Global Montreal announces new morning team

Global Montreal’s Morning News will finally debut on Monday, January 28,  airing from 6 a.m. to 9 a.m.   

Richard Dagenais  returns to his old stomping grounds, leaving his late news anchor spot to head the morning show team. He will be joined by anchor/host Camille Ross, most  recently of CTV Montreal and weather specialist Jessica Laventure. This will be Montreal's  only locally-produced English-language morning show until next summer when City (the new name for City TV) introduces its own weekday wakeup program. Will CTV Montreal bring back its show as well?

Camille Ross, Richard Dagenais and Jessica Laventure.

According to a press release from Shaw Media, the owners of Global, the  Morning News will move away from the larger, more ambiguous headlines and instead turn the spotlight on the stories and issues of most importance to the city’s anglophone community.

Highlighting this mandate will be the Morning News’ regular use of a central breakfast location in Montreal’s multilingual and culturally-diverse West Island. This will serve as the hub from which Laventure conducts her weather hits every morning. With what essentially amounts to a dynamic on-location set, the Morning News will establish itself in the heart of the community, while giving viewers a chance to regularly interact with members of the show.

Dagenais, an accomplished broadcast veteran, brings over 30 years of professional media experience. Beginning his journalism career in print and radio, he  made the jump to television in 1990, working as reporter for CFCF Television’s weekly advocacy journalism program Fighting Back. First joining Global Montreal in 2002, Dagenais worked as a fill-in sports anchor and line-up editor before becoming a regular anchor for This Morning Live. Dagenais returned to Global  in 2010 as temporary anchor of the Evening News and host of Focus Montreal, later becoming anchor for Global Montreal’s News Final in 2011.
 

Ross began her career with CTV’s NewsNet and Canada AM in Toronto before moving to to Yorkton, Saskatchewan, to anchor and report for CTV. Making the leap to join Global Regina in 2010, Ross reported on everything from breaking local news to weekly crop reports. She was also at the anchor desk for Global Regina’s Evening News, Prime News, and News Final programs before moving to CTV Montreal in 2011. An avid traveler, Ross has visited parts of the United States, Europe and South America and in her spare time, hosts community and charity events

Prior to joining Global, Laventure was co-host of the MétéoMedia Morning Show as well as a special features host for MétéoMedia and The Weather Network, covering several high profile weather-related stories, including the spring, 2011 floods in St-Jean-sur-Richelieu. Laventure’s television career began in 2006 as a production assistant and reporter for Global Quebec (now Global Montreal), where she later became Host of QC Magazine, a half-hour program dedicated to reporting Quebec’s top news stories. A graduate of Concordia University, Laventure is trilingual and can speak English, French, and conversational Italian.

Shaw Media spokesperson Nick Poirier says no decision has been made as to who will replace Dagenais as the late night anchor. Peter Anthony Holder, who fulfills that role on weekends, is currently in place and would be a popular choice.

Israeli Film Festival moving to Cinemas Guzzo

Organizers of the Israel Film Festivals in Montreal and Toronto have been  advised that the Cineplex Theatre chain will no longer provide venues for the event.

Eran Bester

  

While expressing his disappointment to me, Festival Director Eran Bester did have some good news.  The competing Cinemas Guzzo chain has agreed to host the next Montreal event, April 21 to 25 at their centrally located Spheretech location in  St. Laurent. The Toronto edition takes place in October and Bester already has some committee members seeking a new site.

For eight years the  Montreal festival had been held at the downtown Pepsi Forum, which Cineplex recently purchased from AMC. The Toronto home was the Cineplex Sheppard Grande. Pat Marshall, Cineplex’s  vice president of communications and investor relations, cited several concerns and scheduling difficulties when I reached her in Toronto.

“We initially decided to take the high road and focus on the fact it was difficult for us to give up screens for a week,”  Marshall said. “This is true. But  we have received a lot of troubling messages from people who are accusing us of being anti-Israel. That could not be further from the truth.”

Marshall emphasizes that Cineplex’s CEO and president Ellis Jacob is Jewish. Last year he co-chaired a Jewish National Fund Negev Dinner which raised over $5 million.  Cineplex theatres will continue to host the Toronto  and Windsor Jewish Film Festivals, while sponsoring organizations such as the  Canadian Friends of the Israel Museum and the Walk for Israel.

Mert Inal, Cineplex’s senior marketing manager for  partnerships and sponsorships, notes that giving up screens for a film festival “is always a challenge for us as it becomes almost an impossibility to program certain regular films that open one to two weeks prior to, during or sometimes one week after a festival takes place. When film studios cannot book films on our screens because of a film festival, they obviously need to book their films elsewhere, in which case we're usually faced with a significant opportunity cost of not running these films, not to mention the friction this causes between our Film department and the studios during our weekly film booking meetings.”

Inal did say that Cineplex has   established some long term relationships with certain film festivals on a rental and sponsorship value exchange basis and will continue to serve as their host for 2013

Bester started the festivals eight years ago when he  was based in Montreal for an Israeli company. “I saw that most of the news out of Israeli had to do with the conflict,” he said. “I decided what better way to tell our story than through film.  There are other community organizations which have Israeli Film Festivals, but none as thorough as ours."

Bester lives in Israel now, but travels back and forth to Montreal and Toronto a few times a year.

For more information go to www.israelfilmfestival.ca.

 

 

 

My casting call to replace Randy Tieman on TSN 690

With the NHL's abbreviated season set to begin on January 19, TSN 690 has a big decision to make. Who will replace Randy Tieman as co-host of the Intermission weekdays from Noon to 1 p.m. and as host of what was called the Tieman Show from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m.

Tieman left his post in late December after several years of basically pulling a double shift. Not only does he live just past the Quebec border in Ontario, he also works full-time for CTV News. It was only a matter of time before he would drop one of them and you just know it would not be the marquee CTV gig.

I already miss Tieman's chemistry with Tony Marinaro, his easy going banter with callers and of course his long list of contacts who would come on the air live with him.

Who is in line to replace him? Here is my crack at program director:

-Simon Tsalikis has been a pretty regular substitute for Tieman and might finally get a full-time gig.

-Connor McKenna is one talented jock talk host. But does he want to be a regular?

-Five Shaun Starr his own show and replace him in the mornings with Robin Flynn, who has shown promise in her part-time role.

-How about two females who really know their sports? Jessica Rusnak and Amanda Stein are already in house.

Bobby Dollas

-Former NHLer Bobby Dollas is no longer the colour commentator for Habs radio broadcasts. He is a Montreal boy who knows his sports, very articulate and well connected. I would love to see him get his own show.

-Would Andie Bennett, currently doing a great job on CBC Radio and TV, come back to the station which launched her career?

-Rod Francis, in my opinion, is ready to step in and host his own show. Opinionated and a man with a good sense of humour, this would not be a bad choice.

-Paul Graif does weekend sports for CTV Montreal and currently does the morning news and sports at K103 FM. A veteran reporter who knows his stuff;

-Randy Phillips retired from The Montreal Gazette Sports Department last summer. Perhaps he is ready to get back in the game?

Randy Phillips

-Would Warren Cromartie move back here full-time if they gave him his own show?

-Dave Kaufman, Matthew Ross and  Sean Campbell each deserve consideration. 

-Joey Elias hosts the Comedy Show on CJAD, but this man knows his sports. And laughs this man delivers.

-Regular caller Jerry from Rosemount would be a star. But Jerry is a senior with a visual impairment whose greatest joy in life is calling Marinaro.

What a list! The 17 wealthiest Quebecers in Canada

David Azrieli

Canadan Business Magazine has come out with its annual list of Canada’s 100 wealthiest people, with 17 Quebecers among them.  Paul Desmarais, head of the Power Corporation, is seventh overall at $4.4 billion. He  is followed by the  Saputo family, eighth at $4.23 billion courtesy of their food products and other ventures; 90 year old builder David J. Azrieli, 16^th at $2.8 billion; Charles Bronfman, 21^st, at  $2.4 billion; the Cirque de Soleil`s Guy Laliberté, 27^th, at $1.98 billion; Future Electronics boss Robert Miller, 29^th, at $1.94 billion; builder Marcel Adams, 31^st, at $1.93 billion;  clothing executive, race car lover and one time Côte Saint-Luc minor baseball star pitcher Lawrence Stroll, 32^nd, at $1.9 billion; the Bombardier family, 33^rd, at $1.89 billion; pharmacy mogul Jean Coutu, 35^th, at $1.83 billion; investor Stephen Jarislowsky, 47^th, at $1.48 billion; Dollarama’s Larry Rossy, 54^th, at $1.25 billion; telecommunications giant Charles Sirois, 64^th, at $1.07 billion; Alain Bouchard of Couche Tard, 66^th, at $1.04 billion; shoe store king Aldo Bensadoun, 89^th, at $763 million; the de Gaspé Beaubien family, telecommunications giants as well , 92^nd, at $714 million; and media magnate Pierre Karl Peladeau, 97^th, at $673 million. Note that Stroll and Sirois became the newest Quebec members to the billionaire club.

Lawrence Stroll

Agora Restaurant reborn on Somerled Avenue in NDG

Good news for folks like me who were sorry to see the popular Agora Restaurant on Somerled Avenue in N.D.G. close its doors last summer. Chef Fotis Vasilakakis has breathed new life into the establishment, rebranding it Olympic Agora.

Emmanuel Plaitis  had purchased the 60 seat eatery from original owner Peter Vamvakaris towards the end of 2010. All seemed to be going well, until the surprising closure. Fortunately,  veteran restaurant man Vasilakakis stepped up to the plate.  When I dined there with family members I was most impressed to see the new owner step out of the kitchen on more than one occasion to visit each table and see how their meals were going. He even had the waitress present several items on the house -not a bad PR move when trying to lure back former customers and attract new ones.

I had the trademark Greek chicken, a quarter breast with rice and Greek potatoes. It was excellent. The old Agora menu, with such favorites as Greek salads, brochettes, lamb chops, steaks, sole, salmon filet, remains intact, but with the new Fotis touch.

Fotis told me that a website is in the planning stages.  The address is at 6544 Somerled . For more information call 514-484-1111.

Parthenon Restaurant to open new location on Queen Mary Road

There is a new restaurant about to join the Queen Mary Road strip in Montreal. Parthenon, the popular bring your own wine brochetterie and a mainstay on Van Horne Avenue near Côte des Neiges since 1978, is opening a second location on January 3.

That is not great news for Yia Sou,  the three year old Greek restaurant right next door.  It took over the spot previously occupied by the Arahova chain and has done very well.  Parthenon has a lot of the same menu items (not of course Yia Sou's signature Greek Taverna chicken) at a much lower price.

Parthenon's Côte des Neiges location  is very popular at lunch, especially with the nearby Jewish General Hospital crowd.  It will now attract a new West End crowd in Snowdon.

Can Yia Sou and Parthenon co-exist on a strip which has traditionally not been too friendly to restaurants? We will wait and see.

Some kind of year for evenko

The Montreal Canadiens may be off the ice due to the senseless NHL lockout, but owner Geoff Molson can still smile at the fact that his entertainment production arm, evenko, has just completed a solid 2012.

 

Here is their review:

First of all, it must be noted that in 2012 the Bell Centre was ranked third among the best arenas in the world, just behind London’s O2 Arena and the Staples Center in Los Angeles (Venues Today, November 2012). The Bell Centre was also the venue that obtained the highest number of Facebook check-ins in all of Canada for the year, leading the Rgers Centre and Canada’s Wonderland! (source: 

http://www.facebookstories.com/stories/3895/canada-trends)

As far as production of shows and festivals, 2012 has been another record year for evenko: we presented 1003 events, nearly a third of which showcased Quebec artists! That’s almost 3 events for every day of the year.

Although evenko is often associated with the Bell Centre, it’s important to recognize that aside from the 141 events that were held there in 2012, we produced 484 events in other Montreal venues, another 310 throughout the province and 68 outside of the province of Quebec for a total of 2,220,334 tickets sold!

Another piece of great news: tomorrow, evenko and Virgin Mobile are officially inaugurating theVirgin Mobile Corona Theatre, with exclusive performances from Feist, Coeur de pirate and Kele Okereke of Bloc Party, who will be at the turntables keeping the guests dancing! Firmly committed to developing local talent, evenko has presented 21 Quebec artists (musicians and comedians) on the Corona Theatre stage since November 2011, all while contributing to the cultural life of the thriving South West borough.

Remaining in the context of diversifying its core competencies as promoter and producer of shows and festivals, evenko won the bid for exclusive manager of the future Place Bell in Laval, which will be inaugurated in the fall of 2015.

Peter Gabriel

 

As a promoter, evenko was associated with 56 shows in Quebec City, including Bryan Adams, Pitbull, Star Académie, the Michael Jackson Immortal Tour of Cirque du Soleil, Peter Gabriel (as he launched started his North American) and the great Leonard Cohen at the Colisée Pepsi. At the Grand Théâtre, the performances of City and Colour, Queen Extravaganza and Loreenna McKennitt were presented to sold-out audiences, and Avenged Sevenfold gave an electrifying performance at the Agora.

It’s also noteworthy that evenko was associated with the Mondial Loto-Québec de Laval for the first time, to present three outdoor shows on an international scale on the enchanting site of the Centre de la nature, with Sarah McLachlan, LMFAO and Aerosmith.

OUR STARS OF THE YEAR:

* OSHEAGA Festival musique et arts: For the seventh edition of the festival at Parc Jean Drapeau – which was sold out for the first time – festival goers from here, Quebec, the United States and around the world had their eyes and ears full for three days of performances, including Justice, Snoop Dogg and The Black Keys!

* PHILIPPE BOND, who took home the “Olivier de l'année” and received a Platinum Ticket(over 100,000 tickets sold). He will make his first Bell Centre appearance on April 5^th!

* COLDPLAY, who sold out the Bell Centre for 2 concerts on July 26th and 27th that were spectacular and sparkling (thanks to the thousands of glowing bracelets distributed to fans). These shows were also immortalized on their DVD Coldplay Live 2012!

* SALTIMBANCO of the Cirque du Soleil, which, after having been seen by fourteen million people around the world, has come home to complete its final lap at the Bell Centre from December 19^th to 30^th. This is a show you absolutely have to see – or re-see!

Other remarkable events at the Bell Centre

 

Jennifer Lopez

It’s hard to choose in such a prosperous year, but it’s impossible to forget Simple Plan, Bryan Adams, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Radiohead, Roger Waters – The Wall, Star Académie with 8 shows at the Bell Centre and 24 performances throughout Quebec, Enrique Iglesias and Jennifer Lopez who kicked off their North American tour in Montreal, the super-productionDragons which was presented for the first time in Montreal and in French, Madonna, Jason Mraz, Peter Gabriel, Rush, the divine Barbara Streisand, the legendary Leonard Cohen, who successfully created an intimate ambiance for his two concerts at the Bell Centre, and finally the sensation Justin Bieber – who, with his adoring fans in a complete frenzy – exploded the

 

decibel level at the Bell Centre!          

Musical performances

This year brought the return of Don Juan, composed of a new line-up revolving around Jean-François Breau and Marie-Ève Janvier, and the Broadway musicals Wicked and Mary Poppins, presented for the very first time in Montreal at the Place des Arts.

Sports

evenko presented two highly anticipated boxing matches: Jean Pascal vs. Tavoris Cloud andLucian Bute vs. Dennis Grachev; the first Rendez-vous des Maîtres, which brought together the legendary tennis stars Andre Agassi, Michael Chang, Ivan Lendl and Jimmy Connors on the court of the Bell Centre; a second pre-season NBA game, with the New York Knicks facing off against the Toronto Raptors in front of a sold-out crowd; and the unforgettable UFC 154, where Georges St-Pierre won back his welterweight world champion title after a battle of the titans against Carlos Condit.Overview of performances in other Montreal venues
City of Colour, Of Monsters and Men, Sum 41, The XX, Refused, Sonar Tour and The Weeknd took Metropolis by storm; Queen Extravaganza lit up the Théâtre St. Denis; Charlie Winston, Charles Bradley, A$AP Rocky, Steel Panther, Gotye, Young the Giant, MarthaWainwright, Malajube, Ariane Moffatt and Pierre Lapointe took the stage at the Théâtre Corona Virgin Mobile; Grizzly Bear, Slash, Jack White and Ed Sheeran rocked thousands of spectators at Olympia; Fun. sold out the Cabaret Mile End; and Death Cab for Cutie, David Byrne/St. Vincent and Rufus Wainwright put on great shows at the Église Saint-Jean-Baptiste.

Comedy

Sugar Sammy received unanimous critical acclaim for both his bilingual show You’re Gonna Rire (45 shows at the Olympia in Montreal) and his entirely francophone show En français SVP(36 shows around the province of Quebec). Also in comedy, evenko launched their brand new series Comiques au Corona, hosted by François Morency, who invited the likes of Philippe Bond, Louis-José House, François Bellefeuille, Sugar Sammy, Maxim Martin and Dominic et Martin, among others, to test out their new material in front of a live audience at the Corona Theatre.

Osheaga Festival Musique et Arts – From August 3^rd to 5^th 

The Osheaga festival reached new heights in 2012! With an all-star lineup, an expanded and improved site at the heart of the magnificent Parc Jean-Drapeau, exceptional fans from around the world, and Mother Nature toying with our emotions every step of the way, it was a seventh edition that will long be remembered! 105 groups came out, 18 of which are Quebecois, in front of a crowd that totaled 120,000 spectators. The three-day festival completely sold out, a first in the history of Osheaga! More than half of the fans came from outside Quebec, the other Canadian provinces and more than 25 countries including England, France, Australia, Mexico and the United States. OSHEAGA is now more than ever a major tourist event for Montreal, with an estimated economic impact of nearly $50 million.

Heavy MTL – From August 10^th to 12^th

It was also a record year for the 4^th Heavy MTL festival at Parc Jean-Drapeau. With System of a Down and Slipknot headlining, and 10 Quebecois groups performing, fans of heavy and intense music were spoiled! 44,360 fans (46% of which were tourists) came out to enjoy the festival which is constantly evolving. The economic impact of Heavy MTL on the Montreal tourism industry is an estimated $5.2 million.

In 2013, collaborating with its many partners, evenko will continue to pursue its mission of development in the world of entertainment and culture, while contributing to the tourism economy of the greater Montreal area and surrounding regions. Between 2002 and 2011, the number of performance at the Bell Centre that were part of the Top 25 largest tours in the world rose from 11 to 16; so evenko has contributed significantly to the image of Montreal as a city of major performances and festivals. More than 77,600 foreign tourists take part in evenko shows every year, spending $48.4 million in Quebec from 2010-2011.

Finally, a big thank you to all of our partners and customers, and especially you, the fans, who have made these events at the Bell Centre and all the other Quebec venues great highlights that we will remember for a long time to come.