Amanda Kline leaving CJAD for new Videotron cable show

 CJAD is losing one of its key behind the scenes players.

Amanda Kline, the producer of the Barry Morgan Show, will be joining her former colleague Tina Tenneriello on the new Videotron MAtv cable public affairs show called City Life. Tina is the host and Amanda will be a reporter.

Amanda Kline

The  27 year old Kline, raised on Montreal's West Island, was actually an interim producer. She assumed Sarah Deshaies duties when the latter moved to the morning show replacing Andrea Elias. Andrea is on maternity leave, but when she returns then Sarah resumes her role with Barry. So for Amanda, this is probably a good career move.

 "I'm really excited about the opportunity and what we are working on!" says Amanda, who is already looking for story ideas.  

Amanda has been with CJAD for a year as a producer and doing on-call reporting. Prior to that she was living in Toronto completing her Master's Degree in Journalism at Ryerson and chase producing  at  the CTV News Channel. I had many dealings with her at CJAD and she was really on her game. They will miss her.

Dollard's Ashley Sahakian a winner at Miss Canada Globe pageant

Dollard des Ormeaux’s Ashley Sahakian recently returned from Toronto and the Miss Canada Globe Pageant where was crowned Miss Quebec Globe.

Miss Canada Globe Productions was founded in May 2000 and has three distinct divisions: Miss Globe, Miss Petite International and Miss Teen Worldwide.  The vision of organizers is to recreate the glamour of pageants, with a stronger focus on education and equality.   Pageant titleholders are not limited to a specific height or cultural background. The goal is for candidates to gain the confidence and poise that can be applied to their personal lives and careers in order to advance in today’s competitive society.

The 20 year old graduate of Kuper Academy in Kirkland and John Abbott College in Ste. Anne de Bellevue entering her first year at the John Molson School of Business. As part of her continued connection to Miss Canada Globe, Ashley must make two appearances a month at different fundraising or community events. “I am excited about that,” she told me. “Giving back to my community is something I really took away from this experience.”

Ashley Sahakian

There were a total of 70 girls from across the country competing in Toronto: 14 in the Teen Division (14 to 18), 33 in the Petite Division (19 to 29 and under five-foot-five, and 19 in the Miss Division (19 to 26 and over five-foot-five).  Ashley, who was in the latter, says they all bonded quite nicely. “I made so many new friends,” she says. “We were kept very busy, with appearances at places like Canada’s Wonderland, Eaton Centre and enjoying   karaoke, a salsa night and a swimsuit runway competition we did just for fun. I wish I could do it all again.”

A total of three competitors were from Quebec, with Ashley finishing first regionally. “We had long days of walk training and dance rehearsals,” she explains. “We also had hair and makeup training followed by personal interviews. From there we competed for regional titles on stage in swimwear and evening gowns."

There was an interview and platform speech for the national competition. Ashley chose to talk about the Starlight Children's Foundation “because I found that what they do is simply incredible. Every child deserves to have a life full of fun and be able to just be kids without having to struggle greatly from illness and Starlight makes this happen.” Besides her regional honours, Ashley also finished among the top 10 nationally.

Ashley is currently recruiting girls for next year. She can be reached at ashleysahakian@hotmail.com.

 

Tina Tenneriello making a return to local media on MAtv

For months now readers have been asking me what happened to Tina Tenneriello, the energetic morning news reporter on CJAD.

Well she took some time off, before deciding to put her radio career on hold. Why? Well Tina is moving over to television and will begin hosting a new community public affairs show on Videotron’s MAtv called City Life. Details will be announced at a press launch on September 16, with the actual program set to debut September 30.

Tina Tenneriello

Tenneriello, 28, had what is known as one of the toughest shifts in the business. She arose weekdays at 4 a.m. and headed to the station, prepared to cover the hot news story of the day. It could be a fire, a murder or a political development, she basically had to be ready for anything, While the shift was supposed to end at 1 p.m., she could often be heard on air several hours later. Wearing my hat as school board spokesperson, I communicated with her often in the evenings when she should have been half asleep. She also made appearances on the Aaron Rand drive show.

“The long hours were really my doing,” Tenneriello told me. “I did not just do the breaking news. I also investigated follow ups on my own stories so that would keep me in the studio past my regular hours. I guess I wanted a better balance in my life and working on this new TV show will be fun.”

CJAD has had an array of individuals doing that shift over the  last few months, with newcomer Emily Campbell handling most of the calls lately. Tenneriello had taken over from Laura Casella, who went to City’s Breakfast TV and is now on maternity leave. Originally from Ottawa, Tenneriello came here at the age of 17 to attend the Université de Québec a Montréal, where she studied marketing. She then completed the graduate program in journalism at  Concordia,

We wish her good luck in this new endeavor and expect to see her on one  of the three main English language TV shows before long.

Idina Menzel's first concert in Montreal a huge success

Three years ago my family and I travelled to Boston to see international singing superstar IdinaMenzel perform. The drive was well worth it as this Tony Award winning gem puts on quite a show.

When I got a chance to interview Menzel at that time I naturally asked if she had plans to ever come to Montreal. “I’d love to,” she said, urging her press agent to look into the possibility.

Last December Menzel announced plans for a world tour and Montreal was on the schedule for September 1, 2015 at the Place des Arts. It seemed like a long way off when we purchased tickets, but well worth the wait. More than 3,000 Idina fans packed Montreal’s finest hall for a spectacular performance. The audience was composed of people of all ages and this included the very young thanks to the fact Menzel voiced the character of Elsa from the blockbuster animated film Frozen.

Following Menzel’s Boston concert, we went to New York City twice to see her most recent Broadway musical If/Then. We then waited patiently for September 1. Earlier this summer publicist extraordinaire Arlene Slavin arranged a telephone interview for me with Menzel – tidbits of which I will share later in this article. But first about this concert. Menzel entered the stage singing Defying Gravity from the Tony Award winning Wicked, in which she had the leading role of Elphaba the green witch. The crowd rose to its feet.

Menzel on stage.

“This is my first time in Montreal,” Menzel shouted to the crowd. “What an exquisite city.”

Backed up by a 16 piece orchestra, some of whom were hired locally for this night only, she performed for a solid two hours straight. There were no breaks or intermission. Menzel is the ultimate entertainer. She engages her audience with short anecdotes and makes her way into the crowd on certain occasions. Following a series of numbers, including selections from Joanie Mitchell, Cole Porter, Ethel Merman and the Police’s Roxanne, she took her shoes off and treated the stage like her living room. This led to the song Creep. “Sometimes you wake up in the morning and you do not feel like getting out of bed,” she said. “Maybe somebody broke your heart…and you want to put the covers over your head.”

When Menzel performs the song Take Me or Leave Me from Rent, she does more than merely sing it. This becomes one of the highlights of the show for she gives people from the audience, young and old, a chance to sing it with her. As she walked through actual rows of seats one man stopped to make it clear that he did not want to sing out loud. “But can I get a selfie with you?” she consented.

 

Alex Cohen gets to sing with Menzel.

We got to hear a song from If/Then, a superb musical which comes to Toronto in April. Go to www.mirvish.com/shows for more details. Her acapella presentation of another song from Wicked, minus a microphone, was sensational. She saved perhaps the best for last, theme song from Frozen “Let it Go!” At this time she invited all of the young girls to join her up front and they did so with great enthusiasm. See this video clip. Frozen, for which the sequel is said to be set for 2018, has provided Menzel with a new generation of fans. Her encore consisted of a new young she wrote for her son and the classic “The Sun will come out tomorrow from Annie.”

Everyone left the hall very happy. A better performance we could not have asked for. Thank you Princeton Entertainment and Ruben Fogel Productions for making it happen.

 “I try to keep my concerts fun,” Menzel told me in my interview earlier this summer. “Singing in front of live audiences is simply what I love to do.”

 

Menzel brings youngsters up to sing  Let It Go near the end of the concert.

Frozen, which became the highest grossing animated film of all time at $1.3 billion, is destined for a sequel. “It was a career game changer, that’s for sure,” Menzel said. “Anytime you do something with Disney, it has the potential to become big. I just never thought   it would become this kind of phenomenon. It presented me with opportunities I never had before while the impact it has had on young children is a real gift.”

After the present tour, Mendel plans to help join the national tour of If/Then. “I want to be there for some of the openings,” she said.  “This musical is dear to my heart. There are some television opportunities percolating. Of course I want to spend time with the family and get my son set in school.”

If/Then starred Menzel as Elizabeth, a city planner emerging from a failed marriage. She also played Liz, a city planner emerging from a failed marriage. They're the same woman, of course; the show extrapolates her life in two different directions from one moment of choice.

Montreal gets another live morning TV show - sort of

Every weekday morning I switch TV stations back and forth between City's Breakfast TV and the Global Morning News. So imagine how surprised I was when I quickly passed by CBC and noticed what I thought was Daybreak host Mike Finnerty. I circled back and sure enough there he was with the complete Daybreak crew simulcasting their morning radio show between 6 a.m. and 7 a.m. So I was not seeing things. It turns out that this was kind of soft launch of a very novel idea - something that is not uncommon in the United States and is done by some shows here nationally.

What a great idea!  Because we generally hear them only, radio personalities do not necessarily have to be attired the same way as their TV counterparts. Will that change for the Finnerty crew?  It was an interesting dynamic to be sure.

Finnerty is a terrific interviewer and for viewers it is really nice to put some faces to names.

Below is what they published on their website:

Starting this Monday, you'll get to go "behind the scenes" on CBC morning radio.

Daybreak, your local morning show, will broadcast between 6 a.m. and 7 a.m. on CBC Television. You'll be able to watch Mike Finnerty and the team as they bring you all the local news, guests and information you need to begin your day in Montreal.

Broadcasting Daybreak on television is about giving you, our audience, more ways to find us.

This will not replace your experience of listening to Daybreak in the morning.

The show will still air from 5:30 a.m. ET to 8:30 a.m. on Radio One. We're simply providing you another way to access the program. You'll see the Daybreak team broadcasting from Studio 20 in La Maison Radio Canada.

We'll also provide continuous local headlines and weather on screen.

We're using some pretty interesting technology to make this happen. Cameras have been installed throughout the Daybreak studio and control room.

These cameras are voice-triggered and follow whoever is speaking at any time.

The system works remotely with human intervention, leaving theDaybreak team to do what it does best — make great radio.

So this Monday, Aug. 24, you have one more place to tune in to your favourite morning show – CBC Television. You can find Daybreak on CBC Television, CBC Radio (88.5/104.7FM), streaming online atcbc.ca/montreal or on your CBC Radio app.

Make sure to check us out and as always, we want to hear from you. To let us know how we're doing, you can email me at shelagh.kinch@cbc.ca or leave a comment.

So You Think You Can Dance Top 10 Tour Montreal bound...in January

There are not too  many live shows I look  forward to seeing more than the So You Think You Can Dance Tour, which will roll into Montreal for the third successive year on Thursday, January 28. Instead of the Bell Centre, though, they’ll be at the 2,200 seat Theatre St. Denis.

The Top 10 finalists of SYTYCD, the 13-time Primetime Emmy® Award-winning show that sparked America’s fascination with dance, will captivate audiences once again this fall and winter.   Celebrating its momentous 12th season and its exciting new Stage v. Street format, the dancers will make their way across North America performing in 70 cities. The Season 12 tour lineup includes the following Top 10 finalists: Team Stage’s Gaby Diaz, Edson Juarez, Jim Nowakowski, Hailee Payne and Derek Piquette; and Team Street’s Megan “Megz” Alfonso, Eddie “Neptune” Eskridge, Virgil Gadson, Jessica “JJ” Rabone and Jana “Jaja” Vankova. 

Hailee Payne

Of course the show airs Mondays (8:00-10:00 PM ET live/PT tape-delayed) on FOX and CTV. They are now down to the final six: Hailee, Alfonso, Jim, Gaby, Virgil and Jaja.   The tour kicks off on Tuesday, Oct. 13, at the Verizon Theatre in Grand Prairie, TX and crosses the United States and Canada with 70  stops. The first leg of the tour will wrap on December, 29 at the Taco Bell Arena in Boise, ID. The dancers will then return for the second leg of the tour in Canada in January 2016.

Tickets go on sale to the public beginning Friday, Aug. 28. Visit fox.com/dance for more information.

Virgil

Let me tell you, there is hardly a more electrifying feeling than being in the audience for one of these shows. Consider that only a few months ago these very talented dancers were virtual unknowns. Now they are superstars. The shows I have attended never let me down and I loved watching how wild the spectators went for their favorites. I have also had the good fortune of getting to meet the top 10 in person  for interviews.

The folks at 19 Entertainment and dick clark productions have a real winner on their hands. Sadly for us, So You Think You Can Dance Canada was cancelled by CTV after only four seasons in 2011. Their tours, the  last one at the Bell Centre and prior to that Place des Arts, were pretty exciting as well.

SYTCD   recently received eight 2015 Primetime Emmy® Award nominations, including Outstanding Reality-Competition Program and Outstanding Host In A Reality or Reality-Competition Program (Cat Deeley), in addition to nominations for Outstanding Choreography, Outstanding Hairstyling For A Multi-Camera Series Or Special, Outstanding Lighting Design/Lighting Direction For A Variety Series, and Outstanding Makeup For A Multi-Camera Series Or Special (Non-Prosthetic). SYTYCD’s exceptional costume team of Marina Toybina and Grainne O’Sullivan also won an Emmy® Award for Outstanding Costumes for a Variety Program.

“I am thrilled with this season’s new Stage vs. Street format and the brilliant, fresh talent we have discovered,” judge, executive producer and co-creator Nigel Lythgoe said in a statement. “These dancers have inspired the choreographers to create remarkable dance numbers each week, truly showcasing individual talent. I am excited for your favorite dancers to bring their inspiration and routines to even more cities on this year’s nationwide tour.”

Take a look at this video and enjoy!

Breaking News: P.F. Chang's Montreal locations sold to owners of Cage Aux Sports; Toronto locale closes

There is good news for fans of P.F. Chang’s. Groupe Sportscene, owners of among other things the very successful Cage Aux Sports franchise, has purchased the two Montreal area locations---one at Rue des Jockeys next to the former Blue Bonnets and the other at Carrefour Laval.

Last April the Canadian operation of P.F. Chang’s, run by Interaction Restaurants and CEO Michael Aronovici, filed  a Notice of Intention to make a proposal to creditors in order to obtain the courts` protection so they could gain time to find a strategic partner or a buyer.

The Toronto location in suburban Don Mills has been sold to Cara Foods and will no longer be a P.F. Chang’s. They will convert it into one of their other brands, possibly a Milestones, Montana’s or Kelsey’s.

 

Jean Bedard

I spoke to Jean Bedard, the CEO of Sportscene, who was very excited about this new venture. He recently returned from the head office of P.F. Chang’s in Phoenix where he got the go ahead to change the branding and adjust the menu. For starters, it will not be called P.F. Chang’s China Bistro – simply P.F. Chang’s. “We have more Asian cuisine than Chinese,” Bedard said. “The word ‘Chinese’ might make some associate with Chinese buffets. It is not necessary.”

For now Bedard’s goal will be to solidify the two Montreal area locales, which already have a loyal following. “The Cage has been around for 30 years,” he said. “We have resources. I must admit up until recently I did not know P.F. Chang’s was in Montreal. It needs brand recognition. I have always loved the place. When I take my family to Florida, that is the first place we go and eat. I have been to both of our locations. They are well operated and I think by adding them to our existing 200 restaurants will be a bonus.”

In the next week or so both Montreal area locations will be closed for three days in order to prepare for the rejigged menu, which will still have all of the staple favorites like chicken lettuce wraps,  Mongolian beef, crispy honey chicken, double pan-fried noodles and more.

Bedard said that once he is satisfied the two Montreal area locales are doing well, he will look towards expansion. He already has his eye on the South Shore,  downtown, the West Island, Quebec City and Gatineau. “After that we will look outside of Quebec,” he said.

In terms of continuity, the operating partners of two locations – Emile Haykal and Elie Sucar – will remain in place. That is great news as they know the business well.

As for Aronovici, he should be commended for bringing the storied brand to Canada.  “When it becomes evident that you cannot achieve your stated business objectives, the best thing to do is move on.,” he told me. “We had a lot of headwind on this project. The US dollar got much stronger, driving up many of our costs. The price of oil dropped badly hurting the Alberta economy, the economic situation in Montreal is worse than we had expected and the real estate market in Toronto is extremely hot driven by Western based casual dining chains looking to expand and the list goes on. Such is business. On to the next challenge!”