REVOLVING DOOR:
Martin Carrier, president of MELS, Quebecor’s studio, TV and film equipment rental, post-production and VFX business, is stepping down after three years at the helm of the TVA Group division. His last day is March 24. Quebecor says management is establishing a leadership transition plan to ensure business continuity. Prior to joining MELS in 2020, Carrier was the CEO of independent video game and multimedia content studio, Frima, and a studio head at Warner Bros. Games in Montreal.
Dale Jubb will retire from his role as Operations Manager at CTV Calgary on April 14. Jubb has worked in television for 47 years, starting as an operator and director at CBC Edmonton in 1978, working on Hockey Night in Canada, news and sports broadcasts until 1998 when he joined CBC Toronto. Producing stints followed at CHUM Ottawa and CPAC. Jubb spent six years as CEO of Ottawa production company, Empowered Media, before joining CTV Calgary in his current role in 2010.
Hilary Bird has been named the new host of CBC Radio Yellowknife morning show, The Trailbreaker, which airs weekday mornings in the Northwest Territories. Bird has been a reporter, producer and video journalist with CBC for the past 12 years.
Taylor Braat has joined CBC Calgary as a reporter, VJ and associate producer. Braat arrives from CityNews Calgary where she held a similar role for the last three and a half years.
Emma Tranter has joined CBC Nunavut as a reporter. Based in Iqaluit since 2020, Tranter had most recently worked with Nunatsiaq News and The Canadian Press (CP).
Natasha Fatah is taking a leave of absence from CBC News Network to care for her father who has cancer. Fatah has been with the public broadcaster since 2003 and in her current role as an anchor on CBC News Network since 2013.
Aisling Murphy is leaving the Toronto Star to join the CP24/CTV News digital team. A 2022 University of Toronto grad, Murphy has been with the Star for the last year. Prior to that, she was an editor at Intermission Magazine.
Sean Vanderklis is joining newly-launched CTV News Channel show The Debate with Mike Le Couteur as a weekly commentator. Vanderklis is the co-host of One Dish, One Mic which airs weekends on iHeartRadio talk stations 610 CKTB St. Catharines, AM800 CKLW Windsor, and 1290 CJBK London. He also serves as Director of Business Development, indigenous Markets at Meridian Credit Union.
Chloe Emond-Lane has joined the Sound Off Media Company as a podcast producer. A 2021 Concordia Communication and Media Studies grad, Emond-Lane also works as a freelance story consultant.
Alexandra Pearl has left the comms team at Rogers Communications to join Walt Disney Studios as a Publicist, EMEA (Europe, the Middle East and Africa). Pearl had been working with Rogers for the last year and a half as a Communications Coordinator, Corporate & Internal.
Brandon Lane has left his Development Producer role at Corus Entertainment’s Nelvana to focus on kids’ media production company, Balloon House Productions, which he runs with his wife Kimberly Persona, the star and creator of action pre-school series Miss Persona which streams on Amazon Prime in Canada and airs on Treehouse TV. Lane showruns and directs the series. He is also showrunner, director and co-creator of live action kids web series Space Dragon & Kim which is in its second season on the Shaftesbury Kids YouTube channel and the creator and head writer of The Bunker, currently in development with CBC Kids.
Daniel Braun has been promoted at William F. White International (WFW) to Director, Sales and Operations in Calgary. Braun was most recently a Customer Service Representative in Vancouver. He returns to the Calgary market where he first started with the company in 2014 as a Warehouse Operations Manager. Prior to WFW, Braun worked as a Best-Person LX, Lamp Operator and Camera Trainee for IATSE 212 and 669 on productions including The Revenant, Interstellar, Fargo and Diablo.
Yann Legarson has been named the incoming CEO of Radioplayer Worldwide. Legarson joins the international non-profit from Radioplayer France, where he’s led the brand’s launch and growth since 2020. He’ll take up his new role in May, succeeding founder Michael Hill, who announced last fall he would be joining UK charity, Friends of the Lake. Radioplayer Worldwide says the organization is poised for further international growth focused on its in-car and connected devices strategy, including tech partnerships with VW Group and BMW, among other car manufacturers, to ensure radio’s prominence in dashboards of the future. Read more here.
Sam Schauland has been promoted to Executive Vice President, North America at Lawo with overall responsibility for the company’s IP systems and infrastructure solutions business in the market. After joining Lawo in 2015 as Technical Manager, Schauland was appointed Technical Manager, Americas in 2017 coordinating delivery of customer projects and the development of support infrastructure in North America. He was promoted in 2019 to SVP, Global Operations, leading Lawo’s global team of project managers and engineers.
RADIO & PODCAST:
Border Broadcasting’s WLYK-FM is moving forward as “Kingston’s Feel-Good Station” 102.7 Lake FM, less than three weeks after launching stunt format 102.7 The Pole, with a playlist inspired by strip club DJs. The border station will feature hits from the ’70s, ’80s, and ’90s from a range of artists including Hall & Oates, Journey, Heart, Whitney Houston, REO Speedwagon, Foreigner, Genesis, Rod Stewart, Duran Duran, Prince, and Madonna. With the on-air lineup yet to be announced, 102.7 Lake FM will also broadcast local news, weather and events. Jon Pole and Andrew Dickson, the co-founders of My Broadcasting Corporation (MBC), acquired Border Broadcasting in December. Licenced to Cape Vincent, New York, the 102.7 dial position was previously held by Rogers Sports & Media’s KiSS 102.7 with Rogers formerly holding a 20% stake in Border Broadcasting. Read more here.
The CRTC will hear an application by Skigin Radio Incorporated for a broadcasting licence to operate an Indigenous low-power (Type B Native) FM radio station in Woodstock First Nation. The 50-watt station would operate at 107.7 MHz. The applicant proposes to broadcast, per broadcast week, 112 hours of local programming, primarily in English with 20 hours a week devoted to Indigenous languages (Wolastoqey, Mi’kmaq and Ojibway), and six hours of French-language programming. 104 hours would be devoted to musical content, of which 20% of the musical selections would be performed or composed by Indigenous creators. The commission will hold an electronic hearing on May 11. The deadline for interventions is April 3.
Leigh Cunningham, radio voice of the Sarnia Sting, has celebrated calling a milestone 1,500 Ontario Hockey League (OHL) games. A Fanshawe College Broadcast Journalism graduate, Cunningham started his play-by-play career in 1998 with the London Knights. Over 16 seasons, he called games for the North Bay Centennials, Windsor Spitfires and Saginaw Spirit between 1998 and 2014, in addition to the Knights and the Sting. Cunningham has been doing play-by-play for the Sting on Blackburn Media’s CHOK since 2015.
Creative BC is getting into the podcast funding space with the launch of a $100,000 Pilot Podcast Program. The first-of-its-kind program will support the development, production, and promotion of podcasts by B.C.-based content producers. It will operate two separate streams of funding (each earmarked for $50,000 in available funds) – Podcast Pipeline, supporting development, and Podcast Connect, which will help existing podcasts with production and/or promotion support. To be eligible for funding, applicants must be a registered society, non-profit or company incorporated in B.C. or Canada with its head office in British Columbia. Read more here.
Spotify has expanded its Audiobooks offering to Canada. Launched last fall, the service was initially only available to U.S. audiences with expansion in November to the UK, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand. Its catalogue currently features 350,000 titles with content available in English and French, however, audiobooks can’t be purchased in-app with customers directed to another website for purchase. At its initial launch, Spotify noted the 20% year-over-year growth in the audiobook market.
JAZZ.FM91 (CJRT-FM) Toronto is soliciting ideas for its “Canadian Jazz Time Capsule.” Suggestions so far include a copy of Moe Koffman’s Live at George’s album from 1975, programs from now closed but not forgotten Toronto venues, and Oscar Peterson’s Canadiana Suite. The station is asking listeners and community members what they would put into the container to define Canadian jazz for future generations. Once enough suggestions are received, JAZZ.FM91 will form a committee to decide which ones will go into the time capsule, then commission it to be built and decide where it’s buried. The contents will be revealed at a special Sound of Jazz Concert on April 30, in celebration of International Jazz Day, at Lula Lounge. Submit your suggestion by email to [email protected].
LISTEN: On the latest Sound Off Podcast, radio industry veteran Rob Creighton. You might not know his name up here in Canada, but down in the States, he’s been running shows from Lubbock, Texas to Chicago, Illinois over the last few decades. He and Matt Cundill dive into his history on the radio and his time in the program director’s chair, as well as what prompted his move off the airwaves and into Townsquare Media’s office in Sedalia, Missouri.
SIGN OFFS:
Ori Siegel on March 17. Siegel worked as an operator and technician at CKKW-AM Kitchener, CFCA-FM Toronto, CHFI AM and FM Toronto, and CFTO-TV, before joining the CBC in 1982. Over the next 36 years, he held roles in the Network Control Centre, Master Control, VTR operations, and served as Network Traffic Coordinator. He retired from the CBC in 2018. In retirement, he shared his passion for HAM radio at the amateur radio station at Ontario Science Centre, in addition to volunteering at the Toronto Rail Museum. He was also involved with the Scarborough Music Theatre, serving as musical director, among other roles, on numerous theatre productions over the years
Larry Gordon, 71, on March 17 after a battle with glioblastoma. After graduating from the Radio & Television Arts program at Conestoga College in 1972, Gordon started his radio career in Huntsville with stops in Kitchener and Stratford, before moving to Sarnia in 1974 to join the CHOK newsroom where he would work for the next 38 years. He took on the role of news director in 1978. He retired in April 2013 with Sarnia Police Chief Phil Nelson presenting Gordon with a Community Service Medal. He went on to serve two terms on the Village of Point Edward Council.
Claude Fournier, 91, on March 16. Fournier worked as a cameraman at Radio-Canada before joining the National Film Board (NFB) in 1957 as a writer and director. He eventually left to work with documentary filmmakers Richard Leacock and D.A. Pennebaker in New York, returning to Montreal in 1963 to set up his own prodco, Rose Films. Among his better known films are 1970’s Two Women in Gold (Deux femmes en or) and The Tin Flute (1983), based on the Gabrielle Roy novel. Fournier also co-wrote the script for A Special Day (1977), a Canada-Italy co-production starring Sophia Loren that earned an Oscar nomination. 1988 television mini-series “Les Tisserands du pouvoir” won Fournier a Gemeaux Award for Best Direction, Television Drama and a Genie Award for Best Screenplay. More recently, Fournier was associated with Éléphant: Mémoire du Cinéma Québécois, a project to digitize Québec films. His twin brother is author, producer and screenwriter Guy Fournier, who served as Chairman of the Board of Directors of CBC from 2005-06.
Johnnie Walters, 89, on Feb. 26. Born in Beamsville, ON, Walters started working at radio stations around southwestern Ontario at age 17. It was in London that he met Jackie Barnes, the station’s music librarian, whom he married in 1958. The couple moved around as Walters hosted radio and television in various markets, landing in Cleveland from 1959-67, where Johnnie was a host at progressive rock station, WHK. Eventually, the Walters decided to return home to Ontario where Johnnie joined CKCO-TV. Over the next two decades, he hosted shows including “Horoscope Dollars” (1974-76); “The Johnnie Walters Show” (1976-81); “Tempo Ontario” (1981-82); “Trivia Company” (1983-87) and “Morning Magazine” (1987-94). Walters retired from CKCO in 1994 at age 61. He published his memoir “A Very Capable Life” in 2010, which went on to win the Edna Staebler Award for Creative Non-Fiction.
TV & RADIO:
Ontario Creates is reporting another record-breaking year for film and television production in Ontario. The provincial agency released its annual statistics report this week showing 419 productions brought $3.15 billion in production spending to the province, including generating 45,891 full-time equivalent direct and spin-off jobs. Television led strong foreign production numbers with expenditures reaching $1.95 billion. Domestic production accounted for 38% of total film and television spending in Ontario, up from 34% in 2021, contributing $1.2 billion to the economy, an increase of 25%. Read more here.
Cinespace Studios and York University have announced the creation of a Production Accounting Micro-Credential Program in response to a critical shortage of production accountants in the Ontario film and television sector. The six-week program, taught in-person at Cinespace Studios’ Kipling campus in Toronto, will launch in June, providing a comprehensive understanding of accounting in the creative sector. The curriculum was designed by self-employed production accounting veteran Marr Morgan and Kitty Spiropoulos, Manager, Production Finance, at Netflix in Toronto. The program, established with CineCares, a division of Cinespace that supports workforce development and crew diversity, is designed to create a pipeline of high-quality talent. Cinespace will provide funding for two scholarship bursaries through the Black Screen Office. Read more here.
ACTRA Toronto has announced the nominees for the Members’ Choice Series Ensemble Award and ACTRA Toronto Stunt Ensemble Award to be awarded at the 21st annual ACTRA Awards in Toronto on April 26. The Members’ Choice Series Ensemble Award nominees include Murdoch Mysteries (Shaftesbury Films), Pink Is In! (Pink One Productions), Pretty Hard Cases (Cameron Pictures, CBC, Universal International Studios), Sort Of (Sienna Films, Sphere Media, Canada Media Fund, HBO Max), and Tokens (Tokens On Call Productions). The Stunt Ensemble Award nominees are The Handmaid’s Tale, “Safe” (Daniel Wilson Productions, Littlefield Company, White Oak Pictures, MGM Television); Mayor of Kingstown, “This Piece of My Soul” (101 Studios, Bosque Ranch Productions, MTV Entertainment Studios); Titans, “Brother Blood” (Berlanti Productions, DC Entertainment, Warner Bros. Television, Weed Road Pictures); Titans, “Lex Luthor” (Berlanti Productions, DC Entertainment, Warner Bros. Television, Weed Road Pictures); and What We Do In The Shadows, “The Night Market” (FX Productions, Two Canoes Pictures, 343 Incorporated, FX Network, Dive).
TIFF has announced Yasmine Mathurin as the recipient of the 2023 TIFF–CBC Films Screenwriter Award for her screenplay, Sorry Pardon Madame. As part of the award, Mathurin will receive a $15,000 grant and professional support from a script consultant, as well as access to the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival and TIFF Industry Conference. A Haitian-Canadian award-winning writer, director, and producer, Mathurin’s first feature documentary One of Ours won the Hot Docs Special Jury Prize – Canadian Feature Documentary in 2021, and was nominated for three Canadian Screen Awards in 2022 for Best Writing, Documentary; Best Direction, Documentary Program; and Best Feature Length Documentary. Mathurin previously worked as an associate producer with CBC Podcasts.
The CRTC will hold a hearing, starting June 28, to consider applications by Nunavut Independent Television Network and Inuit TV Network for mandatory distribution across Canada on the digital basic service of their respective, currently exempt Inuktut-language channels, Uvagut TV and Inuit TV, as well as for broadcast licences to operate as licensed services. Uvagut TV, which launched in January 2021, is a national television service devoted to Inuit communities that broadcasts primarily in Inuktitut. Airing Inuit-made children’s shows, movies, and cultural and current affairs programming, the service is currently available in basic packages through Shaw’s direct-to-home satellite BDU and several smaller BDUs. Inuktut-language discretionary service Inuit TV, which currently serves the Territory of Nunavut, launched in May 2022, is recognized by the Government of Nunavut as the regional educational television programming service and is carried locally as part of the basic package by licensed BDUs as well as free through Bell Satellite TV and Shaw Direct in the North as part of the digital basic service. Comments are being accepted until April 14.
The Canadian Film Centre (CFC) has announced that longtime partner Netflix has joined the Norman Jewison Film Program as a lead supporter for the 2023 cohort. The accelerated professional film program for emerging to mid-level Canadian directors, writers, producers and editors helps program residents advance their narrative storytelling skills, grow their body of work, build their creative community, and expand their career opportunities through a series of workshops, case studies, industry sessions, cross-program collaborations, and one-on-one mentoring. The participants of the 2023 cohort will be announced in early July with this year’s program running from July to mid-December at CFC’s campus in Toronto.
Manitoba Film & Music’s former Access to Markets & Festivals program will be administered by On Screen Manitoba, starting April 1, and rebranded under three support programs: Access to Markets (supporting market development activities of Manitoba producers, prodcos, independent distributors and writers at national and international markets); Access to Festivals (covering travel costs for independent Manitoba writers, directors, producers and distributors whose productions have been selected to screen at national and international festivals); and the Professional Development Fund (supporting the professional development of independent Manitoban writers, directors, production company staff, and creative service professionals).
Pluto TV continues to grow its library of programming and FAST channels, announcing a content partnership with The Weather Network. Canadians can now stream The Weather Network’s new FAST channel on Pluto TV. The addition follows a series of new channel and content partnerships for the streaming service including new FAST channels OUTtv Proud and Shades of Black and a Blue Ant Media partnership that saw the addition of HauntTV, Crimetime, HistoryTime, and Homeful. Canadian users can watch Pluto TV via the web at pluto.tv, the Pluto TV app for Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, Roku, Android TV, Chromecast, Samsung and LG devices, and via mobile apps on the App Store and Google Play.
Popularity Papers, a new live action comedy based on the middle-grade books of the same name by Amy Ignatow, premieres April 10 on YTV and STACKTV. Adapted for the screen by Corus Entertainment’s Aircraft Pictures and WexWorks Media, the series follows two best friends as they set out to crack the code on how to become popular by conducting a variety of hilarious social experiments. Produced in association with BBC Studios Kids & Family, Popularity Papers is being distributed worldwide by BBC Studios. The cast includes Glee Dango, Mia Bella, Millie Davis, Jenna Weir, Callum Shoniker, and Seth Murchison.
marblemedia and The Jim Henson Company are partnering on original scripted comedy series, Felix (10×30), which promises to “break new ground by debunking the stereotypes and stigmatization around neurodiversity and mental health challenges among children.” Created by Miklos Perlus and inspired by his neurodivergent son, Felix is a live action comedy about a boy, his family, and his “feels” – five original characters to be created by Jim Henson’s Creature Shop that manifest his larger-than-life emotions. marblemedia and The Jim Henson Company have previously partnered on live-action preschool series Hi Opie! in 2014 and spin-off Opie’s Home.
TSN will showcase live coverage of select Canadian Elite Basketball League (CEBL) games on TSN and TSN+ throughout the 2023 season, culminating with the 2023 CEBL Championship Weekend. Coverage of the CEBL Game of the Week on TSN tips off on May 24 with the 2022 CEBL champion Brampton Honey Badgers heading to the nation’s capital to face off against the Ottawa BlackJacks. TSN’s CEBL broadcast schedule is available here.
CBC/Radio-Canada will be the Canadian broadcast home of the Paris 2024 and Milano-Cortina 2026 Paralympic Games, the Canadian Paralympic Committee (CPC) and public broadcaster announced Wednesday. CPC has been the rightsholder of the broadcast since Sochi 2014, working with CBC and a consortium of partners. For 2024 and 2026, CBC/Radio-Canada will play a larger role, sub-licensing the rights as the official broadcaster. CBC will provide comprehensive Paralympic Games coverage across its television, streaming, and digital platforms in English and French. The Paris 2024 Paralympic Games take place Aug. 28 – Sept. 8, 2024 and the Milano-Cortina 2026 Paralympic Winter Games run March 6-15, 2026.
VisionTV will present the world television premiere of The Rhapsody, the true story of pianist and composer Leo Spellman. Set to air April 3 at 9 p.m. ET, the film captured the Audience Award for Best Documentary at last year’s Hong Kong Jewish Film Festival. Spellman, a Jewish musician and Holocaust survivor from Poland, composed a three-part work, Rhapsody 1939-1945, while at a Displaced Persons (DP) camp in Germany. The piece musically depicted his experiences of war, suffering and the joy of liberation, and was performed only once by Spellman and a group of concentration camp survivors. When he immigrated to Canada in 1948, he tried to bury his memories and packed the score for Rhapsody 1939-1945 in a suitcase in his garage where it remained for 52 years. The film captures Spellman’s story and the second performance of Rhapsody 1939-1945 at the Ashkenaz Festival in Toronto, just three months before his passing at the age of 99.
Corus Entertainment’s Nelvana has announced the launch of new merchandise line, 43°N By Bryan Baeumler. The first series of products from the HGTV Canada personality include branded apparel and accessories. Baeumler is a contractor, entrepreneur and host of hit HGTV Canada shows like Island of Bryan, Renovation Resort, House of Bryan, Leave it to Bryan, Bryan Inc. and Disaster DIY.
ONLINE & DIGITAL MEDIA:
LISTEN: On the latest episode of Broadcast Dialogue – The Podcast, Village Media CEO Jeff Elgie takes us inside the company’s business model and its recent push into Queen’s Park, in addition to touching on some hot button issues including why he’s NOT a fan of Bill C-18, the Online News Act, and how Village Media is very carefully and intentionally testing the integration of generative AI. Listen on your favourite podcast app or here:
YouTube is reaching over three times as many Canadians, 18+, as Netflix, according to Vividata’s Digital Consumer Update for Winter 2023. Vividata says 85% of Canadians (including 75% of those under age 35) are using YouTube monthly, compared to the 27% streaming video on Netflix. Amazon Prime ranked third in usage with 16% monthly penetration, followed by Disney+ (9%), Twitch (5%), Crave (5%) and Roku (4%). When it comes to audio streaming, Spotify is the most popular platform in Canada, reaching one in four Canadians, 18+, and one in three under 35. A leading 25% of Canadians, 18+, use Spotify monthly, followed by Apple Music (11%), iHeartRadio (8%), YouTube Music (5%), Microsoft’s Groove Music (formerly Xbox Music) (4%), Amazon Music (4%), Bandcamp (3%) and Soundcloud (3%). Facebook remains the top social media platform for Canadians, reaching 86% of those 18+ monthly, according to the report. Read more here.
Wattpad, the Toronto-headquartered online writing platform, has laid off 42 employees. With 267 staff prior to the staff reduction, interim president KB Nam cites the “global economic reality” as the driver behind the changes that will see the company “shift towards a more focused approach to nurturing writers and their careers.” The layoffs don’t affect the company’s WEBTOON Studios business, bolstered earlier this year with the signing of UTA (United Talent Agency).
REGULATORY, TELECOM & MEDIA:
Journalists for Human Rights (JHR) has partnered with veteran broadcaster Lisa LaFlamme on a new series of mini documentaries showing how journalism is changing lives in Kenya and Tunisia. Featuring LaFlamme on-the-ground in Africa and launched on JHR’s YouTube channel, the four-part series shines a light on issues like gender-based violence and discrimination against women, including how a JHR-supported media campaign in Tunisia helped spur legislative progress toward improving access to shelters for women and children. In Kenya, LaFlamme tells the story of female journalists, who endure the highest rate of sexual harassment in newsrooms, according to a global media study. JHR, in partnership with the Kenya Media Sector Working Group, has introduced a model sexual harassment policy for the industry pushing for a gender-inclusive culture. The project was funded by Canadian non-profit Bigger Than Our Borders. Read more here.
The Canadian Association of Journalists (CAJ) has launched the 2023 Canadian Newsroom Diversity Survey. The third year for the survey of newsroom leaders, last year’s survey saw 242 media outlets participate, with its release the first time the CAJ was able to compare year-over-year statistics. The percentage of white journalists rose from 74.9 per cent in 2021 to 77.9 per cent in 2022, while Indigenous journalists saw a drop from 6.4 per cent in 2021 to 4.6 per cent in 2022. The results will be made publicly available following the June 2 response deadline. If you are a newsroom leader that did not receive an editable survey copy, contact [email protected] to receive one.
World Press Freedom Canada (WPFC) has announced that journalist Anna Maria Tremonti will be the keynote speaker at its annual World Press Freedom Day luncheon in Ottawa on May 3. She’ll be joined by Torstar Vice President for Inclusion and Strategic Partnerships, Irene Gentle, for an armchair discussion. The Press Freedom Prize, awarded to a nominee who demonstrates their public-interest work was frustrated by a cloak of secrecy, legal manoeuvres, political intimidation, or tactics that put their safety or career at risk; Spencer Moore Award for Career Achievement honouring the work of a Canadian journalist in pursuit of press freedom; and the International Cartoon Contest winner, awarded to a cartoonist who best captures this year’s theme, “Free speech or free for all?” will also be presented at the luncheon.
Thank you so much to everyone who has reached out about the Canadian Football Hall of Fame announcement. I’m so honoured to be the first woman named to the Hall, but I can guarantee you I won’t be the only one for long. #CFL
— Vicki Hall (@vickihallch) March 17, 2023
Vicki Hall is the first woman named to the Canadian Football Hall of Fame. The former Edmonton Journal and Calgary Herald sports writer, national Postmedia scribe, and radio pundit is being recognized in the Media category. Hall has been teaching in the Journalism program at SAIT full-time since last November.
NAIT has announced its 2022 NAIT Celebrates award winners, recognizing members of its alumni community and distinguished friends of the institution. Among them are Global Edmonton News at Noon co-anchor Su-Ling Goh (Radio and Television – TV ’98), recipient of the Alumni Award of Excellence, acknowledging her dedication to covering health-related issues. Her lived experience with the long-term health care system in Alberta was the catalyst for resurrecting Global Edmonton’s health beat, Health Matters. Nominations are now open for the 2023 NAIT Celebrates awards.
BROADCAST TECH & ENGINEERING:
SMPTE President Renard T. Jenkins will serve as the keynote speaker for the inaugural Public Media Technology Summit (PMTS) preceding the 2023 NAB Show and the Broadcast Engineering and IT (BEIT) Conference during its opening session. Slated for April 13-14 at the Renaissance Las Vegas Hotel, the PMTS will include sessions on RF, IT, and general technology practice and management — particularly as they intersect with ATSC 3.0/NextGen TV, IP-based facilities, cloud-based production, and related business and service opportunities supporting public media’s unique mission. Jenkins served as Vice President of Operations, Engineering and Distribution at PBS prior to joining Warner Bros. Discovery in his current role as SVP, Production Integration and Creative Technology Services. Jenkins and his teams have earned numerous awards, including two Emmy Awards.
Nomono, the Norway-headquartered developer of audio recording and collaboration tools for podcasters and journalists, has been named the 2023 SXSW Innovation Award winner in the Audio category for its Nomono Sound Capsule and Nomono Cloud. The Nomono Sound Capsule is a cloud-connected, self-contained recording kit designed specifically for professionals in the field. Weighing less than four pounds, it includes a wi-fi enabled recorder that combines four compact wireless lavalier mics with a 360-degree spatial audio microphone array. It connects to the Nomono Cloud, an online audio collaboration tool where content creators can backup recordings, collaborate with their production team, and apply AI-powered dialogue enhancement processing.
Newsbridge has released a new AI landmark detection capability for indexing and searching media assets. Available on the cloud media hub platform’s Just Index, Cloud Media Hub, Media Marketplace, and Live Asset Manager solutions, the location-based search feature enables producers, journalists, and media managers to pull up video sequences of known and lesser-known landmarks (i.e., the White House, Niagara Falls, London city skyline, etc.), including aerial shots, in less than two seconds. Media managers can use the feature to store indexed results in a dedicated search engine, and run AI indexing on live streams to optimize search, clip creation, and delivery of recordings to Media Asset Management and third-party storage systems.
OpenAI’s ChatGPT-4 produces misinformation more frequently and persuasively than its predecessor, according to a report from journalism tech solutions provider, NewsGuard. Newsguard has run a series of tests – the first two months ago with ChatGPT-3.5 – prompting it to generate misinformation. It did so 80% of the time. The same tests with its successor, ChatGPT-4, saw the OpenAI tech advance 100% of false narratives it was prompted by. The company found that ChatGPT-4 advanced those false narratives not only more frequently, but more convincingly than the earlier version of the platform, including in responses it created in the form of news articles, Twitter threads, and TV scripts, ranging from mimicking Russian and Chinese state-run media outlets to perpetuating health hoax narratives and conspiracy theories. Read more here.
