There is a new sheriff in town at City Montreal. More
than a year after Bob Babinski left the TV station as head honcho of on air
activities, his place has finally been filled by industry veteran Renato Zane.
I sat down with Zane at City’s McGill College Avenue’s
headquarters. He is by means no newcomer to Rogers Media, having worked for the
company for an impressive 32 years out of Toronto and Vancouver. For he and his
wife Patricia, Montreal turned out to be a nice opportunity as their daughter
Lisa studied at McGill and settled down here. They also have a son, Davide, who
resides in Toronto.
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| Renato Zane with Catherine Verdon Diamond, |
Babinski was the true poppa of City Montreal,
personally selecting all of the staff who would lead Breakfast Television and
Sportsnet Central. Talent-wise, he did a formidable job as Alexandre Despatie
made a seamless transition from Olympic athlete to morning show co-host along
with Joanne Vrakas. Wilder Weir is a true “star” as live eye reporter and host
of Sportsnet Central while Catherine Verdon Diamond delivers traffic and
weather with flair. News reporter Laura
Casella is solid. Currently on maternity leave, her replacement Aalia Adam has
shown great initiative with her special series on Montreal’s municipalities and
boroughs. Let’s not forget Elias Makos, who offers up insight into social media
no other media outlet in the city can hold a candle to. Behind the scenes, producers like Melanie Porco and Kelly Albert are top notch. Check out Aalia's fan page at
“We really want to connect with our communities,” Zane
said. “Our Live Eye really gets out there. Wilder was recently at a swimming
club and I was pleasantly surprised to see how many families came out at 6 a.m.
to be part of a live broadcast. That is how we must continue to build a
following. I hope that as a whole we at City can continue to improve our
content so we can be truly reflective of what Montrealers expect from a morning
show.”
Sportsnet Central Montreal, which airs Thursday evenings at
6:30, remains a work in progress. Babinski originally hired TV vet George
Athans as the producer. But last spring Athans and reporters Sean Coleman and
Kelly Greig were let go. The latter two bounced back nicely; Coleman with CTV
Sports on weekends and Greig as the new morning reporter at rival Global News. Athans already had a successful business of his own.
“For now we do not have the resources to do in-depth
documentary style reports as before,” Zane says. “It is more of a talk format
with panelists discussing the topics of the day. It is still very much a show
that is evolving. By the end of September we will have a better idea of where
we ae going. We’d like to involve more
points of view, perhaps from minor sports organizations.”
I suggested to
Zane that Sportsnet NHL play by play
caller John Bartlett and studio host Chantal Desjardins be integrated into the
program as they are right in the thick of things.
Because I have a television in the kitchen, I among
those people who thrives on watching morning TV while I eat my breakfast. In
the case of City, you can actually live stream Breakfast Television from any
device. I watch both BT and The Global Morning News, switching back and forth
and catching up on clips later from their website. We are so lucky as
Montrealers to have quality shows like this that make an effort to connect with
the community, yet the ratings are very
weak.
Initiatives like the
one Adam took to do her series on
municipalities and boroughs can only help bring in new viewers. “That series
was completely Aalia’s idea and I completely support it,” said Zane. “We’d
really like to do more of those type of
things. There is a bit of fatigue among viewers regarding negative
broadcasting.”
As for Zane himself, he spent the previous three years
as the director of news and public affairs for
Omni TV in Toronto. Prior to that he had another three year run as
general manager of City and Omni TV in Vancouver. For the first 25 years of his
association with Rogers he was a jack of all trades, serving as a reporter,
anchor, producer and news director.
The days are long in this new job of his. He gets up
in enough to time to start watching BT Montreal at 6 a.m. and makes his way
from his downtown apartment to the studio by 8 a.m. so he can observe the final
hour of the program in the trenches. There is a daily meeting to review the day’s
show and plan the next one, individual face to face meetings with members of
his staff of about 20 and a lot of back and forth with head office. He usually
heads home by 6 p.m.
“I am excited to be here,” Zane says. “When my boss
Jordan Schwartz asked me to come to Montreal last fall to meet the team I felt
right away that there was an exciting dynamic. I actually started this job here
in late spring, going back and forth, and we settled here in July.”
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