Local insurance broker wants to send Mayor Gendron to Israel

Côte Saint-Luc insurance broker Steve Acre is among those who find Huntingdon mayor and V Television Network commentator Stéphane Gendon’s comments on the December 27 edition of his Face a Face talk show abhorrent. Gendron called Israel an "apartheid state" that "does not deserve to exist." 

Acre suffered through a frightening childhood in Iraq, where Jews were marked for “extermination.”  He did escape as a teenager, finding refuge  in Israel and eventually moving to Canada. You can read about his fascinating story here.

Stéphane Gendron

Referring to Gendron’s comments, Acre said: “I went bananas. I would like him to compare Israel to places like  Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and others.”   

Acre has an offer for Gendon. “I am willing to contribute $ 500 for the mayor and his wife to fly to Israel and see for themselves, if Israel is as bad as they make it to be,” he said. “I am hoping this way, maybe more people will contribute so we can send this guy to Israel.”

Having worked for  the organized Jewish community in the past (11 years at the Canadian Jewish Congress) I am well aware of the successful missions to Israel that have been coordinated with politicians of different stripes in an effort to sensitize them to the plight of  the Jewish State. Are Gendron and Khadir hopeless cases?  Probably! But wouldn't it be interested  to make them such an offer? Steve Acre has got the ball rolling.

Rabbi Reuben Poupko, spiritual leader of the Beth Israel Beth Aaron Congregation in CSL said that he cannot fathom why Gendron was been invited back to share his inflammatory views on a sensitive subject.  "He is a dangerous force, a divisive force," said Poupko. "And the fact that the management and ownership of that station continues to tolerate his presence on air as they dismissed him five years ago is bizarre."

Gendron, by the way,  also supported the boycott of  the Boutique Le Marcheur on St. Denis Street because  its sells  shoes made in Israel.  Here you can see Gendron praise anti-Israel  MNA Amir Khadir for his position on the boycott of Le Marcheur.

Is Heather B Terry D's new CHOM sidekick?

Terry DiMonte officially returns to the CHOM FM morning show on Monday morning and while there is no official word as to who will be his on air sidekick, the rumours I am hearing lead to Heather Backman (affectionately known as Heather B) leaving her current post with a Q104 in Cleveland to join Montreal's Spirit of Rock 97.7.

Heather Backman

This would be an interesting move, given the fact she gave up a pretty popular afternoon show gig here on Virgin Radio just under a year ago. A native of NDG, Heather  has also spent time as the midday host at WSTZ in Jackson, Mississippi, WKXJ in Chattanooga, Tennessee and afternoon drive at WMXF in Chattanooga.

Here is a look at Heather B at the Grammy Awards last year. I think she would be a good fit with Terry. However, I am also very fond of current co-host Chantal Desjardins.

Update: It has now been confirmed that Heather B will become Terry's co-host as of January 16.

My first dining experience at the new Yangtze Restaurant

Since I first reported about the December 3 fire which destroyed the legendary Yangtze Chinese Restaurant on Van Horne Avenue in Montreal, there have been a record number of hits on my blog. Thousands of people from around the world responded with shock and sadness.

Brian Yau, with daughter Bobo and son Marco admire the painting.

Business Consultant Mel Leitman, whom I first met just a few years ago, was engaged by the new owners of the restaurant to help them rebuild. Things started to move a lot quicker than he or anyone else expected when owner Marco Yau, his sister Bobo and their dad Brian purchased the Tchang Kiang Chinese Restaurant at  6066 Sherbrooke Street West in NDG only a week after the blaze.  It closed last July after 35 years in business.  They already have a beautiful painting by noted artist Carole Spandau of the original Yangtze up on the wall.

The Yaus renamed the place Tchang Kiang by Yangtze and in record time opened their doors to the public on December 17. Like a magician, Leitman helped make new menus – all of the Yangtze favorites, plus the Szechuan dishes Tchang Kiang was known for. Today,  he invited me to meet the Yaus and sample some of the cuisine myself.  Yangtze first opened in 1956. I came into the world six years later and I can safely say my parents starting bringing me there as a toddler.

There was a fairly good crowd there for lunch. The 70 seat dining establishment has a very pretty interior, much nicer in fact than the old Yangtze. Marco is a charismatic young man in his 20s who is on a temporary leave from Concordia's urban planning program in order to focus on the business. The fire, he said, was a total shock. “I was at home on the South Shore and somebody called to tell me,” Marco explained. “I raced over and I could not believe my eyes. We only bought the place a month earlier.”

Brian Yau was actually a previous owner, from 2000 to 2007.  He had partners in the venture and when they decided to sell he agreed reluctantly. When it came back on the market just recently, he urged his son Marco to step up to the plate. Everything was going smoothly until the fire. “We do not know the exact cause yet,” said Marco. “The Fire Department continues to investigate. We are waiting to find out how extensive the damage is and whether we can in fact rebuild.”

The Yaus realized that if they did not act fast, they ran the risk of losing their experienced staff of waiters, cooks and deliverymen. Just coincidentally, Brian’s friend was a real estate who was looking for someone to take over the Tchang Kiang location. In this case, Bobo agreed to become the principal owner. What followed was a raise to get all of the necessary equipment in place and to agree upon a blended menu. Word spread quickly and already they have the best of both worlds, with a clientele who missed Tchang Kiang and of course the Yangtze diehards.

“When I took over the Yangtze many people asked why we did not have Szechuan on our menu,” said Marco. “Well, with this new restaurant we now have it all.”

The delicious egg rolls.

  
I dined on a hot bowl of won ton soup with dry noodles on the side, a delicious egg roll, some Cantonese lobster, beef with snow peas and broccoli, spare ribs, Tchang Kiang’s kouptien dumplings (steamed and lightly fried), pineapple chicken and steamed rice. It was all very delicious. Indeed, the Yangtze is already back better than ever!

By the way, the most frequent question I have received from readers is whether legendary waiter “Tiger” is still there. “No,” said Marco, “he retired some time ago. But we will invite him back to visit. The same for the former owner of Tchang Kiang, Siao Wong.”

Won ton soup.

Go to http://www.thesuburban.com/ as of January 11 and check out our Suburban Mall for Yangtze deals. 

And here is a copy of the new delivery menu

New Yangtze to open December 17

Less than a week after he officially bought the new property, Marco Yau will bring the Yangtze Chinese Restaurant back to life on Saturday, December 17 (4 p.m.) at its new NDG location. Tchang Kiang by Yangtze is  located at  6066 Sherbrooke Street West (corner of Hampton). The entire staff from the original Van Horne locale, which was destroyed by fire on December 3, will be on duty. Enhanced menus have been printed and plans call to rebuild on Van Horne in the months ahead.

Here is the official announcement from the restaurant's marketing consultant, Mel Leitman.

Attention:  All friends and patrons of the Yangtze Restaurant in Montreal

Yangtze Restaurant was closed due to a fire a few weeks ago.

We are pleased to inform you that a new location has been opened that will allow us to serve you again

It is located at 6066 Sherbrooke St. West at Hampton Avenue in NDG.

We will be open starting Saturday December 17^th at 4:00 pm for dinner.  Call us about our hours during the holidays.

We would strongly suggest that you call to make reservations due to the great interest in verifying that the Yangtze has arisen again.

Call 514-733-7171  or  514-487-7744

The same staff, food and chefs will be there to please you

The name is now  Tchang Kiang par/by Yangtze

The original Yangtze menu has been enlarged by adding many of the Tchang Kiang Sechwan and Peking favorites.

Please note the business hours at the new location:

Monday – closed all day

Tuesday to Friday:   Lunch from 11:00 am to 2:30 pm, 

Dinner from 4:00 pm to 10:00 pm.

Saturday & Sunday: Dinner from 4:00 pm to 10:00 pm

We all look forward to seeing you again.

The Yangtze Family

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.

Paul Karwatsky to be interim co-anchor on CTV Montreal

CTV Montreal News and Public Affairs Director Jed Kahane has confirmed that Paul Karwatsky will be the interim co-anchor at noon and 6 pm weekdays with Mutsumi Takahashi, as the search for a permanent replacement for the departing Todd  van der Heyden proceeds.

Paul Karwatsky

Karwatsky has been with the station for eight years. He is handsome, personable and well liked - a homegrown journalist  who attended Nesbitt Elementary School and Vincent Massey Collegiate in Rosemount. I first met him through his mom Mary Ann, at the time a guidance counsellor at the English Montreal School Board. "My son just graduated from university with a double major in journalism and political science and he would like to get a job in the media," she said. "Can you get him something at The Suburban?"

Soon after Paul did call me and sent along his CV, which I  shared with The Suburban. He quickly scored some freelance work with CTV Montreal, despite the fact he had no prior  TV experience. Paul caught on quickly and made his way to the anchor desk in a pretty short period of time as a fill-in and more recently on weekends with Tarah Schwartz.

Kahane has made the appropriate move, not doing anything permanent at the moment. Karwatsky was and probably remains the number one candidate for the job. If they open it up to applications, one never knows who  might apply from the outside.

Here is one of Paul's reports from a few years ago on a Sci Fi convention:

92.5 The Beat and TSN Radio 990 show gains in ratings

Well it looks like the new 92.5 The Beat FM format  is working out quite nicely. In its first Bureau of Broadcast Measurement (BBM) ratings period via the  Personal People Meters (PPM) method since reinventing itself from The Q 92.5 FM to the Beat, the Cogeco station showed comfortable gains from  the last survey. TSN Radio 990 (formerly  TEAM 990 and soon to be TSN Radio 690) also showed improvements.

The survey was taken between August 29 and November 27.

In terms of the weekly reach of listeners in the anglo market, Virgin Radio (516,000) remained in the lead followed by The Beat (483,000 compared to 475,000 previously), CHOM (342,000), CJAD (304,000), TSN Radio (131,000 compared to 83,000) and CBC Radio One (121,000).

In the all important  aged 25 to 54 demographic, Virgin Radio’s morning show, hosted by Freeway Frank and Lisa Player, leads the pack between 9 am and 10 am (Andrea Collins does the final hour) with a 28.9 percent share. CJAD's Andrew Carter (22.3),  Cat Spencer and Sarah Bartok at The Beat (21.4 up from 17.5), Rob Kemp and Chantal Desjardins on CHOM (20.5) and Elliott Price and Shaun Starr on  TSN Radio (6.8 up from 5.0) follow.

"The Montreal radio landscape had more competition than ever this fall, which made things fun for everyone!" said Virgin Radio brand director Mark Bergman. "As the leader our plan was not to react, rather continue providing our loyal listenership with the biggest hits in Montreal, a fun personality filled line up, all wrapped up in a premium radio brand. We're thrilled with our results! Over two million listeners and number one again with adults aged 18 to 54."

Mitch Melnick

Between 10 and 4 pm, Virgin Radio (36.7) is in the lead followed by CHOM (24.6), The Beat (23.1 from 19.7), CJAD (8.8) and TSN Radio (6.9 up from 4.5). During the drive home, from 4 pm to  7 pm, Cousin Vinny at Virgin Radio  is way out front (37.7) followed by AJ Reynolds at The Beat 20.2 (up from 19.0), Pirate” Pete Marier  at CHOM (19.3), Mitch Melnick at TSN Radio (14.8 up from 9.0) and CJAD’s Aaron Rand (13.9 up from 12.9).

“We are pleased with The Beat's first book,” commented Mark Dickie, general manager and mastermind behind the new station. “We did very with females aged 35 to 54, which is the demo we need to own for our goal to own  females aged 25 to 54. Virgin is the choice for 18 to 34 year olds and The Beat is quickly becoming the choice for adults. We aren't able to publish November's results, but the three-month trend is very impressive. It is nice to see them get rewards so early in the game.

In the overall standings, which takes into account every singer listener regardless of age, the presentation is a bit different. It shows CJAD in the lead (24.4), followed by Virgin Radio (18.3), The Beat (16.3), CHOM  (12.3), CBC Radio One 88.5 FM (8.4) and TSN Radio (4.0). These are not the numbers, though, that advertisers take a particularly close look at.

“We know that Montrealers are embracing The Beat. Our mission every day is to make sure more and more people tune us in and sample our great radio station. We are hearing that once someone has sampled The Beat they are almost immediately making the station their preferred choice to listen to. We get feedback through our street team, Facebook postings, listener calls and emails.”

For Wayne Bews, general manager of TSN Radio 990 he had one word to sum up his reaction. "Proud," he responded. "We knew getting the rights to the Montreal Canadiens would help us. But keep in mind that when this survey was taken, the Canadiens were only playing during six of  the 13 weeks."


Bews says the most telling statistic is how the station performed with the male aged 25 to 54 demographic, where they were previously in fifth place with a 3.7 share. From  7 pm to 11 pm Monday through Saturday evenings, they are now number one with a 19.8 share ahead of Virgin Radio (17.3). "All of our staff worked really hard from the time we got the rights last June," he says. "This is really an excellent start."

The Beat spent a lot of money to promote the new station, via newspaper ads, billboards and bus stop posters. “Advertising does work,” says Dickie. “It creates the awareness for sampling - then it is up to our on-air team, programming, music and promotions to deliver.”