#Radio and #Podcast News In Brief

Bryan Hall celebrated 65 years in broadcasting on Wednesday. “Hallsy” was celebrated at an Edmonton Broadcasters Club luncheon with 170 guests in attendance. Mayor Don Iveson also issued a proclamation declaring Oct. 17 “Bryan Hall Day” in Edmonton. The longtime sportscaster and play-by-play announcer started his career in news at CKUA Edmonton in 1953, in addition to hosting Saturday jazz show Music for Moderns. He started filling in covering sports and by 1955 was working full-time at CHED 1080. He would go on to work at CHUM 1050 Toronto, covering the Toronto Maple Leafs and Toronto Argonauts, before returning to Edmonton. After years with CJCA, including hosting the city’s first open line sports talk show, Hall returned to CHED in 1993 as sports director.

Radio Cité 97,9 (CFED-FM), Edmonton’s new Francophone community radio station, officially launched Oct. 5. The 113-watt station launched with almost $700,000 in grants including $400,000 from Western Economic Diversification, $296,000 from Canadian Heritage and over $46,000 from the Community Radio Fund of Canada. About 65 per cent of the station’s programming is French-language music.

The CRTC has approved Cogeco’s application to purchase RNC Media French-language commercial radio stations CHPR-FM Hawkesbury, ON; CFGT-FM Alma, CKXO-FM Chibougamau; CHVD-FM Dolbeau; CJLA-FM Lachute, CJGO-FM La Sarre and its transmitter CJGO-FM-1 Rouyn-Noranda; CHRL-FM Roberval, CHOA-FM Rouyn-Noranda and its transmitters CHOA-FM-1 Val-D’or and CHOA-FM-2 La Sarre; CKYK-FM Saguenay and its transmitter CKYK-FM-1 Alma and CHGO-FM Val-D’or, Quebec. Cogeco will acquire the stations’ assets for $18,500,000. The applicant has proposed a value of the transaction of $19,736,958, which includes the site leases. Proposed tangible benefits amount to $1,184,217 or six per cent of the value of the transaction.

Lift & Co. has opened voting for the 2018 Canadian Cannabis Awards, including Best Cannabis Podcast and Best Cannabis YouTuber. Former Calgary radio personality Chris Foord (Q107/CJAY 92) is nominated in both categories for The Cannabis Show, which took best podcast honours last year. Also nominated for best podcast are Canadian Cannabis Update, Expert Joints, Legalized and The Pace Radio Show. In addition to The Cannabis Show, top Youtuber nominees include Hart Steinfeld, Valerie Connelly and Peter Nolan-Smith of ‘the bis, Urban Remo and Scottrades, which focuses on Canadian cannabis stocks. Voting is open until Oct. 26.

Bob Irving called his 800th Winnipeg Blue Bombers game on Saturday. Irving, 68, joined the CFL team’s radio broadcasts, shortly after being hired at 680 CJOB Winnipeg, during the 1974 CFL season. He recently celebrated his 45th anniversary with the station.

iHeartRadio Canada has announced the first slate of performers for the 2018 iHeartRadio Canada Jingle Ball, taking place Sunday, Dec. 2 at Toronto’s Scotiabank Arena. Now in its third year, the holiday spectacle kicks off at 7 p.m. ET sharp with performances from The Chainsmokers, Khalid, Dua Lipa, Alessia Cara, bülow, Loud Luxury, Lauv, Max, Elijah Woods x Jamie Fine, Delaney Jane, and Tyler Shaw. Additional performers will be announced in the coming weeks. Tickets to the iHeartRadio Jingle Ball go on sale to the general public Friday, Oct. 19 at 10 a.m. ET at TicketMaster.ca.

The Canada Media Fund (CMF) has released the first episode of its six-episode podcast series Now & Next. The podcast will explore the digital transformation of the media and entertainment industry. Produced by CMF and hosted by digital media researcher Leora Kornfeld, former host of 1990s CBC network program Realtime, the podcast’s first guest is Mark Swierszcz, operations lead at the Toronto YouTube Space.

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