KINGSTON — Radio industry veteran Bob Willette (above) has been hired as the new program director of Corus Radio Kingston’s 96.3 Big FM (CFMK-FM) and 104.3 Fresh Radio (CKWS-FM), Corus Entertainment announced today.
Willette was most recently program director of Bell Media’s 102.9 K-Lite FM in Hamilton and 105.7 EZ Rock in St. Catharines, Ont. Prior to that, he was an on-air host and music director at Durham Radio’s 94.9 The Rock in Oshawa, music director at 99.9 Virgin Radio in Toronto, and program director at Evanov Radio Group’s 103.9 Proud FM in Toronto.
He previously worked for Corus Entertainment during…
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By Denis Carmel
GATINEAU – Late in 2019, in following up its universal service objective decision, the CRTC decided to study the barriers to building new facilities or to accessing or interconnecting with existing facilities in order to extend broadband networks more efficiently into underserved areas, including areas where, due to a lack of such networks, speeds don’t meet the service objectives.
Of course, in March 2020, the pandemic hit, and a vast number of Canadians went home to work, becoming completely dependent on their home’s high-speed Internet to continue work and school. Access to high-speed Internet rapidly became a political…
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TORONTO – A group representing Toronto’s Aboriginal support agencies today announced it has partnered with Freedom Mobile to support Indigenous youth, families and seniors, by giving them phones to help keep them connected.
Toronto Aboriginal Support Services Council (TASSC) received 500 handsets from Freedom Mobile to distribute to individuals most in need in its community to help them get online to access important resources and stay connected to loved ones, says a press release.
“By donating these phones, Freedom Mobile is helping individuals and families from Toronto’s urban Indigenous community get access to educational resources, vital information about healthcare and government…
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Feds again being asked to compensate for transitions
By Ahmad Hathout
OTTAWA – The federal government has historically not compensated companies that must relocate their services to different spectrum bands to make room for emerging technologies. But companies with a vested interest in the repurposing of the C-band spectrum for 5G technology are urging the a change to that position.
Over the air (OTA) broadcasters had to absorb the cost of moving off the 700 MHz band for broadband use years ago. Broadcasters were told more recently by Innovation Canada (ISED) that they wouldn’t be financially covered for the millions of dollars…
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OTTAWA — The Canadian Association of Broadcasters (CAB) today shared the news Charlotte Bell, a long-time broadcasting executive and former CAB chair, died on the weekend. She had been suffering from cancer for some time.
“Charlotte was a dear friend and valued colleague to many of us in the broadcasting sector, and all those who were fortunate to work with her are saddened to hear this news,” said Lenore Gibson, chair of the CAB board of directors, in a press statement. “Our thoughts go out to her family and friends at this time.”
Bell most recently was president and CEO of…
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TORONTO — TSN today announced it will be providing coverage of the America’s Cup yacht racing series, beginning with the Prada America’s Cup World Series event in Auckland, New Zealand, which will stream on TSN.ca and the TSN app starting on Wednesday, December 16 at 9 p.m. ET.
Running from December 16 to 18, the America’s Cup World Series is the first stage of the oldest international sporting trophy, the America’s Cup. TSN’s yachting coverage also includes the Christmas Race, streaming Saturday, December 19 at 9 p.m. ET, and the Prada Cup Challenger Selection Series from January 14 to February…
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BURBANK – There may be millions fewer people in their theme parks right now, but The Walt Disney Company said Friday it now has more than 137 million streaming subscribers – and it’s about to kick growth of its direct-to-consumer business into overdrive.
“The tremendous success we’ve achieved across our unique portfolio of streaming services, with more than 137 million subscriptions worldwide, has bolstered our confidence in our acceleration toward a DTC-first business model,” said CEO Bob Chapek (pictured), during the company’s investor day. That number includes Disney+ (86.8 million subscribers), ESPN+ (11.5 million) and Hulu (38.8 million) subscribers as…
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QUEBEC CITY – Epic Storyworlds co-founders Steve Couture and Ken Faier announced this week they have set up Loomi Animation, a studio based in Québec City focussed on animation series for Epic Storyworlds/Epic Story Media original content and third-party projects.
Louis Leclerc, formerly executive director of Pixel Québec has joined as director of the studio, while Guylaine Robidoux and Daniel Belleville of Montreal’s ToonDraw have come on board as consultants. The studio is the recipient of a funding grant from the city’s economic development initiative.
The first project Loomi Animation will undertake is Epic Storyworlds’ recent commission from Radio Canada -…
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By Peter Nowak
IMAGINE, FOR A SECOND, someone making fun of you for being too skinny. Then they take all your food away.
Got that image in your mind? Okay, good. You’ve just pictured what trying to grow a telecom business in Canada is like.
For years, that’s essentially what big companies such as Bell, Rogers and Shaw and their armies of lawyers, lobbyists and hangers-on have been doing to TekSavvy and other independent service providers.
They’ve argued that the only good telecom company in Canada is one that builds its own networks head-to-toe, from the poles that hold the wires in the…
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TORONTO — Corus Entertainment today confirmed to Cartt.ca that it is not renewing its licensing deal with BBC to operate the BBC Canada channel, which will no longer be available as of January 1, 2021.
This is the only BBC channel to which Corus owns the licensing rights for Canada, and therefore no other BBC-branded channels are affected by this news.
According to the last financial information Corus filed with the CRTC, as of August 31, 2019, the BBC Canada channel had approximately 2.4 million subscribers, which was a 3.55% decrease from a year earlier. In 2015, its number of subscribers…
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