RADIO/AUDIO/PODCAST:
CRTC chairman Jean-Pierre Blais kicked off three days of hearings in Gatineau on Monday considering applications for radio licenses to serve urban aboriginals in Ottawa, Toronto, Calgary, Edmonton and Vancouver by lamenting the lack of aboriginal commissioners on the panel. The Aboriginal Multi-Media Society of Alberta, Watwatay Native Communications Society, Northern Native Broadcasting, VMS Media Group Ltd. and First Peoples Radio Inc. are among those making applications.
Radio Rimouski’s (RR) application to allow its CFYX FM to solicit local advertising in the Matane market has been denied by the CRTC. RR said CHRM FM and CHOE FM Matane were now under new ownership that altered the dynamics of the markets. It noted that while its station cannot solicit ads in Matane, Matane stations are free to solicit in Rimouski.
Richard and Sharon Burns, an Australian couple living in the U.S. (Alaska) since 2006, have been granted permission by the FCC to buy 29 radio stations in three states. It’s the first time U.S. regulators have allowed full foreign ownership of U.S. radio stations. The Burns’s Frontier Media increased their interest in the Alaska, Texas and Arkansas stations from 20% to 100%.
CHEZ-FM Ottawa has turned 40. The station, originally owned by Harvey Glatt, launched March 25, 1977 with Stevie Wonder’s “Isn’t She Lovely”. CHEZ and its assets, which included CFMO-FM/CJET Smiths Falls, were sold to Rogers in 1999. A retrospective of CHEZ 106/106.1 CHEZ commercial spots from over the years are available HERE.
The CBC Radio crime drama podcast, Someone Knows Something, has reached 18.3 million downloads since its premiere in March 2016. And it has sparked renewed interest in the 20-year-old cold case of five-year-old Adrien McNaughton and the disappearance of Sheryl Sheppard, a 29-year-old Hamilton woman who went missing in January 1998. The show has led to new tips in those unsolved cases.
The Strumbellas, Alessia Cara, Ruth B, and Justin Bieber lead the nominations for the 20th annual Canadian Radio Music Awards (CRMA) set for Apr. 19 during Canadian Music Week 2017. Ruth B is also among those set to perform at the awards brunch. The late Gary Russell, who had a 40-year radio career at stations from Ottawa to Vancouver, will be inducted into the Allan Waters Broadcast Hall of Fame at the event. Canadian Music Week happens April 18 – 22 in Toronto.
Jesse Modz is the winner of this year’s Allan Waters Young Broadcaster of the Year Award. Modz has just joined the Gerry Forbes morning show at CJAY 92 Calgary after leaving HTZ-FM (CHTZ) St. Catharines. Modz will be presented with the award at the Broadcaster’s Roundtable April 20 during Canadian Music Week. Ruby Carr from Z95.3 (CKZZ) Vancouver and Jax Irwin of KiSS-FM (CKIS) Toronto were this year’s runners-up.
