The Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (CARAS) will award broadcast veteran Duff Roman with the 2019 Walt Grealis Special Achievement Award for his ongoing contributions and dedication to the Canadian music industry. Lauded as an industry trailblazer, Roman had a radio career on the prairies before landing at CHUM-AM in 1965 where he worked his way up to head of the CHUM Radio Network. In addition to his broadcasting career, Roman co-founded Roman Records with his late brother Dan in the 1960s, producing the first recordings of Levon and the Hawks, who notably went on to become The Band, backing Bob Dylan. In 1982, Roman led the creation of FACTOR and continues to serve as its Director Emeritus. He’ll receive the award at the 48th Annual JUNO Gala Dinner & Awards on Mar. 16 in London, Ontario. Read the full story here.
Roundhouse Radio (CIRH-FM) shareholders have applied to the CRTC to sell the assets of the defunct independent NewsTalk station to South Fraser Broadcasting Inc. The low-power station, which operated from studios on Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, ceased broadcasting on May 6 under financial pressures. According to the CRTC application, South Fraser, which is owned by Sukhvinder Singh Badh and operates Pulse FM (CISF-FM) Surrey, would purchase the shares for $600,000. The deal is contingent on a requested exception to the percentage of Canadian musical selections CIRH-FM would have to play in any given broadcast week with South Fraser requesting a 10 per cent reduction in Cancon selections, from devoting 50 per cent to content category 2 (Popular Music), to a minimum of 40 per cent.
Cogeco Inc. says it’s completed its purchase agreement with RNC Média inc. to acquire 10 of its regional radio stations. The stations are located in Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean (Planète 104.5 Alma, Planète 93.5 Chibougamau, Planète 99.5 Roberval, Planète 100.3 Dolbeau-Mistassini, Radio X 95.7 Saguenay); Abitibi-Témiscamingue (Capitale Rock 104.3 Val-d’Or, Capitale Rock 102.1 La Sarre, WOW 96.5 Val-d’Or); in Lachute (Pop 104.9) and in Hawkesbury (Pop 102.1). With completion of this transaction, Cogeco Media expands its radio network to 22 stations across Quebec and one in Ontario. The transaction, which has a total value of $19.2 million was approved by the CRTC on Oct. 11.
The CRTC has approved a new low-power English-language FM radio station in Esterhazy, SK – the town’s first local radio station. The licensee is Bill Gade, who already owns and operates Manitoba stations CJ 103 (CJVM-FM) Virden, CJ 97.1 (CJBP-FM) Neepawa, CJSB 104.5 Swan River and CJ 107 (CJIE-FM) Gimli. The station will operate at 99.5 MHz (channel 258LP) with an effective radiated power of 50 watts and offer a mix of country, pop and rock music, broadcasting 126 hours of programming each week, including 98 hours of local programming of which about three hours a week would be news. The remaining hours would be devoted to wraparound programming including shows like The Classic Country and Oldies Show, Polka Hour and The Top 40 Country Countdown.
Quebecor’s Music Division has acquired MP3 Disques, an album and concert producer and music publisher. MP3 Disques joins the Music Division’s existing labels Musicor and Ste-4 Musique. MP3 Disques will keep its own identity with founder Mario Pelchat staying on as general manager.
Radio-Canada has announced it will keep its vinyl record collection of 119,000 unique titles because no proposal met all of its criteria following a call for interest last May. The Radio-Canada Heritage Management Committee decided it was preferable to keep the single-title collection of approximately 86,000 33 RPM LPs, 23,000 singles and 10,000 78 RPM recording, and take steps to find an external storage location ahead of its move in 2020. Radio-Canada has announced it is selling duplicate copies of its 45,000-rpm vinyl record collection to Radio VM (CIRA-FM) Montreal. The CBC will issue a call for interest in spring 2019 offering up some 127,000 triplets and surplus copies of vinyl records and some 80,000 duplicate CDs.
Curiouscast, Corus Entertainment’s podcast network, has launched its first science and technology podcast Super Awesome Science Show (SASS). Hosted by researcher, educator, and Canadian-bestselling author Jason Tetro, the weekly podcast debuted Nov. 27 with a new episode to be released each Tuesday. Better known as “The Germ Guy”, Tetro is an independent researcher in microbiology and immunology. He’s published multiple books on human relationships with microbes, including national bestseller The Germ Files.
On the latest episode of Broadcast Dialogue – The Podcast, we talk with Eric Blais, Director of Client Success, at Canadian audience measurement startup StatsRadio.
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