REVOLVING DOOR:
Guy Laurence, president and chief executive officer of Rogers Communications stepped down on Oct. 17 after less than three years at the helm. The company announced at the same time that he’ll be replaced by former Telus head Joseph Natale, even though Natale has a non-compete agreement with Telus that does not expire until next summer. Laurence came to Rogers from Vodafone UK with a mandate to fix Rogers’ customer service problems. Long-time chairman Alan Horn was named interim CEO.
Corus Entertainment has finalized the lineup of its original content team, nine months after the acquisition of Shaw Media. VP of original content is Lisa Godfrey. Krista Look will oversee Corus’ portfolio of channels in the role of director, original content, women and lifestyle division. Maria Farano takes the role of manager, original content, women and lifestyle. Lynne Carter will also take the role of manager, original content, and be responsible for food-related content. Andrea Griffith, Larissa Laycock, Marni Goldman, Debbie Brown, Jenny Tryansky and Brad Clarke will all serve a production executives on the women and lifestyle team. John MacDonald remains SVP of content for women and lifestyle. Rachel Nelson is director of original content. Robin Neinstein is now manager, original content, scripted and factual. Craig Baines and Andrew Johnson will both serve as production executive, original content, factual, while Susan Alexander serves as production exec on the scripted side. Deirdre Brennan is VP content, Corus Kids. Robyn Hutt, who was hired in September 2015 as director of factual, is no longer with the company.
Randene Neill is leaving her position as morning host on Global BC in two weeks for an opportunity outside the journalism industry. She made the announcement on-air on Oct. 19. The departure follows the decision to eliminate the position of fellow Global morning anchor Steve Darling. Global says the two moves are unrelated. Neill has been with the station for 18 years, the majority of that time as anchor of the Noon News.
David Shepheard is the first film commissioner for the city of Vancouver. He led the film commission services for Film London in the UK since 2013. The Vancouver Economic Commission created the position after two consecutive record years of activity in the film and television industry in the city.
Tami Coughlan has been named head of sales and partnerships at Pelmorex Communications/The Weather Network. Previous to this, she was managing director, strategic solutions and content at Star Metro Media, associate publisher and sales director for The Kit as well as various positions at Star Metro Media and Toronto Star.
James “Gruff” Gushnowski has been named director of programming for the Blackgold Broadcasting chain. The position also includes a move to Leduc, AB where he takes over as program director and afternoon drive host at 93.1 The One (CJLD-FM). Gushnowski was most recently morning show host and operations manager at 88.1 The One (CKSS-FM) in Stony Plain, AB. His first day on air was Oct. 18.
Susan Knight, morning show host of the Big Breakfast at Q103.1 Kelowna, has added APD duties to her role. Knight has been with the Jim Pattison Broadcast Group station since June 2014.
Neil O’Brien is no longer traffic anchor at Vancouver’s all traffic station AM730 (CHMJ) due to restructuring, effective Oct. 11. O’Brien debuted on AM730 in 2008, first with Canadian Traffic Network (CTN) and then as a Corus employee for the last four years. He worked traffic for CKWX News1130 starting in 1996 after 5 years as a board op with Rhona Raskin’s love, sex and relationships program, first at Z95.3 (CKZZ-FM) and later at then 97 KISS-FM (CKKS-FM) Vancouver.
Lisa Blackburn, former CBC reporter and current reporter and editor for Broadcast Dialogue, was elected to Halifax City Council on Oct.15. Blackburn was a broadcast journalist for over 25 years, co-hosting morning shows on both the Q104 (CFRQ-FM) and Lite 92.9 (CFLT-FM). She left CBC, announcing her candidacy on Aug.1 and will be sworn in as a councillor on Nov. 1.
RADIO/AUDIO/PODCAST:
CBC Radio says q will have a tighter focus on arts, entertainment and music when it relaunches next week. Under new host Tom Power, the show will include both long and shorter interviews, new contributors and more music. Power was named new host in August, replacing rapper Shad. Power officially takes over on Oct. 24.
John Badham of Extra 90.5 FM (CJMB-FM) Peterborough is being awarded Sports Media Canada’s Career Achievement Award on Nov. 10 in Toronto. Badham, 79, started at age 20 by broadcasting Weyburn Beavers senior hockey team games. In 1959 he began a decade of calling Saskatchewan Roughriders football games. He went on to call CFL games for 22 years for various teams. Badham worked for Corus Peterborough stations Kruz FM (CKRU-FM) and 101.5 The Wolf (CKWF-FM) until a brief retirement. In 2013, he joined Extra 90.5 FM where he co-hosts the daily show The Regulars.
Stingray Digital Group is teaming up with EuroArts in their first content distribution partnership. The deal allows Stingray to grow its classic music offerings to include 600 hours of concerts and documentaries. The long term partnership gives Stingray worldwide rights to EuroArts’ back catalogue as well as an option to purchase all future content.
The CRTC has dismissed a complaint by a number of Montreal stations against CKIN-FM. In 2007, Hellenic Radio applied for a licence, promising multilingual and multicultural programming with an emphasis on South Asian communities. After Neeti P. Ray acquired the station in 2015 it was alleged that the programming became largely focused on the city’s Arabic-speaking community and in non-compliance. The CRTC disagreed but indicates it will examine the station’s programming as part of the next licence renewal.
The CRTC has ruled the Sudbury, ON radio market cannot sustain more commercial stations at this time. The decision comes as Larche Communications Inc. filed an application to launch a 50,000 watt FM station. The Commission will return the Larche application and will not entertain others for the next two years.
The CRTC has approved a First Nations radio station for the Campbell River, BC area. Aupe Cultural Enhancement Society filed the application in March, promising 126 hours of local weekly programming with a minimum of six hours in the K’omoks language, 10 per cent of its music to be performed or composed by Aboriginal artists, and a $3,000 annual contribution to a scholarship for local Aboriginal students pursuing broadcast or journalism programs in Canada. The station must be on the air by October 2018.
Newcap has applied to the CRTC to replace its AM rebroadcaster for CFGN in Port aux Basques, NL with an FM transmitter. CFGN rebroadcasts the signal of CFSX Stephenville.
CHKT-AM 1430 Toronto held a radiothon on Oct. 6 that raised $280,173 for SickKids Hospital for Sick Children. Fairchild Radio Toronto has raised over $1.7 million since 2007.
105.3 The Fox (CFXY-FM) in Fredericton, NB raised $5,000 for a local hospital with a weekend of Pay for Play. For 50 hours over the weekend of Oct. 15-16 the station charged listeners for requests. The money goes to the Everett Chalmers Hospital pediatric unit.
Scarborough Campus Community Radio station Fusion Radio will get its funding for a move to terrestrial radio thanks to UofT students who approved raising the station’s levy by eight dollars a head. The funds will be used for renovations, marketing and promotions.
boom 97.3 (CHBM-FM) Toronto has launched a personalized interactive online tool that allows listeners create a song list that reflects keys moments in their lives. “Mixtape of You” starts with questions like “When was your first kiss?”. The tool produces a song list, which can be previewed or heard in its entirety via Spotify. See it here.
NextRadio polled 40,000 of its listeners regarding the US election. The in-app survey revealed that formats with the highest percentage of listeners expecting to vote are News/Talk (74%), Sports (56%), R&B (56%) and Soft R&B (55%). Formats with the highest percentage of people who said they didn’t plan to vote were Top 40 (46%), Country (41%), Spanish Music (39%), Adult Hits (37%) and Hip Hop (37%). Read the entire report at RAB here.
TV/FILM/VIDEO:
Four Canadian women have been named to The Hollywood Reporter’s list of the 20 most powerful women in global television. Unveiled during MIPCOM in Cannes, the four are Valerie Creighton, president and CEO, Canada Media Fund; Barbara Williams, executive vice-president and COO, Corus Entertainment; Mary Ann Turcke, president, Bell Media; and Shahrzad Rafati, founder and CEO, BroadbandTV.
Telecommunications company VMedia has pulled CTV and CTV2 from its skinny TV service after Bell Media threatened legal action. The service was in legal hot water within days of launching in September after Bell said the service violates the Copyright Act. VMedia stopped broadcasting Bell’s signals “as a sign of its good faith in dealing with this dispute,” it wrote in an affidavit submitted to the Ontario Superior Court of Justice.
Bell Media’s CraveTV streaming service, is now available on Apple TV. Apple TV customers can subscribe directly from their iTunes account for $7.99 a month.
Corus-owned Channel 12 Durham is rebranding to Global Durham, starting Oct. 31. The station will feature Global News programming including Toronto’s Global News and Global National. The station will continue with local news content, anchored by Lindsay Dunn.
The Canadian Broadcast Standards Council (CBSC) has ruled CTV News Channel and Global Edmonton (CITV-DT) did not violate broadcast codes when it used the terms “service dog” and “veteran” in news reports broadcast in January. A viewer complained that the term “veteran” to describe an active service member and “service dog” was inaccurate because the dog did not meet the legal definition of the term in Alberta.
The Canadian Broadcast Standards Council (CBSC) says dildo scenes require viewer advisories in its Oct. 19 decision regarding a CTRL broadcast on MusiquePlus from November 2015. A viewer complained that the program, featuring three young adults presenting video clips from the Internet and making humorous comments about them, was inappropriate for children at 1:00 pm. There were also two instances of the English f-word. MusiquePlus rated the episode 13+, but did not provide viewer advisories. The CBSC found the rating was correct because no explicit acts were shown, but that the icon should have been displayed earlier and for a full 15 seconds at the beginning of the program. There should have been a viewer advisory. However, the f-word was not problematic in the French language context.
TSN analysts Chris Schultz and Leo Rautins were inducted into the Ontario Sports Hall of Fame on Oct.17. Schultz has been with the network since 1998 as both a CFL and NFL analyst. He played for the Dallas Cowboys and Toronto Argonauts, winning the Grey Cup in 1991. Rautins was the first Canadian to be selected in the first round of the NBA Draft, going to the Philadelphia 76ers in 1983. A broadcaster for three decades, he was most recently with TSN as a basketball analyst for Toronto Raptors and NBA coverage.
Groupe Média TFO and PBS LearningMedia have inked a deal that will see more than 1,000 of TFO’s French educational programs made available to over 1.8 million teachers and students in the U.S. The content is aimed at two to 12-year-old students and will launch in the spring of 2017 on the media on demand service of PBS.
Christopher Ward, one of the original VJ’s on Much Music, has written a book that chronicles the colourful and unpredictable moments of live music television in the ‘80s and ‘90s. Is This Live? Inside the Wild Early Years of MuchMusic: The Nation’s Music Station will be released Oct. 25. To coincide with the release, Much has launched a digital hub called Is This Live? with 50 video clips of moments that feature prominently in the book.
The CHCH-TV Hamilton building, home to the station since its inception in 1954, has been sold and the owners are looking for a new location. Parent company Channel Zero has accepted an offer on the building that is set to close Nov. 15. The building is a designated historic home built in 1850.
GENERAL:
Rogers Communications released its 3Q results Oct. 17, three days ahead of schedule. Net income for the quarter was $220 million or 43 cents per share, down from $464 million or 90 cents per share. The decline was attributed to the previously announced shutdown of video streaming service Shomi. Analysts had estimated net income would be 89 cents per share. The wireless side showed the biggest revenue growth and postpaid customer additions since 2010 with 114,000 net additions. The only major division to see a decline in revenue was cable, slipping to $865 million from $871 million.
Corus Entertainment has released the fiscal 2016 Q4 and year end results. Consolidated revenues for the three months ending Aug. 31 were $384.5 million, up 99 per cent from $193.6 million last year. Consolidated revenues for the year ending Aug. 31 were almost $1.2 billion, up 44 per cent from $815.3 million last year. Advertising revenues increased 324 per cent in Q4 and 116 per cent for the year. The company reported that, as of April 1, 100 per cent of the operating results of Shaw Media were fully consolidated.
CBC News has decided to re-establish a presence in Turkey. In a memo to staff Oct. 14, Greg Reaume, managing editor of CBC News Coverage said the temporary bureau they opened in 2014 was so successful they decided to set up a new “pop-up” bureau. Correspondent Nil Koksal will head up the bureau in Istanbul which is expected to be fully operational by next week.
Just weeks after a consortium of Canada’s largest radio broadcasters united to select Radioplayer Canada as its digital streaming app of choice, the platform is now being introduced in Peru. Peru Radioplayer will launch in the first three months of 2017 with 20 radio stations already signed up. The company plans to roll out the technology across more commercial and state radio station in Peru once it gets established.
SIGN-OFFS:
Gerry Acton, 85, at Stillwater Creek Residence, Nepean, ON on Oct. 12. Joined the Canadian Association of Broadcasters (CAB) as a recording operator in 1951. His first job was recording quarter-hour broadcasts by Members of Parliament for the “Report From Parliament Hill” radio series. He retired in 1991 as a vice president of the CAB and was inducted into the Canadian Broadcast Hall of Fame. He also served as executive director for the Ontario Association of Broadcasters.
SUPPLY LINES:
RCS and Marketron are forming a partnership that will allow deeper integration into Marketron’s open workflow platform Mediascape. In a joint press release the two companies said, “This new interface will allow real time reconciliation and substitution of any advertising content on a broadcast station.”
FEATURE:
5 Reasons your Station’s Engineer should attend the WABE 2016 Convention, November 6-8th at the Hyatt Regency Calgary.
From Mark Crichton
President | Western Association of Broadcast Engineers
Sharpen the Saw
A sharpened saw will cut down more trees than a dull one.
In today’s fast paced work environment, it is important for station engineers to be efficient and effective at solving problems by developing a fresh new set of skills. Whether it is through a deeper understanding of a technical topic or taught practical practice, it is important to have a venue in which this can be facilitated. Our mandate at WABE is to “promote and advance the dissemination of engineering knowledge among its members.” Our line up of technically knowledgeable speakers will provide numerous presentations and panel discussions. There is opportunity for technical staff to learn, develop and implement a new set of ideas in their workplace. Some of the topics that will be presented are 4K “4 Real Discussions”, Advanced Networking for AoIP, Tower Lighting, Power Handling and Generators, Bidirectional Technology as Applied in the ENG Workflow, Streaming Audio and many, many more. There is also an opportunity to take in a full day Society of Broadcast Engineers (SBE) course “Networking for the Broadcast Engineer”.
To view the full line up, go to WABE Schedule.
Meeting Experts and Influencers
There are plenty of opportunities to meet technology experts on the exhibit floor to discuss past, present and future advancements in broadcast equipment. Visit with the sales representatives of a variety of companies and the technical support staff that are able to discuss solutions, develop plans and assist with troubleshooting issues. There are numerous stories of engineers going back to their broadcast facilities with a solution that has saved the station thousands of dollars and resulted in better work flow. The exhibit floor is also a fantastic opportunity for Operations staff to view new equipment, meet the experts and provide feedback on the existing equipment they operate. Visiting the exhibit hall is free and would be very valuable for operation staff to attend.
This year’s Exhibitor Listing
WABE offers an opportunity to hear about the accomplishments of the influencers in the industry and to celebrate those achievements through our awards program. It is a privilege and honour to recognize these individuals.
Community
Being part of a larger community of broadcast engineers can provide the extra layer of support that many station engineers can use. Developing relationships with other “like minded” individuals can result in life long professional friendships. Knowing that they are not alone wanting to improve their skills and bring something back to their companies. There are many examples of engineers who have been able to call up their “competition’s” engineer, because of establishing a relationship at WABE, to help get them out of a technical emergency through either providing additional support or loaner equipment. WABE offers the opportunity to share technical knowledge with one another and grow their technical contacts.
Investment
In order for an investment to pay off, you first have to be willing to take a risk. The tightening of budgets, reduction in staff and demands of work can all make it a challenge to send technical staff to WABE. We have strived to keep registration costs down and still maintain a high standard of training and events. We have been able to do this through our incredible network of sponsors at the convention. They are the backbone of WABE. Many of these companies have limited budgets to spend on shows but choose to invest in WABE because they believe in what we do. The amount that a station needs to invest in their technical staff is small but by investing in their engineer’s development, could result in big returns for the company. In this time of cut backs, invest in your engineer.
This years WABE Sponsors
Energizing
Spending time away from the office and submerging one self in learning new things, can result in an excitement heading back to the job. New ideas, equipment suggestions, contacts, solutions and new knowledge will be brought back to their company with renewed inspiration and motivation. A few days away from the demands of the station could be what is needed to bring back a clearer vision and purpose.
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