The axe is falling at Montreal's popular anglophone news talk radio station CJAD.

Eight on-air personalities and one off-air staff member are losing their jobs, management told staff at the Astral Media-owned station Wednesday.

Those leaving the company include late-night talk show host Peter Anthony Holder; weekend hosts Laurie MacDonald and Olga Gazdovic; as well as long-time newscaster Kathy Coulombe.

Dan Laxer of Laxer Live replaces Holden and Trudie Mason in the 2 to 4 p.m. slot, and Mason will play a larger role in the news department.

In a memo obtained by CBC news, station management said the restructuring was a result of new information about "the behavior and habits of listeners."

"Today, we're announcing programming and promotional changes to improve our product and better focus our programming into prime-time hours," operations manager Bob Harris said in an internal memo.

Management said in the memo that new appointments will soon be made.