News about news

• Ezra Levant is appealing to his favourite shiny pony, Justin Trudeau, after The Rebel was barred from covering a UN climate change conference because it’s an “advocacy media”. Canadian journalism organizations are supporting The Rebel, and an organization like the UN should be as open as possible within reason, though no one could really argue that The Rebel isn’t more about advocacy than journalism.

At the CRTC

• The CRTC has determined that Sudbury, Ont., does not have the capacity for another commercial radio station. Larche Communications wanted to add a second station, to better compete with Rogers and Newcap, who have two each.
• The commission has approved the acquisition by Attraction Radio of CFLM-FM in La Tuque, which was announced in April. The purchase price is $640,000. This gives Attraction 14 radio stations throughout Quebec, almost all in small towns.
• After a lot of talk in the media about changes to the points system used to determine whether a television series is Canadian enough to get access to funding by certified independent production funds, the CRTC has posted a new page to its website explaining the change, but more clearly downplaying the negative effect this would have on the Canadian-ness of Canadian television.

Print

• The Toronto Star has come to an agreement with its union to have a third party review its newsroom culture. This is all in the wake of the death of reporter Raveena Aulakh, which exposed a love triangle that caused a lot of problems. One of the people involved in that, former managing editor Jane Davenport (a former colleague of mine at the Gazette), was removed from the newsroom, but is now no longer with the company.
• The Montreal Gazette’s Hockey Inside/Out show has begun a new season, with a new look, a new producer and a new host: comedian Adam Susser.
• Dr. Charles Kowalski, the guy who took out a full-page ad in the Gazette to express anger at the P.K. Subban trade, prompting people to complain that he did that instead of donating to the Montreal Children’s Hospital, only to find out he donated $50,000 to the hospital? He has upped his donation to $250,000.
• Cult MTL has a new hockey column, Puck Drop.
• Finalists for the Antoine-Desilets prize for Quebec photojournalism have been announced.

#TheBeaverton? premieres November 9 at 10:30ep. Here’s your first look with your hosts Miguel and Emma in the newsroom. @TheBeaverton pic.twitter.com/NnsfwJ9CNG

— CTV Comedy Channel (@CTVComedy) October 18, 2016

TV

• The Beaverton, the Canadian fake news show, has a premiere date: Nov. 9 (Wednesday). And a teaser.
• The day before, Nov. 8, is the U.S. election, and Stephen Colbert has a special that night on Showtime in the U.S. and The Movie Network in Canada.
• CBC has ordered a new 13-episode half-hour comedy series called Crawford, from the people behind Trailer Park Boys, and partnered with Comedy Central, who will air it in the U.S.
• CTV is casting for a fifth season of The Amazing Race Canada. Deadline is Dec. 1.
• Weeks after bringing Corus TV stations CHEX-DT Peterborough and CKWS-DT Kingston into the Global News fold, they’re doing the same with CHEX-TV-2 (branded Channel 12 Durham), which will air both a local newscast and rebroadcast Global Toronto’s news at 5:30 and 6. The three stations, which Corus owned before it bought Global from Shaw, will remain CTV affiliates in primetime, but this change means dropping CTV National News from the schedule at 11pm.
• Much has posted some old celebrity interviews and other content in support of a book about MuchMusic’s history.
• TFO has signed an international distribution agreement with PBS.
• Stingray has a new distribution agreement with Shaw that is bringing the music video channels it purchased from Bell to Shaw’s cable and satellite customers.
• The Canadian Football League has fined the Edmonton Eskimos and head coach Jason Maas for refusing to wear microphones during a game against the Alouettes, and has threatened suspensions if they do it again. The game was supposed to be one of three “live mic” games that weekend, during which the quarterback and head coach of each team would wear microphones and what they say broadcast on TSN.

Radio

• Joey Elias’s comedy show is now being syndicated to NewsTalk 1010 CFRB in Toronto.
• Tom Power officially begins his new job as host of Q (sorry, q) on CBC Radio on Oct. 24. CBC has an interview with him.
• CKNW in Vancouver has apparently fired host Ian Power, after he got into an unnecessarily confrontational exchange with a journalist during an interview.

News about people

• Rogers has said goodbye to CEO Guy Laurence and announced it’s hiring former Telus boss Joe Natale — even though Natale’s non-compete contract with Telus prevents him from accepting this job until next summer. Rogers people are spinning this as more being in favour of Natale than against Laurence.
• The Windsor Star has a new editor-in-chief, Ellen van Wageningen, its first female EIC in history.
• Julian McKenzie seems to be pretty good at winning awards during his barely-started sports broadcasting career.
• Zane Schwartz is the latest recipient of the Michelle Lang fellowship at Postmedia, named after the journalist killed in action in Afghanistan. He’ll be investigating the influence of money in Canadian politics.
• CBC foreign correspondent Nahlah Ayed is getting an honorary doctorate from Concordia University.
• Ali Velshi, the Toronto-raised journalist who was at CNN and then Al Jazeera America, has been hired by MSNBC.
• Vicky Mochama, who recently left a job at Canadaland, is now a national columnist with Metro.
• Pierre Bruneau celebrates 40 years at TVA. The Journal de Montréal spent a day with him.
• Brian Bailey is the new programming manager for Corus’s radio stations in Kingston, Ont.
• Ken Pagan, the guy who allegedly threw a beer can onto the field during a Blue Jays game, “has left Postmedia.”

Good reads

• Le Soleil talks to Pierre Houde and Marc Denis of RDS.
• An opinion in Le Devoir about the declining quality of the French language in broadcasting.

Jobs

• Associate producer of digital media at CBC (in Toronto) (deadline Oct. 21)
• Globe and Mail summer internship (deadline Oct. 28)
• Montreal Gazette reporting and editing summer internships (deadline Nov. 4)

Upcoming events

• FPJQ conference: Nov. 18-20 in Mont-Saint-Sauveur