The CBC has confirmed it has laid off veteran CBC Sports announcers Steve Armitage and Mark Lee as part of the most recent round of job cuts at the pubcaster.
Armitage has been voicing sports events at the CBC for 49 years, including work on Hockey Night in Canada, the Grey Cup and the Olympic Games. Lee, 58, had also been with the CBC for years, working events like the Olympics and Pan Am Games. Armitage and Lee were let go as part of larger cuts to CBC Sports, with a total of between 33 and 40 jobs lost, according to a spokesperson with the CBC.
This April the CBC announced it would be cutting 657 jobs from the pubcaster over the next two years, with Hubert Lacroix president and CEO of CBC/Radio-Canada saying it would no longer be going after sports rights due to the expense behind them.
This isn’t surprising at all. Does anyone know what has happened to Steve Weeks….also of HNIC? He was part of the pre-game and between period panel coverage right up to the end of the season, and then was not part of it…at least the early games during the playoffs? Did they can him? If so, too bad….I rather like him. P.J. Stock? Who? Was this guy a player?