Abe Hefter turns to teaching and assumes limited role as radio host

Longtime Montreal sportscaster Abe Hefter has assumed a limited role on local Bell Media radio stations in order to devote most of his energy to teaching.

Hefter, for years a fixture with CJAD Sports,   recently accepted a full-time appointment at Concordia University in the Department of Journalism as a lecturer and undergraduate program director. " I had been teaching at Concordia for about a dozen years, part-time, initially within Continuing Education and, more recently, within the journalism department," he says. " I enjoyed being back at school  so much I decided to head back to the classroom as a student: I'm working towards my MA in Journalism Studies at Concordia."

Abe Hefter

Hefter says he quickly developed a passion for teaching , "the same passion I have for radio. So when the opportunity came up to teach, full-time, at Concordia, I went for it.  It's been an amazing experience: incredibly rewarding."

For Hefter,  what has been doubly rewarding is the fact that he has  been able to continue to connect with Montreal radio listeners as the host of TSN 690's weekend morning show: The Locker Room. He is  on from 7 am to  9 a.m. "It's been a blast talking sports and sharing the airwaves with the very talented likes of Amanda Stein, Eric Thomas, Robyn Flynn and Dave Kaufman," he says. "At Concordia and TSN 690, I've been able to enjoy the best of both worlds." 

Hefter is also part of the Habs pre-game show on the weekends with Flynn.

Hefter joined CJAD  in January of 2002. He was with the former CJFM/FM 96 from 1981 to 1985 before departing for Vancouver.

An absolutely amazing So You Think You Dance 2013 Tour show in Montreal

I have seen a lot of live shows in my time, but few will ever measure up to the So You Think You Can Dance 2013 Tour stop at the Bell Centre on Sunday, October 6. Earlier in the day I had an exclusive opportunity to interview the top 10 performers. Only three members of the media attended this press conference, so I found myself with unprecedented access to such a group of reality show superstars.

The group was composed of female and male first place finishers Amy Yakima as well as Du-Shaunt “Fik-Shun” Stegall, Aaron Turner,  Jasmine Harper,  Hayley Erbert, Jenna Johnson, Makenzie Dustman, Nico Greetham, Paul Karmiryan  and Tucker Knox.

Here I am with Jasmine, Aaron, Amy and Fik-Shun.

What a fine group of young men and women, each of them still pinching themselves over the celebrity status they have inherited as a result of being on the hit Fox and CTV program.

Here is a link to my exclusive video interview with the top four.

Including intermission, the show was just over two hours and the crowd loved every minute of it. This was high level entertainment, a superpbly choreographed series of routines from the get go. On this night the Bell Centre was configured into a smaller theatre, carving out about two thirds of their capacity and leaving a cozy 6,000 seat venue. It was perfect from the  get go as the top 10 dancers, accompanied by a small supporting cast of others from this season, entered the stage from the floor level and the song “Putting on the Ritz.”

With Makenzie and Paul.

While the charismatic Nigel Lythgoe, producer and judge for the show, was not in Montreal, we saw him all evening long on the beautiful big screen behind the stage. An early highlight was the introduction of the top 10 to thunderous applause, followed by Fik-Shun and Amy delivering opening remarks. There were many francophones in the audience and with apologies to Premier Pauline Marois and her gang from the PQ government, not a word of French was spoken. Nobody seemed to care.  This was all about the international language of dance.

When So You Think You Can Dance Canada was on the air here on CTV, two cross-Canada tours took place: one at the Place des Arts and another at the Bell Centre. The reception for the Quebec dancers was incredible. I wondered how wild the crowd would go for the Americans, making their first appearance here. Well, it was huge. The numbers were draw jopping, the costumes superb and the flow of the show just right. There was not one dull second. There were a lot of popular repeat numbers from the show and some new ones. Each dancer did a solo. The first half ended off with Sand,  a contemporary group piece choreographed by Chris Scott and featuring   the whole cast.  It had to conclude the opening hour as they literally did drop sand all over the stage.

Highlights for me included Aaron’s tap dance number, Aaron and Jasmine making 48 moves in seven seconds,  Jenna looking gorgeous in a spectacular blue dress in her  ballroom routine and the emotional finale to the tune of Jennifer Lopez’s Live It Up.

Quite appropriately, Amy and Fik-Shun were the last performers to do solos and they were thanked with loud and appreciative standing ovations. You could see from their reactions how touched they were. Here is a look at the emotional farewell the dancers got from the crowd.

Celebrating its landmark 10^th season, So You Think You Can Dance’s top 10 finalists have been making their way across North America, performing in a mix of theatres and arenas as part of the So You Think You Can Dance Tour 2013,sponsored by BLOCH, an international leader in dance wear.   

The 42-city tour will kicked-off on October 1 in East Lansing, MI with shows scheduled through November 27  in Los Angeles, CA.   Besides the Bell Centre, Orillia and Windsor were the two other Canadian cities chosen for the tour.

 Amy  and   “'Fik-Shun”   this year became the first couple to win that were partners from the beginning of the season.  “I still cannot believe this is all happening,” Amy told me. “A few months ago I was just this average dancer. Now I am recognized wherever I go and I have such amazing opportunities. It is just a dream come true. The whole thing has just not sunk in.”

Fik-Shun already knows what he wants to do from here. “I want to be in the next Step Up movie,” he said, referring to the popular series of dance/romance/drama films. Season Six third place finisher Kathryn McCormick and Season Four second place finisher Stephen “tWitch” Boss  were in Step Up Revolution while others have enjoyed success on Dancing With the Stars and other TV and movie roles.

Where did the name Fik-Shun come from? “During my freshman year in high school I wanted to have a dance nickname.  So I asked and I was told that when I dance, I do not look real. Like fiction. That is where it came from.”

The dancers say that the tour, thus far, has been a lot of fun. “We are like a family,” said Makenzie.   “We have more than 30 shows to go on this tour so it is hard on the body. We definitely need our sleep.”

Fik-Shun said that performing before such live audiences “provides us with that extra dose of energy on stage.” Noted Jenna: “Dancers are usually on stage in the background at live concerts, so this kind of tour is unique as people are coming to see us.”

Tucker likes the fact that they are now getting paid for the job, something which was not the case when they auditioned and went through the preliminaries and live shows leading to the top 10.”To see all of these different cities is cool,” he said.

During the day Sunday the dancers explored downtown  Montreal, notably the underground city of shopping from Eaton Centre to the  Promenades des Cathedrales. At a food court, Tucker decided to give the Quebec speciality of poutine - french fries, topped with brown gravy and cheese curds-  a try. “It was amazing,” he said. “I had never heard of it before.”

Poutine was not on the menu for Fik- Shun. “Nope,” he said. “I was happy to go to Subways.”

Jenna said she was both surprised and delighted with how many people recognized them in Montreal. “We are an American show, so we really did not expect that,” she said. “We quickly learned the French word for ‘smile’ as a lot of the young girls kept shouting ‘sourire’ to us.

Which particular stores did they like shopping at? Brandy Melville, Roots and Lush were their favorites.

I end this story with a plea to CTV. Please bring back So You Think You Can Dance Canada!

Powerful speech to students by broadcast veteran Steve Kowch

Noted  broadcast executive Steve Kowch was in Montreal October 4, still optimistic that  a new English language AM radio station will make its debut here in the not too distant future. Paul Tietolman and his partners already have the AM 600 dial approved by the Canadian Radio-television Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) as well as 850 AM for all sports in French and 940 AM for French talk radio.  I met with Kowch for breakfast. He was to sit down later with Tietolman.  Launching three radio stations from scratch is no easy task and that partially speaks for the delay.

Steve Kowch

Kowch’s main reason for being in town was to speak at the Rosemount High School Class of 2013 graduation ceremonies. Kowch attended Rosemount High and Nesbitt Elementary as a kid. A few years ago I arranged  for him to visit both and he made a solid connection.  While he presently resides in Toronto and works as a media consultant, he and his wife are ready to pack up the moving truck the moment Tietolman sends word that he is ready to go on air.

His speech at Rosemount High was inspiring, provocative and revealing.

“I have a few things I want to share with all of you about my experiences here at Rosemount and since I graduated in 1968,” Kowch said in his speech.  “Who knew that one day I would return to this very stage where I sang … had my first kiss on stage while in a play or even gave a speech convincing 69 people to vote for me as Student Council president. Where was Facebook when I needed it? Being a teenager is never easy. We take things way too personally and for some of uswe think we’re the only ones living in a dysfunctional family, never going to get a date, never being accepted by those who bully us, never being as popular as the guy or girl sitting next to us in class and wishing our parents would just once believe in us.

“Been there done that. I am here to tell you that as the guy who at times was bullied,  never voted most popular kid in class, lived with an alcoholic father and a mother who never believed in me, that if you want to succeed in life you cannot be held hostage by memories of all the bad things that happen to you.”

Kowch with left to right Principal Demetra Droutsas,Deputy Director General Roma Medwid and Commissioner Agostino Cannavino on stafe at Rosemount High School.

 

Kowch told the students not to let the bad things cloud their future.    “As you go through life, remember how you felt if shunned, picked on or ignored,” he said. “Use these moments as a learning experience. You know how it feels,  so make the world a better place. You can make a difference by being the the first to offer a helping hand, provide words of encouragement, give someone a listen when they need to talk or a hug when they need a shoulder to cry on. “ 

Kowch recalled how there was a kid in school who for some reason didn’t like him.  “ Then one day, as a reporter for The Gazette I covered a fire here in Rosemount and this guy comes running up to me as if he was my best friend,” he recalls. “His apartment was burning and his brand new TV was about to be destroyed.  It was the kid in school who would never give me the time of day He asked me, well he really pleaded with me, to have the firemen rescue his TV. My first thought was to ask the firemen to put an axe through his TV screen, but my heart directed me to the fire chief I knew and asked him to do me a favour. A few minutes later a fireman came out of the building with this brand new TV in his arms.  Of course, as a reporter I exploited the situation and wrote a story about how I helped a resident get his brand new TV out of the burning building.  Helping people is the key to the success of my career in journalism, broadcasting, coaching talent and running radio stations.”

Kowch says that as a street reporter he always helped other reporters by sharing some information with them. “One of those who benefited from my help would become news director at CJAD,” he said. “ His first decision was to hire me away from newspapers to be a reporter. Others would later ask me to help start the Montreal Daily News or pull me back into radio by hiring me to be the news director at the old CKGM and CHOM-FM or recommended me for the position of managing editor of a national news service based in Toronto. I would later become the general manager of that news service before being offered the job of a lifetime, to run Canada’s largest news talk radio station, CFRB. Later, I would come back to Montreal on two occasions to be the program and news director of CJAD.”

In recent years Kowch has written a book (99 Things You Wish You Knew Before Making It BIG In Media),  taught at two Toronto colleges and played a key role for the Tietolman group in getting CRTC approval for their radio licenses.

On the political situation here, Kowch   asked people on Facebook what he should talk about it. He was distressed to see so many people posted to tell the students to leave Quebec. “I am not here tonight to tell you to leave Quebec,” he said. “ I am here to tell you to stay and carve out your destiny in Canada’s greatest city! I am here to tell you to stay in Quebec and wear your religious symbols with pride,  to wear your hijab, kippa or cross at work or at play. You have as much right to call Quebec your home as Pauline Marois and her merry band of Pequistes. If you leave, they win. If you leave,  Quebec loses all the potential that you can bring to this province. 

“Yes I have left,  but I keep coming back. If I didn’t believe in the future of Montreal’s English community,  if I didn’t believe in my place in Quebec. I would not be part of the process to launch a new English language talk radio station in Montreal."

I sure do hope AM 600 arrives on the airwaves soon so we can get a regular dose of Kowch. 

Here is a video of Kowch's full presentation.

Wayne Bews: fond memories of TEAM 990, TSN 690; happy to be at CTV

 As published in this week's West Island edition of The Suburban.

When the Canadian Radio-televisionTelecommunications Commission (CRTC) ruled that Bell Media could finalize the purchase of Astral Media properties, among other things it resulted in TSN 690 being saved from extinction. But what was to become of Wayne Bews, the Pointe Claire resident who as general manager literally kept Montreal’s only all sports radio station alive?

Fortunately, the folks at Bell Media decided to do the right thing in the case of Bews. With the management of TSN 690 being folded into CJAD and  Martin Spaulding and Chris Bury, Bews needed a new gig and he got it as regional sales manager for CTV Montreal. He recently welcomed me to his new office, across the street from TSN 690/Virgin Radio/CHOM/CJAD.

Wayne Bews at his new office.

Raised in Lorraine, Bews attended  Rosemere High, John Abbott College and McGill University. Following a stint in real estate, he broke into radio sales in 1992 for CHOM and the former Oldies 990, being elevated to sales manager six years later.  Bews remained in that role when the TEAM 990 was born in 2001, assuming the GM duties in 2005 when his mentor and the man who held that title Lee Hambleton died.

Until THE TEAM 990 acquired the broadcast rights to the Canadiens two years ago and switched its call letters to TSN 990 (now 690), the station always seemed to be on life support. But with Bews at the helm, they somehow remained viable. “We were the little train that could,” he said. “I got a ton of support from Mitch Melnick and when Elliott Price joined he helped a lot. There are not too many stand alone AM stations out there, but we had good support from our owners.”

Not long after the exciting news came that the station was being rebranded as TSN and had  secured a seven year contract to broadcast the Habs, Bell Media announced that it planned to transform the station to a French RDS Radio. Their original bid to purchase Astral properties meant they could not retain four English radio stations.   After hearing from listeners and many other interveners, the Astral takeover was refused.  Last summer, resubmitted, it was accepted.

“TSN 690 is in very capable hands now with Martin and Chris,” Bews says. “I am still listening and feel very much part of the family.”

Bews and his wife Kelli Barrington, a real estate agent for Royal Le Page, have two children. John just entered prep school in Concord, NH, where he is playing hockey and football while Holli, who plays ringuette, soccer and softball on the West Island, attends Villa Maria High School. Bews himself has coached hockey in Pointe Claire for a number of years.

Let me say on the record that Bews was one of the finest individuals I ever dealt with in the radio business. We spoke and corresponded regularly and I just know he will be a big success at CTV.

Sheldon Fried reportedly becomes the latest CJAD casualty

One of the nicest guys in Montreal radio appears to be the latest victim of cuts at CJAD Radio. Only a couple of weeks after Ric Peterson, Claude Beaulieu, Chantal Desjardins and Sharman Yarnell were shown the  door (and Suzanne Desautels demoted  to strictly morning weather and weekend traffic), veteran on air master control producer Sheldon "Twinkles" Fried is reportedly looking for work.

Sheldon Fried

  

Fried more or less confirmed the news when I reached him via Facebook, but would not elaborate. His Linked In page has been updated to say "worked at Bell Media." Listeners will best know Fried from his time working with Tommy  Schnurmacher. Tommy always made a point of thanking him in a big way during and after each show. But it was Peter Anthony Holder who dubbed  him "Twinkles."

"Sheldon was my producer first when I had him in the evenings back in the early 90's," Holder says.   "It was because of the way that he use to fire the buttons and dramatically raise his hands, almost like a concert pianist, that I dubbed him 'Twinkles.'  If you remember, I created nicknames for all of my producers - at least the ones I liked, anyway) - from Admiral Larry to Rocket Rob to Glenn 'The Wild  Thing' Wildemann.  It all started when I created Sheldon's moniker."
 

Fried began working for CJAD,  CHOM and Virgin Radio (then CJFM) in 1989.  So here we have another person industry who spent nearly 25 years with the same employer out of work. It is a sad state of affairs, but that is the nasty radio business where there so no such thing as security.

Here is yet another person who would make an excellent contribution to AM 600, when and if it ever signs on.

Three main contenders to take part in CTV's Montreal mayoral TV debate

Montrealers will have their best chance yet to size up the three main candidates for mayor on Sunday evening, October 6 at 6 p.m. when candidates Richard Bergeron, Denis Coderre and Marcel Côté participate in the first English-language debate of the campaign.  

Richard Bergeron

Marcel Côte

The one-hour live broadcast, DEBATE 2013, will be moderated by CTV Montreal chief anchor Mutsumi Takahashi and will cover all of the important topics affecting the city leading up to the November 3 vote.  

DEBATE 2013 will be simulcast on NewsTalk Radio CJAD 800 and a live stream will be available on the CTV News Montréal website. To accommodate the live broadcast of the debate, CTV NEWS AT SIX will air one hour earlier, starting at 5 p.m. ET.

Immediately following DEBATE 2013, there will be a photo opportunity with the candidates in studio that will be followed by media scrums.

Right now the race is too close to call and it will be interesting to see the first polls come out. Debates certainly do influence voyer. Bergeron is certainly ahead in the poster race, with great visibility. Côte's individual posters, of which there are few, are good. However, the ones which show him with members of his team are difficult to see clearly. Coderre's team has decided not to have any posters at this time, clearly relying on his name recognition and an expected media advertisement campaign.

Montreal's other two mayoral candidates, Melanie Joly and Michel  Brule, are not included in this debate. Given their low number of candidates, this will likely be a common theme for them during the campaign. Joly does, though, clearly have the best posters of any candidate.

Denis Coderre

Barry Morgan gets permanent mid-day gig on CJAD; The Exchange debuts

It is now official. Barry Morgan has received a nice promotion at CJAD Radio, confirmed by brand director Chris Bury as the new permanent host of the mid-day Noon to 3 p.m. show.  He moves over from his evening shift to replace the duo of Ric Peterson and Suzanne Desautels.

Barry Morgan

Filling the gap for Morgan from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. will be a new show called The Exchange, featuring a rotation of hosts: Dan Delmar on Mondays, Matt Gurney  of  The National Post on Tuesdays and Thursdays  and political commentator Supriya Dwivedi on Wednesdays and Fridays.

Good for my old friend Barry, whom I first met when we attended the Concordia University Journalism Program  some 30 years ago. I was the sports editor of The Concordian Newspaper and in walked Barry, looking for a chance to write.  I gave him the soccer beat. Barry had a great set of pipes and worked his way up through the ranks of CJAD news and sports, tried his hand at television, enjoyed a stint at 940 News and the former Q92 and then resurfaced at CJAD. For the last couple of years he has been a jack of all trades, mainly hosting evenings, but filling in doing sports, the morning show and the weekday drive. 

 "Ever since I was a kid growing up in Ville St Laurent, I wanted to work in radio," Morgan is quoted as saying on the CJAD website. "I never imagined myself doing anything else."

The Exchange  promises to entertain and create buzz. Each night a different host goes head-to-head with a guest commentator. CJAD says to expect strong debate, lively discussion and some laughs. Any topic is fair game.

For the evening rotation, Delmar will stick around Mondays after co-hosting Today's Entrepreneurs at 7 p.m. This happens to be one of the more interesting shows on local radio, sponsored by the accounting firm Fuller Landau. Producer Stephanie Darwish and co-host and firm partner Josh Miller always come up with interesting guests. Dan, who runs his own PR firm, is a true talent. I still believe he has a full-time future in broadcast media.

Gurney is columnist and editor at the National Post, where he also serves as an editorial board member. He is a familiar face on televised political panels, having appeared on MTV Canada, CTS, CTV and the CBC, and is heard frequently across the country on national and local radio programs. He joined Toronto's CFRB NewsTalk 1010 (also part of Bell Media) as a regular contributor in 2011, and serves as a guest host when regular CFRB on-air personalities are absent. 

The  fluently trilingual Dwivedi is ( English, French and Hindii) graduated with a Bachelor of Science Degree from McGill University  and upon completion she was accepted into both medical and law school. Much to the chagrin of her parents, she opted to pursue the legal route where she could finally use her argumentative powers for good. She completed her LL.B in civil law at the University of Montreal.

Supriya Dwivdei

 

Another new CJAD regular to salute is morning news reporter  Tina Tenneriello, who effectively replaces Laura Casella (now with City Montreal TV).  Tina has an exceptionally smooth delivery and I have already seen in person how she works her magic on the iphone, literally editing her stories in seconds. I am working on mastering the proper pronunciation of her name.

Finally, Bury appears to be making early progress on bringing the TSN 690 operation closer to CJAD. Sportscasts are now billed as coming from the TSN Sports Centre. CJAD's Rick Moffat is now also part of the TSN 690 morning show while TSN's Mitch Gallo works for both the Mitch Melnick and Aaron Rand Shows. Abe Hefter and Moffat have crossed over to TSN shows and I am sure this is only the beginning.