Radio & Podcast News – SiriusXM resurrects Neil Young Radio amid Spotify controversy

SiriusXM has resurrected Neil Young Radio, its channel featuring music and exclusive stories from Neil Young, as the singer demanded removal of his music from Spotify last week over the platform’s failure to eject episodes of The Joe Rogan Experience, criticized for spreading misinformation about COVID-19. The limited engagement channel will be available to stream for a month on the SXM App, including rarities and exclusives, new songs from Young’s latest album Barn, and collaborations with Buffalo Springfield and Crosby Stills Nash & Young. While Joe Rogan has promised to be more balanced about COVID-19 and Spotify has introduced new vaccine content rules, the streamer lost nearly $4 billion in value last week. Joni Mitchell, Graham Nash, Nils Lofgren and India Arie are standing with Young in withdrawing their music from the platform.

Moose FM (CKFU-FM) Fort St. John, BC was the target of a bomb threat Saturday evening, one of many media outlets that have had to contend with threats around news coverage over the last few weeks. Adam Reaburn, President and General Manager of Moose FM and Energeticcity.ca, says the latest threat won’t impact which stories the station decides to cover. “With the increase in recent threats, we still covered the local truck convoy, but our staff used their own vehicles and stayed back from the major part of the rally for their safety,” wrote Reaburn in a post on Monday. “These threats will not change what stories we cover, but we will be taking extra precautions to protect the security of our staff. We will not tolerate any verbal or physical attacks. We understand there will be stories that you disagree with and we happily leave our inboxes open to constructive dialogue.” Several incidents involving aggressive behaviour toward media leading up to the ongoing “Freedom Rally” in Ottawa prompted the Canadian Association of Journalists (CAJ) to issue an appeal for preemptive action by newsrooms to ensure the safety of those covering the protest.

Saskatoon Media Group radio stations – 98 Cool (CJMK-FM), 92.9 The Bull (CKBL-FM) and CJWW – held a Radiothon, Jan 27-28, for Royal University Hospital Foundation as part of a $20 million dollar campaign to update the hospital’s operating rooms. Over the two-day event, they raised $1,008,960. Since the radio stations were unable to broadcast from the hospital due to COVID restrictions, lifesize cutouts of the announcers were produced to create some “radio” atmosphere in the hospital lobby.

Les Lazaruk called his 2,000th game as the voice of the Western Hockey League’s Saskatoon Blades on Wednesday, Feb. 2 as the Blades took on the Pats in Regina. Heard on CJWW Saskatoon, Lazaruk has been the Blades’ play-by-play broadcaster for Saskatoon Media Group since 1994.

LISTEN: Dave Trafford and daughter Erin Trafford are among the growing number of broadcast journalists who’ve moved into podcasting. Last May, the father-daughter duo co-founded the Story Studio Network, a podcast production and branded content studio. Dave and Erin join Broadcast Dialogue – The Podcast to talk about making the leap from news to digital entrepreneurship, how the pandemic and industry layoffs propelled their journey, and why Erin believes journalists make the best entrepreneurs. Listen on your favourite podcast app or here:

LISTEN: Sam East is the afternoon host on 99.9 Virgin Radio (CKFM-FM) Toronto and host of weeknights on Virgin Radio across Canada. She’s also recently launched Lessons to My Younger Self, a podcast where she chats with notables like Jully Black, The Social’s Jess Allen, and sexologist Dr. Jess O’Reilly, among others. In this episode, you’ll hear how she got her radio start in Chatham, ON, growing up as a Filipino-Canadian, the value of mindfulness, and more. Listen on your favourite podcast app or here: