CFTR 680 News Toronto, AM News Segment, November 29 2024 / B-Roll Driving a 2008 New Flyer D40LF

ORLANDO, FLORIDA (November 29, 2024): 8AM 680 News segment, with editorializing (ie mocking) what has become of Toronto's pathetic "all news" radio station. Snowflakes beware, this is your trigger warning.

The b-roll is me driving a 2008 New Flyer D40LF, which was taken out of service due to an air conditioning failure (a deal-breaker in Florida). I am a former GO Transit (Toronto) bus driver who moved to Orlando in 2017, taking a pay cut from C$34 to US$12 at the time. The video was taken on April 2, 2004.

The individual who was originally driving the bus felt the a/c cut out (kinda hard not to notice in Florida). She heard a noise in the rear engine compartment. She must have smelled something burning, too. When I met up with her, the a/c belt was smoking and about to catch fire.

She elected to continue the journey in order to get the passengers where they were going, and try and keep it as cool as possible. What a trooper.

I'll try to do more of these as time permits.

It's probably obvious who I'm driving for and where, but I don't want to advertise it here.

And if anybody from 680 News or Rogers Media stumbles across, who T F do you think you're kidding? We know you're full of it. In the 22 years from the time 680 News came on the air, until the time I left, the only thing they were half-way useful for was traffic (when the traffic reports weren't pre-recorded and re-used overnight) and, maybe, weather.

680's mainstay is government and union ads, other political ads, the drug dealers (primarily Pfizer) and business-to-business. So they really are a government-subsidized operation. And their "reporting" reflects that fact. They have about as much credibility as Pravda and Bremya did in the USSR of the good ol' days.

No doubt Paul Cook is counting down the days until retirement, and wistfully reminiscing about 680s beginning. "A 20-minute newscast, every 20 minutes" with the sound effect of a teletype machine in the background as he read the news. They had more-or-less honest reporting back then. With experienced, professional announcers.

But I'll give 680 credit. The millions of dollars Rogers pours into that operation (and "sister" stations nationwide) has allowed them to stay in business a helluva lot longer than CKO.

Interestingly 680 News briefly rebranded itself as "City News 680," before becoming "680 News Radio" and just "News Radio Toronto." Even their announcers have reverted back to sneaking in "680 News" so I suspect they've given up on that "rebranding."

Cameos from The Simpsons (Marge vs The Monorail, D'oh Canada, Homer vs the 18th Amendment), Futurama (A Taste of Freedom), Zelensky playing the piano with his pecker, Family Guy (When You Wish Upon A Weinstein), and Duct Tape Racing's "anti-ricer compilation."