REVOLVING DOOR:
The Sandra & Chris Show on KiSS 105.3 (CISS-FM) Ottawa has come to an end after eight and a half years, as part of ongoing programming changes at Rogers Sports & Media. Toronto-based syndicated morning show, Roz & Mocha, made its debut Monday morning in the 6 – 9 a.m. time slot. Chris Love, Sandra Plagakis, and producer Courtney Crowder are staying with the company, but in new roles. Plagakis moves forward as KiSS 105.3’s midday host. Read more here.
Meredith Geddes has shared that she was among those caught up in layoffs at Rogers Sports & Media earlier this month. Geddes had been with Rogers since 2023, hosting middays on JACK 96.9 (CJAX-FM) Vancouver and voicetracking on a number of other stations. Prior to that, she spent eight years with Corus Radio, co-hosting afternoon drive on 102.1 the Edge (CFNY-FM) Toronto and CFOX in Vancouver.
Mike Bendixen has prematurely walked away from his contract with Corus Radio where he’d been Director of Talk since 2023. Bendixen was formerly National Director of Programming for Bell Media for 12 years, prior to layoffs in 2021.
Angela Reimer has announced her retirement from Rogers Sports & Media after 28 years and 38 in media and advertising. Reimer first joined Rogers as an Account Manager in Calgary in 1988, most recently holding the title of Director of Sales, Alberta. She also spent seven years with Canadian Broadcast Sales as Insights Manager, Western Canada.
Emma Foose is returning to Stingray as the new Promotions & Programming Coordinator in Red Deer, starting Aug. 4, in addition to taking on middays on 840 CFCW Edmonton, starting Aug. 10. Foose originally caught the radio bug with Stingray back in 2020, working summers for the CFCW cruiser and street team. From there, she went to 100.1 Moose FM (CKFU-FM) Fort St. John, BC where she’s been Morning Show Host and Social Media Manager for the past year.
Caitlin Coombes has been promoted at Moose Media in Fort St. John, BC to News Director. Coombes has been the Energeticcity.ca and Moose 100.1 (CKFU-FM) civic reporter and Assistant News Director since 2004.
Tara Long has been promoted at Blink49 Studios to the newly-created role of President of Global Unscripted Television & Studio Ventures. Long will continue to lead Blink49’s Global Unscripted Television division while overseeing company business ventures Brand Studio, Creator Studios and Vertical Content Division.
Brent Haynes has been promoted at Prime Video and Amazon MGM Studios as Head of International Originals, Canada and Australia. He’s held the same role overseeing Canada alone for the past four years. Prior to joining Amazon in 2021, he held content development roles with Shout! Factory and Viacom and was a Bell Media VP, overseeing The Comedy Network and Space.
RADIO & PODCAST:
Signal Hill Insights’ Audio on the Move report indicates nine-in-10 Canadians listened to audio yesterday with half of that time spent with ad-supported media led by AM/FM radio. Ad-supported listening made up 49% of time spent listening, with AM/FM radio claiming 39% of that time across all devices. YouTube and YouTube Music claimed 25% of ad-supported time, followed by Spotify at 24%. Read more here.
Durham Radio says a CRTC decision issued Friday will expand revenue opportunities for its Vancouver Smooth Jazz station, WAVE 98.3 (CIWV-FM), after a more than three-year wait. The decision allows Durham to launch a new FM transmitter on 98.7 FM, which will more than double the station’s reach to Metro Vancouver’s Tri-Cities (Coquitlam, Port Coquitlam, Port Moody) and communities east of Highway 1. Read more here.
Stingray Radio has completed its acquisition of C97.7 (CHUP-FM) Calgary from Rawlco Radio. The acquisition, which officially closed Sunday night, received CRTC approval in June. C97.7 joins Stingray’s existing Calgary stations, Contemporary Hit Radio format 90.3 AMP Radio (CKMP-FM) and Classic Hits vehicle XL 103 (CFXL-FM). The company says current C97.7 programming, on-air personalities and staff will remain in place. Read more here.
iHeartRadio Canada’s Kitchener-Waterloo radio stations, BOUNCE Radio (CKKW-FM) and Virgin Radio (CFCA-FM), swapped signals on Tuesday, with BOUNCE moving its Adult Hits format to 105.3 FM and Virgin Radio to 99.5 FM. Bell Media says moving BOUNCE to its new dial position significantly expands its reach regionally into communities across Southwestern Ontario. Read more here.
MBC (My Broadcasting Corporation) has rebranded Oldies 96.7 (CJWV-FM) Peterborough as WOW-FM: Just Great Songs, in addition to its Oldies branded stations in Armprior, Simcoe and Brighton. “We loved what Oldies stood for, but the name focused too much on how old the music was, and sometimes made our listeners feel older, too,” VP of Content Rob Mise told Broadcast Dialogue. The revamped Classic Hits format doesn’t emphasize “oldies” as a musical era, but rather aims to deliver music that sparks memories and emotional connection, regardless of when the songs were originally released.
Pattison Media has announced it will begin using Quu’s patented visual messaging technology across its radio stations. The tech allows stations to schedule and publish dynamic programming and sales content on vehicle dashboards and online audio streams.
SOCAN has agreed to acquire the Canadian Musical Reproduction Rights Agency (CMRRA) from U.S.-based SoundExchange, subject to regulatory approval. The transaction effectively streamlines music publishing and reproduction rights administration across Canada.
LISTEN: Podcast listening is no longer a niche activity for Canadians, with Triton Digital’s Canadian Podcast Report affirming that 46% of us are now listening monthly. Triton’s Chief Revenue Officer Sharon Taylor joins Broadcast Dialogue – The Podcast to talk about that report and the state of podcasting in Canada, including the ongoing conversation around the shift to video, untapped opportunities, and her thoughts on the current podcast strategy of our commercial broadcasters.
LISTEN: Chris Brunt of Jacobs Media joins the Sound Off Podcast to talk about radio’s 30‑year struggle with digital—from those first clunky station websites and primitive email blasts to today’s sophisticated streaming, social, and video ecosystems. Among other things, he touches on how programmatic audio has become a major revenue driver and the need to “be everywhere” to reach under‑40 listeners who may not even own a radio.
SIGN OFFS:
Paul McCabe, 75, on July 20, following a battle with pancreatic cancer. A 35-year broadcast sales veteran, McCabe began his career in radio reporting to Patrick Grierson at Standard Broadcast Sales (SBS) in the early 1980s. From there, he joined Standard Broadcasting, selling the former CKFM-FM Toronto as a retail sales rep. A top performer, McCabe went on to become General Manager of a newly-created in-house national sales division in 1991, with a focus on business development for both CKFM-FM and Newstalk CFRB 1010. By 1995, he rose to the position of Vice President of Sales for Integrated Media Sales, as a result of the merger of Paul Mulvihill Sales and Standard Broadcasting. In spring 1996, he made the decision to follow his entrepreneurial calling and created his own sales training business, Compass Performance Strategies, focusing on sales, customer service, and leadership. McCabe also authored “Feed the Good Dog: Making the Choice to Succeed” on the key ingredients of a purposeful life.
TV & FILM:
Corus Entertainment has confirmed that its local Global News morning shows in its Prairie and Eastern markets will be centralized as part of ongoing programming changes. By the end of July, a single edition of Global News Morning will serve those markets, including Toronto, Montreal, Halifax, Winnipeg, Saskatoon and Regina. Read more here.
Rogers has announced a 12-year sub-licensing agreement with Prime Video in Canada to exclusively broadcast Wednesday night regular-season NHL games in English and French, beginning with the 2026-27 season. The agreement encompasses a minimum of 26 national regular-season NHL games, set to start streaming Wednesday, Sept. 30, as well as exclusive rights to select Stanley Cup Playoff series in Canada, including two First Round playoff series and one Second Round series per year. Read more here.
CBC and Hawco Productions have started production in St. John’s, NL and Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon, on the third season of Saint-Pierre (12 x 60). CBC’s most-watched drama series, joining the show for Season 3 are French-Moroccan actor Assaad Bouab (Call My Agent!, Bad Sisters) and Caroline Dhavernas (Mary Kills People, Hannibal). The new season will premiere in winter 2027.
The New Wave of Standup is back for a seventh season, featuring a roster of Canada’s newest artists on the standup comedy circuit. New episodes drop on CBC Gem on Friday, Aug. 7. Filmed earlier this year at Guilt & Co in Vancouver’s Gastown as part of the Just for Laughs Vancouver Festival, this season’s lineup includes: Abbas Wahab, Alasdair Tremblay-Birchall, Andrew Packer, Anjelica Scannura, Bita Joudaki, Cass Furman, Dustin Searcy, Emmanuel Lomuro, Hannah Veldhoen, Mark Thomson, Niki Mohrdar, Sam Burns, Savannah Erasmus, and Toronto’s Queen of Mean, VIZA.
Midnight Light has wrapped production in Whitehorse on From Me To You, a romantic comedy from Yukon writer, director, producer Daniel Little (Northern Tails). Co-written and co-produced by playwright and author Peter Jickling (Syphilis: A Love Story), the feature was recently selected for Telefilm Canada’s Talent to Watch Program. It’s produced by Marty O’Brien (The Arctics, Camera Trap) with Brendan Brady (Heated Rivalry, Fitting In), David Brady (The Grey Fox, You Wish), and Sonny Goldstein serving as executive producers.
The Hot Docs-Slaight Family Fund is supporting five music-related projects with $121,000 in production stage funding. Established in 2020 to champion filmmakers committed to crafting high-quality stories that showcase the impact of Canadian music, this year’s projects include Punjabi hip-hop doc, Brampton Underground; road movie Into The Now with Bruce Cockburn; King Reign To The World Presents; PISIKSAQSIURLANGA: I’m Searching for a Song from Inuk artist Charlotte Qamaniq; and Rolling with Mat The Alien on the legendary Canadian DJ.
REGULATORY, TELECOM & MEDIA:
The Canadian Association of Broadcasters (CAB) and media advocacy group Friends of Canadian Media are among the groups expressing concern over a lack of clarity from Ottawa on what obligations foreign streamers might face going forward. A Federal Court of Appeal filing earlier this month confirms the Liberal government plans to completely eliminate the CRTC’s online streaming contribution framework for U.S. streamers, replacing the levy with $600 million in previously-announced taxpayer funding. Read more here.
The Canadian Association of Broadcasters (CAB) says the CRTC has chosen to “preserve the status quo” despite the policy failure of a move to allow broadcasters to introduce spoken word programming on the FM dial for a one-year trial period. First proposed last fall and approved in January, the CAB argued that the CRTC’s trial limit was too restrictive and could discourage radio stations from experimenting with the policy change. Read more here.
Quebecor is among those welcoming a Federal Court ruling streamlining the blocking of copyright-infringing pirate TV domains and live sports streams. Sought by Groupe TVA, Rogers, Columbia Pictures, Disney, Netflix, Paramount, Universal Studios and Warner Bros., the new order differs from previous decisions in that it targets not only the infringing platforms presently operated by specific piracy platforms, but encompasses similarly infringing platforms operating under other brands allowing for the blocking of domains, subdomains and/or IP addresses without the need for a further motion or order. Read more here.
