Sportsnet 960 shelved by Rogers, Flames fans react

The city of Calgary has suffered a huge blow in the sports coverage radio sector recently.

On July 8, Sportsnet 960’s usual morning broadcasting was interrupted by a message informing listeners that the beloved station was going off the air.

Rogers followed up with:

“After a thorough review of our radio stations across the country, we have made the difficult but necessary decision to close Sportsnet 960 and 660 News in Calgary.”

This came as a shock to not only avid listeners of 960, but the Calgary Flames organization as well.

Sportsnet 960 has been responsible for producing radio coverage of the Calgary Flames, Wranglers, Hitmen, Toronto Blue Jays and more.

As well as the usual sports coverage, Pat Steinberg’s popular weekday radio show “Flames Talk” will also be effectively cancelled.

Derek Wills, the popular radio play-by-play voice of the Flames since 2014, has been left without a platform.

With the surge in streaming and decline in radio over the last decade, it’s uncertain whether Calgary Sports and Entertainment is actively looking for a new station to host live radio broadcasts for the 2026–27 hockey season and beyond.

Lifelong Calgary sports fan Javier Cumatz had this to say about the sudden cancellation of Sportnet 960:

“It’s actually really sad to see.

It leaves a huge hole in sports media representation in Calgary, because 960 for some was the only way for them to be able to listen to Flames games, and now have to pay an already expensive Sportsnet subscription that’s bound to keep increasing in price, and even then, you’re not guaranteed all the games with blackouts.

However, I think it opens a door for more independent sports media outlets to make a name for themselves.”

Another lifelong Flames fan, Jayden Lawrence, reacted, saying:

“I believe that it disrupts many local fans’ abilities to tune in to their favourite sports teams on the way home from work. The greed that Rogers has put on Canadians in the past four years needs to be put to a halt before other companies get the same idea.

Local radio is crucial to our freedom of speech, and it’s slowly being tarnished by money-hungry billionaires out in Toronto.
The very fact that Torontonians still have two dedicated sports radio stations to choose from while Calgary and Vancouver are left with none is absolutely ridiculous.

Why do Torontonians get to have their radio play-by-play while the rest of the country has theirs stripped?”

It will be interesting to see how the Calgary Flames organization handles this situation.

In the meantime, it opens the doors for independent solo entities like us here at The Win Column to step in and fill the void.