Natasha Aimée Hall, who won 940 News’s Talk Show Idol and was hosting a show on Sundays until the station as a whole went under, is now working for CTV, co-hosting its Entertainment Spotlight program with perennial Mirror Tackiest Personality winner Mosé Persico.
I’ll let her explain the rest:
I shot my first show last Thursday and it will air this Sunday, June 29 at 6:30. Here’s hoping I didn’t do anything really weird on camera! I can only hope because shooting was a total blur. Doing it all again this Friday.
I’ll be doing jazz fest blogging again for the Gazoo (can’t believe that starts on Thursday!) and I’m still waiting to find out what the future holds for me at Corus Quebec.
Natasha blogged the Jazz Fest as a freelancer for the Gazette last year.
As if 940 AM couldn’t get more pathetic, I give you the new AM 940 non-News website. Almost makes you want to cry.
Official “launch” of the new, crappy station is scheduled for July 1.
Meanwhile, I should mention there have been rather large, visible ads for CBC Radio One and CJAD in the Gazette suggesting that people listen to them for news and information. Hint, hint.
UPDATE (June 18): Mike Boone today has a hilariously scathing review of 940’s new format:
The Mozart Requiem was composed in 1791. But its sombre, funereal tones would be perfect for a radio format that will be DOA.
Workers at 940 News (including host Dennis Trudeau above) came in today to find out that the station is switching to an all-music “greatest hits” format as of the end of next week, eliminating its news division and most of its anchors.
18 people, including 14 journalists, will be out of a job.
Apparently the week’s notice they did get wasn’t the company’s idea. They had to spill the beans because of a leak.
Info 690 is unaffected.
UPDATE: Here’s the Gazette story from Paul Delean. Dennis Trudeau is out of a job. And here’s 940’s announcement. And a Canadian Press story.
The change takes effect 8pm next Friday.
UPDATE (June 10): Host Jim Duff says his goodbye.
UPDATE (June 11): From Mike Cohen of the Suburban:
940 Montreal officially becomes AM 940 — the Greatest Hits on Friday night. While the station let a lot of staff go, staying put are program director Chris Bury, newscasters Barry Morgan and Caroline Phaneuf and traffic reporters Greg Charlebois and Sean McMahon. I will miss the talk format, but I look forward to hearing the greatest hits from the 60s, 70s and 80s…
UPDATE (June 13): It’s over. CBC discusses how this move relates to the overall gutting of private broadcaster newsrooms in Canada.
Via MediainMontreal, 940 News has announced some significant changes to its weekly schedule in the new year, the most significant of which will see Aphrodite Salas split with Dennis Trudeau and move to an early afternoon slot. The full schedule is already online.
Aphrodite Salas moves from the morning show to early afternoon, going solo for The Aphrodite Salas Show, weekdays 12:30pm-2pm starting Jan. 7. The show will have “roundtables on important issues, great regular contributors and celebrity profiles.” The show mainly replaces Dave Ramsey’s afternoon slot (see below).
Dennis Trudeau goes solo for The Dennis Trudeau Show, which will end a half-hour earlier at 9:30am, starting Jan. 3 (the weekend edition clip show will still air 7am-10am Saturdays). He’ll have a “supporting cast” of Michael Dean (news), Shaun McMahon (sports) and regular contributors including:
- Lou Schizas (Business News Network has-been) at 6:21 and 8:21 weekdays
- Dr. Mitch Shulman (emergency room physician) at 6:51 weekdays
- Guy Thibodeau (does anyone else report on ski conditions in this town?) at 7:25 and 8:55 weekdays
- Jacques Demers (hockey has-been) at 7:35 weekdays
- Jean Lapierre (federal Liberal has-been) at 7:41 Tuesdays
- John Gomery (judicial has-been) at 7:41 Fridays
- Brian Burko (advertising has-been now doing movie reviews) at 7:51 Tuesdays and Fridays
- Orla Johannes (”Entertainment Reporter” — look at her website to see which “talents” she thinks are important) at 7:51 Mon-Wed-Fri
- Joe Cannon’s show shifts a half-hour earlier, from 9:30am-12:30pm weekdays starting Jan. 3.
- The Dave Ramsey Show (syndicated) loses its 1pm-2pm weekday shot to Salas. It will continue to air 8pm-10pm weekdays.
- Chick Chat, an American syndicated talk show about women’s issues, gets dropped from the lineup where it aired 10pm-midnight weekdays. It will be replaced with American syndicated talk show Coast to Coast with George Noory, which will add two hours to the beginning of its overnight timeslot.
- Orla Johannes starts “Table Talk with Orla”, which will air noon-1pm on Saturdays, replacing alternative medicine show “Wellness within with Gigi Cohen.” Her “Saturday Night Soul” program is unchanged.
- The syndicated Dr. Art Hister health show, 1pm-2pm Saturdays, replaces “VIP Business.”
- Former city councillor Jeremy Searle hosts “Searle’s Montreal,” bringing his YouTube-ial outspokenness on municipal issues to a much more public forum, Saturdays 5pm-6pm. He replaces “Get Connected with Mike Agerbo,” a syndicated technology program.
Natasha Hall launches her new Talk Show Idol-winning program (generically called “What’s Up Montreal”) on Jan. 6. It will air Sundays, noon-1pm, and “focus on unique events and personalities in this city.”- Zack Spencer of Global TV’s boring driving show hosts a syndicated driving issues show, 1pm-2pm Sundays.
Though there’s no press release to link to, Natasha Aimée Hall, who some of you will recognize as a fellow Gazette freelancer, has won the 940 News Talk Show Idol contest.
Aside from her unbeatable Stratford-based charm, credit for the win goes to her Facebook fan base, who stuffed ballots more than a 12-year-old girl stuffs her bra. She beat out 23 other finalists for the win.
Now Hall will get her own show on 940 News, and dozens of Montrealers will be able to hear her voice on a weekly basis.
Congrats, Natasha.
Remember Dennis Trudeau? He used to be the anchor of CBC Newswatch (that was before CBC gutted local TV news — a decision they’ve thankfully begun to reverse). Two years ago he decided to retire, though he left the door open to other projects, saying he had “lots of ideas” he wanted to work on:
“In this wired world of 500 television channels, opportunities are limitless. I might like to be a commentator. I might like to write. But I do want to try something different from the daily news grind.”
Today comes the news that Trudeau will be joining 940 News as the new morning man, starting Sept. 3, along with Aphrodite Salas (who will move from her current late-morning show on the same station).
Trudeau is no stranger to radio. He’s hosted Daybreak, As it Happens and Cross-Country checkup. I’m sure he’ll do well in front of a microphone. But why oh why would someone who’s tired of the daily news grind agree to host a weekday morning radio show from 5:30 to 10 a.m.?
As for Ken Connors, who currently hosts the show, he’ll move to a “new” afternoon drive-time show on Q92.
UPDATE (Aug. 29): Two weeks later, Mike Boone adds his take with some words from Mr. Trudeau, who insists he’s never retired. It also adds a clarification: that it was Ken Connors moving to Q92 that prompted the station to seek Trudeau, rather than the other way around.
