It’s an end of an era for Calgary Flames fans.

On Tuesday, Rogers Sports and Media ceased operations of Sportsnet 960 The Fan, Calgary’s all-sports radio station (960 AM), as part of a swath of radio station closures that also included Sportsnet 650 in Vancouver. The Canadian Press was first to report via its newswire.

We have received the following statement from Rogers Sports and Media:

Six radio stations in four markets are being impacted by the closures, with the other closures being in Vancouver, Halifax and Kitchener. Per Rogers, Sportsnet will no longer be producing Calgary Flames radio broadcasts.

At the risk of sounding indelicate: this sucks.

Originally launched way back in 1922 as the Calgary Herald’s radio affiliate in a primarily news format, it eventually changed owners and became a country music station around the 1980s. It switched to an all-sports format in 2001, with Calgary Flames broadcasts migrating from sister station 66 CFR (660 AM) soon after launch. (660 was the primary home for Flames broadcasts during the 1980s and 1990s, with Peter Maher’s game calls a diversion from their usual adult contemporary and oldies format. It, too, was closed by Rogers on Tuesday.)

Nowadays, every single Flames game is available to watch live on streaming – whether on your television or even via your phone. I’m going to age myself, but for a certain vintage of Flames fans, the only way to keep up with the team was via the radio broadcasts. And when games started late on a school night, there’s a certain vintage of Flames fans that caught every game with a radio either on their bedside table or hidden under the covers so parents wouldn’t realize you were still listening to the game. (Spoiler: I was one of these fans.)

For Flames fans, Sportsnet 960 The Fan offered a continual daily dialogue on the goings-on with the team, even during the dog days of summer. Whether through the zany chaos of the morning show in various incarnations – Mike Richards, Boomer and Pinder and Rhett, and the newer incarnation with George Rusic and Matt Rose – the afternoon shows with Rob Kerr and Pat Steinberg, and the late-night call-in shows, the station offered opportunities for fans to become informed, engaged, illuminated, or even just a chance to vent to the hosts about the state of the team. They often used the tagline “Your home for the Calgary Flames,” and to a lot of fans, it was their home.

The media world is changing and we’ve seen long-time radio stations throughout Canada close down or transform into other formats. Even with all that, the closure of the Fan is a tough pill to swallow. It’s one less touchpoint for fans to connect with their local hockey team and – as I know from my tenure there co-hosting Flames Talk – a lot of really great people put a lot of work into making that station what it was.

Thank you for the memories, 960. We’re all very sorry to see you go.