Lyndon Friesen is retiring as President of Golden West Broadcasting after 45 years with the company. Friesen started working with Golden West in the sales department at CHSM Steinbach in 1977 and by the following year was station manager. After stints managing new Golden West stations in Ajax and Hamilton, ON, as well as serving as General Manager of CHRB/CFXL Calgary and CHRB High River in the early 1990s, he returned to Manitoba where he became Executive Vice-President in 2003 and added Chief Operating Officer to his title in 2006. He assumed the role of President in 2008.
He’ll stay on as an advisor to his son, Carter Friesen, who will step into the role of President & COO. Carter Friesen, started working in sales and business development with Golden West in 2013, while still studying Business Administration at the Ivey Business School at Western University and was named VP, Corporate Development in 2017, before taking on the role of COO in late 2019. Read more here.
APTN has made changes to its programming team, including the addition of Adam Garnet Jones as Director of TV Content and Special Events. In the newly-created position, Garnet will be responsible for all non-news programming on APTN’s four linear broadcast channels, including oversight of program development and acquisition. Based in Toronto, he was most recently the Indigenous Initiatives Lead for Telefilm Canada and the Canada Media Fund. He’s also a former chair of the Ontario Film Review Board and a longtime board member of the ImagineNATIVE Festival. Lisa Ducharme is also relinquishing her title as APTN’s Director of Marketing to move into programming in the new role of Director of Online Content. Ducharme has been with APTN since 2007 when she joined the network as Manager of Research. She’ll oversee all online content – both original and acquired – including APTN’s lumi streaming platform, as well as content destined for various BDUs. She’ll also provide direction to APTN’s Content Creation team.
CC and Lorie, the morning show team on Regina’s Z99 (CIZL-FM) for the last 32 years, have announced they plan to retire this spring. CC has been the morning host since Z99 first went on the air in 1982. The team haven’t said when their last broadcast will be, but have revealed they’ll host one more Z99 Radiothon for the NICU at the Rawlco Centre for Mother Baby Care. Lorie, who has been dealing with some health issues, plans to spend more time with family, while CC has decided not to carry on with the show without his longtime co-host.
Danielle Cyr is Evanov Communications’ new Regional Sales Manager for Ontario East/Quebec, effective March 22. With experience in both radio and television, Cyr previously worked with Evanov Radio Group as a General Sales Manager in Montreal from 2015-19, before joining Bell Media and CTV Montreal.
Mike Jean has been appointed Director of Metro Sales for the Jim Pattison Broadcast Group. As JPBG’s Retail Sales Manager in Victoria for the past 11 years, he initially joined the company as an Account Executive in 2001. Prior to joining JPBG, Jean was in sales with Corus Entertainment.
Ian Balfour has announced his retirement from Stingray Ottawa’s Hot 89.9 (CIHT-FM) and LiVE 88.5 (CILV-FM), effective April 1. Balfour has had a 34-year media sales career that started in 1987 at CFGO AM 1200 Ottawa, through ownership changes with Baton, Rawlco and CHUM. After 17 years, he moved over to CTV Ottawa, before returning to radio as a Manager with NewCap Ottawa. In 2009, he joined NewCap Fort McMurray as the General Manager/GSM of its newly-launched K-ROCK station, before heading to Western Newfoundland Labrador to act as GM/GSM for the company’s seven radio stations there. He returned to Ottawa in 2012 as Retail Sales Manager.
Michael Dick has accepted the position of Managing Editor for CBC Network Radio. Dick has most recently served as Executive Producer at CBC Thunder Bay. In addition to numerous stops with the network as a reporter and producer over the last 16 years, he also spent two years in Japan, working with Nippon Hoso Kyokai’s international news service, NHK World.
Rick Matthews has joined Rogers Sports & Media as Director, Content Strategy. Matthews was previously the VP of Kin Community Canada, through its acquisition by Corus Entertainment. Prior to joining Kin in 2014, Matthews was the Executive Producer of Steven and Chris on CBC.
Emily Szabo is hosting a new national midday show on Rogers’ Country stations. Szabo was formerly the music director and midday host at Corus Radio’s Energy 95.3 (CING-FM) Hamilton.
MK Bowyer will take over middays on CFOX Vancouver as Carmen Cruz heads out on a one-year maternity leave. Bowyer has been the afternoon drive host and music director at Harvard Broadcasting’s X100.7 (CKEX-FM) Red Deer for the last three years. Prior to that, she was in a similar role at 104.3 Fresh Radio (CKWS-FM) Kingston, ON.
Don Taylor and Rick Dhaliwal will return to the airwaves April 5 with new “sports variety” show, Donnie and Dhali – The Team, on Victoria’s CHEK-TV. The pair were formerly heard on TSN Radio/Team 1040 (CKST-AM) until Bell Media dropped the format in several markets last month. Ryan Henderson, another former 1040 employee, will serve as the show’s producer. The show will be multicast live, from 10 to noon Monday to Friday, on multiple platforms including CHEK television, the soon-to-be-launched CHEK+ app (for Roku, Apple TV, Amazon, Android and iOS) and as a live and on-demand podcast. The program will be produced at Oh Boy Production Studios in Vancouver.
Kayla Goodfield has transitioned from her Digital Content Editor and Writer role with CTV News Toronto to a new position as a Digital Producer with BNN Bloomberg. Goodfield has been with Bell Media since 2016.
Robyn Crawford is joining News 1130 (CKWX-AM) Vancouver as a producer and anchor. Crawford has been with Corus Vancouver since 2017, starting as a traffic anchor with AM 730 (CHMJ-AM) before joining CKNW as a reporter and anchor.
Aparita Bhandari has been hired as a producer with Pacific Content. A freelance journalist, Bhandari is also the co-host of Khabardaar, a weekly Hindi/Urdu language podcast discussing Bollywood movies.
Hannah Daley has joined The Wire Report as Deputy Editor. Daley has been with allNovaScotia.com since 2018, most recently as a business reporter with allNewBrunswick.com, based in Moncton.
Hayley Woodin has been named the first Executive Editor of Business in Vancouver (BIV). Woodin has been a contributor to the publication since 2016 and in the last year has taken on leadership of BIV’s magazine portfolio. She’s also contributed to BIV’s radio, television and podcast activities, including serving as the former co-host and co-producer of the Business in Vancouver show on Roundhouse Radio (CIRH-FM).
Tyler Olsen, who up until December was a reporter with Abbotsford News, has announced he’s now Managing Editor of online startup, Fraser Valley Current. The subscriber e-newsletter model will focus on local news in Abbotsford, Chilliwack and Mission.
Asmaa Malik and Gavin Adamson have been appointed Co-Interim Chairs of the Ryerson School of Journalism following the resignations of Chair Janice Neil and Lisa Taylor, associate chair and the school’s undergraduate program director. Their departure follows a public letter issued by Ryerson journalism students, accusing the school of failing to represent and support BIPOC and LGBTQ students in the program. A formal search committee for a permanent Chair will be set up in the near future. The School of Journalism says as part of its ongoing commitment to change and development, it will embark on an intentional review and transformation process to be led by Kamal Al-Solaylee.
