Updated with comments from Feldman
Jeffrey Feldman, right, takes a picture of the Breakfast Television cast at a fall upfront event in June 2014.
A year after its founding executive producer, Bob Babinski, decided to quit to pursue freelance production work, City Montreal has parted ways with Breakfast Television’s supervising producer, Jeffrey Feldman.
Feldman, who worked as a Montreal producer for Bell Media’s eTalk and Fashion Television before joining City in 2013, is no longer with the company, a Rogers Media spokesperson confirmed.
Staff at City Montreal are tight-lipped about Feldman’s departure, referring me to corporate PR in Toronto.
UPDATE: I finally got in touch with Feldman himself. He insists his departure is amicable.
“It was just time to move on,” he said.
He’s considering moving back to his hometown of Toronto, where his family is, but is also considering an offer in Montreal. In the meantime, he’s taking his first real vacation in three years.
But Feldman says he enjoyed his time at City. “It was an amazing two years,” he said.
He said he turned off his Twitter account because he no longer needed it for work, and he didn’t think there was much there anyway.
As for why there was no on-air goodbye or social media well wishes from his colleagues, Feldman noted that he believes “producers’ jobs are supposed to be behind the camera” and he never wanted to draw attention to himself on air.
I guess that makes sense, but it’s still odd that no one has commented on his departure. Feldman mentioned that “I’ve always kept my professional relationships professional”, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t friends with the staff.
He also has only kind words for Renato Zane, the new executive producer (see below), calling him a great guy.
Renato Zane
Zane, formerly director of news and current affairs at OMNI, has actually been working here for some time now. I met him (and took his photo) in April, and the decision for him to come here had been made, but Rogers wanted me not to reveal his new post until it was official. For some reason that took months.
Zane, who fills Babinski’s former job, admitted he’s new to Montreal, which is a stark contrast to most of the staff at the station, who have strong roots in this city. But he is eager to learn.
On Wednesday, Breakfast Television marked its second anniversary.
Antenna work
People watching City Montreal over the air have been noticing reception issues. Says Rogers: “We are currently in the process of returning the tower to our engineering standards, a long-term solution that will improve both the quality of our signal and its over-the-air reception by viewers; we hope to have these repairs completed very soon.”
City Montreal (CJNT-DT) broadcasts from a small tower next to the CBC Mount Royal antenna tower, which is undergoing its own maintenance this summer. Its lower height and 4kW power have made it more difficult to receive than other Montreal stations.
