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Mike Halford and Jason Brough talk 650 closure, joining The Nation Network, and more

By Clarke Corsan

Sep 21, 2026, 13:00 EDTUpdated: Sep 21, 2026, 12:37 EDT

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Mike Halford and Jason Brough have officially joined The Nation Network after the closure of Sportsnet 650, bringing their show to a new home while continuing to cover the Vancouver Canucks, NHL, NFL, soccer, and more sports.

The pair joined Sekeres & Price to discuss how they ended up joining The Nation Network and why the fit made sense for their show.

Brough said The Nation Network was aggressive from the beginning and made it clear they saw an opportunity with sports media in Vancouver.

“We were really honoured and privileged by the interest in our show. We talked to a few people and groups who reached out, there was good interest, but The Nation Network was aggressive from the start. They put dollars on the table and made a good investment in us. They see the opportunity we all see in Vancouver for sports radio; there’s money to be made. If you look at The Nation Network in Vancouver, we’re one of the biggest ones now, so I’m pretty happy to be joining this group. This rollout we had of our show, it was so impressive how coordinated it was.

“It’s going to be a tough adjustment joining this culture of entrepreneurialism and journalism,” Brough joked. “It’s been a fantastic start, and I couldn’t be more impressed.”

Halford said the pitch from The Nation Network stood out because of how detailed and straightforward it was from the beginning.

“When they first got ahold of us, it was by far the most comprehensive, detailed and efficient pitch in terms of what they wanted to do and how they were going to do it. We didn’t have to tap-dance to get into the conversation; it was very clear from the start what Nation Network was about, what they’ve had success with and what they wanted to do with our show. We’re really thrilled at how quickly and efficiently everything moves here.”

The conversation then turned to the final morning at Sportsnet 650 and how Halford learned that the station was about to shut down.

“I got tipped off the night before that something was happening. In addition to this very cryptic email we got saying there’s going to be a very important, urgent update on the state of the business. That was a bad sign, but when I called around it was very obvious that it was going to affect a bunch of people here and not Toronto, so we quickly pieced it together.

“I went in the next morning to do the show, fully cognizant of what was about to happen but still putting on my professional hat. I’m sitting in the studio with this knowledge that the sacrificial meeting is going to happen at 10am, I’m in there at 6. I was trying to tell as many people that we weren’t making it through the day. Some people took heed, others didn’t.

“We went into a conference room, they projected in some HR hack from back east, he told everyone what was happening and we had about 15 minutes to gather our belongings and get out. It was a savage morning.”

As for the show moving forward, Brough said listeners can expect the same general approach, with the Canucks remaining a major focus but leaving plenty of room for other sports.

“Same kind of show, and this was another reason we went with The Nation Network. A few other places we talked to asked us to only talk about the Canucks, and while that’s going to be the main team, we still love talking about the rest of the NHL, the NFL, we’ve been talking a lot of soccer lately, and there’s a lot of interest in it; you can feel the growth in that.

“We’re going to talk about all the stories, so the people that were fans of our show and are going to come back and listen are going to notice a few differences in format, different platforms, but the content is going to be very similar.”

Halford and Brough released a mini episode on Monday morning, and you can listen to it wherever you get your podcasts! Click here for Apple Podcasts and here for Spotify.

And watch the full interview with the guys on Sekeres and Price below!