Fagstein » Terry DiMonte

Terry DiMonte’s first day at CHOM … again

Fagstein — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 08:38:44 +0000

There are some things at CHOM that will always be constant: The name, the format, the listeners complaining that the same songs get played over and over, and every decade or so the program director deciding to shake things up by putting Terry DiMonte back on mornings.

DiMonte began his first shift back at Montreal's Spirit of Rock on Monday, and I managed to score an invitation to see it from the studio (even if it meant pulling an all-nighter after a late shift at work). This is the story of that day.

Terry DiMonte reads the paper just before he starts his first show. (And by "the paper", I mean the section in Saturday's Gazette seemingly devoted to him)

It's hard to imagine someone like Terry DiMonte being nervous about going on the radio. So I didn't take it too seriously when he warned me the week before that he would be a nervous wreck on his first day.

But as he walked into Astral Radio's Fort St. offices just after 5am, it was apparent he wasn't quite 100% back in his chair and it would take some time to make him fully comfortable. He knew he would be judged from the moment he pressed the button that turns on his microphone, that thousands of people who knew about him coming back (either through the promotional campaign Astral put on or through the full-page piece in Saturday's Gazette) would be tuning in just to hear his voice again.

He was worried about screwing up, absent-mindedly referring to Q107, the station he left a month earlier, instead of CHOM. Thankfully for him there were posters with CHOM's logo and frequency all over the studio, so he needed only look up if he forgot.

In the end, he didn't screw up. He got the call letters right, and the frequency, and the motto. He needed to be reminded of the phone number at one point, but mostly it was like he never left. And if he was nervous at all during his first break ("break" being how radio types refer to "the part where I'm on air"), he didn't show it as he said hi:

The first song for DiMonte's first show was Back in the Saddle by Aerosmith, which came as a suggestion on Facebook when overnight host Ronny Mack asked fans which should be the first song. DiMonte hadn't thought of that song as an option, but considered it very appropriate considering he's coming back from Calgary.

The team

Maureen Holloway joins Terry DiMonte on his first show

Shortly after the show began, DiMonte was joined in studio by Maureen Holloway. Holloway ~~hosts~~ is a big part of the morning show at Q107 in Toronto, and contributed to his former morning show at (a different) Q107 in Calgary. Both are owned by Corus. Because Corus no longer has a Montreal station with the sale of CFQR and others to Cogeco, she wasn't on the air here and Astral managed to reach an agreement to bring her on to do a segment just before 6am and have it repeated at 7:15.

But because Holloway was just finishing a vacation and happened to be in Montreal, she came into the studio and joined DiMonte for a few hours, giving him someone to chat with on air. His actual cohost, Heather Backman, doesn't start until Jan. 16.

Holloway's arrival, a surprise for DiMonte, resulted in a reunion for the two friends who have worked together for many years, going back to when DiMonte hosted the morning show at Mix 96.

The show has two other regular contributors, both of whom come in studio to do their bits: Eric Engels with his once-daily Habs report and Trudie Mason with news on the hour.

Mason did her first newscast at 6am:

DiMonte did some sports news after that, and got in a mention of Calgary Flames captain Jarome Iginla scoring his 500th career goal. It was a legitimate sports story of national interest, but a bit of a reminder that there's still a bit of Calgary in DiMonte.

Engels only comes in once a day. You can listen to his first Habs report here (MP3).

Esteban Vargas sits behind the big board pressing all the cool buttons

The last contributor to the show is the guy behind the scenes, board operator Esteban Vargas. I recognized the name, but I didn't know where I'd heard it. He suggested it might have been when he was doing odd shifts as a traffic reporter, which might have been true. But I think I actually recognize the name, oddly enough, from the Kelly Alexander Show podcast, even though I haven't listened to that in quite a while.

Though he's been at Astral for six years, and clearly knows what he's doing, there were a few jokes about child labour when DiMonte posted a photo of Esteban online.

The magical computer box lists songs, commercials, traffic reports and all the other live an recorded sounds that go into a show.

Terry needs a clock

It was one of those things. If you see in any of these videos DiMonte looking ahead and up as he talks, he's looking at a non-existent analog clock. There used to be one on the opposite wall, but it disappeared some time after he left in 2007. There's one on the wall behind him, but that's incredibly awkward to try to look at when you're on the air from that chair.

DiMonte explains the reason best in the video, but the clock provides a reference not only for the time (which he can just read off his computer screen), but also how much of the show is left, and how long until the top of the hour. After decades in radio, it's become second nature to him to see an hour in terms of the analog clock and to mentally plan accordingly.

DiMonte was repeatedly assured that a clock would be acquired and installed.

Media circus

There were quite a few people around to witness DiMonte's return. In addition to myself, the studio was visited by cameras from:

Global Montreal

CTV Montreal

... and CHOM's own promotions department. (There was a second, more professional-looking camera also taking video)

The CHOM video of DiMonte's first day has been posted online. It includes his first and last words on his first show. The latter part includes a specific thank-you to me, which I didn't expect. My mom heard it, but in case you want to listen to just that part, here it is (MP3).

A complete list of DiMonte's news coverage is at the bottom of Monday's post. So far it includes a Saturday feature and live chat with The Gazette, a story and later in-studio interview at CTV Montreal (they've produced a behind-the-scenes video vignette), and a brief on Global Montreal, plus wherever Astral's press release has been republished.

But DiMonte has also been talking to non-traditional media. Besides me, he's talked to Gazette blogger Bugs Burnett and the Cornwall Free News, besides one-on-one chats with people on Twitter and Facebook.

Terry appreciates you calling

Plenty of DiMonte's critics say he has a huge ego and everything is about him. While I'd never accuse any successful media personality of not having an ego, DiMonte spent quite a bit of time his first day answering calls from listeners, even with the studio filled with people and everything else going through his mind.

The calls were relatively short, and some had to be interrupted because DiMonte had to go back on the air. In general, they went something like this:

Even Andrew Carter at CJAD was getting calls from people welcoming DiMonte back, one Astral employee walked into the studio to report with a laugh. (I tweeted that, resulting later in Carter coming in and asking "who's Fagstein?" - after a bit of nervous panic, we introduced ourselves, and it turns out he likes the blog.)

DiMonte also communicated via Facebook and Twitter, as he's become a bit more adept at social media in the past few years.

Cake

A special cake was brought in to celebrate DiMonte's first show

A special "welcome back Terry" cake was brought in, much to DiMonte's surprise. That missing bit on the left is where he stuck his finger in to taste the icing. "I bet that's fantastic," said the guy who continues to be worried that his return to Montreal is a one-way ticket to extreme weight gain.

What's next?

In case there are still people in Montreal who don't know about DiMonte's return, the big promotional push will come next week when Heather Backman joins the show and things start moving on all four wheels. I haven't been told of any extreme promotional plans, just the usual contests (including their "man cave" watch-the-Super-Bowl-with-Terry deal) and advertising/marketing.

Maureen Holloway and Terry DiMonte share a hug as she departs for Toronto

UPDATE (Jan. 16): CHOM's website has some audio clips from DiMonte's show. They include more episodes of Holloway's Dirty Little Secrets, Engels's Habs Report and Pierre Houde of RDS talking about Michael Cammalleri, as well as interviews with visiting artists like Martin Short, Mark McKinney and Demetri Martin.

There's also a short-answer get-to-know-Heather segment, in which we learn they haven't yet decided whether they'll call her Heather Backman or Heather B.

CHOM’s new schedule adds Terry DiMonte, Heather Backman in mornings

Fagstein — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 17:13:17 +0000

UPDATE (Jan. 13): Read more about DiMonte's first day here. Updates below with more coverage of DiMonte's return and comments from Chantal Desjardins about her new job at CJAD.

Terry DiMonte does his first show back at CHOM on Jan. 9.

The news that Terry DiMonte was coming back to CHOM came out all the way back in June. The date was set and publicized in November. But details on such things as who his cohosts would be and what happens to the rest of the schedule were kept under wraps until Monday when DiMonte started his first show.

Here's the details of its new schedule:

Mornings Rock with Terry DiMonte

The morning show, from 5:30 to 10am weekdays, is being completely reconstructed around DiMonte. His cohost, starting Jan. 16, will be Heather Backman, who left CJFM a year ago for an opportunity in Cleveland, which she's leaving to come back to Montreal.

Backman and DiMonte don't have any history, which makes the choice a little out of left field. But she did a demo with DiMonte and there was something about it that he and Brand Director André Lallier liked. "She's very witty," Lallier said. "She brings a certain edge. She has a good laugh. A fresh perspective."

Backman and DiMonte together just sounds good, he said, and in radio that's what's important.

The show also includes some regular contributors:

Maureen Holloway will do entertainment segments twice each morning from Toronto.

Maureen Holloway will do entertainment segments (called "Dirty Little Secrets") at 5:50 and 7:15am daily. Holloway works out of her home in Toronto for Corus stations across Canada, and was a feature of DiMonte's morning show at Q107 in Calgary. She's also an old friend of DiMonte's.

Holloway previously contributed to CFQR, but since it and other Corus radio stations in Quebec were sold to Cogeco, there's no Corus station in this market, so they were able to negotiate having her on CHOM.

Because she happened to be in the area finishing off her vacation, Holloway joined DiMonte in studio on his first day.

(As an aside, I find it funny that DiMonte comes from Q107 in Calgary, Holloway comes from Q107 in Toronto - both owned by Corus - and Backman comes from Q104 in Cleveland. Gives you an idea of the lack of imagination when it comes to branding radio stations.)

Trudie Mason does newscasts on the hour

Trudie Mason of CJAD walks down the hall just before the top of the hour and gives the news headlines (usually preceded off-air by an apology from DiMonte for not being on time).

Eric Engels talks about the Habs

Eric Engels continues contributing his Habs report to CHOM's morning show, though it's moved to 6:55am. Engels is a Habs reporter who writes for HockeyBuzz and does the Engels Angle on CTV Montreal's website, among other things. You can follow him on Twitter at @EricEngels.

Esteban Vargas sits behind the big board pressing all the cool buttons

Esteban Vargas is the unsung hero behind the big board, queueing all the songs and audio clips and traffic reports and everything else. He's been at Astral since 2005, working mainly as an operator and in promotions.

Weekdays

Tootall (Weekdays 10am-3pm). His shift remains unchanged, as does his noon-hour Made to Order show.
Bilal Butt (Weekdays 3-8pm). Bilal gets upgraded back into the afternoon drive slot vacated when Pete Marier left the station last month. The afternoon drive show expands in length to five hours.
Jason Rockman (Weeknights 8pm-midnight). Rockman shifts earlier to take over Butt's slot. His Amped show runs weeknights instead of one day a week.
Brandon Craddock (B.C.) and Ron MacKinnon (Ronny Mack) continue to share overnight duties from midnight to 5:30am.

Weekends

Sharon Hyland stays on weekend mornings, shifting earlier so she starts at 6am instead of 8. "It's all good," she writes on her blog.
Rob Kemp takes on the midday shift on weekends, from 11am to 4pm each day.
Randy Renaud remains the weekend evening person, 4-8pm Saturday and 4-10pm Sunday
Jay Walker maintains his Montreal Rocks show from 10pm to midnight Sundays.

Chantal Desjardins moves to CJAD

The one personality leaving CHOM is morning co-host Chantal Desjardins. But she's not leaving the building. Instead, she's joining Aaron Rand's show on CJAD weekdays from 3-7pm, essentially doing the job of sportscaster that Barry Morgan did. Now Morgan can concentrate on his own show, which comes on after Rand's.

Desjardins says she's "really enjoying" her new job already. "I think Aaron and I have natural chemistry...he is very encouraging and his energy is contagious. And have I mentioned I've slept in until 9am the last two days? Amazing."

She says she also plans to keep doing stuff for CTV on the side and is "looking forward to a new adventure."

Rand says he's excited about Desjardins. "Chantal is funny, opinionated, and smart, AND she brings a female perspective to the show, which is something I’ve always thought was a good complement my style," he told me. "We’d worked together before on a couple of occasions, and I immediately liked her style and personality."

"And, it gives Barry Morgan a chance to spend all his time focusing on his evening show from 7-10, without having to worry about doing the afternoon sports run on my show."

"So as far as I’m concerned, it’s a win/win all around."

Rand has made Desjardins a part of the last half-hour of his show, from 6:30 to 7pm, when the two chat about weird and funny stories. "I figured that would be a good way to incorporate her into the show beyond her sports reports, and give her a feel for how I work so she can get comfortable with my style," Rand said. "After that it’ll be a matter of getting her more involved on a regular basis."

Desjardins let her Facebook friends know about her new job, drawing dozens of encouraging comments.

Rob Kemp okay with weekends

Kemp also put on a happy face about his new job. Kemp posted on his CHOM blog taking the bright side of being on the radio only two days a week.

Lallier talked up the new weekend lineup, saying that ratings show that 30-35% of the audience is now on weekends, which means Saturday and Sunday are no longer audience wastelands. Weeks after the Q became the Beat and put big names Ken Connors and Nat Lauzon on the weekend, resulting in ratings boosts, it seems CHOM is also paying attention to weekends.

What about Pete?

I asked Lallier about Pete Marier, and the possibility of him coming back. A cursory look at the new schedule suggests it wouldn't be that difficult to shift things around to put Marier back on the afternoon drive show.

Lallier's answers differed little from what Astral VP Martin Spalding told me just before Christmas. They wanted Marier to stay and form one of the "three pillars" of the station. They offered him a "very, very good" contract for an afternoon drive host, and gave him multiple opportunities to accept. Lallier pointed out that even after it became clear Marier wouldn't take the contract and his show was terminated, management still let him go on air one last time (something that is very unusual in professional radio because it can lead to people saying things on air that make the station look bad) but that again Marier said no.

Marier himself remains quiet, despite lots of activity from his fans (a protest had been planned via Facebook for Monday morning outside CHOM's offices, but was called off because a poor showing would have seemed worse than none at all). At least one other radio veteran who works at Astral has expressed hope that Marier can put his emotions aside and work out a deal with management to come back.

Coverage

Astral's press release explaining all these changes was issued Monday morning.

The Gazette's Bill Brownstein had a feature on DiMonte in Saturday's paper, in case you haven't read it yet. It includes a sidebar on what happened to Marier.

Global and CTV both sent cameramen to document DiMonte's first show. CTV later sent reporter Cindy Sherwin to talk to DiMonte. Global's brief is at the end of Monday's newscast (skip to 23:15).

CTV Montreal also interviewed DiMonte on the noon newscast on Thursday.

A live chat with the Gazette

UPDATE (Jan. 11): The Gazette invited DiMonte to do an hour-long live chat on Wednesday, in which he talks about his favourite music, his weight loss and what it's like to come home. Even his mom stops by and asks him to get some rest.

Of interest to us, he offered the following on Pete Marier:

I feel bad that Pete left but have been hopeful that there is a raprochement possible. He chose to leave. I hope we can change his mind

(Answering a question on whether Marier would come back) I hope so Pat... there seems to be a detente brewing there

On Ted Bird:

I would LOVE to have Ted back..the best fun I ever had...and maybe someday...but right now he loves what he's doing at K 103...so not in the NEAR future I don't think...unless we can change his mind

DiMonte also called Rob Kemp a "talented young broadcaster" and said he met Backman for the first time in October but "liked her very much".

UPDATE (Jan. 14): Richard Burnett talks to DiMonte for his Gazette blog. DiMonte also talks to the Cornwall Free News.

Pete Marier leaves CHOM over contract dispute

Fagstein — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 17:12:39 +0000

Pete Marier

Last update: Dec. 27 at 2am, adding a comment from Marier at the bottom.

"My show on CHOM was terminated last night."

That was the extent of the comment from Pete Marier Friday morning, on Facebook, to the fact that he's leaving CHOM.

Rumours about Marier's impending departure have been flying about for a few weeks, but things came to a head this week when Marier was given an ultimatum, a source close to Marier said. (Marier himself isn't talking - his only communication with me directly was to confirm the news of his departure.)

According to the source, who asked not to be named for fear of pissing off Bad Pete, Marier was told Thursday after his show to sign a contract that would have decreased his salary by more than half, otherwise he would be terminated as of Friday. Marier refused, which led to a heated verbal confrontation in Astral Media vice-president Martin Spalding's office on Friday morning. Marier was thrown out of Astral's Fort St. offices, and called the police to press for charges of (very minor) assault against Spalding, according to the source, who was in the office at the time.

Spalding wouldn't get into what happened in his office, saying he didn't want to air dirty laundry, but he did say that emotions got the better of both of them. Spalding confirmed that Astral exercised an out clause when Marier made it clear he would not accept a new contract with a reduced salary, and his last day was set at March 8, 2012. Spalding said the new salary figure, which he wouldn't specify but said was nowhere near a 50% pay cut, was "very competitive" for an afternoon host in this market, and that even if it's less than what he would make in mornings, it's higher than what he made the last time he was doing the afternoon drive show.

Spalding said Marier was given five chances to accept the offer and stay at CHOM. He maintained that Marier was to be one of the three "pillars" with Terry DiMonte and Tootall, and that they wanted him to stay. "He was in our long-term plans," Spalding said.

"No choice"

"He left us no choice," he explained. With DiMonte set to return Jan. 9, management wanted to get its schedule finalized by then. Spalding said he and Brand Director André Lallier didn't want to go through a big launch Jan. 9 and have to make a big change two months later when Marier left.

Spalding said the decision was made Thursday night, after one final offer, to make Friday Marier's last day. That still gave Marier the chance to say goodbye to listeners, which he seemed to accept on Thursday. But on Friday morning, Marier changed his mind and said he wouldn't go on air.

Marier remains on CHOM's payroll, as per the terms of his contract, until March.

"It saddens me because I think he's a great guy," Spalding said. Despite their falling out, Spalding had nothing but praise for Marier's talent and said it was unfortunate that he wouldn't accept Astral's offer.

The timing is probably the worst part about this. Marier's last contract wasn't set to expire until next September, but with DiMonte's return so close in the new year, the decision had to be made now.

On Friday, as they have done in the past with acrimonious departures, CHOM scrubbed Marier's name and photo from its website. The 3-7pm timeslot on the schedule now just reads "The Drive"

Listeners fight back

Marier's Facebook wall was flooded with comments from angry listeners, one of whom has started a Facebook group to demand CHOM rescind its decision, but its chances to success are just about zero now that the decision has been made. After initially allowing non-profane comments to stay, the people managing CHOM's Facebook page deleted all comments about Marier. That didn't stop them, of course, and they kept posting, adding more anger and some sarcasm to their voices.

It used to be that broadcasters, newspapers and other media could control their means of communication, and simply make people or issues disappear. But with social media like Facebook, their power is limited. They could shut down the page completely to comment, but that would throw away the baby with the bathwater.

Unfortunately for Marier, this kind of thing blows over. People aren't calling in to CBC anymore to complain about Nancy Wood, or calling in to Q92 to complain about the axing of Tasso and Suzanne. CHOM can only hope that the protest about Marier dies down enough by Jan. 9 that it doesn't harm their promotional plans.

Pillar of CHOM

Marier, 52, has been at CHOM since 1989 (except for a stint in Winnipeg from 2002 to 2005), mainly hosting morning and afternoon programs. He stepped back into mornings with Ted Bird and Chantal Desjardins, then went back to the afternoon drive when CHOM rejigged its schedule to prepare for the return of Terry DiMonte.

At the time, Spalding agreed with myself and many others that Marier's voice was probably more suited to afternoons than mornings. (Even though CHOM's ratings actually went up with Marier in the morning show chair.) There was no indication at the time that Marier's future at the station was in doubt. In fact, Spalding referred to Marier as one of the "pillars of CHOM" - a description he maintained even when discussing Marier's departure.

Not DiMonte's fault

There's been speculation that Marier's departure is related to DiMonte's return. It's true that the timing of that is why this decision came now, and that DiMonte's return is why Marier moved back to afternoons (and hence was offered less pay), but neither of these things are DiMonte's fault.

Still, many comments online are extremely negative toward DiMonte, suggesting his return is why Marier is leaving, in part because CHOM spent big bucks for DiMonte and has little left for the rest of its staff.

That's just not true, DiMonte says.

"The notion that I had anything to do with it is complete nonsense," DiMonte wrote to me on Saturday. "I was REALLY disappointed that he left. I've known Pete for years and we always got along great. He's a great broadcaster, a Montreal favorite and part of the fabric at CHOM... and I thought with me, him and TooTall it was going to be a helluva lineup. I'm really sorry he left."

DiMonte also denied that Astral is breaking the bank to bring him home (he denied similar rumours about the kind of money he was supposed to be making in Calgary). He said he's getting a pay cut, not a pay increase, to come back home. "The notion that there's nothing left for others is internet claptrap. It's just not so."

Spalding similarly flatly denies that other announcers are being offered less because DiMonte got more.

Though DiMonte is getting a say in his morning cohosts (no decision has been announced yet), he said he had no part in Marier's contract negotiations and was only told about everything after the fact.

"It's not going to be as much fun without Pete, but I'm not sure what I can do about that."

Team Pete or Team Astral?

I don't have access to the dollar figures involved here, so I can't say whether CHOM's move was justified or whether the contract was fair. A 20-plus-year veteran is obviously going to attract a lot more sympathy than a faceless corporation, but that doesn't mean the latter has to cave to the former.

That said, if Marier's only demand was that he get paid the same salary, it's hard to be too outraged by it. If Marier was a "pillar" of CHOM, he should have been treated as one. Unless his salary as a morning DJ was unreasonably through the roof, would it have hurt the bottom line so terribly for it to remain at that level?

As with any negotiation, the two sides choose what they can live with. Marier believes his talent (or his dignity) is worth more than Astral offered, and if he's right he won't be unemployed for long. (He's still doing freelance voice work, including a lot of radio commercials - many that are still airing on the station he left.) Astral believes it's more profitable to let Marier go than to keep paying him a morning-show salary. If it's right, the company will either save money by not having Marier on payroll, it will do better on ratings and revenue with the money it would have spent on him, or both.

No matter how this ended, or which side is right, it really sucks for something like this to happen two days before Christmas.

Lineup decisions coming soon

No decision has been made about the rest of the CHOM lineup, including who will replace Marier on the drive show. Spalding said Rob Kemp and Chantal Desjardins, who will get the bump from the morning show unless they become DiMonte's sidekicks, are still part of their plans, and roles for them are being finalized. He said an announcement should be expected within the next two weeks. In any case, it'll come before Jan. 9.

UPDATE (Dec. 26): From Marier, on Facebook:

Dear Friends, Thanks for the tremendous support and well wishes. Both are greatly appreciated. In spite of recent events (on which I cannot comment right now), my family and I had a great Christmas! I hope you all did too. Merci encore!

"Happy to sit down"?

UPDATE (Jan. 6): A Gazette story from Bill Brownstein on Terry DiMonte coming back to CHOM includes a sidebar that mentions Marier. It includes quotes suggesting reconcilation is possible:

Spalding: “If Pete called me today and if we could come to terms, we’d make it work. We would have him right back in drive. The last thing I ever wanted was to lose him. He’s an incredible talent.”

Marier: “If Astral Media is willing to negotiate a contract with me, I’d be more than happy to sit down with Martin Spalding and try to work it out.”

Terry DiMonte returns to CHOM Jan. 9

Fagstein — Sat, 19 Nov 2011 07:39:41 +0000

Five months after the announcement that Terry DiMonte will be returning to CHOM-FM, not much has happened publicly. DiMonte is still in Calgary, co-hosting the morning show at Corus-owned Q107.

Corus is making DiMonte work all of the six-month obligation he triggered when he gave his notice in June. DiMonte has no trouble fulfilling his obligation as his contract stipulates, but it's clear from his comments on social media that he's eager to return to Montreal.

While those comments are pleasing his Montreal-based fans, they're also disappointing his Calgary-based ones, some Montreal expats who share with him a connection to this city they once lived in before economic factors brought them out west, but many just classic rock fans who have been loyal to the station and woken up with him every weekday morning since 2007.

DiMonte tells me his last day at Q107 will be Dec. 9. After that he returns to Montreal and prepares to go back on the air at CHOM. His first day back in his old chair is almost certainly going to be Jan. 9. Astral VP Martin Spalding, who courted DiMonte back to CHOM, says this was considered a better date than a week earlier, when many people are still on holiday.

Spalding's hands are tied in terms of marketing DiMonte. Not only is DiMonte still physically in Calgary, except for occasional trips here during his time off, but because DiMonte is still under contract with Corus, his brand still belongs to them. Astral can't market DiMonte until his contract expires, which will happen on Dec. 22, six months after DiMonte gave his notice.

Terry and ...

The biggest question for the past five months remains: Who will be DiMonte's partner on the CHOM morning show?

Spalding and DiMonte said they've met a lot of potential candidates - some in person, some by phone, with more still to talk to - but no decision has been made yet. (The decision will be a joint one between DiMonte and the station.) They don't even know if it's going to be one or two people. But they will have to make a call within the next few weeks.

"As you're probably aware, I am QUITE gunshy and very careful now after a certain time period in my old life...so I will be taking some time," DiMonte writes. Spalding echoes those thoughts, telling me that "this is a five-year play, so we want to make it right."

Spalding also said that there have been a lot of candidates, some they sought out, and some who offered to come on board. "It's amazing how many people have come out of the woodwork and want to work with Terry," Spalding said.

For those wondering, Ted Bird said he's not one of them. There have been no discussions between him and CHOM about a possible return, and he remains the big name at the K103 morning show in Kahnawake.

Two obvious candidates for the job are the ones currently holding it now: Rob Kemp and Chantal Desjardins.

Kemp might be headed back to an early afternoon shift if he's not on the morning show (currently Tootall does 10am to 3pm), though any reshuffling of shifts won't be decided until after the morning team is in place, Spalding said.

The outlook for Desjardins is less certain. Spalding said she's a "clear candidate" for the morning show co-host, but there's no lock on it. She might end up somewhere else at the station, perhaps at another Astral station in Montreal, either CJAD or CJFM.

Desjardins clearly wants to get the job with DiMonte, though.

"I really enjoy working for Astral and I hope to continue in the morning show co-host position when Terry arrives," she told me. "Seriously…who wouldn’t want to wake up at 4am every morning? ;)" (her emoticon, not mine).

TV viewers might have noticed that Desjardins has been doing sports stories for CTV Montreal. (UPDATE Nov. 23 - She even got a turn behind the anchor desk, as you can see from the video above.)

She said she's "thoroughly enjoying the experience" and likes the work environment at CTV.

"But I still love the energy and immediacy of morning radio so I guess we'll just have to wait and see how everything plays out!"

I feel bad for Desjardins. I know the saying that in radio it's not if you get fired but when. Not getting the morning show gig doesn't mean she'll be fired, but to have your employment future be so uncertain for so long can't be a fun thing to experience. I know, because it happens fairly often for me. (The main difference being thousands of people don't notice what happens to me unless I tell them.)

Desjardins would make a welcome addition to the CTV sports team. That department is tiny (though still bigger than its competitors combined), and right now it's 100% male. And she seems very comfortable in front of the camera.

But radio is what she wants to do, and it's where people know her from. And Desjardins's ability to match (or even surpass) wits with the boys is probably more valuable at the classic rock station than the TV station. Aside from Desjardins, Sharon Hyland is the only woman with a shift at 97.7FM, and she's on weekends now.

It's possible DiMonte and Spalding will come up with a name so fantastic it will have fans going "Chantal who?", but it would have to be pretty fantastic to make me forget that these kinds of decisions have effects on the lives of real people.

Astral’s Martin Spalding on Terry DiMonte, CHOM, CJAD and Virgin Radio

Fagstein — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 23:22:58 +0000

Astral VP Martin Spalding outside his offices at Fort and Ste. Catherine Sts.

"You only have one chance to make a first impression."

It's a cliché, but I thought it was funny when I heard it come out of the mouth of Martin Spalding, the vice-president at Astral Media who is in charge of its three English-language stations in Montreal: CHOM, Virgin Radio (CJFM) and CJAD. The fact that we were talking to each other was kind of proving that assertion wrong. Or at least it was strong evidence against it.

Eleven days earlier, I called Spalding at his office to talk to him about the return of Terry DiMonte to CHOM, a move he arranged. But our conversation was brief.

"I know who you are," he said after I introduced myself. Just as I was starting to feel relieved that I wouldn't have to go through the trouble of convincing him to speak to some guy on the Internet as if he was a journalist, Spalding put the brakes on the interview. "I'm not in the mood to have this conversation," he said.

I asked why. "Let's just say you should be careful what you post on Twitter," he said, without elaborating. He followed that with "this conversation is over."

There was a slight hesitation in his voice, as if even he couldn't believe he was saying this.

I didn't know how to react. I don't expect that everyone I contact will be interested in talking to me - mostly because I'm not a traditional journalist and my audience is not that of a metro newspaper or a supper-hour TV newscast. But I'd never had someone answer me like this before. This conversation sounded like it would be in the script from a bad movie.

What got me most is that I had no idea what set him off. Other than quoting some press releases with his name in them, I'd never talked about him on my blog. I'd never mentioned his name on Twitter. I didn't even know what he looked like.

And I've posted thousands of things on Twitter. Plenty of stuff has been negative about CHOM and other Astral stations. I couldn't really narrow it down.

The call was just before the end of business on June 23. My post about DiMonte - with the bit about Spalding at the end - was published the next day.

An email from Spalding was dated 9:05am the next Monday. He said he realizes he may have been a little "curt" in our phone conversation, and offered to take me out to lunch to explain. We scheduled a meeting for the following Monday at noon - July 4.

After seeing Spalding's office - a corner office with wood panelling - and meeting Virgin Radio Brand Director Mark Bergman, we went to a Chinese place nearby and discussed our respective pasts a bit. Everything was cordial.

It was actually quite a while into our conversation at the lunch table until Spalding set the record straight about that minute-long conversation.

He said he had taken exception to something I tweeted the day before, suggesting that CHOM's promotions department was lacking because its website had no mention of DiMonte a day after a press release announcing he was coming back to the station.

Spalding explained that it wasn't because they'd simply forgotten about this or were lazy about it. Because DiMonte was still contracted to Q107 in Calgary, Spalding said that CHOM couldn't use his image or promote him. Even issuing the press release was "playing with fire," he said.

Spalding took my ill-informed tweet as an attack on the employees who work for him, and for me to then call and ask for comment after bashing his radio station didn't exactly put him in the mood to cooperate.

By Monday morning, he had read my post on DiMonte, and his mood changed. He apologized for the curt tone on the phone, and went out of his way to compliment me on posts I had written, including the DiMonte one and an earlier one on Cogeco's CRTC application for all-traffic radio stations, which he considered much more solid journalism than some of the shoot-from-the-hip tweets that are based on incomplete information.

It's amazing how a simple conversation can change your perspective.

I, in turn, asked Spalding to apologize on my behalf to CHOM's promotions department, an apology I repeat here. I jumped to an incorrect assumption (not the first time I've done so with CHOM-related news), and I should have checked. Just because it's on Twitter doesn't mean it's exempt from basic journalistic rigour. I'll try to do better in the future.

So we're good now. Spalding gave me his card (asking me to call him before I tweet next time), paid for my lunch (the next one will be on me - I want to try to have at least some journalistic ethics here) and gave me two hours of his time - even pushing back a conference call so he could give me a few extra minutes.

The image of the super-professional businessman that DiMonte had painted for me during our conversation turned out to be a lot more accurate than I had thought after that brief phone conversation.

So, now on to the good stuff. I had a good bank of questions related to recent events at his radio stations, so I posed as many as I could fit in before I started to feel really guilty about taking him away from his real job.

Terry DiMonte: star power

Spalding has known DiMonte for a long time. In fact, one of his earliest jobs in radio was acting as DiMonte's assistant. He told me a story about ironing DiMonte's jacket before the radio jock was set to make a public appearance. At the time, DiMonte the radio guy bachelor didn't really appreciate the need to look professional.

Spalding worked with DiMonte from 1986 to 1991. "For five years, we were inseparable," Spalding said. He then worked another five years for former Standard Radio manager Rob Braide (Spalding said his first job in radio was moving boxes for Braide). He later worked as promotions director for what was then FM96 (CJFM, now Virgin Radio) and then for the Canadian Grand Prix before returning to radio as an Astral VP in 2009.

"Last fall, I knew the combination of Pete (Marier), Chantal (Desjardins), P.J. (Stock) and Merv (Williams) wasn't jelling," Spalding said. This led to the canning of Stock and Williams in March.

"I know what CHOM represented 26 years ago. It's kind of lost its way over the past four or five years," Spalding said (covering about the amount of time DiMonte was gone). He wanted to get it back on track. That started with the morning show.

"We needed someone who would resonate with the listenership. We needed star power," he said.

In discussions about who that star could be, Spalding said one name kept coming up: DiMonte.

So Spalding flew to Calgary to try to convince the well-known former Montreal morning man (and local-consumer-affairs TV show host) to come back home. "I wanted to demonstrate that we were seriously interested in bringing him back," Spalding said of the decision to meet in person rather than converse on the phone or via email.

DiMonte "is one of the best interviewers I've heard on radio," Spalding said. He explained that DiMonte has fantastic comedic timing, but "he knows his role. He won't try to our-star a star."

But part of being a good interviewer isn't just being funny and friendly. It's also about knowing your stuff. Asking a guy the same questions he gets from hundreds of other media is going to prompt a canned answer. But asking questions that make it clear you're familiar with someone's work can lead to a lot more depth, and the interviewee becoming a lot more comfortable and more likely to open up.

DiMonte, Spalding said, is a generalist, who will read everything he can get his hands on (this is easily confirmed by looking at all the stuff he posts on Facebook). That's what makes him a great interviewer and a great host, Spalding said.

Like DiMonte, Spalding sees this deal lasting longer than its contract specifies. "This is a long-term play," Spalding said.

Other talent at CHOM

Though the online rumour mill is buzzing with speculation about who's going where on CHOM's schedule, no official decisions have been made yet. And they won't be until the morning team is figured out, and that won't happen until DiMonte gets to Montreal, which won't happen until he's released from Q107.

Spalding said that after hearing about DiMonte coming back to CHOM, "people have reached out to us" about becoming DiMonte's cohost. But whether they hire from outside or just reshuffle their existing talent remains to be seen. DiMonte and Chantal Desjardins will at some point be introduced, but "there has to be chemistry" in any morning team, Spalding said. So they'll see how that plays out.

Pete Marier, meanwhile, is expected to go back to an afternoon drive-time show. His gruffy voice is much better suited to destressing after a day at work than waking up in the morning. Spalding said Marier is better as a drive-time host than a morning man, a sentiment I've heard from others who follow the industry.

For the rest of the schedule, it's still up in the air, though two changes have been made already: Tootall, one of CHOM's most ancient veterans (and a man filled with crazy stories from decades past), has been moved to mid-mornings, doing the 10am to 1pm shift. "We want him to be one of our pillars," Spalding said. He replaces Sharon Hyland, who has moved to weekends.

The other change is the show Amped with Jason Rockman (one of the station's young talents) on Friday and Saturday nights. It features more up-tempo music that Spalding described as "a soundtrack to a corporate party with your buddies."

Though Spalding said the station "worked very hard to keep our staff," he does expect some attrition. He doesn't know who that is yet, but he does seem to expect some announcers to leave for other opportunities elsewhere.

One thing is for sure, he wants the station to be local. While Q107 in Calgary can get away with having only four announcers (two in the morning, one in the afternoon and one on weekends), that wouldn't fly in Montreal. Nor does Spalding want it to.

"Given the choice between Alice Cooper - which is syndicated - and local, I'll always choose local," he said. "Our strategic advantage is to stay local."

That means local announcers - who can tell you what happened during the Habs game, who know the difference between Pie IX and "pie nine" - even during the overnight hours.

Mind you, Virgin Radio's schedule still features quite a bit of syndicated content, especially on weekends.

Ted Bird: never say never

Ask the Internet who Terry's cohost should be, and you'll probably get "Ted Bird" as an answer. But is such a thing possible, or likely? Bird has said it isn't - even though he and DiMonte are good friends.

I wondered, from Spalding's perspective, how torched the bridge between CHOM and Bird was. "Ted is an incredibly talented broadcaster. Very passionate, very emotional," he said.

Spalding also pointed out that "people's memories are very short."

In Spalding's world of media management, letting your ego get in the way of a good business decision means you're not doing your job. "You hire the act," he said. In media, being controversial can be as much a benefit as it is a liability. If CHOM wanted to hire this act back, there's nothing legally preventing it.

And, Spalding reminded me, it was Bird who made the decision to leave CHOM.

"Never say never," he said.

But don't get your hopes too far up. Bird has said he's happy at K103 in Kahnawake. And Spalding said that there have been no conversations with Bird about rejoining the station.

"But I'm not closed to the idea," Spalding said. "I'm not closed to anything."

Bird's main beef at CHOM was with the program director, Daniel Tremblay. For Bird, he was this guy who bragged about never being on the air and who started bossing people around at CHOM after working at some French stations in another city. For Spalding, Tremblay was a man with lots of experience in the industry in a management role. "Daniel has done one thing in his life, and that's work in radio," Spalding said.

Now that Tremblay no longer works at CHOM, and DiMonte is coming back, the chances of reconciliation with Bird are much higher. But still not high enough that I actually expect it to happen. Public demand would have to be much higher to force CHOM to put enough resources into luring Bird back.

Poaching at Virgin Radio

The biggest pieces of news to happen to CJFM in the past few months are remarkably similar: Two of the station's big names - Cat Spencer and Nat Lauzon, have left the station and will take jobs at competitor CFQR (92.5 the Q) in the fall. I asked Spalding about this, and whether this is just a coincidence or if he's worried about losing top talent to Cogeco.

It's business, he said, and the two left under different circumstances. Spencer got a better offer at the Q, and apparently felt it was a better opportunity for career advancement, while Lauzon wanted to reduce her work hours to concentrate on other projects.

These things happen. And if you're looking for talent, it makes sense to target the big stars at the No. 1 station in the market. But Spalding isn't worried.

Besides, he said, Freeway Frank Depalo, who was hired to replace Spencer on Virgin's morning show, has been "a blessing in disguise," and ratings have gone up since the former Montrealer joined the team.

Spalding isn't panicked about competition, particularly since Astral has a 76% market share with its three stations, which includes the top-rated station in the market, CJFM.

But the competition is constant, and Spalding said his goal is to make his stations' programming as seamless as possible. What he called "errors" are what lead listeners to switch stations. Long pauses, technical snafus, or just songs and segments that don't hold the listener's interest.

"The one who makes the fewer errors wins," he said.

CJAD Habs-less

For CJAD, the biggest news recently has been the loss of broadcast rights of Canadiens games to Bell's CKGM (Team 990). Though Spalding took issue with how I phrase the question.

"Losing broadcast rights to Team 990 is a misrepresentation of what happened," he said.

The writing was on the wall not for weeks or months but since way back when Bell purchased CTV and Team 990, Spalding said. The business connections between Bell and the Canadiens are almost too numerous to mention. Bell owns a minority stake in the team, it owns the French-language TV broadcaster (RDS), the English-language regional TV broadcaster (TSN), the naming rights to the team's arena, lots of exclusive rights for mobile, and it produced a special TV series profiling Canadiens players that was available exclusively on Bell video on demand before airing on RDS and TSN2. And that's just the stuff I can think of off the top of my head.

To suggest that Team 990 won the rights to Canadiens games strictly on its own merits is ludicrous, according to Spalding.

Spalding's interpretation jives with that of Mike Boone, who wrote shortly before the announcement that the deal was essentially forged when Bell negotiated regional TV broadcast rights for Canadiens games (they air on a special "TSN Habs" channel that's so far available only on Bell and Bell Alliant).

I asked Spalding if he thought this was unfair. A slight grin developed on his face.

"Unfair? Life is unfair," he said, returning to his this-is-just-business philosophy. There's no bitterness, no anger, just acceptance. This is how things work in the media business, and you have to understand that and get used to it.

So CJAD will move on. "We'll keep covering the team as a news item," he said. And regular programming will be more consistent (though CJAD still retains the rights to things like Alouettes games). And Spalding said he doesn't expect ratings to suffer hugely.

"It wasn't a huge ratings benefit to us," he said. But it was "prestigious" to be known as the official Canadiens broadcaster.

Asked whether there will be significant programming changes to expect for the fall now that there are about 10 more hours a week to fill during the season, Spalding answers simply: "Aren't we always?"

Cogeco's all-traffic stations

Spalding mentioned a post I wrote about Cogeco's proposal for all-traffic AM stations in Montreal. I asked him what he thought of it.

"It's opportunistic," he said, a way to make use of transmitters and antennas they bought as part of the purchase of Corus Quebec. Give him $1.5 million a year and he'd be more than happy to setup his own traffic station.

Astral Media Radio has submitted an intervention in the application that largely echoes the points raised by Spalding and myself.

Terry DiMonte returns to CHOM, and is back in Montreal for good

Fagstein — Fri, 24 Jun 2011 19:14:00 +0000

Terry DiMonte has lost some weight since leaving Montreal

Stop me if you've heard this one before: They're bringing back Terry DiMonte.

It was with a lot of excitement (well, one exclamation mark anyway) that Astral announced (in English and French) that DiMonte has been hired to host the morning show at CHOM for a third time. For DiMonte, the news was "a little bit bittersweet", having to leave this new home in Calgary he had tried to make his own over the past three and a half years.

There is no word on who his co-hosts will be, but so far Pete Marier and Chantal Desjardins are expected to be able to keep their jobs at the station, even if they're not on the morning show team.

The Gazette has posted a story about DiMonte's return, as well as some videos that were created as part of a series on expat Montrealers in 2009: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3. There were also briefs on CTV News and Global's local newscast, but otherwise coverage has been light.

No date yet

When DiMonte will return to Montreal and its airwaves is still undecided. DiMonte signed a five-year contract with Calgary's Q107 in late 2007, which means he still has about a year and a half left. The deal does allow him to get out early with six months notice, which was given on Wednesday. So depending on how the station plans to play this, it could be as late as Christmas before he's allowed to return to Montreal.

"My intention was and is to fulfill my obligation for the next six months," DiMonte told me over the phone on Thursday. Still, the decision is up to the station. They could have him keep working until December, or they could pay him not to work. But a small radio station with only four full-time staff that paid decent money to lure DiMonte to Calgary in the first place probably isn't too eager to waste it on talent it can't use.

"A bit defeated"

Though demand for DiMonte as a Montreal radio host was apparently high enough that Astral went out to get him, he admits that his time at Q107 hasn't been a runaway success. "I didn't meet my own expectations in Calgary," he said, though he did say that "things have gone relatively well here." Aside from some Montreal expats who remember him from his days here, there isn't nearly the kind of familiarity in Calgary as there was here. Part of that is the simple fact that he's only been in Calgary for three and a half years. But he also said he was disappointed that there wasn't more done to market his station and its morning show. His face wasn't on billboards or on TV, despite how much effort and money Corus went through to bring him there. The fact that the economy went down the toilet shortly after his contract began probably had something to do with that.

The result is that Q107 has been stagnant in the ratings. Its morning show has a 6.7% commercial market share, making it eighth out of 15 stations in that market. They're better, but not much better. And as this 2008 Calgary Herald story made pretty clear, Q107 expected significant results by taking DiMonte on board.

"I believed that by the time 2012 comes around, my contract would expire and I wouldn't be offered another one," DiMonte said.

Still, it wasn't him that made the first overture about coming back to Montreal. He was wooed.

"We made a mistake"

DiMonte said the first move happened in December, when he got an email just before Christmas from Martin Spalding, the Astral VP who is in charge of CHOM, CJFM and CJAD. The two have known each other for a long time. Spalding was once DiMonte's personal assistant. So DiMonte didn't think anything of it when this friend wanted to take him out to dinner during a visit to Calgary.

What DiMonte didn't know at the time was that Spalding wasn't on some tourist visit or there for some corporate meeting. The dinner with DiMonte was the purpose of the trip. Spalding wanted to bring DiMonte back to CHOM.

"I was, to be frank, a little stunned," DiMonte said. Not only at the discussion of his coming back to CHOM, but at the idea that someone would fly to Calgary just to discuss the matter with him.

Spalding, DiMonte said, "paid me probably the highest complement I've ever had. He said: 'When we let you get away we made a mistake, and we want you to come home.'"

Discussions continued over the coming months, and Spalding flew back and presented an offer.

Here's where DiMonte did something that he wouldn't have done five years ago: He took the deal to his lawyer. In 2007, he didn't even have one for negotiating contracts. He has since learned their value. By March, it was clear DiMonte was going to be coming back, but the fine print had to be ironed out. Everything became official when he submitted his notice on Wednesday and Astral sent out its press release.

DiMonte said he has no regrets about going to Calgary when he did. "I was broken-hearted when I left Montreal," he said, but "I think I did the right thing. I got out when I needed to get out."

Bad blood

The story of DiMonte's break from CHOM in 2007 is one of a personal conflict. His contract was up, and he was being asked to sign a document with a lot of fine print, he told The Gazette in 2009. "Don't you dare bring in a lawyer," he was reportedly told.

DiMonte said he had no issue with the station or its owners (CHOM was in the process of being purchased by Astral Media when he left), but said the problem was local management at the station, and particularly one individual, whose name he didn't utter during our interview, perhaps out of fear he would have to follow it by spitting somewhere.

"My beef was not with Astral because I never got the chance to work with Astral," DiMonte said. "My beef was with one guy running the radio station."

A lot has changed since then. Former program director Bob Harris is in Hamilton, and Astral VP Rob Braide left the company and works as a consultant. CHOM's management isn't what it used to be. It isn't even what it was when Ted Bird left - program director (they call them "brand directors" now) Daniel Tremblay, who replaced Harris and was the focus of Bird's fallout with the station, left his position recently.

Glad to be back

"I try not to let sentiment interfere with any kind of business decision I'm making," said DiMonte, who at 53 is a lot wiser about the business of radio than he was before he left CHOM.

An offer to go back to his old job, live in his home town again, just as it was becoming clear that his future in Calgary might not be so bright, seemed perfect.

The first thing he did, he said, was look at his contract with Q107, where he was "pleased and surprised to read" that the five-year contract had a clause allowing him to leave early on six months' notice.

Thank God for lawyers, he thought. His had served him well here.

Still, even with the deal done, DiMonte had worries about returning to CHOM.

"I was concerned," he said. "Am I going backwards? Am I covering territory I've already covered?" - These are sentiments echoed by a few online commenters who see this move as CHOM regressing to its comfortable old ways. DiMonte, like Bird, they say, is boring and stale, and CHOM should save its money and instead hire new, young, dynamic talent. There certainly in't a labour shortage in Montreal's radio industry.

When asked how much of his decision to return was a personal desire to move back home versus a business decision that this was best for his career, DiMonte said it was "50/50."

"Okay, 60/40. Because money isn't everything."

DiMonte didn't tell me what kind of money he'd be making at CHOM, but he did say the offer was "very reasonable" and fair for someone of his experience coming into a market like (anglo) Montreal.

He also pointed out that rumours of how much he was making at Q107 were wildly exaggerated.

Overwhelmed

"There seems to be a fair amount of goodwill associated with my name," DiMonte said, as if he was genuinely surprised of this fact. "I'm pleased as punch that people still remember me four years after I left."

That's a bit of an understatement. Since news came out on Wednesday afternoon, DiMonte has been flooded with messages of congratulations from his Montreal fans. In the less than 48 hours since, he has received 316 posts on his Facebook wall (not including comments added to his messages, which also number in the hundreds), a few dozen messages of congratulations on Twitter (his name was even trending in the city when news erupted), and all sorts of other, less public messages from friends and fans.

It was so much that DiMonte at first clammed up online. A prolific Facebooker and budding Twitterrer, he stopped posting on both as the messages flooded in. I thought at first he might have been under some sort of gag order, unable to confirm the news. But he said he just couldn't handle the sheer volume of messages. He's put up a few mass thank-yous, and hopes to get back to everyone individually - maybe he'll succeed by the time he starts at CHOM.

DiMonte mused that social media might have a lot to do with why he's still remembered here. Rather than have him disappear completely from their minds, they can follow him online. He has more than 4,000 friends on Facebook, where he posts links that are of interest to fans in both cities. He also has 948 followers on Twitter.

While social media certainly helps, I think DiMonte underestimates the long memories of Montreal radio listeners.

The story was similar before DiMonte became active on social media, when he left the city in 2007.

"I was at my parents' place just before Christmas when I left, with tears in my eyes trying to answer all the emails I got," he said. "I had no idea I was reaching people in this way."

It was enough that Corus decided to experiment with him doing a noon-hour show on Montreal's CFQR from Calgary. But that lasted less than a year, ending in June 2009.

Mostly quiet on the Calgary front

While reaction to DiMonte's return has been mostly positive here, it made a much smaller splash in Calgary. A handful of the Facebook posts he received were from disappointed Q107 listeners, and some took issue with the fact that they learned about this news through social networking or via Montreal media online rather than from DiMonte himself.

DiMonte hasn't formally announced to his listeners that he's leaving. He said he wanted to let Q107 make the call on his future there first, and give them something a little more definitive than saying he'll be leaving at some point over the next six months. The Internet being what it is, many of his listeners still found out.

DiMonte knows he's a smaller fish (somewhat literally, he's lost a lot of weight since going to Calgary) in a bigger pond there. "I haven't been here long enough to make the kind of impact I made in Montreal," he said.

While news of his return resulted in an article in the Gazette and mention on at least two local TV newscasts, in Calgary there was just a brief in the Herald (and the comments on it are not particularly flattering to DiMonte - then again those on the Gazette piece aren't the nicest either).

That said, DiMonte asked me to emphasize that he loves Calgary (particularly its lack of sales tax) and he appreciates the support he's received from his listeners there. He also has nothing but kind words for Q107 and Corus, who have been good to him despite the tiny resources at the station.

He said he's learned through his experiences that stereotypes about Canada's regions are all bull, whether they're Quebecers' views about Calgary or Calgarians' views of Quebec. Albertans aren't all ultraconservative oil baron cowboys, and Quebecers aren't all lazy separatist unilingual francophones.

Getting back into the Montreal mindset

When DiMonte first started at Q107, he found he had to let go of Montreal. "I was watching RDS and reading The Gazette and said 'I gotta stop this.'" Though he remained a Montrealer at heart, he started transforming himself into a Calgarian.

Now he has to change back. He's been watching Mutsumi Takahashi and this new kid Van der Heyden, "trying to replug a bit."

Asked by Gazette managing editor Ray Brassard whether this means we can stop sending bagels, DiMonte laughed. But he added that he is a bit worried about coming back to Montreal and its food. He lost quite a bit of weight since moving out there, as he told The Gazette's June Thompson last year, and credited being away from some Montreal restaurants with helping him keep it off. He said he's "terrified" of gaining it all back.

Setting conditions

One of the nice things about being wooed for a job is being able to get some concessions. DiMonte didn't demand a gold-plated helicopter or anything, but he did ask for - and receive - more creative control.

"I refuse to go into an office at 10 o'clock and have philosophical arguments with a guy who's never done this before about what I've done on the air," DiMonte said he told Spalding before accepting his offer. "I'm not going back into a situation like that."

I know a few radio veterans who know very well what he's talking about. I've heard stories of program directors - some with little or no on-air radio experience - critiquing the work of radio personalities who started in the business before those pencil-pushers were even born. This issue is a large part of why Ted Bird and Aaron Rand left their jobs.

You're nobody, DiMonte

When DiMonte first started working at CHOM in 1984, he said he was making $30,000 a year. Seeing the ratings go up with him at the mic, he asked for - and was denied - a raise. He ended up leaving for CJFM, which at the time was owned by a different company. He recalls clearly being told he'd be nothing without rock records, and his boss at the time telling him not to bother coming back crawling to CHOM.

Of course, we all know DiMonte didn't go crawling to any job since. He worked five years at Mix 96, another four at CJAD to replace (he preferred to use the term "follow") George Balcan, and then back at CHOM where he was reunited with Ted Bird in an attempt to rebuild the station's ratings after the station made the mistake of moving to a more alternative rock format to compete with WBTZ (99.9 The Buzz) across the border.

Terry and ...

The big question on everyone's minds, other than when he's coming back, is who's going to be sitting with him. Lots of his fans want him to be reunited with Bird yet again, even though Bird's statements since indicate he's happy at K103 in Kahnawake and he's not expecting to come back.

What makes this debate interesting is that one of the concessions DiMonte sought in his contract with CHOM is co-approval of his morning team. Forced marriages, he said, don't work, and he didn't want to be in a position of working in a team that didn't have chemistry.

DiMonte has seen the comments about Bird, and so far the response is "we'll see." DiMonte and Bird are good friends, and he certainly isn't against the idea at first glance.

"There's been two people in my work life that have been absolute dreams to work with, one is Patti and the other is Ted."

Patti, of course, is "Peppermint" Patti MacNeil (formerly Lorange), who worked with DiMonte in Montreal and was reunited with him as his cohost at Q107 before she was dismissed last year. DiMonte currently does the Q107 morning show with another former Montrealer, Tim Morgan.

So could we see Terry and Ted again at CHOM? Maybe. Daniel Tremblay, the man most responsible for Bird's departure, is no longer there. But there's still a pretty scorched bridge between Bird and Astral, far more precarious than DiMonte's. It will depend a lot on how bitter Astral's management is about Bird's departure, and how willing Bird is to forgive CHOM for the sake of working with DiMonte again. At the moment, there is no sign that Bird is on his way out at K103, even though he's probably being paid more than they can afford there, and advertising hasn't been as huge as the station might have hoped when it signed Bird.

UPDATE (June 29): Bird says as much in his own words on his Gazette blog:

To answer the obvious question: no, there are no plans for a Terry and Ted reunion at CHOM. That bridge is in worse shape than the Mercier, and even if I hadn’t blown it to bits, I’m having too much fun in Kahnawake to entertain a return to the corporate radio milieu, even with someone I admire and respect professionally, and with whom my friendship is as strong as ever.

Aaron Rand, who recently left the Q for similar reasons as Bird and DiMonte left CHOM (though on much better terms), is another possibility, technically. But Rand seemed to close the door on that shortly after the announcement about DiMonte's return, posting on Facebook that he won't be going to CHOM. He also hinted that "I hope to have an announcement soon to let you know what's next for me." Rand had considered going to CHOM, and there were discussions with Astral, but the fact that Rand wants to be repaired with Paul (Tasso) Zakaib means there's not much room for DiMonte as well.

A more likely scenario might be DiMonte being teamed up with existing hosts Pete Marier and Chantal Desjardins, or something entirely different that nobody predicted. In any case, he and CHOM have some time to think about it.

CHOM indicated to The Gazette's Brendan Kelly that there would be a shuffle of personalities, and that none of them would be kicked out. This presumably means Marier and Desjardins will get slots at other points of the schedule.

Two years, at least

Since DiMonte was able to get out of his Calgary contract early, I wondered about his deal in Montreal. It, too, has an out clause, though DiMonte has agreed to guarantee at least two years to the station. The contract is for five.

DiMonte knows this is all just business, and he can't guarantee this latest job is for life. But, he said, at the end of this contract he'll be 58, and he has no intention of moving again. One can never say never, but he's pretty sure he's back in Montreal to stay.

A reversal in Montreal radio

The most surprising thing about DiMonte's return to the Montreal airwaves is that it seems to be going in the opposite direction of some recent moves. The music stations particularly have been shedding veteran talent and replacing them with younger, cheaper and less stubborn hosts. Bringing DiMonte back is the opposite.

When Spalding told DiMonte that letting him go was a mistake, was this a sign of some deeper change in perspective on behalf of Astral?

DiMonte said he looks to the United States, which he describes as a few years ahead of Canada in terms of trends in radio programming. He pointed to decisions made by ClearChannel to cut on-air staff, reduce talking time and play more music. He said the strategy worked in the short term, but people started to tune out as they lost their connections with the personalities.

"They've damaged their relationship with the community," he said.

On the other hand, DiMonte said he looks at developments like a 10-year contract offered to John Derringer at Toronto's Q107, which he described as "unheard of" in the radio business, as a sign that radio executives are starting to appreciate the value of veteran, familiar talent again.

UPDATE: Spalding's view

I met with Spalding later to talk about DiMonte and other issues at Astral's radio stations. You can read about that talk here.

Go to hell: Astral VP

~~I called up Spalding, the Astral VP in charge of CHOM, CJFM and CJAD who brought DiMonte back to Montreal, to get his take on this story and answer a few questions about the station's plans.~~

Unfortunately, Spalding wasn't interested in talking to me. The man who appeared in DiMonte's story to be the height of professionalism and class said he was "not in the mood" to have a conversation with me about DiMonte (or anything else), suggested it had something to do with something I posted on Twitter (he didn't specify what that was) and then said "this conversation is over" before hanging up the phone.

Mere moments after hearing praise from DiMonte about how fair I was in my reporting on this blog (compared to other Internet gossipers who spread bull around, he said), I had a surreal conversation with a media executive I had never met or written about (beyond quoting press releases) who apparently doesn't appreciate what I say and figures the best way to deal with it is to childishly refuse to talk.

~~I guess some things don't change.~~

UPDATE (June 27): Spalding sent me an email this morning - a mere five business minutes after this post was published - saying "Perhaps I was a little curt with you the other day." He's promised a meeting to explain. I'll update afterward to include his take on DiMonte's return.

Q107 spits out Peppermint

Fagstein — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 01:34:04 +0000

"Peppermint" Patti MacNeil, who some might remember as a former Montreal radio host who fled out west, is out of a job. Q107, which paired her with her old pal Terry DiMonte on their morning show, has decided not to renew her contract, and the Terry and Patti Show is now just the Terry Show.

MacNeil didn't respond to an email seeking comment, but made a brief statement to the Calgary Herald saying she was "disappointed" and "sad".

DiMonte, who has never been one to keep quiet about his feelings even if they might not be the most PR-friendly, said the move "blows big time". But, of course, it wasn't his call.

Before some of you start dreaming of a Terry & Ted reunion, the Birdman tells me that "convincing me to uproot my family and move 3,500km would take Terry money, and they already spent the Terry money on Terry."

CFQR dumps Terry DiMonte

Fagstein — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 18:29:46 +0000

Less than two years after he moved to Calgary in the midst of a nasty contract dispute and took up a job that pays him more money than God, and less than a year after competitor Q92 decided to have him do a noon-hour show from Calgary, Terry DiMonte has once again been booted off Montreal radio.

DiMonte announced on Thursday that his show on CFQR would come to an end, by "mutual agreement." His final show is Tuesday, June 23, from noon to 1pm, just before the Fête nationale holiday.

Unlike his very public spat with Astral Media's Rob Braide and Bob Harris, which DiMonte described as "hurtful", his departure from Q92-now-925-the-q is more an acceptance of an unsustainable situation, and he holds no acrimony toward the station or its owners. CFQR is, above all, a music station, and with its relaunch in April it became even more so. DiMonte's voice time was cut to only about six minutes during the hour (other Q DJs were similarly cut to make room for more music), and he's paid far too much to sit around and drink coffee for 20 minutes while he waits for his next two minutes on air. As he said on the air on Monday, "it doesn't fit anymore."

Even though his ratings were up in the last quarter, the price was still far too high. There are plenty of younger, cheaper, more local DJs that can be brought in to introduce Madonna and Marvin Gaye. According to someone intimately involved with a source with inside knowledge of a phone call between a highly-placed insider and the astrologer for a janitor with access to secret documents, DiMonte was told (graciously) on Thursday that budget cuts meant he had to be dumped. It was a day after he was congratulated for his ratings bump.

Asked about his departure, DiMonte had nothing but kind words for the station (which is owned by his current employer, Corus):

My time at Q was really nice. They were welcoming and supportive and Mario Cecchini and Mark Dickie are class acts. And it was an interesting and different challenge, talking to Montrealers from a studio in Calgary. That was fun. And it helped ease the pain of the bums rush I got from CHOM.

I asked him what he'll be doing with all the extra time he has. He says he has lots of work to do as "a morning man trying to make a mark in a city of 1.2 million people and 18!! radio stations" and he doesn't expect to be taking extra-long lunches.

It was a cute little experiment, but in the end DiMonte was overpriced and underworked, doing a job more suited to someone with less than half his experience. It was like hiring a race car driver in a limousine to deliver pizzas. It just didn't make sense.

So DiMonte is once again off Montreal radio, at least until someone can match what he's getting in Calgary and offer him serious money to come back. Considering the state of the media economy here, and the rather charred bridge between him and Astral Media (which owns CHOM, CJFM Mix 96 and CJAD), I wouldn't hold my breath.

I've asked for comment from Brian DePoe, program director at CFQR, but he's on vacation until after June 24. I'll update this post if he has anything to add.

UPDATE: The last two minutes from his final show, in (slightly imperfect) Mp3.

Victoria Bridge: The 8th Wonder

Fagstein — Sat, 02 May 2009 17:54:57 +0000

From the National Film Board's archives, a cute little 1987 film by Michel Choquette about the history of the Victoria Bridge, starring the voices of Terry DiMonte and Patti Lorange on a pretend radio show for a fictional Montreal station.

And as a special related bonus, the 1972 Barrie Howells film Trafficopter, which follows CJAD traffic reporter Len Rowcliffe high above the city.

There, isn't it good to learn something?

Gazette explores anglo exodus, DiMonte

Fagstein — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 19:54:10 +0000

It's really a story only The Gazette can do. And therefore it's a story The Gazette must do: The exodus of anglophones from Quebec.

So in a five-part feature series that ends today, the paper went all out, sending reporter David Johnston and photographer/videographer Phil Carpenter out to Calgary and Vancouver to interview ex-Montrealers.

DiMonte

Of particular interest to media watchers is probably Part 3, which interviews former CHOM morning man Terry DiMonte and his sidekick Peppermint Patti MacNeil (ex-Lorange). Although focused on language and culture, it also goes into a bit more detail about DiMonte's decision to move to Calgary and work at Corus's Q107 (it was business, not language politics, that was behind the change):

DiMonte's more recent departure can be seen as an example of the "normalization" of anglo migration from Quebec. As political and linguistic uncertainty has subsided in Quebec, anglos now leaving Quebec are tending to leave for the same ordinary dull reason that people everywhere move - opportunity. In DiMonte's case, there was also the added complication of a troubled relationship with a new boss; but there again, as he says himself, there's nothing so unusual about that. Here he was, a big fish in a small English market in a large French city, breezing along in midlife at the top of his profession, when suddenly he was presented with a new contract that called for him to sign in and out of work every day.

Until that offer was put before him by Bob Harris, newly arrived operations manager at CHOM, DiMonte had worked for years under simple contract terms: a 2-per-cent annual salary increase, and a car. But now he was being asked to sign a 15-page contract with a lot of fine print. DiMonte says he went to see Astral Media vice-president Rob Braide about it all, and Braide warned him, "Don't you dare try to bring in a lawyer."

The day after the 15-page contract was put before him, Corus Entertainment, owners of Q107 in Calgary, called DiMonte. A five-year offer; big money. Patti MacNeil remembers being at home on the day she heard DiMonte was moving to Calgary, and thinking, "Cool, someone new in the market, someone I know and like and will listen to." But then the incumbent morning-show team at Q107 was let go, and the next thing she knew, DiMonte phoned her up and asked what she would say if Corus were to approach her - about teaming up with him."

Of course, some might call this whining.

If the name Bob Harris sounds familiar, it's because he's the guy in charge of CJFM, aka Virgin Radio 96 aka the crap they replaced Mix 96 with. Both are owned by Astral Media. (Q92, where DiMonte phones in a noon show, is owned by Corus.)

Video

Aside from the big features are two video series from Carpenter (all compiled on this page): a documentary of interviews from those same ex-Montrealers (including DiMonte), and some interviews with young students here about their future.

Carpenter goes into some behind-the-scenes detail on his blog, saying it took him four months (on and off) to put the three-piece, half-hour documentary together.

And more

There are also two Flash animations with graphical data (one points out that unlike most regional newspapers, The Gazette's online traffic comes primarily from outside the province), and a blog from Johnston, in which he explains the story idea came from a conference he went to combined with a report from Statistics Canada showing anglos growing again for the first time in decades.

Does no one mourn for David Tyler?

Fagstein — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 07:11:50 +0000

As Terry DiMonte begins his new noon-hour show on Q92 direct from Calgary today, the man he replaced, still-in-Montreal David Tyler, is philosophical on his blog about his departure from the station and what he plans to do next.

DiMonte to do noon-hour Q92 show from Calgary

Fagstein — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 18:53:31 +0000

Ad for Terry DiMonte in Monday's Gazette

Corus announced today that Terry DiMonte, the former CHOM morning man who left for Q107 in Calgary because CHOM wasn't prepared to offer him a long-term contract, will return to Montreal's airwaves starting Sept. 8 with a noon-hour talk/music show on Q92.

What's missing from Corus's press release, and the Presse Canadienne rewriting of it, is that DiMonte isn't physically returning to Montreal. He's still hosting his morning show in Calgary. Only now, after his morning shift, he'll stay in studio and do the Montreal show remotely.

This isn't the first time that a broadcaster has done "local" programming remotely and tried to fool people (Joe Cannon was famous for it and Global Quebec is introducing it), but the fact that Corus left it out of its press release suggests that their goal is to deliberately mislead Montreal listeners.

Fortunately, I'm relatively confident DiMonte has the moral fortitude not to outright lie to his listeners (saying "here in Montreal" or pretending his weather is the same as ours).

The Gazette's Bill Brownstein has more.

Terry DiMonte’s secure financial future

Fagstein — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 04:34:13 +0000

The Calgary Herald has a profile of Terry DiMonte and Peppermint Patti in their new jobs as morning hosts at Q107 FM in Calgary. It discusses a bit of their history in Montreal, his challenges ahead and the fact that he missed half his first month sick.

You'll recall DiMonte left CHOM FM here in November for a financially secure job at Q107 which pays him (according to the Herald's sources) a sweet $450,000 a year, guaranteed for five years. (And really, who wouldn't eat a steaming pile of dog poo for that kind of cash?)

Terry DiMonte leaving CHOM for better offer in Calgary

Fagstein — Thu, 22 Nov 2007 03:28:11 +0000

Rumours that longtime Montreal radio personality and CHOM-FM morningman Terry DiMonte was considering an offer to move to another radio station were verified today when CHOM announced he was leaving in an email to listeners.

Strangely, the announcement doesn't mention where he's going, calling it only "a new opportunity in Western Canada." But he has accepted a five-year contract at Calgary's Q107 classic rock station, where he will begin a show in January.

DiMonte's last day is this Friday.

Through two stints at CHOM (separated by five years at Mix 96 and four years at CJAD), DiMonte has spent 14 years at the classic rock station, becoming one of its most recognizable names. He's been a perennial favourite among anglo Montrealers, and won the Mirror's No. 1 choice for best radio host in its 2005 Best of Montreal poll.

Metroblogging Montreal has already declared war. Adrian's a bit more sombre about it.

DiMonte's replacement on the Terry Ted and Kim morning show is Rob Kemp, who currently hosts the Rob Kemp show on weekday afternoons on Mix 96. He starts Monday, when the show will become the Ted, Kim and Kemp show (a name which sounds cooler than "Ted Kim and Rob" but makes no sense logically).

As for Kemp's old slot, Mix 96 is currently hiring to fill it. So if you have a sunny disposition and at least three years of on-air experience in the format, feel free to apply.

UPDATE: The Gazette (after talking with DiMonte) confirms what's been pretty obvious to everyone, that DiMonte's move was about contract negotiations. Talks to re-sign him weren't going well, giving him the distinct impression that CHOM didn't really want him back. (Classy man that he is though, he doesn't blame management for the deal going sour, lamenting only that he and Bird don't have the star power they used to.)

Q107 gave him an offer he couldn't refuse. So Montreal loses another star to free agency.

UPDATE (Nov. 23): On the morning of his last day, a tribute cartoon from Aislin, and a column from Mike Boone. And, of course, the obligatory Facebook group that misspells his name.

UPDATE (Nov. 24): In this morning's Gazette, a recounting of DiMonte's final day on the air.

There's also an article in the Calgary Herald about how DiMonte's arrival will affect the radio landscape there. It notes how DiMonte's departure is "front-page news" here, though with the exception of The Gazette and CTV News I find this story vastly under-covered in the Montreal media. A brief Presse Canadienne piece, a couple of sentences at CJAD (where he spent a few years). Not a peep from CBC, Global, or any of the French media.

The news item is already off CHOM's front page, replaced by a Led Zeppelin promo. Hell, even Ted Bird's blog is absent any mention of his best bud's departure (what the hell is the point of these blogs if you're not going to use them for things like this?). Kim Rossi mentions it briefly, though it sounds more like a press release than a heartfelt goodbye to a friend.

So I'll leave you with this video from CTV News on YouTube (I would have linked to the one on CTV's website, but all the links I found to it say the video is "no longer available"):

UPDATE (Dec. 12): The Gazette's Bill Brownstein follows Terry around for his last week in Montreal, going to some of the places he'll miss most.

UPDATE (Jan. 4): DiMonte has already begun his morning show at Q107, where he's being partnered with former Montrealer "Peppermint" Patti MacNeil. The show can be heard online weekdays 7:30am-noon (5:30-10am in Calgary).

Fagstein » Terry DiMonte

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