Marty Forbes
"Edmontonians" Column - Nov 07
        

Kind of a potpourri of items related to media this month.  First off, one of my favourite Edmonton media people is Newcap’s Jackie Rae Greening—legendary in the country music field—CFCW and Big Earl—and one of the most awarded people in our industry. Not only is JR great at her job but she’s heavily involved in many great Canadian and international events that our city hosts. In fact, she did a great job as host committee president of the 2007 Ford World’s Men’s Curling Championships last April. If you get a chance to meet this laugh-a-minute lady, don’t miss the opportunity.

My wife Kim and I got an invite from the lovely Bonni Clark of Northlands to the Keith Urban concert in September. JR was in top form and had the suite in stitches most of the evening. Hey Bon… is Cowboy Poker coming back for the CFR? Make it happen.

Congratulations go out to general manager Randy Lemay for his promotion to “King of All Alberta” radio.  He’s now in charge of the many Newcap stations throughout the province. As well, my long time pal and former employee Terry Evans has made his return to K-Rock mornings after a 15-month hiatus. Gord Robson, ex of CHED and Newcap fame, is now full time afternoons on Cool 880 and is one of the best mentors in broadcast.

James Stuart’s Bounce staff are readying themselves for an ownership change that finds them under the direction of Lloyd Lewis and CTV Edmonton. Tim Weinberger, long time general sales manager of Global Edmonton has left the building and is thinking of new career goals.  I met Global’s zany weather lady Nicola Crosbie last month when she dropped by EZ Rock promoting the Dancing for Kids, a charity event which she most handily won. That girl had moves that had the judges in shock mode…especially The Sun’s Graham Hicks.

You might note there’s a new local TV channel by now.  At this writing, the search was still on for final placement on the dial, but keep your remote control hopping to find Crossroads Television System—CTS—which will bring a large variety of religious programming to Edmonton. I met the national sales and marketing director Glenn Stewart last month and bump into their local contact Marnie Stretch almost daily in the CTV building.

Long time radio and TV guy, Chuck Chandler is being ‘rebuilt’ with knee surgery, while another former CHED “Good Guy” Jay Hamilton is filling in for him.  Keith James Jr., yet another radio guy (CHED/CISN) just finished rebuilding his 1950’s Classic T-Bird from the ground up, and driving it back and forth to Virginia. It’s a beautiful beast built with love by one of my favourite people. Keith’s lovely lady Donna grew up literally across the alley from me in the Highlands. She was with the famed Three’s a Crowd group that gained international fame well before the CRTC instigated Canadian content regulations.

A number of locals made the final cut at the annual Canadian Association of Broadcasters Gold Ribbon Awards. 630 CHED’s Michelle Bowden does a tremendous job of her “Inside Story” feature and once again WON the Gold Ribbon in Ottawa.   Our own Paul Brown’s “Bear‘s Toughest Contest” was also nominated and, as mentioned last month, Edmontonians columnist Bruce Hogle, former CFRN news director, was inducted into the CAB Hall of Fame at this gala gathering.

And a wonderful goodbye and best wishes to long time Standard Radio Edmonton chief engineer Bruce Bedford on his retirement. Having wrapped up his career here, Bruce and Maureen are building a new home on the Left Coast. For those of you who don’t know, “engineers” keep radio and television stations on the air 24/7/365. They are arguably the hardest working people in media and seldom get their fair recognition for making on-air performers look and sound so good.

Finally, I wanted to send a big thank you out to the dedicated people at NAIT’s Radio and Television program. Patrick Galenza heads it up, and the instructors are all highly qualified media people who share their radio and television experience with young people trying to enter the broadcast business. My daughter Rayanne and stepson Jeremy have graduated, hoping to make their marks in TV and radio, respectively. If your offspring have similar aspirations, you can be assured that they’ll be taught by some of the best in the business.  NAIT, I’d also suggest, has one of the finest placement percentages in the broadcast industry—you watch/hear many of them on Edmonton, Toronto and Vancouver stations.

Have a great month. Support the United Way.

marty@edmontonians.com
http://www.edmontonians.com/

Marty Forbes is VP and general manager of The Bear, EZRock and The TEAM 1260 Sports Radio.