TSN 1040, which first aired in Vancouver as Team 1040 in 2001.
While it took years for TSN 1040 to wrestle the Vancouver Canucks broadcast rights away from CKNW, Sportsnet 650 arrived with the Canucks rights secured by Rogers before going to air.
Canucks radio broadcasts will move to another Rogers Sports & Media owned station in the market, a company spokesperson confirmed.