By David Farrell
Stingray launching syndicated New Country midday show
Stingray is set to launch a syndicated, coast-to-coast, midday show on half a dozen of its small market country stations, starting Monday, Oct. 21.
Networking original syndicated programming has developed as an aggressive trend in 2019, particularly in the country format. In June, Stingray introduced a regional morning show for its country stations in the B.C. Interior, hosted by Casey Clarke. The company made a similar move to syndicate mornings across its Real Country and boom-branded stations in rural Alberta in January. Bell Media’s 13 Pure Country-branded stations also boast a syndicated midday show, hosted by Shannon Ella. On the rock and Top 40 side, Corus Entertainment has made some bold moves in the space by syndicating major market mornings, most notably introducing Rock 101 (CFMI-FM) Vancouver’s Willy in the Morning to Q107 (CFGQ-FM) Calgary. Seattle-based morning duo Brooke & Jubal will make their debut on CHUCK FM (CKNG-FM) Edmonton, starting Oct 21. Corus started airing the show on JUMP! 106.9 (CKQB-FM) Ottawa in Sept. 2018. – Connie Thiessen, Broadcast Dialogue
Chinese social media giant flouting Canadian election law
Chinese social media giant WeChat is flouting Canada's new elections rules, allowing election ads to run without setting up a digital ad registry as required by law, CBC News has learned.
The platform's owner, Tencent, says election ads aren't running on its popular WeChat social media site and it has not set up an ad registry in Canada.
Foreign interference in Canada’s election
With the huge scandal in American politics about potential foreign influence in their presidential election comes a whiff of interference in Canada’s federal election, and from an unusual source,
Earlier this year it was revealed that Canada’s ambassador to China, John McCallum, a long-time influential member of the federal Liberal Party, had suggested to Chinese officials that China should use its means to help re-elect Justin Trudeau and the Liberals. That request for foreign interference cost him his job.
Now, former U.S President Barack Obama seems to have stuck his oar into Canada’s election with a pro-Trudeau tweet. – Marc Montgomery, Radio Canada Int.
Jessica Mulroney to star in new multi-platform Bell Media series
I Do, Redo is a 10-episode, 30-minute series from Insight Productions and is a collaboration between Bell Media and Netflix which will see the local broadcaster own the rights for Canada (it’ll be shown on CTV, CTV Life Channel, and Crave) and Netflix will stream it everywhere else. The 2020 seasonal premiere has Mulroney revisit first-time wedding disasters before re-making the wedding dreams of 10 devoted couples.
"We are aiming to make a significant difference in the lives of our chosen couples whose first weddings did not go as planned due to tragic circumstances. This is a side of the wedding industry that has never been shown on television before," the host’s star waxes in a media release.
Supermarkets are ditching their newspaper and magazine racks
The trend is spreading across the US, the UK, Europe and Canada. What was once seen as a tool to pull in daily customers is increasingly seen as something taking up valuable floor and counter space. – Laura Hazard Owen, NiemenLab
