Aalia Adam leaves Global TV and joins City's Breakfast Television

For the last few months, regular viewers of City’s Breakfast Television began to wonder who would replace morning news correspondent Laura Casella when she went on maternity leave in mid-April.

Laura and her husband Diego are expecting their first child, a girl. So how did they fill the role for at least the next year with someone as bubbly and professional as Laura?  City made an excellent decision in hiring Aalia Adam, the beautiful and charismatic young reporter from Global TV. I caught a number of her appearances this week and she looked poised and prepared.

Aalia at her new digs.

 “I started interning at Global when I was in CEGEP and started freelancing while studying at Concordia in the journalism program,” Aalia told me. “So basically from 17 to 25 years old!”

While Aalia had pretty regular work at Global, she runs the risk of looking for a job again in 12 months if Casella returns from mat leave. “Even though I'll miss the team at Global and will always consider them like family who raised me into the hectic world of journalism,  I just couldn't pass up the opportunity to be on-air every day for three hours, doing news full-time,” she said. “It's my passion and something that I want to continue to get better at it and this is the best way.”

Karen Macdonald, news and station manager at Global and one of the best people in the business, was indeed Aalia’s fairy godmother. It was her call last summer to give her a chance to step in as a replacement for the vacationing Jessica Laventure doing the weather. She became acclimatized to  waking up so early.

Aalia on location.

“It wasn't a big shock,” she said. “Now the challenge is trying to find a routine that works for me. Sleeping early is probably the hardest adjustment, but waking up at 3 a.m. isn't so bad. It's quite peaceful outside actually. I just finished my first week here and I already love it! The team is so amazing, so encouraging and made me feel at home right away!”

I make it a practice each day to watch both the Global Morning News with Richard Dagenais, Camille Ross and Laventure and BT with its crew of Alex Despatie, Joanne Vrakas, Elias Makos, Wilder Weir, Catherine Verdon Diamond and now Aalia Adam.

The English community is so fortunate to have this type of news and current affairs coverage available from  6 a.m. to 9 a.m. weekdays. How hard is it to turn on the TV if you have one in the kitchen while having breakfast?