Derek Miller is the new Executive Producer of CTV’s W5. Miller started his career as a reporter with CTV Ottawa before transitioning to producing news magazine series, W5 Presents 21c in 2001. After leaving for CityNews at Six in 2004, he went on to produce Ice Cold Cash for the Food Network and Moving the McGillivrays for HGTV, among other series. For the last 12 years, he’s also been a freelance writer, director and story editor for W5. Miller succeeds Anton Koschany, a casualty of recent layoffs at Bell Media, who had been with CTV News since 1993.
Avis Favaro has announced she’s leaving journalism full-time. Favaro has been in broadcasting for 40 years, first at Global News for a decade starting in 1982, and for the last 30 years at CTV as the network’s national medical correspondent. Favaro says she’ll be focusing on freelance health journalism, including ongoing contributions to CTV News.
Michael Gruzuk, Senior Director, CBC News Network, has added CBC News Studios to his responsibilities, a newly-established group of leaders dedicated to content development, specials and original productions across local, radio, podcasts, and network news. Lara Chatterjee joins CBC News Studios team on secondment as an Executive Producer of Original News Programming with a focus on CBC Gem and the CBC News FAST channel. Angela Naus is now Executive Producer of Special Events. Dinu Cebzan joins the team as a dedicated technical producer. Catherine Legge is Executive Producer of Original Production, with an emphasis on documentary and long-form narrative formats in streaming video. Iris Yudai is a Senior Development Advisor, and will continue to work with teams in local, radio current affairs and news. Dave Downey is a Senior Development Advisor. Havoc Franklin is a Development Director, while Erin Mackie will be supporting CBC News Studios as a unit manager. Fabiola Carletti joins the team, on secondment as an Executive Producer of Development. Jennifer Chen is on a secondment working on climate change content strategy. Robyn Bresnahan is also seconded to support a future assessment of opportunities in morning local radio. The team will report to Gruzuk directly, with a new direct reporting line to Susan Marjetti, General Manager of News, Current Affairs and Local.
Zeelaf Majeed is returning to CBC as Managing Editor of Network Radio Current Affairs, overseeing The Current, As it Happens, Ideas, and The Sunday Magazine. Majeed was most recently Deputy Director of Content for the GTA at Metroland Media. She started her career at CBC as a reporter for CBC Radio and chase producer for As It Happens and Prime Time News, before joining TVO for two decades in various roles.
Jonny Staub is departing 94.5 Virgin Radio (CFBT-FM) Vancouver with his last morning show to air Thursday, Feb. 17. Staub has been hosting the show since 2012, alongside Holly Conway and Nira Arora. He started his radio career as a traffic reporter at CHYM-FM Kitchener, with stops along the way at Z95 (CKZZ-FM) Vancouver, and Power 92 (CKNG-FM) and The Bounce (CHBN-FM) in Edmonton, among other stations.
Treena Wood, who parted ways with CBC British Columbia in November where she was News Director, is joining Teck Resources as a Senior Communications Specialist. Wood joined CBC in 2018 after serving as National Format Director, News, for Rogers Radio and News Director at News 1130 (CKWX-AM) Vancouver.
Asa Rehman has rejoined Global BC. Rehman was previously a sports and news anchor with the network in both Vancouver and Toronto from 2013-15 before joining Mediapro Canada as a sports anchor.
Anita Krishna, a former Global BC technical director who parted ways with the network in December after attending an anti-vaccine mandate rally, has launched a Rumble channel – AKStraightSpeaks. A video has surfaced of Krishna, who was with Global BC for 11 years, speaking at the Feb. 5 “Media is the Virus” rally in Vancouver.
Brian Bourke is parting ways with CityNews 570 (CKGL-AM) Kitchener. Bourke has been hosting Kitchener Today on the station for the last three and a half years. On-air in Kitchener-Waterloo for 35 years, Bourke was News Director at KOOL FM 105.3 (CFCA-FM) and KFUN (CKWW-FM) for three decades, up until 2014 when he served one term on City of Waterloo council.
Derek Taylor is leaving his position as Sports Director at 620 CKRM Regina and his role as play-by-play voice of the Saskatchewan Roughriders. The station says Taylor, who also hosts the daily Sports Cage, is leaving to pursue other options. He joined the station in April 2019 after several years as an anchor on TSN’s Sportscentre. Taylor will continue with CKRM for the next few months.
Lindsey Martin, Retail Sales Manager for Bell Media in Kingston and Brockville, is leaving her position for a new opportunity. Martin has been with Bell since 2015 and in her current role since 2018. Brian Matheson, Retail Sales Manager of Bell Media (TV-Radio-Digital) Ottawa, adds Kingston and Brockville to his duties. Matheson has been with Bell Media since 2008.
Matt Stockal, Creative Manager for the Shine FM and The Light stations in Edmonton, Calgary and Red Deer, is leaving radio after a 25-year production career. Stockal’s first producing job was at Power 92 (CKNG-FM) and 630 CHED Edmonton in 1996. From there, he joined 100.3 The Bear (CFBR-FM) and AM 1260 (CFRN-AM), and then had a seven-year run doing production and imaging for the Alberta Radio Group network, including CFCW. He’s been with Touch Canada Broadcasting since 2006.
Samantha De France has been tapped by Amazon Studios for the role of Production Executive, Unscripted for Canada. De France, who was formerly a Production Executive and COO of Toronto-based Our House Media, will help manage the production and delivery of various projects in Canada. Prior to joining Our House in 2014, De France was a Director of Programming & Development at Cineflix.
Lou-ann Neel is joining Creative BC as part of the organization’s funding programs team in the newly-created role of Indigenous Lead, leading consultation, design, and launch of a new suite of programs to support Indigenous filmmakers, privately funded by a $1 million investment from the Rogers Group of Funds. Neel’s most recent professional roles have included the Royal BC Museum where she was the Acting Head, Indigenous Collections and Repatriation Department; North Island College where her role was Acting Director of Aboriginal Education; and the University of Victoria where she was the Aboriginal Service Plan Coordinator.
