Two am radio stations in recession-battered Sault Ste. Marie, Ont. are closing down Aug. 30.

The stations are CFYN, owned by Telemedia Communications Ontario, and Pelmorex Broadcasting’s CKCY.

Pierre Morrissette, president of Toronto-based Pelmorex, says because the shutdown is some weeks hence there is ample time to rearrange the transfer of advertising time from the am stations to the two FM stations Telemedia and Pelmorex operate in the border city.

Joint support services

Morrissette says Telemedia’s chas, and Pelmorex’s CJQM have signed an agreement to share joint support services such as engineering and administration. He says many factors brought on the shutdown, including Sault Ste. Marie’s depressed economy, poor retail advertising sales, cross-border shopping, the GST and radio competition.

‘Eight commercial signals is just a non-starter [in a city of 80,000,]’ Morrissette says.

He says in the last two years Pelmorex and Telemedia have lost $1 million each on their radio operations.

Even after the am stations’ shutdown, Sault Ste. Marie residents will still have six radio stations to choose from, four of them from the U.S. DC