Rogers pulls the plug on CityNews Ottawa radio station

Photo: As of Thursday, there is one less station on Ottawa’s radio dial.

Ottawa took another hit to local news availability this week, with Rogers shutting down the CityNews radio station.

The cutback includes laying off 10 employees, a number of whom have worked at the news station for many years. Rogers is also shutting down the CIWW 1310 AM frequency, returning the licence to the CRTC, thus ending a broadcasting history that goes back to 1922 when CIWW was originally founded as CKCO on 750 kHz. The 101.1 FM frequency that CityNews had been using since 2020 has returned to its Country format.

The associated CityNews Ottawa website, however, will continue operation with a whole two news reporters, a Rogers spokesperson told the Citizen. (Call me cynical, but that probably has more to do with keeping some reporters for CRTC local news requirements at the remaining stations, rather than any sort of interest Rogers has in continuing with digital local news.)