The Canadian Podcast Awards have unveiled the nominees for their fifth annual celebration of Canadian podcasters, editors, and producers. Established in 2018 by Podcamp Toronto to showcase the best in Canadian on-demand digital audio production, this year’s awards feature the return of the People’s Choice Award, comprised of the top nominated podcasts across all categories. Nominees for this year’s People’s Choice Award include Sonar Network’s Belief It Or Not; Putting It Together, a podcast about Stephen Sondheim’s body of work; F*ck Buddies: A Sex and Dating Advice Podcast; Frequency Network horror-fiction podcast, Parkdale Haunt; Positively Positive Podcast – Herpes & Sexual Health; Sonar Network’s You Made Me Queer!; Frequency’s Teach Me How To Adult; Later That Same Life, hosted by former Niagara radio personality Larry Fedoruk; QUB Radio French-language podcast, au voleur; and Sonar Network’s Bites and Bits, combining cuisine and comedy. The award is open to voting by the general public until Aug. 10. The other awards are adjudicated by Canadian podcasters registered with the site.
Triton Digital has released the latest Canada Podcast Report for June 2022, ranking the most-listened to English and French podcasts. Reflecting the listening period between May 30 and July 3 and measured by Triton’s Podcast Metrics measurement service, the top three Canadian originating English-language podcasts were all produced by the public broadcaster, including CBC Podcasts’ daily news pod Front Burner at #1, The Current at #2, and Ideas at #3. The top-ranked podcast overall was true crime offering, Dateline NBC, followed by Front Burner, Wondery’s Smartless (feat. Jason Bateman, Will Arnett, & Sean Hayes), My Favorite Murder with Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark (Wondery); and Crime Junkie (SXM Media) rounding out the top five. SXM Media earned the #1 spot on the Top Networks Report with 4.4M average weekly downloads, followed by CBC/Radio-Canada with 2.7M, and Wondery with 2.3M average weekly downloads. Read more here.
The CRTC has set a hearing date of Oct. 13 to consider two radio applications. Communications Média Évangélique / Gospel Media Communications (CME) is seeking approval to acquire the assets of religious AM radio station, CJRS Montréal, from Radio Chalom. The commission will also consider an application from Piikani Tsi Nii Ka Sin Broadcasting Association for a broadcasting licence to operate an Indigenous (Type B Native) low-power FM radio station in Brocket, AB. The station would operate at 105.7 MHz (channel 289LP) with an average effective radiated power (ERP) of 32 watts. The applicant proposes to broadcast 126 hours of local programming per broadcast week, with approximately 105 hours devoted to musical content, 35% of that to be performed or composed by Indigenous creators. The remaining 21 hours would be devoted to spoken word programming, with a minimum of 14 hours in the Blackfoot language. The deadline for interventions is Sept. 1.
94.9 The Rock (CKGE-FM) Oshawa is the latest radio station to introduce a craft brew collaboration. Rock Hard Lager, brewed by Brock Street Brewing Company, is described as “a full flavoured higher ABV (6%) Lager, brewed in the traditional Bavarian Style.”
LISTEN: On the Sound Off Podcast, Matt Cundill speaks with Eric Zane, one of many former radio hosts who’ve made the transition to podcasting. They talk about how he made that switch, the stumbles he made along the way, and which avenues for support have been the most successful for him. They also dive into his storied radio career in Grand Rapids, Michigan where he still lives. Listen on your favourite podcast app or here:
