As newsrooms and j-schools contract, a major Vancouver training ground for new journalists is gone. Former reporters and educators consider if students can still get their foot in the door
I never imagined I’d be the last intern at Vancouver’s 1130 NewsRadio. But that came true on July 7 when Rogers Sports & Media shuttered the station — along with five others across Vancouver, Calgary, Halifax and Kitchener. Eighty people lost their jobs due to the closures, with an additional 150 workers laid off across the Rogers Sports and Media cuts.
My five-week practicum at 1130 NewsRadio had ended two months earlier, a mandatory course for BCIT journalism students. I spent my last days as an intern in a room packed with veteran reporters, learning how to contribute in an active newsroom. When I walked out of the Rogers building on West 2nd Ave. for one last time, I had no idea it would be one of the station’s last chapters as well. I am glad I got to be a part of it.
After 1130 NewsRadio went off the air, drivers who turned the dial to 1130 that morning heard only silence. Former staff and colleagues paid a tremendous number of tributes on social media to a station with three decades of history. Rogers told CBC News the closures were due to declining revenue and audience numbers.
But former 1130 NewsRadio staff told me it’s student journalists who may feel the loss the most.
Fewer jobs, fewer internships and fewer opportunities
1130 NewsRadio provided an opportunity to get fast-paced training in the journalism industry and possible employment to aspiring young journalists, said Sidney Parker, the station’s former midday news anchor. She told me how her newsroom offered internships to students from post-secondary institutes, such as BCIT’s radio arts program, her alma mater.
“Now News 1130 doesn’t exist. There’s just not much left here. And I feel bad for new broadcasting students. They just don’t get to have that same kind of experience in practice,” she said. “It’s kind of like we’re pulling up the ladder behind us as we move forward.”
Her worries about young journalists are not merely about the lack of internship opportunities, but also about the struggles of entering the job market. Regarding the sudden layoff, Parker said more and more experienced broadcasters who already lost their jobs will saturate the job market, reducing the room for young journalists fresh out of school.
“Those jobs that historically new graduates would have gotten are going to go to these experienced broadcasters because they’re all out of work now,” Parker said.
“[Journalism instructors] always tell you in school, if you can’t get something in Vancouver, you’ve got to move over to different markets, but even those different markets have lost jobs,” she said. “There’s just less out there.”
Another 1130 NewsRadio staff member, Raynaldo Suarez, also said his internship at 660 NewsRadio in Calgary, where he started his radio journalism career, helped him get hired there at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Now that 1130 is gone, Suarez worries that young journalists will get less hands-on experience in the newsroom. “If you choose a practicum in TV, you’re not going to be on air; you’re not necessarily going to be [writing] many web articles, so those opportunities might not give young journalists the same kind of experience as they would have in radio,” Suarez said.
Alexander Carrigan, a veteran traffic reporter at 1130, told me the closure will affect passionate young journalists. Since a lot of the staff at 1130 were former interns, the radio newsroom’s sudden closure “is a gigantic blow” for those who want to pursue a career in broadcasting, especially radio, Carrigan said.
Looking back at his days as a student about 10 years ago, Carrigan said a career in radio — following his newsroom being shut down — might not be the best option to go to school for. “There are some very valuable skills that you’re going to learn, but you’re just not going to have a long career if stations keep shutting down,” said Carrigan.
Radio silence from 1130 NewsRadio
When his radio station got shut down, Carrigan was on his way to work, tuning into 1130 NewsRadio in his car as usual. Even after the closure, he still turned his car radio dial to 1130 with faint hope that the signal would turn back on. But all he would hear was static noise that echoed inside his car. “That’s kind of what I’m feeling, just like my brain is going through static right now,” said Carrigan.
After the shutdown, listeners poured in questions to Carrigan about where to get traffic updates moving forward. His answer was “I’m really sorry to say I do not know.” Alongside Carrigan, Parker also worked as a traffic anchor at AM730 from 2019 to 2024 before it was shut down. She told me how 1130 NewsRadio was more than just a workplace to her. It was her home.
Looking back on her career at 1130 NewsRadio, Parker said she imagined her time at 1130 would last for a very long time. She remembered how much she enjoyed the work she and her coworkers did. Every day, 1130 NewsRadio staff uplifted the voices and provided a platform for people who may not otherwise have it, Parker said.
While acting as a messenger between politicians, the public, and various organizations, she said 1130 NewsRadio informed the people and provided the service that everyone needed. “There’s nothing else left here in Vancouver for that. And I was proud to be a part of that. And it’s very sad that it’s gone,” said Parker.
Former staff react to Rogers’ shutdown decision
After Rogers explained why they closed radio stations, former staff, politicians and broadcasting professionals shared their thoughts, with some calling on the House of Commons to mandate that Rogers keep news stations open and designate local news and informational radio as essential public services.
According to Suarez, the decision created a gap in the market that could lead other radio stations to fill in. For telecommunications giants like Rogers, Suarez said it had a responsibility to ensure 1130 NewsRadio staff served the people of this country with necessary news, regardless of the number of listeners.
Carrigan disagreed that the declining viewership and revenue were the key factors behind this shutdown that cost him his job. Although he understood the changes in the media landscape and how listeners are shifting to more streaming services, Carrigan claimed 1130 NewsRadio’s traffic centre generated lots of revenue. “Every single one of our reports was sponsored. We always had an ad to read,” argued Carrigan.
After receiving hundreds of messages from his listeners, Carrigan said the following days after the closure helped contextualize how many people relied on 1130 NewsRadio. He said the newsradio station had much higher daily listenership than what the Rogers statement detailed.
“It’s not an exaggeration to say hundreds of people have reached out and mentioned me by name as to something that they were looking forward to on the radio and something that helped them through their day,” said Carrigan. Therefore, he said he questions how Rogers claimed 1130 NewsRadio was not bringing in much revenue.
Difficult years for local B.C. journalism
A few years before the 1130’s shutdown, COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the trend of declining advertising revenue for news outlets. Statistics Canada reported that advertising revenue for private television fell 17.4 per cent in 2020 from the previous year. . In the case of private radio, it dropped 23.5 per cent to the lowest level since 2003. Newspapers also lost $464 million in 2020 compared to the previous year, according to News Media Canada data.
The loss of revenue took a toll on the journalism industry, with the pandemic becoming a key factor in the permanent closing of 56 local, regional and national media outlets and the temporary shutdown of 16, according to data from the COVID-19 Media Impact Map for Canada, a joint initiative of J-Source, the Canadian Association of Journalists and the Local News Research Project at Toronto Metropolitan University.
But B.C. has a long trail of newsrooms being shut down in recent years. Metro News, 24 Hours, The Vancouver Courier, an independent CKNW newsroom, and several community newspapers that surrounded the core of the city are all gone, wrote Justin McElroy on LinkedIn. Earlier this year, Langara College suspended enrollment for its two-year journalism program. In a Tyee interview, Barry Link, who is the program head, said the school will not be taking students starting September 2026, and the students graduating in 2027 spring might be the last.
Despite an uncertain future, journalists I interviewed for 1130 NewsRadio about the Langara developments said there is still room for emerging reporters. “If they’re comfortable freelancing, if they’re comfortable with having multiple jobs where they work at different newsrooms on different days, then you can find full-time work that will sustain you in this industry,” said Michelle Gamage, a Tyee health reporter who graduated from the program in 2013.
Forging new paths
Since 1130 NewsRadio’s closure was right on the heels of the Langara journalism program news, journalists are advising students to carefully consider their future. Parker said student journalists should be realistic and realize the radio news industry they grew up with is gone. To pursue a career in the broadcast industry, student journalists should be creative and open-minded, said Parker.
Reflecting on her time at BCIT, Parker said her colleagues who went to school with her have either left the industry or have gotten caught in the wake of the Rogers layoffs. “Honestly, you have to pick a different career path, or you have to be super creative, or you have to be willing to go where [the industry] is still strong because there are places in the world where broadcasting is still a viable industry, but in Canada, not really.”
But in the face of mass layoffs and large corporations shuttering trusted news services, Carrigan said the work of student journalists remains invaluable.
“In terms of our news media, people don’t know whom to trust, and journalism is incredibly important and good journalists are hard to come by, so I would wholeheartedly encourage any student of journalism to do their best in terms of honest reporting, keeping up the integrity of the industry and to keep going.”
Joonha ‘Jonah’ Jung is a multimedia journalist based in B.C. His coverage ranges from diaspora issues, immigration, culture and environment to the state of journalism.