Richard Dagenais resurfaces at CJAD

It was great to hear the golden pipes of Richard Dagenais once again.  After having his job abolished at the Global TV Morning News last month, he has resurfaced as a freelance news anchor on CJAD Radio. His first shift was on June 6.

Richard Dagenais

Dagenais was part of  dynamic duo for two and a half years with Camille Ross on Global. The two really played well off each other and I would always tune in to find out via Dagenais what "international day" it was. He has got a great sense of humour. When Global owners Shaw Media decided to rejig the newscast and introduce a newscast from Toronto, that meant somebody from the Montreal team had to go. So, from three on air personalities, they went to two. Ross and Jessica Laventure remained.

I hope Dagenais can get some more work with Bell Media properties here: CJAD, Virgin Radio, CHOM, TSN 690 and CTV Montreal,  In fact, from 1985 to 2002 --16 years - he worked for CHOM and CKGM as  a writer, producer, host, and interviewer.   He joined Global in 2002. When the first incarnation of their morning show was cancelled in 2008 he was out of job, but was brought back two years later as a maternity leave replacement.

While Dagenais was not eager to do an interview with me, he his finally shared his thoughts on his personal blog. Here is the link. 

"That last day one month ago was difficult and the sign-off, dreadfully precarious," Dagenais writes. "One wrong word or move by anyone would have caused me to unwind emotionally on-air. Just as we came out of the last commercial break, Julie, one of our directors, declared quietly in my earpiece, 'it’s been an honor.' Managing a weak smile, I waved my fist at her through the camera, struggling to hold it together. Thankfully, Camille respected my request to do nothing out of the ordinary. Media critic Steve Faguy hit the nail on the head when he later observed I signed off that last Friday as though I would see viewers on Monday. It took immeasurable effort just to manage what he perceptively described as my 'see-you-Monday' wave!"

When I asked CJAD news director Chris Bury if there would more shifts for Dagenais, he could only respond "it's too early to say." Let's hope we hear more of him in the immediate future.

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.

Forget about ratings statistics for Quebec: we are lucky to have four anglo stations on our radar screens

I have never put much faith in the Bureau of Broadcast Measurement (BBM) ratings, especially the method whereby a random selection of individuals are given diaries and asked  to write down their radio listening or television viewing habits. For the former it has  been the introduction of Portable  People Meters (PPMs), pager-sized devices which allows broadcast signals to be encoded with inaudible signals as they air or stream live, which seem to have added a little more reliability. We understand it is coming for TV here soon.

BBM TV ratings came out last week. For news programs it was no surprise to see the perennial champions,  CTV Montreal,  still way ahead of the pack for the supper hour period.Their 6 p.m. one hour newscast, with Mutsumi Takahashi and Paul Karwatsky, has always been a powerhouse with over 100,000 viewers.  CBC has three separate newscasts with Debra Arbec and Andrew Chang, from 5 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. while Global's Jamie Orchard as the anchor desk from 6 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.

 

Global Morning boss Robert Ostiguy with Dagenais  and Ross.

In the mornings, both Global and newcomer City have breakfast shows. While the ratings show that Canada AM on CTV has the most Quebec viewers, there is definitely something to be encouraged about for the others. The Global program has been on the air for just over a year, with the trio of Camille Ross, Richard Dagenais and Jessica Laventure. City's Breakfast Television, with Alexandre Despatie, Joanne Vrakas, Catherine Verdon Diamond, Laura Casella, Wilder Weir and Elias Makos only debuted last August. Global did have a morning show a number of years ago, but essentially there is a process taking place now and that is conditioning more folks to turn on their TV's first thing in the morning.

I believe it is working. Global's numbers, while not at the level of Canada AM, have improved dramatrically while the BBM's show City closely behind them.  I make it a point to watch all three: Canada AM to get a quick look at the national headlines and then Global and City to get some local flavor. To me, if you have a TV in the kitchen it is a no brainer to turn it on and get up to speed on trending news stories, weather and  traffic.

 

Casella, Despatie and Verdon Diamond.

When I sat down with Global station manager Karen Macdonald last summer to ask her about the incoming competition from City, she sincerely welcomed their presence. I guess she was right as her morning show's numbers did increase. So clearly what we have here is an evolving new morning show audience. Both shows are getting out to the community with live broadcasts - Laventure for Global and  Weir and Casella for City - and this definitely increases awareness.

"I really do think the competition is good," Macdonald says. "There is a  lot of talk in the community about morning TV. We know that it really takes a while to change the viewing habits of people."

I make sure to watch all three suppertime TV newscasts each day. While I cannot possibly watch them all live, it is wonderful to know that they are all pretty much accessible online. That folks is how TV viewing has changed in this decade.

In the case of CBC it is great to either turn the news on at 5 p.m. from the office or home and get an early peak at the developing stories. And all three also have late night newscasts.

My message to TV viewers is this: give each show your undivided attention. We are living with a Parti-Québecois government which is no friend to the anglophone community. The fact we havefour English-language TV stations bringing us live news shows is a luxury we need to encourage.