Nancy Wood gestures with a hot dog at a CBC union protest in May
Two months after former host Mike Finnerty left Montreal and CBC Daybreak for London, the Corp. will announce (UPDATE: announced) this morning that Nancy Wood will be his successor. The Gazette got the scoop in Friday’s edition. CBC Montreal also has a story up, packaged with the news about the new evening TV newscast.
Long-time radio listeners (actually, anyone over the age of five) will remember Wood as the host for 11 years of Radio Noon (disclosure: I worked as a researcher on that show while she hosted – for a total of one shift). Before that she worked at various reporting jobs, including Maclean’s, the Toronto Star and the Gazette. More recently (at least, before sitting in the Daybreak host chair as a fill-in and job candidate), she has been a national television news reporter out of Montreal.
Nancy Wood, new CBC Daybreak host
Wood is a no-brainer for the Daybreak job, even with a large field of good candidates. She has extensive experience hosting a CBC radio program in Montreal, and knows the city well. She was also the favourite of The Gazette’s Mike Boone, who lobbied for her to get the job years ago. The only real question was whether she was interested in getting up at 4am every weekday.
Now we know.
Welcome back to radio, Nancy.
UPDATE: Wood let her listeners know of the decision kind of off-hand in her morning chat with Quebec AM’s Tim Belford at about 5:45am.
The 7:20am segment was devoted to an interview of her by Gazette columnist Mike Boone (now we know how the Gazette got the scoop), in which she said she didn’t mind the hours, she preferred the radio medium where she can deal with many issues instead of spending an entire day putting a TV package together, and discussed what a typical Daybreak host day is like.
For the record, it’s like this:
- Wake up at 4am
- Leave at 4:15am
- Arrive at the CBC at 4:30-4:45am
- Show begins at 5:30am
- Show ends at 8:37am
- Record podcast (usually about half an hour)
- Record promos
- Meetings to plan the next day’s show
- Leave about 11am
- Nap
- Go over scripts for the next day’s show, decide where to add in awkward silences
- Go to bed at about 8:30pm, and “just lie there”
- Actually fall asleep at 10pm
Wood and the Daybreak team are also asking listeners to tell them what issues they want the show to talk about this fall. I’d like to suggest an exposé on local media issues bloggers.
The Daybreak website has already been updated with pictures of Wood.
I have found this great news less than an hour ago while driving to work. It made my week. FINALLY a great host on at least one of the three Montreal-produced Radio One shows. I am unable to listen to the Radio Noon anymore, the new host seems to be to rough onthe edges and too superfluos. The Home Run Mr. St-Laurent is another story -barely coherent as someone else already noted. I remember meeting Nancy long time ago at the Fairview Shopping Centre in Pointe Claire when she was a junior staff member of Radio Noon hosted then by Royal Orr. She has come a long way! I am looking forward to tuning in to her show every morning. Suddenly the drive to work seems to be enjoyable. Congratulations, Nancy! Do take the show on the road once in a while, myself and surely others would love to meet you personally again. V.T. Slajer, Plateau Mont Royal.
good call, now about the lunch show host…
And speaking of the lunch show, PLEASE bring back the two hour format. CBC is supposed to be bringing us together, not being some third-tier cable radio show rerunning hits of previous generations.
Yes, while I miss Mike Finnerty, Nancy Wood is a very good choice. Knowledgeable of Montréal and general news topics and pleasant voice, good articulation and grammar in English, decent French.
She is asking listeners what stories and topics we’d like to see covered.
I don’t like Homier-Roy on Radio-Canada very much, so I more often listen to Daybreak early in the morning, though I do switch between the two.
Maybe they can call the show Morning Wood. Hey-yo!
I miss Dave Bronstetter. He’ll always be the best of the bunch, if you ask me.
random question: how does one become a researcher for a radio show? is there any specific training or experience involved? sounds like a pretty sweet gig, imho.
I was an intern there for a week (during my Concordia journalism days), and they asked me to fill in for a handful of (paid) shifts after that, mainly as a researcher for the afternoon Homerun show. “Researcher” is perhaps somewhat of a misnomer. It basically involves booking guests. The key is being able to track people down and get them to agree to talk on the air.
“Decent french”
“Token french”
“knows what caviar is”
that’s some serious airbrushing btw.
Congratulations to Nancy… it’s a great choice and it will mean that Daybreak can move from strength to strength. More and more Montrealers are listening to it: second place in the morning and watch out CJAD! That success is making big waves in the rest of the market, as far as I can tell. To all you listeners and even fans, keep making your voices heard as you have been… And good luck to Nancy as she takes on one of the best jobs in the city. Mike (listening and being nosy from London)
Hi Mike, hope the Guardian is treating you well! (It is one of my favourite online media sites). I never listen to noisy commercial radio stations – only CBC/Radio Canada and community/university station.
Bob, I agree with you about Radio Noon; the two-hour format was great, (especially when they had gardening or veterinary guests for the phone-in; love my fauna and flora). I hate those canned CBC network programs that don’t seem relevant to any form of news or public affairs coverage (Radio-Canada 1 is better in that respect).
Pingback: CBC dumps Nancy Wood from Daybreak – Fagstein