Jordan Banks has exited Rogers Communications as President of Rogers Sports & Media (RSM). Colette Watson, RSM’s former SVP of Television & Broadcast Operations and current President of CPAC (Cable Public Affairs Channel), steps into the role. Banks was appointed President of the division in Sept. 2019 after serving as the Managing Director of Facebook and Instagram Canada and previously working as Facebook’s Global Head of Vertical Strategy. Banks is the latest executive to depart as newly-appointed President & CEO Tony Staffieri takes the reins of the company after serving in the role on a temporary basis since mid-November. In addition to Dave Fuller stepping down as President of Rogers Wireless, Sevaun Palvetzian, Chief Communications Officer, and Dan Golberg, SVP of Strategy and Corporate Development, have also left the company. Like Banks, both had been with Rogers for less than three years and were hires under former President & CEO Joe Natale. Read more here.
Curtis Papetti has been promoted to the newly-created position of Manager, National Radio Programming at Bell Media, encompassing Bell’s English-language music stations including Virgin Radio, BOUNCE Radio, Pure Country, and Move Radio. Papetti has been with Bell Media since 2015 and for the last two years has held the role of National Music Coordinator.
Carol Off is stepping away from CBC Radio’s As It Happens after 16 years. She’ll host her final show Feb. 25, before moving on to work on special projects for CBC, including a new summer series. Off’s career with the public broadcaster started in the late ’80s as a freelancer, and then Ottawa arts correspondent for Sunday Morning. She went on to host political debate show CounterSpin and report for The National. Prior to joining As It Happens in 2006, she was an international correspondent covering the Middle East, the Balkans, Afghanistan, the U.S., and the former Soviet Union.
Marc Michaels, Katlynn Millions and Alex Carr are joining a refreshed lineup at Calgary’s JACK 96.9 (CJAQ-FM). Starting Jan. 31, Michaels and Millions will take over JACK 96.9’s afternoon drive show. Up until earlier this month, the pair had been hosting the drive home show on alt-rocker X92.9 (CFEX-FM), formerly programmed by Christian Hall, who since August of last year has been National Content Director for the JACK brand at Rogers Sports & Media. Alex Carr will helm a new midday show on JACK 96.9, starting Feb. 22. Carr has been freelancing his talents to stations including X92.9 and 102.7 The Peak (CJPK-FM) Vancouver, since his release from Toronto’s 102.1 The Edge (CFNY-FM) in January 2020 where he and sister Ruby Carr had a year-long run in mornings. He’ll also host the local edition of JACK Up The ’80s. Read more here.
Nabil Karim is joining Turner Sports as a host and reporter for the network’s NBA and NHL coverage. Up until the end of December, Karim had been with ESPN since 2019 anchoring SportsCenter. Prior to that, the Burnaby, BC native was with TSN, contributing to Sportscentre as well as reporting for the NHL on TSN.
Lindsay Cooper and Morgan Bowen have joined 98.1 2day FM (CKBD-FM) Lethbridge as co-hosts of the recently-launched Mornings To-Go with Lindsay and Morgan. Cooper also takes on music director duties. Cooper was previously midday host at Country 90.5 (CFCH-FM) North Bay and prior to that hosted mornings at The Moose 93.1 (CHMT-FM) Timmins, ON. Bowen arrives from the Pure Country (CJDC-AM) morning show in Dawson Creek, BC.
Jocelyn Martin has added middays at Country 90.5 (CFCH-FM) North Bay to her duties at Vista Radio. In addition to helming middays on The Moose network, she’ll be heard weekdays on Country 90.5 from 10 a.m. – 2 p.m.
Rob MacNamara has wrapped almost a 14-year run with Hot 101.9 (CHRK-FM) and New Country 103.5 (CKCH-FM) Sydney, NS. Most recently Program Director and host of afternoon drive, MacNamara was the longtime host of the Hot 101.9 morning show, prior to Jan. 2020 when Stingray moved to air the syndicated Morning Hot Tub in the time slot. MacNamara is moving to a position in municipal government.
Paul O’Neil is joining Blackgold Broadcasting as a Senior Account Manager for 93.1 The One (CJLD-FM) Leduc, AB. The 30+-year radio veteran most recently did a brief stint as music director and midday host at Play 107 (CKPW-FM) Edmonton. Prior to that, he served as Corus Entertainment’s Hub Music Director for the network’s Hot AC stations across the country.
Karli Zschogner is joining CBC North as a video journalist, based in Inuvik. The 2018 University of King’s College graduate has most recently been working as a Sustainability Filmmaker with Sustainable Eastern Ontario (SEO). She also has experience as a community journalism trainer with Journalists for Human Rights (JHR).
Rachael D’Amore has left Global News and journalism to join Toronto PR firm Talk Shop as an Account Manager. D’Amore had been a full-time journalist since 2016 when she joined CTV News as a web writer. She signed on with Global as a National Online Journalist in 2019 and for the last eight months had held the role of Supervisor, National Online Breaking News.
Bryan Gabourie has been appointed to the role of SVP, International Sales & Partnerships, at Blue Ant International. He’ll oversee all sales activities from originals, pre-sales, content licensing, co-productions and strategic partnerships in the U.S. market. Based in New York, he’ll report to Solange Attwood, EVP, Blue Ant International. Gabourie has over 15 years experience in global distribution and development and was most recently VP, Global Content Sales & Digital Licensing at A+E where he represented A+E Networks brands and programming for content sales, co-production, channel partnership and format sales and managed multi-territory streaming opportunities.
Jérôme Levy is the newest independent member appointed to Thunderbird Entertainment Group’s Board of Directors. Levy was most recently Vice Chairman of Archie Comics Publications, the company behind the comic book series as well as Netflix series Riverdale and Chilling Adventures of Sabrina. At Archie, Levy oversaw aspects of TV and film production, publishing, digital, international expansion, licensing and merchandising. Prior to that, he was a Managing Director of Houlihan Lokey’s Technology, Media & Telecom Group, which he joined after its acquisition of MESA, a boutique advisory firm specializing in digital and traditional media transactions, where he was a Co-Founder and Managing Partner.
Tina Tuli has joined Toronto’s Firstlight Media as Vice-President of Global Marketing. Tuli’s career has included senior marketing positions with Samdesk and Magic Leap. She’ll lead development and implementation of marketing strategies of Firstlight Media’s OTT platform aimed at Tier 1 content providers and distributors.
Rise, the advocacy group for gender diversity in broadcast media technology has announced Hilary Roschke as Board Chair and Jill Porubovic as Head of Sponsorship for the North American chapter. Roschke has almost 20 years’ experience within the media industry in operational and strategic leadership roles and is currently the Vice-President of Strategic Operations at SDVI. Founder of Jill Porubovic Consulting, LLC, Porubovic draws upon more than 20 years’ of tech and operations leadership experience and is a trusted advisor to companies across the evolving media and entertainment space.
