REVOLVING DOOR:
Chris St. Clair delivered his final forecast on The Weather Network on Sunday, July 25. Its longest-serving host, St. Clair joined the network in 1995. His broadcast career started much earlier in 1977 at CJCH-FM Halifax while he was still in high school, hosting weekend overnights.
Robin Ram has accepted the role of General Manager/General Sales Manager, Vancouver Island and BC Coast with Vista Radio. Ram was previously a member of the Vista family from 2014-19, as GM/GSM of the company’s stations in Yellowknife and Hay River, NWT. He rejoins the Vista team after spending the last two years as CEO of Innovative Business Solutions Ltd., a global consulting company involved in providing professional services for Indigenous organizations and entrepreneurs. Ram started his career in the music business working for Madacy Entertainment Group and Sound Revolution, among other companies.
Jacquie Young is being elevated to the position of 2nd Market Sales Manager with Harvard Broadcasting in Edmonton, effective Sept. 1. Young has been with the Edmonton sales team since 2018 on both the radio side and digital sales through Harvard Media. Young has worked in Edmonton media since 2005, with stops at OK Radio, Rogers and Newcap, prior to joining Harvard.
Brett Follis is retiring from Global BC after 42 years with the station. Follis first joined then-BCTV in 1979 as a part-time Computer Graphics Operator. For the past 21 years, he’s held the position of Senior Production Editor and for the last 10 has been a member of the News Marketing department. Some of the projects he’s worked on over the years include All-Star Wrestling, Sports Page, dramatic series Secret Lives, Tough To Be Young, Fifteen, and Neon Rider, and the 1988 Calgary Olympics. His last day is Friday, July 30.
Rena Jae has officially left 92 CITI Winnipeg after being absent from the morning show for the last few months while off on personal leave. She’d been with the station since Sept. 2012, arriving with former Wheeler In The Morning co-hosts Dave Wheeler and Phil Aubrey, from Power 97 (CJKR-FM). Since Wheeler’s release from 92 CITI in 2018, Rena Jae had been paired with various co-hosts, most recently TJ & Turnbull.
Murray Brookshaw is working with the Rogers Radio Winnipeg team as Interim Content Director/Talent Coach under the banner of Brookshaw Consulting Services. Brookshaw previously worked in programming with Rogers Vancouver from 2009-15.
Jeremy Hudson has joined Pattison Media’s MY96 (CFMY-FM) Medicine Hat as host of Hudson in the Morning. Hudson was formerly heard on 98 COOL (CJMK-FM) Saskatoon.
Ben Eppel has announced he’s leaving Kitchener’s 570 News (CKGL-AM). Eppel has been a weekend anchor and reporter with the station since 2018.
Janella Hamilton has joined CBC Vancouver as a reporter and videojournalist. Hamilton arrives from CTV Morning Live in Saskatoon where she’s been a reporter since 2016. Prior to that, she was a host and VJ with Shaw TV in Saskatoon.
Michael LaChance has joined Bell Halifax as a Residential Sales Specialist. Up until pandemic-related layoffs last June, LaChance had been a Sales Rep for Village Media’s HalifaxToday.ca since 2018. The longtime radio sales rep has also done stints with Evanov Communications, MBS Radio, Rogers, and Newcap.
Martin Cass has been engaged by Vancouver-based BBTV as a strategic consultant for its Advertising Sales division. The founder of MDC Partners, the 2018 recipient of Ad Age Media Agency of the Year, which has worked with clients like Timberland, Vans, and Fox, Cass will work to “enhance the company’s strategic Direct Sales positioning, further develop the company’s product and services roadmap, and provide guidance on related M&A activity,” according to a company announcement.
Carolyn R. Wall will join the board of Media Central Corporation, the parent company of the Georgia Straight, NOW Magazine, CannCentral.com and ECentralSports.com, effective Aug. 1. Wall has more than 30 years’ experience as a senior media executive, including serving as the former publisher of New York Magazine, Executive Vice-President of Murdoch Magazines, and VP and General Manager of WNYW-TV/Fox 5 New York.
Melissa Martin is joining the board of the Canadian Association of Journalists (CAJ) as the new regional director representing Manitoba and Northwestern Ontario. Martin replaces outgoing CAJ board member Sarah Lawrynuik who announced last month she would be stepping down from her seat to pursue work outside of journalism. Martin has more than two decades of industry experience, both as a freelancer, and staff writer with the Winnipeg Free Press. She has twice been named Canada’s columnist of the year by the National Newspaper Awards.
Nancy Audette has signed on as Vice-President and General Manager, Quebec Region with Cogeco Connexion. For the last five and a half years, Audette has served as the Vice-President and General Manager of Fido Mobile. She’s also held various marketing roles with TC Media and Rogers.
Douglas Russell has joined TVU Networks as the Northwest Regional Accounts Manager, North America Sales. Based in Seattle, Russell comes to TVU from an audiovisual background that includes senior-level engineering positions at Amazon Prime Sports and Keycode Media and field engineer at Raytheon.
Erica Daniels is the National Screen Institute’s new program advisor for CBC New Indigenous Voices. The Cree/Ojibway filmmaker and entrepreneur is a 2010 program alum who went on to launch her own production company, Kejic Productions. Gift to Give, her short documentary developed through NSI IndigiDocs, made its online premiere July 22.
RADIO & PODCAST:
Acadia Broadcasting’s newly-launched Halifax Modern Rock station Surge 105 (CKHY-FM) has announced the key members of its programming team. Jeremy Slattery takes on the role of Program Director for both Surge 105 and Hot Country 103.5 (CKHZ-FM). Slattery was previously with the station group under its ownership by Evanov Communications as Music Director for the former Z103.5. For the last 10 years, he’s been with Rogers’ KiSS brand – first in Vancouver as Music Director and Assistant Program Director and more recently in Toronto as National Music Director, CHR and Assistant Content Director, KiSS 92.5 (CKIS-FM). Morning show veteran Jeff Brown will helm Surge 105’s three-person morning drive show. Brown has worked in rock radio across the country, most recently hosting mornings on JACK 96.9 (CJAX-FM) Vancouver, until getting caught up in layoffs at Rogers Sports & Media in Nov. 2020. Prior to that, he was the host of mornings on Toronto’s Q107 (CILQ-FM). His first day on-air will be Monday, Aug. 9.
Scotty Mars makes his return to CKHY-FM as Surge 105’s afternoon drive host and Assistant Program Director. Mars hosted afternoon drive host at station launch under CKHY-FM’s previous Modern Rock branding Live 105 in 2010. After detours to 106.9 The Bear Ottawa, Q104 (CFRQ-FM) Halifax, and C103 (CJMO-FM) Moncton, he returned to host the Live 105 morning show in 2016. “Driving to Mars” debuts Tuesday, Aug. 3. Read more here.
Signal Hill Insights has conducted new research that confirms the widely varied roles played by each audio medium. The June online survey of 1,510 Canadian adults, in conjunction with Radio Connects, asked weekly listeners of different types of audio where, when and why they use each type of audio. Among the takeaways are that music streaming services and owned music each play virtually the same role in listeners’ lives, reinforcing research that the growth of music streaming, much of it now accessed through a paid, ad-free subscription, has largely come from time spent with owned music. Signal Hill also found that podcast listening may have more in common with print and video than with other types of audio. Read more here.
Gerry Forbes and Brother Jake Edwards have signed on to host a new podcast as part of the DeanBlundell.com network. Forbes and Edwards were both inducted into the Canadian Broadcast Industry Hall of Fame in 2019. Forbes retired in 2018 after 25 years at CJAY 92 (CJAY-FM) Calgary and 43 years in radio, while Edwards officially retired from TSN 1040 (CKST-AM) Vancouver in 2019 after a career that included 17 years in mornings at Rock 101 (CFMI-FM), among other stops.
Christian Hall’s last day at X92.9 (CFEX-FM) Calgary was marked on-air on July 23 with a playlist that harkened back to the station’s launch in 2006. Hall, the founding PD of the Harvard Broadcasting alt rocker, and later National Program Director and VP, Brands & Content, is headed to Vancouver to take on National Content Director duties for the JACK FM brand and serve as Content Director for Rogers Sports & Media’s Vancouver FM stations. He left the X92.9 station team with some parting wisdom.
Meant every word. https://t.co/iutPHGVA3H
— 𝗖𝗵𝗿𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗮𝗻 𝗛𝗮𝗹𝗹 (@hallofchristian) July 23, 2021
LISTEN: On the latest Sound Off Podcast, Matt Cundill talks with Terry DiMonte about what he’s been doing since his “retirement” from Montreal’s CHOM in May. Cundill catches up with DiMonte on a stop in Winnipeg where the veteran host has roots that extend back to his days at 92 CITI and working in the same building as the legendary Don Percy, who acted as a mentor. Listen on your favourite podcast app or here:
SIGN OFFS:
Alfie Scopp, 101, on July 24. Scopp’s broadcast career started during WWII while part of the RCAF in Newfoundland at local station CBG-AM. After the war, he attended the Lorne Greene Academy of Radio Arts, alongside Gordie Tapp, Fred Davis and Leslie Nielsen. He went on to numerous television credits, including creating the Clarabelle the Clown character on the Canadian Howdy Doody TV show; voiced the Scarecrow in the 1960s animated version of Tales of the Wizard of Oz; and was part of the voice cast for iconic 1964 Christmas special Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. He also appeared in six feature films, including playing the part of Avram in Norm Jewison’s Fiddler on the Roof. Scopp went on to hold the role of Program Manager for Front Page Challenge, and helped writing partners Frank Peppiatt and John Aylward mount the Hee Haw series and Global’s Everything Goes, among other voice and acting roles.
Peter Trueman, 86, on July 23, after a brief battle with cancer. Trueman began his media career in Ottawa in the mid-1950’s at the Ottawa Journal and went on to become a columnist for the Montreal Star in New York and later the Toronto Star. He got his feet wet in broadcasting in 1970 as a producer for The National, notably during the FLQ crisis. In 1974, he was hired as the first Global News anchor, known for ending his nightly newscasts with “That is not news. But that, too, is reality.” Trueman briefly left Global in 1977 to work for CTV, but soon returned going on to anchor for the network for another decade. In semi-retirement, he hosted series for Vision TV and Discovery Channel, including “Great Canadian Parks,” and worked on several documentaries for History Channel. In 1980, he also penned Smoke and Mirrors: The Inside Story of Television News in Canada. Trueman was named an officer of the Order of Canada in 2001.
Donn Kirton, 87, on July 20. Kirton started his career in radio in 1951 with an eight-month stint at CFPA Port Arthur in Northwestern, ON after applying to an ad in the Winnipeg Free Press. Eager to get back to his hometown of Winnipeg, he joined CKY where he ended up hosting the morning show, alongside Jack Wells. Kirton took a detour to help launch new station, CFOB Fort Frances, bought by the owners of Winnipeg’s CJOB, before returning to CKY as Promotions Manager until 1970. He moved east to Saint John, NB to take up the role of Operations Manager at one of Irving’s stations, before returning to Winnipeg once again and CJOB where he signed on to produce Peter Warren’s show. Kirton went on to work with the station until his retirement in 1996. In addition to his work with CJOB, he served as the Winnipeg Blue Bombers field announcer for 25 years and the Winnipeg Jets rink announcer for five years. He also lent his voice to numerous commercials, including Oreck Vacuum Cleaners and Granny’s Poultry.
Georges La Fleche, 85, on July 9. Born into a musical family in Winnipeg, La Fleche started his broadcast career in the 1950s, making his CBC Radio debut in Winnipeg and later TV in Montreal. Fully bilingual, he went on to host shows in both mediums in Calgary, Edmonton, Vancouver and Montreal, including the “BA Musical Showcase” which featured guests like Petula Clark and Frankie Laine; “Music Album” and “In the Round.” He also appeared with sister Gisele MacKenzie and his son Michel on Tommy Common’s “It’s a Musical World.” La Fleche later pursued a career with CBC Vancouver as a sports writer and anchor. He retired as Director of Television for Western Canada.
TV & FILM:
Fireworks Media Group is the new Vancouver and L.A.-based prodco launched by Jesse Fawcett, the co-founding partner of global content company Essential Media Group, where he helmed North American operations until the company’s sale to Kew Media in 2018. In 2020, Fawcett and Greg Quail re-acquired the assets of Essential and relaunched as EQ Media Group. Under the new banner, Fireworks Media Group is producing new original series Pamela Anderson’s Home Reno Project (working title) for HGTV Canada and has secured an exclusive first-look scripted development deal with Abbotsford, BC TikTok star Kris Collins. Fireworks is also in production on sophomore seasons of unscripted real estate series Selling the Big Easy for HGTV in the U.S. as well as Corus Studios’ Big Timber which airs on HISTORY in Canada and Netflix in the U.S. and internationally.
ONLINE & DIGITAL MEDIA:
LISTEN: Filmmaker and UBC law professor Joel Bakan is on the latest episode of Broadcast Dialogue – The Podcast talking about why he’s suing Twitter and the Canadian government after promotional posts for his documentary The New Corporation were rejected by the platform for “political,” “sensitive” and “inappropriate” content. We talk with Bakan about corporate power, regulating big tech, and why he thinks Bill C-10 didn’t go far enough.
REGULATORY, TELECOM & MEDIA:
AMI (Accessible Media Inc.) has released a statement outlining recent incidents that have seen its reporters, who live with impaired vision and other disabilities, encounter human rights violations. AMI says recently Beth Deer, AMI This Week’s Edmonton-based bureau reporter and documentary host, was denied transportation by a ride sharing company because she is a guide dog user. The network says unfortunately this isn’t the first time that Beth – who was born with optic nerve hypoplasia and lost her sight in 2014 – and her guide dog have been denied transportation. Earlier this year, AMI This Week host, Paralympian and CNIB Guide Dog spokesperson Victoria Nolan was delivered by cab to the wrong Victoria, B.C. address. The driver sped off, leaving her stranded. AMI says this week, Nolan and her family were turned away when they attempted to book a hotel room in Ucluelet, B.C.
BROADCAST TECH & ENGINEERING:
