AM 600 Radio station announces big news: Aaron Rand and Andrew Carter move over

From today's print edition of The Suburban.

AM600, Montreal’s new English language radio station owned by industry veteran Paul Tietolman, will announce later today that both Andrew Carter and Aaron Rand have left CJAD and will headline a star studded lineup of notable personalities.

Aaron Rand

Tietolman  has hired radio veteran Steve Kowch as general manager and program director and Wayne Bews, late of 925 The Beat FM,  as sales manager. The interesting twist here is that Rand will host the morning show while Carter will do the drive home.

“I really missed mornings,” said Rand, who will bring back Paul “Tasso Patsikakis” Zakaib as his on air sidekick while Suzanne Desautels will also depart CJAD and handle weather and traffic. 

“These last few years doing afternoons at CJAD have been just great. I have not caught up with my sleep and I am ready to rise again at 3:30 a.m. weekdays to go to work.

Carter, meanwhile, said that it was his idea to switch shifts. “I have been doing mornings for more than a decade and it really takes it toll on you,” he admitted. “I am looking forward to sleeping in and staying up late again.”

Tietolman confided to us that his mid-morning show will feature a tête-à-tête between former politicians Gilles Duceppe and Yolande James. “A separatist and a federalist debating the issues each day will be ‘must listen to’ radio,” Tietolman said.

Paul Tietolman

Early afternoons will be anchored by Dan Laxer, who lost his full-time gig at CJAD a few years ago. Following Carter, Suburban editor Beryl Wajsman’s Last Angry Man returns to Montreal radio from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m.  Talks are reportedly underway between Tietolman’s team and TSN 690’s Conor McKenna to bring a provocative late night sports talk show back to the local radio scene. “Montrealers crave for the days of Ted Tevan,” Tietolman said of the late shock jock sports rap host. “We just know there is an audience for that.”

Overnights will belong to Peter Anthony Holder and Sol Boxenbaum, once fixtures on CJAD. Claude Beaulieu and Murray Sherriffs will head the news team.

Over at CJAD, it appears that Barry Morgan is in for a promotion to replace Carter in the mornings. Dave Kaufman will fill Morgan`s Noon to 3 p.m. shift while Dan Delmar will take over the drive home show. Jay Farrar will step in for McKenna if he moves to AM600.

Tietolman plans to launch AM 600 in June, along with  French language talk and sports stations. 

What is my reaction to all of this? Well folks, today is  April 1. It has been a few years since The Suburban was published on this date, providing me with the perfect opportunity to say “April Fool’s” to all of my readers. Sorry, but I just could not resist.

THE REAL STORY: Tietolman does indeed plan to open three radio stations. He has Canadian Radio-television Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) approval to go on the air with an English language talk station at the AM 600 dial and two French language stations, one for talk and another for sports. When I reached him he preferred not to get into too many details. But he wants to make it clear that this radio trio will become a reality. When it does, perhaps some of my April Fool’s musings will actually occur.  What do you think? 

GLOBAL TV AND THE BEAT: Last fall I invited  Jessica Laventure, Camille Ross and Richard Dagenais from The Global Morning News and Cat Spencer, Sarah Bartok and Natasha Hall The Beat 92.5 FM to the English Montreal School Board Career Fair. After doing an interview with them for The Suburban video section, I suggested that on April 1 they change places for the ultimate April Fool's joke. Well, today they do so in style and Camille even gave me some recognition on the air.

Here is the photo I took of Jessica,  Richard, Camille, Cat and Sarah which inspired the April Fool's joke.

Here are Cat and Sarah on Global.

And Richard,  Camille and Jessica on The Beat

Below are comments from the main players.

It's nice to see pros at work and that's exactly what the team at The Beat 92.5 are all about; seeing them at work, you realize Cat, Sarah, Natasha, Sammy and Paul are - Montreal's perfect mix!"

Richard Dagenais

"Any opportunity to spend time with the Team over at the beat is something to look forward to. They are a group of incredibly hilarious, charismatic and talented people."

Camille Ross

"It's easy to see why the Beat Breakfast with Cat and Sarah is Montreal's number one Morning radio show. I felt immediately comfortable with Cat, Sarah and Natasha. Nothing creepy, I just... smelled their hair and followed them home. You know, normal closeness."

Jessica Laventure

Thanks to the Global Morning News team for making us look good! Don't tell my boss but those 10 minutes on morning television made me realize how easy we have it in radio. No lights, no camera...(but plenty of action)!

Cat Spencer

Sometimes, things happen that make you scratch your head & wonder what just happened! That's exactly what we hoped to acheive with our little switch-a-roo. Thanks to the entire Global team for making this April Fools prank come to life...and for making me appreciate even more so how a full face of makeup is not required for morning radio. ;-)

Sarah Bartok

We tag teamed with Camille and Richard from Global to play a little April Fools joke on all our listeners..Cat and Sarah took over TV while Camille and Richard took over the radio:

Cat Spencer to mark 30 years on radio

Congratulations to one of the nicest guys in radio, The Beat  925 FM morning man Cat Spencer. On Thursday, November 13 he will mark an incredible 30 years in radio.

Cat, whose co-host is the adorable and charismatic Sarah Bartok, has been with The Beat for four years now. He came aboard just as they were about to launch the new name and format to replace Q 92.  In fact, he had been named the successor to Aaron Rand several months earlier but because he was still under contract to Virgin Radio at the time he had to stay home and wait for a certain period of time to expire.

 

Cat has called Montreal home for decades,  but  he was born in Saskatoon. He got his first job at the age of 17 in Fort Frances, Ontario. From there, it was on to the bright lights of Moose Jaw, Edmonton, Toronto and, of course, Montreal. Cat often brags that for the first 18 years of his career he never missed a day of work! Now that streak is over: he has two young kids who bring home germs from school so he calls in sick all the time!  

For those who listen to the show, you will know that Cat has tremendous chemistry with Bartok and news/traffic reporter Natasha Hall and their cast of many others. He always good for a few gags each morning, notably his hilarious prank phone calls for which he comes clean at the end.

Good luck Cat!!

Global TV and The Beat 92.5 FM morning crews share their secrets about getting up early

As an avid follower of the Montreal media, specifically through my column in The Suburban and this blog, it is always a pleasure to spend some time with the people whom I watch and listen to. For  a high school Career Fair I helped organize,  I invited The Beat 92.5 FM's Cat  Spencer, Sarah Bartok, Shaun McMahon, Natasha Hall and Claudia Marques while Global TV's wakeup crew of Jessica Laventure, Camille Ross and Richard Dagenais were on hand as well.

Jessica Laventure, Richard Dagenais, Camille Ross, Cat Spencer and Sarah Bartok

The Beat continues to bring us great music and dynamic on air personalities. Cat and Sarah have been a team for the past four years. Natasha handles those neat news updates and traffic while Marques is out and about in the city all week long for promotional stops and ticket giveaways; McMahon was recently promoted to weekend morning show host. Cat and Sarah have terrific chemistry together. Cat is a towering figure who came over from Virgin Radio while Sarah is as beautiful as she sounds. Over at Global, the team has been together for almost two years now and they have bonded. Dagenais is the veteran of the group, has a great sense of humour and always keeps us guessing as to what important international day it is. Ross, a breathtaking beauty with an infectious laugh, adapted perfectly to her new role. As for Laventure, she is a ball of fire and addictive to watch.

I thought it would be interesting to pull these five aside and ask them what it is like to have to wake up so early weekday mornings.What time do they get up? Do they nap? What time do they go to sleep?  This was an absolute blast and I am sure you will get a kick out of the video below. There appears to be a potential partnership here as the two morning show crews are big fans of one another.

Cat Spencer to have prostate exam live on the air

92.5 The Beat of Montreal has announced that it is hosting a Prostate Party – a free cancer screening clinic for its male listeners. It is all in support of Movember, the prostate cancer awareness campaign that has gained popularity in recent years.

Putting words into action for Movember, Beat Breakfast announcer Cat Spencer will be having a prostate exam live on-air.

“When November rolled around, all the guys started growing their moustaches for Movember”, says Cat. “But when we started asking our male listeners if they had ever had a prostate exam, we sensed a lot of hesitation. So we thought we would make it easier for some of them by facilitating the whole process. And it helped that I promised to get one, too.”

The dynamic duo of Cat Spencer and Sarah Bartok (photo by Mike Cohen).

A first of its kind, the event will be held on Friday, November 23 at the Brunswick Medical Centre,  located at 955 boulevard St-Jean, Pointe-Claire and will be under the supervision of Dr. Kevin Zorn, MD Director of Robotic Surgery and Assistant Professor of Urology at the University of Montreal Hospital Center.

Listeners won their free prostate exams with the Beat Breakfast morning show, which will be broadcasting live from the clinic this Friday morning between 5:30am and 9:00am.

And it wouldn’t be a party without inviting the girls, so Beat Breakfast co-host Sarah Bartok is also hosting female listeners for free mammograms at the same time.

The party will be topped off with a trip to Jukebox Burgers, who have created a special “Bendover Burger” just for the occasion.

 

Virgin Radio seeking replacement for Lisa Player

The trevolving door at Montreal's Virgin Radio continues. In the past year, no less than three prime time program hosts have left the station: Cat Spencer, Heather B and Nat Lauzon. Now you can add Lisa Player to the list. The co-host of the popular morning show with Freeway Frank announced today (December 16) that she and her husband are moving to Northern Ontario at the end of the month and she plans on leaving the radio business altogether.

Lisa Player

So what does Brand Director Mark Bergman do now? He had the magic touch in bringing in Freeway to succeed Spencer, Nikki to replace Heather and Andrea Collins in relief of Lauzon,

Chantal Desjardins would be a fine fit. The current co-host of sister station CHOM FM's morning show, her future there is up in the air. Terry DiMonte returns to the airwaves at Montreal's rock station on January 9 and he told me that no decision on other team members has been made.

Andrea Collins

Moving Collins or Nikki to the morning slot with Freeway are options. Then there is  Natasha Gargiulo, the stylish Entertainment Tonight Canada Montreal correspondent who is also part of Virgin's drive home show with Cousin Vinny. It would be nice to see Kelly Alexander (Kelly "A") get a permanent gig. She has been a devoted Virgin swing member for years, handling weather, hosting and remotes. Bergman might even surprise us with a name we are not familiar with or someone from another station. Sabrina Marandola, the former Suburban Newspaper reporter who is just delightful on CBC Radio One, would make a wise choice. How about Donna Saker from 92.5 FM The Beat, whose current on air shift is from 9 am to 5 pm (she does get a break for lunch)? Would Bergman try to lure The Beat's Sarah Bartok over?

Freeway told listeners that there will be another announcement next Thursday, so perhaps Player's successor has already been chosen.

UPDATE: Natasha Gargiulo got the nod.  See the Fagstein blog for all of the details.