Broadcast Dialogue has extended the deadline for this year’s Canadian Radio Awards until this Friday, Oct. 30 at midnight ET. There’s still time to enter your best radio from the past year across 16 categories from promotions to on-air, engineering, sales and leadership. A reminder that this year’s awards are free to enter for those from stations belonging to sponsoring radio groups, campus & community stations, as well as the Young Broadcaster of the Year category. Learn more @ CanadianRadioAwards.com.
REVOLVING DOOR:
Mélanie Lê Phan has left CBC-TV to join Disney+ Canada as Senior Manager, International Content. Lê Phan has been with CBC since 2013, holding the title of Executive in Charge of Current Production, Comedy for the past five years, overseeing shows like North of North and Son of a Critch. Read more here.
Leonard Dixon has joined Stingray Advertising as VP of Advertising Sales. Based in New York City, Dixon has most recently served as Senior Director of Strategic Partnerships at Alpha Precision Media.
Carey Walker is joining Durham Radio effective Monday, Nov. 2 as Promotions & Marketing Manager for the company’s Peterborough stations, KX105 (CKXP-FM) and PETE 99.7 (CKPT-FM), as well as Lindsay station Y91.9 (CKLY-FM). Walker spent the last 30+ years with Corus Entertainment’s Peterborough cluster in a similar capacity.
Sara Comadina has left Cogeco Media’s 98.5 (CHMP-FM) Montreal to join CBC/Radio-Canada as a research journalist with the RDI team. Comadina has most recently been contributing to Signé Lévesque, featuring Denis Lévesque. She first joined Cogeco in 2022 as Digital and Social Media Coordinator for 92.5 The Beat (CKBE-FM).
Phil Wood has joined Rawlco Radio in Saskatoon as a reporter. Wood was among those caught up in layoffs over the summer with the closure of Rogers Sports & Media’s NewsRadio 660 (CFFR-AM) Calgary.
Joshua Alderman has accepted the position of Broadcast Crew Leader at Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU). He’s also returned to Cable 14 Hamilton where he started his career in 2022 as a Graphics Coordinator and Production Assistant.
Alexander Jones has joined CityNews Edmonton on a part-time basis as a Contract ENG shooter. Jones has held numerous behind-the-scenes roles with CTV News Calgary and Rogers Sports & Media over the last two decades, most recently as a Traffic Coordinator.
Karina Zapata has joined The Globe and Mail as a Digital Editor. Zapata announced earlier this month she was departing CBC/Radio-Canada where she’d been a Calgary-based reporter and editor for the past five years.
Noor Azrieh will host Canadaland’s media criticism podcast going forward, while Sam Konnert will be the new host steering Canadaland Politics. Their appointments follow Publisher and Editor Jesse Brown’s move to step down as host of the network’s flagship podcast. Azrieh has been a host and producer with Canadaland since 2022, while Konnert has been a reporter and host with the network since 2024.
Paul Park has announced he’ll retire from The Wire Report at the end of the year. Park, who joined the outlet in late 2021, started his journalism career with CKO Radio in Ottawa in 1977. He started covering the broadcasting and telecom sectors in 1999 with Evert Communications, and later Decima Publishing.
Ben Steiner has been named Managing Editor of Sports Page BC, the startup backed by Vancouver sports media veteran Scott Rintoul. Steiner has most recently served as an editor and reporter for Major League Soccer (MLS) in addition to freelance work for CBC and The Nation Network, among other outlets.
Lauren Kahansky has joined Reddit Canada as a Senior Client Partner. A former National Account Manager for Rogers and Star Metroland Media, Kahansky had been with TikTok for the last five years.
Jim Andersen has been appointed President of Toronto-based broadcast industry solutions provider, SDS (Specialty Data Systems). Anderson, who has been with the company for 25 years and most recently served as Chief Operating Officer, succeeds founder Dave Cole, who started the business in 1993 following a career in radio and TV advertising sales and management. Cole will continue to serve as Executive Chair, providing strategic advice and support. Read more here.
RADIO & PODCAST:
The Canadian Association of Broadcasters (CAB) has signed on as a member of Radio Ready, a global coalition working to safeguard radio’s prominence in connected car dashboards. Founded by Bauer Media Group and the Swedish public broadcaster, Sveriges Radio, the coalition works to strengthen the industry’s collective voice in discussions with automotive manufacturers, technology platforms and policymakers. Read more here.
Triton Digital has announced it has completed its first fully agentic selling media buy through its newly-launched Seller Agent – carried out between AI agents with no manual intervention. Executed with Dutch media partner Talpa Media, and Draft Digital serving as the agency on behalf of the Otrium brand, Triton says the AI agents handled the entire process from request and negotiation through to booking in the ad server. Read more here.
Orbyt Media is now the exclusive affiliate sales and affiliate advertising sales representative for Sun & Fun Media across Canada. The agreement gives Canadian radio stations and broadcast groups access to giveaway and incentive prizes, including vacations, cruises, major sporting event experiences and more, in exchange for advertising airtime.
Pattison Media’s 102.7 The Peak (CKPK-FM) Vancouver has added The Greg Beharrell Show. Beharrell will be heard from 6 – 11 p.m. weeknights, with his debut on the station his Halloween special this Friday, Oct. 30.
The Last Show with David Cooper is now airing weeknights from 9 – 11 p.m. on KMOX 1120 AM and 104.1 FM St. Louis. The program currently airs in various late evening time slots across the Corus Radio talk network, including 640 (CFIQ-AM) Toronto, 980 CFPL London, 680 CJOB Winnipeg, 880 CHED Edmonton, QR77 (CHQR-AM) Calgary and 730 CKNW Vancouver.
Toronto Mike’d aka Mike Boon has reached a podcast milestone, dropping episode number 2,000. Boon marked the milestone with an in-depth conversation with sports talk veteran Bob McCown. Toronto Mike’d officially launched in September 2012, an extension of Boon’s blog he started in 1999.
Bell Media has expanded its partnership with Ticker Take, the creator-driven financial media network co-founded by former CTV and Bloomberg anchor Jon Erlichman and co-host Caroline Lesley. Bell-owned streaming platform Crave and the iHeartRadio Canada app will now carry the Ticker Take podcast as a video podcast, beginning Thursday, Oct. 29. Read more here.
PopTake, hosted by Hugo Filipe and Mikael Melo, has officially joined Stamina Group’s media network via a strategic partnership with Toronto pop culture outlet View the VIBE, which will look for opportunities to expand the podcast’s reach. Launched in April 2025, PopTake is a weekly entertainment pod covering music, film, television, and celebrity culture.
ETALK reporter Sonia Mangat has launched Silk & Savage, a long-form podcast and video series shining a spotlight on South Asian excellence. The eight-episode season will feature in-depth conversations with trailblazers making a mark in their fields, from the worlds of sports and entertainment, community leaders, and entrepreneurs. The first episode features Canada’s Drag Race Season 1 winner Priyanka. New episodes will debut every Monday.
The Canadian Podcast Awards has opened nominations for the ninth edition of the program, nominated and judged by those who work in the industry. Started in 2018 by PodCamp Toronto, the awards recognize everyone from independent creators to established media across 31 categories, with submissions open to any eligible show that’s Canadian-produced, with a primarily Canadian team and majority Canadian hosts, and released at least five episodes in 2025. Read more here.
LISTEN: Despite a career that’s included being heard Saturday mornings on CBC Radio for nearly a quarter century, Brent Bambury will eternally be known by a generation of kids as the host of iconic late night CBC Stereo show Brave New Waves – the overnight radio show he was a part of from 1984 through the early ’90s that for many Canadians was one of their only exposure points to underground and alternative music. With Bambury’s final episode of Day 6 airing last weekend, we invited him to join us on Broadcast Dialogue – The Podcast to talk about his career, pop culture, the future of media, and more.
LISTEN: On the latest Sound Off Podcast, Matt Cundill discusses video strategies for your podcast, including no video. Before you redesign your show around video, before you invest in cameras and editing and three-angle setups, Cundill suggests asking what your metrics actually mean. Listen on your favourite podcast app or here:
OP-ED: In his latest opinion piece for Broadcast Dialogue, Barry Rooke, Executive Director, National Campus and Community Radio Association (NCRA/ANREC), highlights what he calls a persistent radio “blind spot” in federal media policy. “Canada’s journalism-support system contains a basic contradiction. A reporter covering a municipal council meeting for a newspaper may qualify for federal journalism support. A reporter covering the same meeting for a licensed community radio station may not,” writes Rooke. Read more here.
SIGN OFFS:
Henning Grumme, 82, on Oct. 22. Henning spent 27 years working with Kitchener’s CKCO-TV, from 1967 to 1997, retiring as the station’s Operations and Production Supervisor. Henning also spent three decades hosting Saturday morning show “Continental Breakfast” on FM 98.5 CKWR Waterloo, alongside co-host Fred Trautim. Born in Hamburg, in retirement he went on to serve as the president of local Oktoberfest celebrations and on the board of the KW Musical Society Band, among other community organizations.
Dwight Ryan, 77, on Oct. 21. after suffering a severe stroke and heart attack in May 2021 while producing the 6 p.m. newscast for CHCH. A reporter, anchor and producer, Ryan had a combined 55-year career in the broadcast and communications industry that started while he was still in high school when he got a part-time job at a Hamilton radio station in the control room. He went on to hold positions at CKPC Brantford, CKOC Hamilton, CJCS Stratford, CKWW Windsor, CKOY Ottawa, CHML Hamilton and later North Bay and Sudbury. He made his foray into television in 1976 as News Director at CKNY-TV in North Bay. From there, he landed at CHRO-TV in Ottawa/Pembroke as News Director from 1977-79, before going on to an 18-year run with CHCH-TV in Hamilton. His time with the station included serving as a Queen’s Park Bureau reporter, reporting on business for the Morning Business Program, an eight-year stint producing the evening newscasts and taking regular shifts as an assignment and line-up editor. In 1997, Ryan left CHCH to launch Daryan Communications, his own corporate communications and marketing consultancy, but he continued to work part-time at CHCH. Read more here.
Ray Heard, 91, peacefully on Oct. 17, following a stroke. The son of two journalists, Heard was born in South Africa and started his journalism career covering Nelson Mandela’s treason trial for The Rand Daily Mail. He went on to win a Frank Knox scholarship to Harvard University, studying under John Kenneth Galbraith and Henry Kissinger. Heard joined The Montreal Star in 1962 and was named White House correspondent a year later. He was infamously in Bobby Kennedy’s entourage when he was shot in 1968, with a speech he helped Kennedy write read at the funeral. After covering the successive presidencies of Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon, Heard went on to become editor of The Observer Foreign News Service in London, returning to The Montreal Star as Managing Editor from 1976-79. He went on to join Global TV as Vice-President of News and Current Affairs, until 1987 when he went to work as a communications strategist for the federal leader of the Official Opposition, John Turner.
TV & FILM:
Telefilm Canada’s latest market report indicates Canada’s box office revenue jumped 21.7% in the first three quarters of 2026, reaching $803 million. The mid-year data, compiled in collaboration with the Movie Theatre Association of Canada (MTAC), highlights a major resurgence for domestic cinema. Canadian films grossed $19.4 million through Q3 – a massive 77.1% surge compared to the $11.0 million earned during the same period in 2025. Read more here.
CBC/Radio-Canada has unveiled the five finalists vying for the honour of representing Canada at the Eurovision Song Contest 2027, to be held in Bulgaria next May. Selected from 325 submissions, the five artists competing for the spot are former Star Académie champion William Cloutier, Acadian singer-songwriter Josiane (Josiane Comeau), JUNO Award-winning dance artist Rêve (Briannah Donolo), 2024 JUNO winner for Breakthrough Artist of the Year, Talk (Nicholas Durocher), and Vancouver singer-songwriter Tyler Shaw. Read more here. CBC will broadcast live radio special, Horizon Eurovision, this Sunday.
Bell Media has enlisted Super Bowl champion tight end Luke Willson to host what the network is dubbing an “alt-cast,” leading up to the Grey Cup on Nov. 15. Film Never Lies Grey Cup Playoffs Watchalong will be hosted by the TSN football analyst, described as a “conversational hangout” set to air on TSN2 and stream on TSN.ca and the TSN app during two Grey Cup Playoffs matchups. Read more here.
The Canadian Country Music Association (CCMA), in partnership with Niagara Parks and the City of Niagara Falls, is producing a live 90-minute New Year’s Eve special headlined by country superstar Riley Green, joined by The Reklaws, Tenille Townes and Sacha. CCMA’s New Year’s Eve Special will be available to stream on Crave and watch on CP24 at 10:30 p.m. ET. Interviews and coverage will also be carried by iHeartRadio Canada and Pure Country.
OUTtv will debut 6 x 12-minute comedy One Baby, Please! on Monday, Nov. 2, with new episodes dropping weekly through Nov. 16. Created by and starring Karim Adam Ahmed and Adrian Neblett and produced by Kate Green, it follows a gay couple as they battle the fertility system, their friends and families in their quest to have a “gayby.” The series will stream across Canada, the U.S., Australia and New Zealand, as well as OUTflix in the UK and Ireland.
Bobby Del Rio has reached a milestone 130 episodes, hosting and writing for The News Forum. The latest episode of his interview series, The Spotlight, features actor Robert Patrick (Terminator 2, The X-Files), discussing his career, Hollywood and AI.
The National Screen Institute (NSI) is launching a first-of-its-kind program that gives experienced film and television production professionals the opportunity to explore emerging technology across virtual production and artificial intelligence (AI). The pilot partnership with New Media Manitoba will bring together 18 participants for hands-on training at New Media Manitoba’s StudioLab xR facility in Winnipeg. Read more here.
REGULATORY, TELECOM & MEDIA:
Rogers Communications has announced its unaudited financial and operating results for the third quarter ended Sept. 30. Total revenue increased by two per cent and total service revenue by one per cent in the quarter, primarily as a result of revenue growth in media which increased by nine per cent, due mainly to higher sports revenue and subscriber revenue from the Warner Bros. Discovery suite of channels, partially offset by lower advertising revenue. Wireless service revenue decreased by one per cent, while wireless equipment revenue was up nine per cent. Cable service revenue was in line with the prior year.
Bell Canada has entered into a definitive agreement with investment group La Caisse, which will acquire a 49.9% stake in a newly-formed wireless tower infrastructure company for CAD $2.45 billion. The new wireless tower infrastructure company will own and operate Bell’s portfolio of wireless infrastructure assets, making it Canada’s largest dedicated tower company with more than 5,000 sites across the country.
BROADCAST TECH & ENGINEERING:
CBC/Radio-Canada has selected Dalet to modernize its news operations, with Dalet Pyramid to be deployed across the organization. Dalet says the digital-first software update will provide the public broadcaster with greater visibility into content, story planning, collaboration, and distribution. The web-based UX will enable staff to access content and work from any of the CBC/Radio-Canada locations and out in the field, including capturing and/or ingesting media into the Dalet content repository, editing video and audio, and orchestrating delivery with assets and stories available immediately throughout the network.
FEATURE: Dawna Howe, Director of Production Technology at the Vancouver Canucks, told the Western Association of Broadcast Engineers (WABE) Media and Entertainment Technology Conference that the demographic landscape and cultural expectations of broadcast and media engineering are undergoing a profound transformation. Among other data cited, she told attendees that approximately 67% of those in senior management positions or above (the people actually making purchasing decisions) demographically are now Millennials (those born between 1981 and 1996) and Gen Z (1997-2012). Read more here.
NAB Show New York and the SMPTE Summit will co-locate at the Javits Center in Manhattan in 2027. Taking place Sept. 28-30, 2027, the SMPTE Summit, the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers’ annual technical conference, will feature three days of sessions and discussions exploring the technologies, standards and workflows shaping the future of media and entertainment. NAB Show New York will concurrently return to the Javits Center, Sept. 29-30, 2027. NAB Show, meanwhile, returns to Las Vegas April 3-7, 2027.
