One of the most recognizable Sportsnet properties could be off the air soon — at least, under its traditional format.

Longtime industry insider Jonah Sigel of YYZ Sports Media believes that major changes could be coming to the network of Toronto-based sports radio station 590 The Fan.

"The Fan 590's future appears increasingly precarious. Sources suggest the station, once the flagship of Canadian sports radio, could be shuttered in favour of an all-podcast format," Sigel wrote in an article on Monday. "With radio advertising revenues declining and production costs remaining high, the move to an all-podcast format could be seen as inevitable rather than surprising."

The current winter lineup at the network sees eight daily shows, subject to timing based on live broadcasting: The Fan Morning Show, The JD Bunkis Podcast, The Raptors Show, The Fan Hockey Show, The Fan Checkdown, Real Kyper and Bourne, The Fan Pregame, and Sportsnet Tonight, all of which typically run Monday to Friday.

According to Sigel, Real Kyper and Bourne, hosted by former pro hockey players Nick Kypreos and Justin Bourne, is the only regular show "generating meaningful audience numbers."

That doesn't mean that Sportsnet's product isn't being consumed at all, but mostly through other means. The network still carries the top baseball podcast in Canada (Blair and Barker), the No. 2, 4, 5, and 6 hockey podcasts (32 Thoughts, Real Kyper and Bourne, Canucks Central, and Leafs Talk) and the No. 5 basketball podcast (The Raptors Show), as per Chartable.com.

The radio station hasn't always existed as a sports-only medium, though it's been a key tenet of the network's brand since its inception.

The station's roots go all the way back to 1951, when legendary hockey play-by-play announcer Foster Hewitt launched the network as CFKH, and owned the network for the next 30 years. Now-defunct Canadian media corporation Telemedia bought the rights to the platform in 1981 and held them until 2002, when Rogers took charge of the network.

The Toronto Maple Leafs and Toronto Blue Jays' radio rights have been a frequent staple of the network over the decades, with 590 The Fan also broadcasting a share of Toronto Raptors games each season. It is unclear what would happen to the future of these radio broadcasts, should the network actually go off the air as predicted by Sigel.