Radio & Podcast News – OAB inducts Paul Larche to Hall of Fame

The Ontario Association of Broadcasters (OAB) handed out its annual awards Thursday recognizing the radio staff behind Creative, Promotions, and Sales as well as those involved in creating Community Service campaigns. Larche Communications founder Paul Larche was the 2019 inductee into the OAB Hall of Fame, while Jamie Johnston of Bayshore Broadcasting was named the inaugural winner of the OAB’s new Inspiring Women Award. 

This year’s Community Service Award winners were Classic Rock 94.5 (CIBU-FM) Wingham, which claimed the Small Market honour for its “Run Phil Run” effort that saw host Phil Main run, walk and crawl 120 kilometres over five days across Midwestern Ontario to raise awareness for mental health. The Large Market award went to Indie88 (CIND-FM) Toronto for its “A Day to Make Music Count” initiative, supporting MusiCounts, in memory of late colleague Dave “Bookie” Bookman. Station Promotion Awards, which recognize the stations that do the best job promoting themselves were won by Country 93 (CKYC-FM) Owen Sound for the “Amazing Adventures of Rick & Julia,” which saw the station’s new morning show promoted via a viral social media campaign that saw a dozen cardboard cutouts of the on-air duo travel to different events with the help of listener ambassadors.

boom 97.3 (CHBM-FM) Toronto won the Large Market award for its “Apollo 11 – To the boom & Back” station takeover that aired across the Stingray Classic Hits network to mark the 50th anniversary of the moon landing. This year’s Best in Class Sales award winners, which recognize individual sales people who show the ability to recognize and speak to the needs and wishes of a new client with a successful radio campaign, included Jordan Hennessey of Indie88 (CIND-FM) for client Georgian Bay Spirit Co. Cassandra Bonn of Quinte Broadcasting stations Mix 97 (CIGL-FM), CJBQ and Rock 107 (CJTN-FM) Belleville, won for campaign “Need A Car Don’t Care.” Creative Award winners, presented to the writer/producer who creates the best 30 or 60 radio ad, went to Evanov Radio team Brian Viggiani (producer), John Shannon (copywriter), Richard Correll (voiceover) for their Large Market campaign “Game of Cones.” Blackburn Radio’s Patt Staples (writer) and producers Scott Chidwick and Brent Wilkinson claimed the Small Market award for “BEE-thoven’s 5th.” Read more here.

Harvard Broadcasting, Saskatoon Media Group, MBC Radio and Jim Pattison Broadcast Group stations got together to raise over $750,000 during the largest-ever Radiothon for Jim Pattison Children’s Hospital, on Nov. 6-7. The two-day event was broadcast live from the hospital’s main lobby by 16 different radio stations, including 98COOL FM (CJMK-FM) and 600 CJWW Saskatoon; 620 CKRM, MY92.1 (CHMX-FM), and 104.9 The Wolf (CFWF-FM) in Regina; Power99 (CFMM-FM), XFM 101.5 (CHQX-FM) and 900 CKBI Prince Albert, and in North Battleford on 1050 CJNB, Q98 (CJCQ-FM) and 93.3 The ROCK (CJHD-FM). MBC broadcast to various locations across the province. The event also hit the airwaves in Yorkton thanks to Fox FM (CFGW-FM) and GX94 (CJGX-AM) and in Melfort on CJVR FM and 750 Beach Radio (CKJH-AM). Donations from this year’s event will support babies, kids, moms-to-be and families across Saskatchewan who need specialized care as close to home as possible.

Radio communautaire de Harrington Harbour has voluntarily surrendered its licence for CFTH 97.7 and the station rebroadcasters in Mutton Bay and Kegaska, Que. No reason was given for the station’s request for revocation.

The Societe Radio Communautaire du Grand Edmonton Society has received approval to increase the power of its French-language community station CFED 97.9 from 190 to 295 watts. Antenna height will go from 0.87 to 40.3 metres (EHAAT).

Bell Media’s holiday playlists this year will feature controversial holiday tune “Baby, It’s Cold Outside.” Last December, the 1949 standard was pulled by Bell, Rogers, CBC and Stingray stations following a move by Star 102 (WDOK-FM) Cleveland to nix the song after complaints about its predatory sexual overtones. Corus stations played it in limited rotation. CBC Music later restored the song to its playlists after public outcry.

Radio-Canada OHdio is the new destination for Radio-Canada radio, music and podcasts in one place. Among the new app’s offerings, listeners can tune in live or listen later to ICI RADIO-CANADA PREMIERE and ICI MUSIQUE content, audiobooks, and the ICI MUSIQUE Classique channel.

CBC has released new true crime podcast series, Hunting Warhead (6×45), a unique international co-production between CBC Podcasts and Norway’s Verdens Gang (VG) newspaper. It also includes archival interviews from ABC Audio Studios, part of Australia’s public broadcaster. Hunting Warhead follows journalists, white-hat hackers, and police on a mission across borders, to uncover the man behind username Warhead who ran Child’s Play, a site on the dark web with more than a million users trafficking child abuse material. Hosted and co-produced by Daemon Fairless, the podcast includes direct conversations with close friends and relatives, investigators and the criminals themselves. The first two episodes of the six-part series are now available to download, with two new episodes to be released weekly. 

Corus Entertainment’s Curiouscast podcast network has debuted its first podcast dedicated to all things comics, superheroes, fantasy and sci-fi. Hosted by ‘Fearless’ Fred Kennedy of Q107 (CILQ-FM) Toronto, Issue Zero takes on new Disney+ Star Wars live action show The Mandalorian in its first two episodes. A passionate comic book creator and collector, Kennedy was formerly the host of Teletoon at Night. A new episode will be released every two weeks.

Canadaland’s newest true crime podcast delves into the cocaine smuggling ring inside VICE Media. Hosted by Kasia Mychajlowcyz, listen to a preview of Cool Mules here.

iHeartMedia reports that its digital revenue, primarily driven by podcasting, rose by 33.4% in the third quarter of 2019. The company says its traditional radio business, comprised of Broadcast and Networks revenue streams, is stable and growing, however Broadcast revenue declined by 0.6% on a reported basis. Networks grew 9.2% year-over-year driven by growth in iHeartMedia’s Total Traffic & Weather Network.

Spotify has beta launched Spotify Kids in Ireland – a standalone app designed with safety in mind. The company says Spotify Kids “was born out of the desire to create a playground of sound just for kids.” The content is ad-free and hand-picked by a team of editors that uses colourful visuals to guide kids through the app with simple navigation and scaled-back text. Kids can also select a custom avatar and color theme to personalize their experience. Spotify Kids will be introduced in all markets that have Premium Family in the coming months.

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