As The Beat’s staff and selected guests were celebrating the station’s first anniversary under its new brand, I chatted with its general manager, Mark Dickie, and its program director Leo Da Estrela. Among the topics we discussed over the loud music was this guy, Jeremy White, an enthusiastic young personality out of Kahnawake who impressed his bosses with his work ethic.
If The Beat’s competitor had any sense, they told me, they’d have stolen White away from them and given him a job at CHOM.
They asked me to keep that to myself, since they didn’t want Astral to actually steal White away from them.
But now Dickie has moved on to another job, Da Estrela is preparing for his own departure, and White has finally been stolen by Bell Media.
The only catch is he won’t be working in Montreal.
March 31st marks the beginning of a new chapter! Chasing the dream to Edmonton and @1049VirginYEG! SUPER STOKED! :D pic.twitter.com/MpUGRqYAYr
— Jeremy White (@JeremyWhiteMTL) March 20, 2014
Virgin Radio Edmonton announced on Wednesday that White has been hired as their evening host starting March 31. White relayed the news via social media early Thursday while he was still on the air at The Beat. He’s already overhauled his Twitter account with the new job info.
White has another week at The Beat before moving west.
The new job is a step up from his current one doing overnights at The Beat. (He briefly got bumped up to doing the evening job at the Beat after Paul Hayes left, to “give him some prime-time exposure,” and got bumped back when they hired Kim Sullivan. White also hosts the Saturday Party Jam on Saturday evenings.)
CFMG-FM bills itself as “Edmonton’s #1 Hit Music Station,” but it actually has just a 3.9% overall share, behind The Bear (rock), CFCW (country), The Bounce (CHR), Sonic (hot AC), K97 (classic rock), CISN (country), Up 99.3 (AC), Hot 107 (top 40), Cruz FM (adult hits), Fresh FM (hot AC), Now (hot AC) and Capital FM (classic hits), plus talk station CHED and CBC Radio One.
In short, it has a lot of work to do.
As you would expect, White says he’s excited about the new job, but will find it hard to leave Montreal.
Just add his address to the monthly shipment of smoked meat, bagels and poutine to Montreal expats in Alberta.