Introducing the 2023 Canadian Radio Awards jury
(l-r): Former Virgin Radio Toronto morning show co-host Jax Irwin, professional voiceover talent and “Radio Nerd” Kat Carter, international talent coach Nails Mahoney, Sound Off Media Company founder Matt Cundill, former Rogers Sports & Media National Format Director-News and CBC BC News Director Treena Wood, & Halifax-based radio and television personality JC Douglas. Read more about this year’s jury here. The Canadian Radio Awards are FREE to enter thanks to our sponsors and supporters. Enter your station talent or self-nominate across 18 categories. Learn more at CanadianRadioAwards.com. The submission window closes Nov. 2.
89.1 CHUO-FM, the University of Ottawa’s campus and community radio station, has been defunded after a majority of students voted to end the $4.99 per student levy collected on its behalf. The university first won a licence for the bilingual station in 1991, with its origins as a club dating back to the mid-1980s. In an appeal to students earlier this month, following the university’s approval of the referendum question to end the student levy, Acting Station Manager Grant Stein wrote in an open letter that the question threatened to “tear down decades of institutional knowledge and collective student and community-focused artistry.” He maintains the radio station being included in the referendum was rooted in student union politics. Read more here.
Bell Media has announced the launch of Addressable Audio, following the unveiling of its Addressable TV offering. The new format dynamically inserts digital audio ads into live linear programming, and on-demand content on iHeartRadio.ca and the iHeartRadio Canada app. Available via Bell DSP and directly through Bell Media sales reps, it allows brands to target listeners across AM/FM streaming, on-demand, and podcasts.
Orbyt Media and CPR Promotions have entered into an ad sales agreement that now allows CPR to offer its promotional and marketing consultation services to radio stations across Canada for 100% barter. Paige Nienaber, founder of CPR Promotions, is a three-time winner of Promotional Consultant of the Year at the WorldWide Radio Summit. His clients include iHeartMedia, Cumulus Media, and Alpha Media in multiple markets, as well as Rogers and Stingray in Canada.
My Broadcasting Corporation’s Lake 88 (CHLK-FM) Radiothon for Local Health Care has raised $122,475 for Perth and area hospitals and community healthcare centres. The radiothon ran for 12 hours from 6 a.m. until 6 p.m. on Oct. 12 and saw Lake 88 hosts joined by physicians, nurses, patients, family of past patients, volunteers and healthcare administrators, to increase the awareness of local healthcare programs and raise money for hospital equipment and supplies. The station once again partnered with the Almonte General Hospital/Fairview Manor Foundation, Carleton Place & District Memorial Hospital Foundation, Perth and Smiths Falls District Hospital Foundation, as well as Country Roads Community Health Centre, ConnectWell Community Health and Rideau Community Health Services. The Lake 88 Radiothon for Local Healthcare has now raised over $600,000 for local health care in its five-year run.
The Signal Awards, celebrating the world’s best podcasts, has announced this year’s winners, including CBC/BBC co-production Love, Janessa, which won Gold for Best Writing; Curiouscast’s Deadman’s Curse: Slumach’s Gold, which won Gold in the General-History category and Silver for Best Writing; Sonar Network’s On A Cold, Dark Night (Best Bedtime Podcast), Dwarven Moss (Gaming & Actual Play), and Vanderpump Robs (Best Fan Podcast); Canadland for COMMONS: Hockey (Sports-Documentary); Pacific Content for Making an Impossible Airplane: The Untold Story of Concorde (General-Documentary) and Morgan Stanley podcast What Should I Do With My Money? (Money, Finance & Investment); and JAR Audio, which picked up five awards, including two for Nice Genes! A Genome BC Podcast.
Canadaland’s COMMONS returns with another season, diving into the world of cults. This season poses the question “What makes a cult a cult?” and asks whether that label even means anything anymore? Host Arshy Mann and producers Jordan Cornish and Noor Azrieh promise to “go beyond the true-crime cliches to unveil the intricate webs that underpin these unconventional movements.”
The Globe and Mail has premiered new true crime podcast In Her Defence. Hosted by Jana Pruden, the podcast takes listeners through a series of jailhouse interviews with Helen Naslund, a domestic abuse victim convicted of killing her husband Miles in 2011, after his body was found years later welded into a box at the bottom of a pond near his family’s property in Alberta.
LISTEN: The Sound Off Podcast Network has added its first Gen-Alpha podcast with The Cash Kid Podcast, a show designed to teach kids and adults about the stock market and other financial skills. The show has launched a new season with an episode on Super Financial Literacy Skills. On this week’s Sound Off Podcast, Matt Cundill features the last episode of Season 1 – A Talk With the Cash Kid.
FEATURE: The ProBono Group is tackling homelessness, in support of the Canadian Alliance to End Homelessness (CAEH), producing a new radio campaign to address the many misconceptions and incorrect assumptions surrounding homelessness in Canada. The group is launching the first in a series of 30-second radio PSAs for CAEH this week, entitled “41 Years Old.” It will be followed by a second 30-second PSA in about a month to keep the campaign fresh. Free to stations, download the new PSA here:
A collective of broadcast production and ad strategy pros, ProBono Group is led by award-winning creative directors Mike Occomore (best-known for the 37 years he spent at CHUM Toronto) and fellow CHUM alum and veteran writer Larry MacInnis, along with producer Mike Tennant. Read more here.
