By David Farrell
JJ Jim Johnston Salutes Randy Moffat
In his ongoing tributes on Facebook, JJ put the spotlight on the former president and owner of the Winnipeg-based media firm whose holdings included radio, TV cable properties across Canada, as well as a stake in the Winnipeg Jets.
“One after another Moffat employee told about how much they absolutely loved working there, and I got interested. I would ask why? To which I got pretty much the same answer each time: the true and fun spirit and culture of the organization.
“Randy is kind of quiet and unassuming, which contrasts with the larger than life real-life characters and leaders he surrounded himself with. Imagine Gerry Forbes Sr., Don Kay, Keith James, Roy Hennessy, Alden Diehl, Stan Ravndahl, Bill Symsyk, Chuck McCoy, Bill Davis, “The Cowboy” Vern Trail and the radio ringleader Jim McLaughlin, all in one room. It was a riot, and while it was fun, they also got it done. There’s a book or three to be written about the hijinks of all of these characters, and I’m sure they would sell heartily.
“For instance, going on vacation for Winnipeg GM Roy Hennessy was always interesting. One-time Moffat was making some changes to the exterior of its Polo Park building, which featured a huge backlit red “M” on the roof. Think of the look on Roy‘s face when upon return, he rounded the corner to see this huge crimson “M” lit up in full splendour on his lawn, illuminating his house and pretty much the entire neighbourhood – continue reading here.
Is Canada's democracy ready for a dire new age of weaponized news?
"Genuine journalism must now compete with content that mimics it and dresses deceit in a cloak of credibility, while society must adapt to a world in which fact and falsehood are increasingly difficult to tell apart," said an exhaustive report by Canada's Public Policy Forum entitled The Shattered Mirror: News, Democracy and Trust in the Digital Age.
"An information market polluted this way puts the very notion of credibility at risk."
Andrew Coyne: The good news is we don't get the $50M. The bad news is someone else does
The practice of Liberal clientelism is to distribute public funds to organizations that, though officially non-partisan, promote the liberal, and Liberal, worldview – National Post
Radio Caroline returns to the airwaves as DJ Roger Day finally gets the chance to broadcast his breakfast show which was taken off air 50 years ago
A half-century later, DJ Day spun the discs Saturday that were intended to be broadcast the same day in 1968 but the playlist was scuttled when the pirate radio station was boarded and towed into British waters where it was shut down permanently – Daily Mail (via Sowny.net)
Beloved radio host Arthur Black saw humour in everything
The show also had regular guests, including tabloid sensationalist Harold Fiske, George St. John Quimby, delivering a weekly roundup of unusual stories from around the world in a plummy BBC accent, scams historian Andreas Schroeder and Marg Meikle, who regaled Mr. Black with in-depth reports on oddball events such as the Belt Sander Drag Races in Point Roberts, Wash – Globe and Mail obit
RIP
Nanci Krant, a 30-year veteran of the CHUM radio stations at 1331 Yonge Street in Toronto, has died of pneumonia at age 65. More can be found on Nanci’s Facebook page
