Towards the end of the Calgary Flames season, there were often times when the Sportsnet crew and I were the only media at practices.
The Sportsnet 960 crew, from Pat Steinberg to Meaghan Mikkelson to Derek Wills, were there every single morning. Guys like Logan Gordon, Matt Rose and George Rusic were regulars, too, whether that was in the press box during games or in the locker room for scrums.
When you turned on the radio in the morning, you got three hours of local content on The Big Show. The afternoon show came on at 1 p.m. before Steinberg hosted Flames Talk, often teeing up the Flames game that followed.
On game nights, Steinberg would stick around long after the rest of us in the media had gone home to host the post-game call-in show.
Nowhere else in the city did you get that much locally sourced and produced sports content. Not even close.
And now, none of it will be on the air.
Pat Steinberg, as seen in this file photo.
On Tuesday morning, the news dropped like a bomb that Rogers Communications Inc. had made the decision to shut down Sportsnet 960 and 660 NewsRadio. It came just a day after Rogers announced it was buying the remaining 25 per cent ownership in Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment for $4.35 billion.
“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,” Rogers said in a statement. “We are grateful to our listeners and to our team for their contributions to the local community.”
Sportsnet is the Flames’ regional broadcast rights partner. They extended their exclusive partnership for 11 more seasons in 2024.
The Flames did not have a statement on the decision and will need to work on coming up with alternative radio broadcast plans moving forward.
What does this mean for Flames fans and sports fans in general in Calgary? In a word, it’s devastating.
Meaghan Mikkelson talks with media before taking part in Classroom Champions Champion Chats at the Fairmont Palliser Hotel in Calgary on Wednesday, May 27, 2026.
For Flames fans, it means as much as 12 hours of daily hockey content will no longer be on the air. That’s reporting, analysis, debate and live coverage of games, signings, trades, draft picks and everything in between. And again, it’s not just quantity, it’s quality.
Wills and Mikkelson were among the small group of media members who still travelled with the Flames. Steinberg was the most well-connected person in this little tribe. Hopefully, they’ll find landing places where we can continue to get their insights, but for now, the decision to shutter Sportsnet 960 leaves a huge hole in the landscape.
The rest of the station’s crew did great work, too, and not just on the Flames beat. Rose has been a regular at Stampeders games and practices dating back nearly a decade. Gordon did great work covering the Wranglers and there were many, many others doing great work both on the mic and behind the scenes.
Pictured at the 23rd Annual Priddis Greens Charity Classic was dinner emcee Derek Wills, voice of the Calgary Flames, in this file photo.
Good people tend to land on their feet and great talent will find a way. We haven’t heard the last of any of them.
But for sports fans in Calgary, losing Sportsnet 960 is a crushing blow.
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