Radio & Podcast News – Edmonton’s 630 CHED moving up the dial

Corus Entertainment’s Edmonton news/talk station 630 CHED is moving up the dial. The company announced Wednesday that starting Oct. 9, the station will move to 880 AM, providing better city coverage and an upgraded listening experience. Up until the end of June, that dial positio was held by CHED sister station 880 News (CHQT-AM), one of two AM stations Corus announced it was pulling the plug on as part of an ongoing company efficiency review. Read more here.

Byron MacGregor (aka Gary Mack) will be inducted into the U.S. Museum of Broadcast Communications’ Radio Hall of Fame in the posthumous Legends category. MacGregor is best known for his many years on-air in Windsor-Detroit, including CKLW-AM where he anchored the station’s “Big 8/20-20 News” broadcasts, and became News Director at the tender age of 22. In 1973, his audio recording of Gordon Sinclair newspaper editorial, “The Americans,” accompanied by “America the Beautiful” performed by the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, was released to radio stations, reaching #4 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, and becoming a gold record with 3.5 million copies sold in support of the American Red Cross. MacGregor continued his broadcast career on CBS Radio all-news station, WWJ-AM Detroit where he was heard anchoring in both mornings and afternoon drive for 13 years. His Hall of Fame induction will take place in Nashville on Sept. 19.  

CBC has announced new one-hour national literary program, Bookends with Mattea Roach, joining the CBC Radio and CBC Listen schedule this fall. Premiering Sunday, Sept. 8, the show will see Roach, best known as the winningest Canadian contestant ever on Jeopardy!, in conversation with Canadian and international writers. It will air Sundays at 1 p.m. ET and repeat Wednesdays in the same daypart. In addition to her 23-win run on Jeopardy! in 2022, Roach has more recently been hosting Canadaland weekly political pod, The Backbench. Read more here.

CBC has announced alt-pop, singer-songwriter Maggie Andrew from Waverley, NS as the Grand Prize winner of CBC Music’s Searchlight 2024 contest. Other winners include Outstanding Country Artist Amanda Jordan from Smiths Falls, ON; winner of the Outstanding Indigenous Artist category, pop singer-songwriter Dee Dee Austin from Fall River, NS; winner of the Songwriting Prize, punk group NOBRO, from Montreal; and 16-year-old pop artist Summer Bennett from Paradise, NL, who takes the Top Teen category. As part of the Grand Prize, Andrew will take part in the Allan Slaight JUNO Master Class talent development program, receive a residency at the National Music Centre in Calgary, a Yangaroo Music DMDS music and video promotion package and $1,000 from Long & McQuade.

PodSummit YYC has unveiled its entire two-day Programming Schedule. Among those presenting are Canadaland, JAR Audio, Acast and the Community Podcast Initiative at Mount Royal University, in addition to live tapings of The Calgary Sessions and CBC’s Personal Best.

LISTEN: Canadaland Chief Operating Officer Alan Black makes his podcast guest debut on the latest episode of Broadcast Dialogue – The Podcast. The former Managing Director of Hot Docs joins us to talk about his transition to podcasting, bringing more third-party content under the Canadaland umbrella, monetization, and why the organization wants to help be part of the solution to the journalism crisis.

LISTEN: Sharon Taylor, Senior Vice President of Podcast Strategy and Product Operations at Triton Digital, is on the Sound Off Podcast discussing her career journey from hospitality management to podcasting. The former Omny Studio CEO highlights the evolution of Omny Studio from a radio tool to a comprehensive podcast platform, and its acquisition by Triton. Taylor, who is currently based in Montreal, also touches on challenges and opportunities for Canadian podcasters.