Paul Romanuk has called his last Leafs game for Hockey Night in Canada. Sportsnet PR announced the move on Twitter Thursday saying “Paul Romanuk has elected to move on to a new challenge. We consider Romanuk to be one of the top play-by-play announcers in the game and we will miss his contributions to our coverage.” John Bartlett will be Sportsnet’s new regional play-by-play voice for the Toronto Maple Leafs, and call select national broadcasts. Bartlett has been calling Montreal Canadiens’ English-language broadcasts for TSN radio and TV, since 2011.
Naveen Prasad has been named president of Vice Canada. Prasad has held various executive VP roles at Alliance, eOne and Elevation Pictures since 2005 and is a board member of both the Bell Fund and Hollywood Suite. He announced he was leaving Elevation in January to launch prodco Impossible Objects with director Jamie Dagg.
Sarah MacDonald joins Global BC, starting Sept. 4. MacDonald has been a reporter with CTV News Vancouver the last six years. She previously worked on Canada AM and CTV National News in Toronto.
Laura Reiter will be joining Breakfast Television Toronto, starting Sept. 5, as executive producer. Reiter will oversee development and execution of BT in four markets across the country. She was most recently series producer for Property Brothers: Buying + Selling.
Jimmy Stewart has retired from Global News Toronto after 42 years. Stewart started in security, then moved into audio and eventually the camera department. He was recognized with an RTDNA Lifetime Achievement Award earlier this year. Watch his farewell here.
Magic 106.1 (CIMJ-FM) Guelph has launched a new morning show. Rob Daniels joins Lisa Richards on The Breakfast Club with Lisa & Rob. Richards has been the station’s morning show host since 1996, while Daniels comes to Magic after previous on-air stints at 91.5 The Beat (CKBT-FM) Kitchener, 99.9 Virgin Radio (CKFM-FM) Toronto and Kiss 92.5 (CKIS-FM) Toronto.
JC Coutts is leaving Rock 97.7 (CFGP-FM) Grande Prairie to move back to his home province of Ontario. Coutts had been with the station since 2014, starting as midday host and promo coordinator before taking on the roles of program director and afternoon host. Coutts is staying within the Rogers Radio family, heading to 92.7 Rock (CJRQ-FM) Sudbury where he’ll be director of both programming and promotions.
Lauren Boothby is joining News 1130 (CKWX-AM) Vancouver at the end of the month as weekday web editor and weekend reporter. Boothby has been working as a freelance multimedia journalist for publications including Burnaby Now, since graduating from Langara College’s post grad Journalism program.
Erika MacLellan has retired from Moose FM 94.1 (CKNR-FM) Elliot Lake, ON after 38 years in broadcasting. Joining the station two years into her career, MacLellan has held down roles from board op to pulling on-air shifts, traffic manager, copy director, station manager and integrated marketing executive. MacLellan has been recognized with several awards over the years, including the Vista Sales Star Budget Achievement Award.
Shawna Randolph is moving on from hosting TV magazine show Alberta Primetime on CTV Two Edmonton. The former CTV Edmonton anchor has been hosting the show since 2013, but has announced she’s leaving to focus on her media relations training company. Her last day is Aug. 31.
BBC Studios has appointed Jodie Mackie and Brad Horvath as directors of content sales in its Toronto office. Mackie was formerly with Distribution360 and spent 10 years as director of international sales and acquisitions at Breakthrough Entertainment. Horvath, who has been with BBC four years, is promoted from senior sales coordinator. Both will manage content sales to both English- and French-speaking Canada and identify coproduction opportunities.
Annie Bergeron Oliver is the newest member of the CTV News National bureau in Ottawa. Bergeron has been covering the capital region for CTV Ottawa since 2014 and was previously a multimedia reporter with iPolitics.
Rob Fai has announced he’ll be stepping back from his play-by-play broadcast duties with the Vancouver Canadians baseball club after this season to focus on his health. Fai will continue as the club’s director of communications, but said in a statement that “after the final out of this season, no more shows, emcee gigs, anything – until I can get my ‘house’ in order.” Fai has been with the Canadians since 2007 and has also served as the host of the pre-game show and weeknight RobFaiNationRadio on TSN 1040 (CKST-AM) Vancouver.
Phil Darlington has joined Global Edmonton as a weather specialist. Darlington arrives from CTV Regina, with previous anchoring and VJ’ing stints at CKPR Thunder Bay and Rogers’ community station in Mississauga.
Joël Lamoureux has been promoted to Director of Operations with the Native Women’s Association of Canada in Ottawa. Lamoureux, who was most recently a program manager and on-air host with Golden West Broadcasting in Airdrie, AB, joined the organization last December as a media relations specialist.
Amanda Ferguson has left Citytv Toronto to join Metrolinx communications team. Ferguson had been a reporter with City News since 2013 and previously worked with CBC Windsor, Global Regina, Citytv Edmonton and CTV Edmonton.
Vanmala Subramaniam is leaving VICE after a two-year run as money and economics editor to join the Financial Post as their cannabis industry reporter. She was previously as producer with BNN, the fifth estate, The Exchange and Connect with Mark Kelley on CBC.
Paule Robitaille, former Montreal CBC/Radio-Canada journalist, has been confirmed as the Quebec Liberal Party candidate in the riding of Bourassa-Sauvé. The riding, a liberal stronghold, is currently represented by former minister Rita De Santis, who has announced she won’t be seeking a new term in the Oct. 1 election. Robitaille left broadcasting in 2016 and took up a position with the federal Immigration and Refugee Board.
Stingray Digital Group has welcomed David Purdy into the newly-created position of chief revenue officer. Purdy comes to Stingray from VICE Media. He previously had a 15-year career with Rogers Communications in multiple senior roles including senior VP of Content and Video Product Management. He’ll oversee all aspects of Stingray’s revenue expansion including advertising, and sales efforts.
