The Weekly Briefing

REVOLVING DOOR:

Corus Entertainment has announced the retirement of President and CEO Doug Murphy, with executives Troy Reeb and John Gossling succeeding him as Co-Chief Executive Officers. Murphy first joined Corus in 2003 as Executive Vice President, Business Development, holding successively senior positions until 2015 when he was appointed President and CEO. Gossling will also continue in his role as Chief Financial Officer, while Reeb most recently held the title of Executive Vice President Networks and Content. Additionally, Jennifer Lee has been appointed as Chief Administrative Officer and Chief Legal Officer with oversight of legal, regulatory, human resources, communications, and other corporate functions. She previously held the role of Executive Vice President and General Counsel. Read more here.

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Excited to share some news. After nearly a decade, I’ve decided to step away from my role at Global News. A move on my mind for some time as our industry evolves. Beyond thankful for my time as one of 6 national evening news anchors in Canada. Signing off with gratitude.🙏🏽♥️ pic.twitter.com/teYl5tXrjN

— Farah Nasser (@FarahNasser) June 14, 2024

Farah Nasser has signed off from Global National after a decade with the network. Nasser told viewers Friday she had “made the decision to step away” from her role, with her announcement coinciding with a round of layoffs at Global News. Others set to depart the company include Alan Carter, anchor of Global News Toronto 530 & 6; Ottawa-based Digital Broadcast Journalist David Baxter; Abigail Bimman, Ottawa correspondent for Global National; and National Correspondent Mike Drolet, who was based in Toronto. Announced last week, Broadcast Dialogue has learned layoffs will impact about 35 unionized staff. Calgary has been hit the hardest with 13 jobs in the bureau eliminated, followed by eight in Edmonton, seven in Toronto, three in Ottawa, three in Lethbridge and one in B.C. Read more here.

Johnny Michel is leaving CBC after 17 years as Managing Director, CBC English Services for B.C. and Alberta. Prior to joining the public broadcaster, Michel served as VP of Programming for Channel M (now OMNI) and VP, Production and Communications for BCTV and CHEK TV, among other roles.

Graham Richardson, CTV Ottawa’s Chief News Anchor, announced during the Thursday evening newscast that he is stepping away from the anchor desk to pursue opportunities outside media. Richardson joined CTV Ottawa in 2010 after covering Parliament Hill for CTV National News for four years. Prior to that, he was the CTV News’ Los Angeles Bureau Chief. He started his career in the early ’90s with CBC Calgary, moving on to reporting stints with ITV (now Global Edmonton), and then Global Toronto where he served as Queen’s Park bureau chief and then national correspondent, before joining CTV in 2004. Read more here.

Alexandra Pinto is leaving CTV Kitchener, where she’s most recently been anchoring CTV News at Six. Pinto, who is pursuing an opportunity outside the broadcast industry, began her career in news at Global Toronto, before joining CTV Kitchener as a videographer in 2014.

Ryan Hobson has been promoted at Stingray Radio to Director of Digital Media and Podcasts, curating content for the network’s digital radio properties and guiding local radio programming teams, in addition to leading the Stingray Podcast Network. He has been with Stingray since 2017, with his most recent title National Director of Digital Content. Hobson’s new role formerly fell under the purview of Tom Irwin, former Director of Digital Media, Radio, who passed away in January after a more than two-year battle with cancer.

Aaron Harle has joined Harvard Broadcasting’s Play 92 (CHMX-FM) Regina as the host of a network weekday evening show that’s also being heard on Play affiliates in Edmonton, Red Deer and Fort McMurray. A graduate of Western Academy Broadcasting College, he started his career on the morning show with Golden West Broadcasting’s Country 104.9 (CKVX-FM) Kindersley, SK. 

Teagan Witko has left 104.9 The Wolf (CFWF-FM) to join Global Regina as an Assignment Editor. Witko had been a host and assistant music director at The Wolf since 2022.

Julia Wright is leaving CBC New Brunswick after eight years, the last five as host of Information Morning Saint John. Wright is moving on to focus on her own projects, in addition to teaching. Her last day is Friday, June 21.

Kathleen Harris is returning to journalism as the Ottawa Bureau Chief for The Canadian Press. The former Senior Producer of Digital News in CBC News’ Parliamentary Bureau, Harris left the public broadcaster in Feb. 2023 to join public affairs firm, Compass Rose.

Matina Stevis-Gridneff is the new New York Times Canada Bureau Chief. Formerly Brussels bureau chief, Stevis-Gridneff has been with the organization since 2019. She previously served as Africa and Eurozone correspondent for the Wall Street Journal

Jordan Kawchuk is The Discoure’s new Cowichan Valley reporter. The former CBC, Citytv and MuchMusic producer has most recently been a contributing writer to Daily Hive on the West Coast.

Robin Mirsky, Executive Director of the Rogers Group of Funds, and documentary producer/director Lalita Krishna have stepped down as co-chairs of the Hot Docs’ Board of Directors as part of an ongoing governance review. The board has been scaled down to a “focused working board” consisting of Nicholas de Pencier (Mercury Films), Kevin Wong (Nulogy), and Lydia Luckevich (Pemberley Investments) “to effectively and efficiently navigate the critical financial obstacles facing the organization over the upcoming months.” While Mirsky and Krishna have stepped down, Hot Docs says they will continue to support the organization in other capacities.

RADIO & PODCAST:

Jamar McNeil has joined Josie Dye on the CHUM 104.5 Toronto afternoon drive show. Josie & Jamar is airing weekday afternoons from 3 – 6 p.m. ET. The move sees McNeil leave Marilyn Denis & Jamar after six years, which he joined in 2018 ahead of the retirement of Roger Ashby, Denis’ co-host of 30 years. Prior to joining CHUM, McNeil had a decade-long run on the morning show at Chicago’s B96 FM. Dye signed on with CHUM in January after being heard in mornings on Indie88 (CIND-FM) Toronto for seven years. McNeil announced his move to afternoons two weeks ago, telling listeners “an exciting opportunity” had come up to build a new show, with he and Denis noting a greater need to accompany listeners in their cars during the GTA’s burgeoning rush hour as more people return to work in-office. Read more here.

SiriusXM Canada is the target of a proposed class action filed by Siskinds LLP against the satellite radio provider. Following a $3.3M settlement reached with the Competition Bureau, the class action alleges that SiriusXM breached the Competition Act and Ontario Consumer Protection Act by failing to provide fair and transparent pricing details. Specifically, alleging SiriusXM misrepresented their subscription plan prices by concealing the additional Music Royalty and Administrative (MRF) mandatory fee, which increased the monthly cost of SiriusXM radio plan subscriptions by up to 20.07%. The class action is brought on behalf of all persons in Canada, excluding Quebec, who purchased a SiriusXM Radio subscription plan from March 1, 2010 to July 18, 2024. 

The National Campus and Community Radio Association (NCRA/ANREC) has announced the winners of the 2024 CRABO Awards, recognizing outstanding achievement in Community Radio in Broadcast and Online. CFUV Victoria, CJSR Edmonton, CJSW Calgary and CJTM Toronto were among this year’s multiple award winners. Julian Taylor’s Jukebox took the honour for Best Syndicated Radio Show, while CJSW’s Sprawlcast, hosted by Calgary journalist Jeremy Klaszus, won Best Current Affairs or Magazine Show. Bay FM (CKVB-FM) Corner Brook, NL secured the Community Engagement award. Find the full list of winners here.

LISTEN: With Radiodays North America 2024 behind us, sometimes it’s the events around a conference that reflect ongoing confidence and optimism in the industry. The word “viability” has been thrown around a lot this year in regards to radio, but the first annual Pat Grierson Sales Person Award recipient is proof that success is possible even in a soft advertising climate, recording sales of $7 million in 2022. Cheryl Foster from Stingray’s 93.5 Today Radio (CFXJ-FM) and boom 97.3 (CHBM-FM) Toronto joins Broadcast Dialogue – The Podcast to talk about her journey through the business and making a successful return to radio at age 50 after stepping away to raise her kids. Randy Lennox and Kevin Barton from Loft Entertainment also join us to talk about acquiring Canadian Music Week (CMW) as founder and president Neill Dixon retires after 42 years with the music and radio industry conference.

LISTEN: Dave Charles is marking 60 years in radio, a career filled with highlights that include the launch of Toronto’s Q107 (CILQ-FM), consulting at stations around the globe, and helping emerging artists – like a young Celine Dion – get airplay. Charles, who continues to consult under the banner of Media RESULTS Inc., was recognized at the Radiodays North America Awards Luncheon during Canadian Music Week (CMW). He joins Broadcast Dialogue – The Podcast to reflect on his six decades working in the radio and record industry.

LISTEN: Scot Turner recently retired from Evanov Communications in Brantford, ON. He’s on the latest Sound Off Podcast discussing his experiences in radio programming, sharing insights on how to navigate challenges and create successful radio stations, including CFNY, 94.5 The Beat, Dave-FM in Kitchener, and many more. He and Matt Cundill also get into the integration of hip hop and urban music into Canadian radio formats and the impact of streaming platforms on traditional radio. 

SIGN OFFS:

Érik Canuel, 63, on June 15, of secondary plasma cell leukemia. The son of actors Yvan Canuel and Lucile Papineau, Canuel began his career in the mid-1980s making music videos for artists like Sass Jordan and Sylvain Cossette. He went on to study film at Concordia University, co-founding Kino Films with Pierre Gill and Marie-France Lemay. Directing in both English and French, Canuel’s work included television series like Big Wolf on Campus for FOX and The Hunger for Showtime. His 2000 IMAX film Hemingway: A Portrait earned a Genie Award for Best Short Documentary, among other accolades. Other credits included Barrymore, starring Christopher Plummer, in 2011; Red Nose (Nez rouge) in 2003; and Bon Cop, Bad Cop, the highest-grossing Canadian movie of 2006, which broke box office records. More recently, he had directed a number of episodes of CTV’s Transplant, Ransom, 19-2, Flashpoint, and Les Jeunes Loups, among other series.

Keith Cox, 66, on June 3. After attending UBC, where he obtained a Bachelor of Commerce degree in Industrial Relations, Cox followed his father – play-by-play pioneer and B.C. Sports Hall of Famer Jim Cox – into media, starting at Cariboo Radio (CKCQ) Quesnel in 1983. Stints at CKNW Vancouver, CJVI Victoria, and then Broadcast News (BN) in Edmonton (where the infamous 1987 tornado hit just two weeks into the job) and later Toronto where he worked in the Queen’s Park Bureau. He made the foray into television in 1993 at CTV Toronto and then KAKE TV in Wichita, KS. Cox and his wife Mary relocated to Denver in 1998 where he received his Masters in Education and taught elementary school in the Cherry Creek School District for seven years. He semi-retired in 2015, and had been living on Vancouver Island since 2020.

TV & FILM:

Prime Video has unveiled seven new projects greenlit for Canada, including three to be directed and executive produced by comedian Tom Green. They include an untitled comedy special capturing his recent 40+ city comedy tour across North America, a documentary following his career, and Tom Green Country, a reality series following his move from Hollywood to a farm outside Ottawa. Other titles announced include Canadian true crime docuseries In Cold Water: The Shelter Bay Mystery, looking into the 2010 drowning death of small-town Alberta school teacher Laura Letts-Beckett, which her husband Peter Beckett has claimed was a tragic accident, despite the assertions of police and prosecutors. Read more here.

Canadian Cinema Editors (CCE) have handed out the 2024 CCE Awards. Mary Stephen and Gordon McClellan were this year’s Lifetime Achievement honourees. Stephen was French New Wave master Eric Rohmer’s chief editor for more than 30 years, while McClellan has been a Picture Editor in Drama and Documentary for over 50 years. Select credits include the first five seasons of The Fifth Estate, music documentary Tears Are Not Enough, and six seasons of Road to Avonlea. Don Thompson, Founding Director and now Chair of the Vancouver Post Alliance (VPA), received the Career Achievement Award.

The Banff World Media Festival (BANFF) has announced the winners of the Rockie Awards International Program Competition. Among the Canadian winners was The Fades of Papineau (Ça prend pas la tchas à Papineau), which captured Short Form Fiction Series (Trio Orange) and the Emerging Talent Prize for Emilie Mannering. Séries Plus dramatic comedy Les Bombes won the Prix Francophone, while the Rogers Prize for Excellence in Canadian Content went to the documentary Satan Wants You (Nootka Street Film Company, Grand Scheme Productions, 666 Films). HBO’s The Last of Us was recognized with the Grand Jury Prize and the award for Drama Series: English Language.

TIFF has announced the first honourees of this year’s Tribute Awards: Oscar-nominated actor Amy Adams, who will receive the TIFF Tribute Performer Award; and iconic Canadian filmmaker and screenwriter David Cronenberg, who’ll be recognized with the Norman Jewison Career Achievement Award. Sandra Oh will serve as the inaugural Tribute Awards Honorary Chair. The sixth annual Tribute Awards will take place Sept. 8 at Fairmont Royal York Hotel. The gala is TIFF’s largest annual fundraiser, with this year’s proceeds going towards its Every Story Fund, which champions diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging in film.

The Toronto International Film Festival has announced its first six official selections for the 2024 festival, Sept. 5–15. Making their World Premieres at the 49th edition of the festival are: R.J. Cutler and David Furnish’s Elton John: Never Too Late; Woo Min-ho’s Harbin; Stephen King adaptation The Life of Chuck, starring Tom Hiddleston; dark comedy Nightbitch featuring Amy Adams; Rez Ball, a coming-of-age film about Indigenous basketball produced by LeBron James; and The Wild Robot, an animated film featuring an ensemble cast led by Oscar winner Lupita Nyong’o as Roz, a robot shipwrecked on an island that must adapt to its surroundings.

CBC is recognizing National Indigenous History Month and National Indigenous Peoples Day with a broadcast, streaming, audio and digital lineup of original and special programming that showcases First Nations, Métis and Inuit perspectives. CBC TV and CBC Gem will broadcast and stream the Indspire Awards on Friday, June 21, recognizing Indigenous peoples across the country in a variety of fields. Other featured programming includes Marie Clements’ award-winning Bones of Crows, which will start streaming starting June 22. CBC Radio and CBC Listen will also air a 10th anniversary special of UNRESERVED, a live taping with host Rosanna Deerchild, featuring comedy by Sherry McKay, music by Douzie and the return of the “Aunties Circle” featuring Vida Lamour, Sonya Ballantyne and Shelagh Rogers.

AMI is currently in production on new scripted and docuseries for 2024-25 from Big Time Decent Productions, Canadian Content Studios, Flow Video, Summerhill Media, Border2Border Entertainment, Prairie Cat Productions, Bone Vault and Catapult Pictures. They include digital docuseries After Dark (working title), exploring sex, love, dating and relationships relevant to people with disabilities; Collar of Duty Kids, a children’s docuseries taking young viewers into the lives of kids who’ve been matched with service animals; The Crip Trip, a punk-rock, road trip docu-comedy following the misadventures of artist, filmmaker, and quadruple amputee Daniel Ennett and his producer/friend/caregiver Frederick Kroetsch; Get Hooked (in partnership with OutTV), exploring how members of the queer, Black, Indigenous and disability community capitalize on the mental health benefits of fishing; Low Vision Moments (working title), a half hour scripted comedy based on the life of Jennie Bovard, the host of the AMI podcast of the same name; Underdog Inc. featuring Dale Kristensen (Backroad Truckers), a Little Person, as he navigates life in a mountain town; and We Were Broncos, the story of Ryan Straschnitzki’s life beyond the horrific Humboldt Broncos bus crash in 2018.

Fremantle has secured a global deal with Pluto TV to distribute 25 FAST channels across 13 countries, with each channel curated for individual markets. The partnership expansion will see 24 of the Fremantle’s most popular FAST channels premiere in Canada, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Spain, Italy, San Marino, Demark, Norway, Finland, Sweden, the UK, and the U.S. The deal will see the Three’s Company channel launch for the first time outside of the U.S., premiering internationally in Canada later this summer, in addition to Escape to the Country, Baywatch, Supermarket Sweep, Family Feud Classic, Let’s Make a Deal, The Price is Right: Bob Barker, The Price is Right: Drew Carey, Alarm Fur Cobra, Project Runway, Prisoner and Jamie Oliver.

ICON Creative Studios animation workers are the latest to join The Canadian Animation Guild, IATSE Local 938. The 700 workers at the Vancouver studio are the fourth animation group to form a union in B.C., joining workers from Titmouse Vancouver, Kickstart, and WildBrain. One of the largest animation studios in Vancouver, workers at ICON now begin the bargaining process.

Bell Media has confirmed that CP24 and BNN Bloomberg will move from 299 Queen Street West to Bell Media’s Agincourt studios to join a news hub, alongside CTV National News, CTV News Toronto, CTVNews.ca, and CTV News Channel. Bell says previous plans for redevelopment of the 299 Queen Street campus have been paused. According to a leaked memo obtained by blogTO in 2022, the building was originally set to be vacated late in 2024 or early 2025 due to construction of the Ontario Line subway and new towers surrounding the building. Purchased by CHUM in 1985, and formerly home to Citytv and MuchMusic, the building is listed on the City of Toronto Heritage Registry.

ONLINE & DIGITAL MEDIA:

Overstory Media Group has published the final edition of The New West Anchor, its New Westminster, B.C. community-focused newsletter. Launched two years ago, an email to subscribers points them toward sister publication, the Burnaby Beacon. The Victoria-based startup is now publishing fewer than a dozen titles, a far cry from the 50 community brands it had an eye on expanding to when it launched in 2021. As previously reported, Glen Clark, the former NDP premier of British Columbia and former president and COO of The Jim Pattison Group, temporarily took the helm of the company in April, as CEO and co-founder Farhan Mohamed was moved out of the top job. 

REGULATORY, TELECOM & MEDIA:

The Canadian Media Producers Association (CMPA) is asking the Federal Court of Appeal to hear a challenge to the CRTC’s decision to grant Corus Entertainment regulatory relief of its Canadian content spending obligations, alleging the company has been delinquent on its obligations to independent content. In May, the commission reduced Corus’ PNI (programs of national interest) spending obligations from 8.5% of the previous year’s revenues to five per cent, as the company struggled in a bad advertising environment. The CMPA, which represents independent producers (the recipients of PNI funding), is alleging the CRTC should never have granted relief because Corus allegedly has not held up its part of the bargain, incurring a shortfall of approximately $41 million since 2017-18. Read more in our sister publication CARTT.ca (paywalled).

Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists (ACTRA) members and the board of the Association of Canadian Advertisers (ACA) have ratified a one-year renewal of the National Commercial Agreement (NCA), which will be in effect through the end of May 2025. Two years ago, the ACA and ACTRA entered into an agreement after the Institute of Canadian Agencies (ICA) walked away from the agreement and negotiations. The NCA establishes the terms and conditions for on-and-off-camera performers engaged in English-language commercial production. 

The Michener Award for 2023, honouring excellence in public service journalism, has been presented jointly to The Narwhal and The Toronto Star for their reporting on the Ontario Greenbelt Scandal. Also awarded a Michener citation of merit were: The Canadian Press for A ‘predator’ at CSIS; CBC/Radio-Canada: The girls around Robert Miller/Le système Miller; The Globe and Mail: Montreal fire safety; Montreal Gazette: Staff haunted by suicide at the Lakeshore Hospital ER; and Radio-Canada: La face cachée de Neptune / The dark side of Neptune.

The Registered Nurses’ Association of Ontario (RNAO) has announced the winners of this year’s Media Awards competition. During its Annual General Meeting, RNAO will present eight awards to journalists who wrote or produced stories for The Recorder and Times, Waterloo Region Record, Toronto Star, Global News, Hamilton Spectator, CityNews and CTV News Kitchener. Find the full list of winners here.

The Winnipeg Free Press is this year’s recipient of the CJF Jackman Award for Excellence in Journalism in the large-media category, open to media with more than 50 newsroom employees. The Free Press received the award at the Canadian Journalism Foundation Awards, recognized for The Inquest Files, which reported on two decades of inquests into fatal shootings involving Manitoba police forces. In the small-media category, The Montreal Gazette won for a series highlighting the preventable nature of six deaths at the Lakeshore General Hospital emergency room and exposing how the West Island Health Authority covered up the circumstances surrounding those deaths. Read more about the evening’s other honourees here.

RTDNA Canada is accepting nominations for its 2024 Lifetime Achievement Award, presented to individuals who have distinguished themselves through outstanding service and continued excellence during the course of their careers in audio, digital and/or video journalism. If you have a colleague or former colleague who has demonstrated excellence over the body of their career, take a moment to nominate them.

BROADCAST TECH & ENGINEERING:

Play MPE has launched MTR, its radio tracking tool, in the U.S. The Vancouver company says after beta-trialing the tech in Canada, MTR is now monitoring over 5,000 radio stations across North America, with new stations being added. MTR joins Play MPE’s other offerings: music promotion distribution software Caster and its Player music discovery library featuring broadcast-ready music files and metadata.

Disguise is partnering with MELS to launch a new Virtual Production Accelerator course. The Montreal Accelerator follows Disguise programs in Los Angeles, New York, Barcelona and London. It will unfold across three distinct phases, including a practical phase where trainees will take part in a pre-planned film shoot on MELS’ cutting-edge virtual production stage over three days. Upon completion, trainees will have practical experience in multiple roles, from Disguise operations and game engine integration to practical lighting and cinematography.

Enghouse Networks, the Markham, ON-based telecommunications solutions provider, and Midwest Video Solutions (MVS), have forged a strategic alliance. MVS is leveraging Enghouse IPTV technology to offer a solution designed to simplify IPTV deployment under a cloud-hosted “as a service” model. The companies say the turnkey deployment solution empowers operators to upgrade their TV services swiftly, navigating connectivity hurdles and integration challenges.