advertisement
FYI

Showtime: On The Fly With Bell Media President Randy Lennox

Jockeying meetings, phone calls and who knows what, the Bell Media's president begged off from speaking over the phone but was quick to answer a few questions we put to him about Sunday's extraordinary Canadian broadcast extravaganza Stronger Together that is designed to calm us and replenish food banks that are under stress from the pandemic and its resultant financial hit on the pocketbooks of Canadians.

Showtime: On The Fly With Bell Media President Randy Lennox

By David Farrell

Late afternoon Thursday, FYI reached out to Randy Lennox, the decorated and seemingly inexhaustible Bell Media president who has been at the centre of countless charitable endeavours and a champion of Canada’s music scene since playing in a band as a kid in the mid-70s.


With over 300 media assets under his charge, the former UMC CEO is leading the extraordinary Canadian pan-media Stronger Together broadcast that airs this Sunday at 6:30 pm over a coalition of media with the goal of providing an entertaining diversion for homegrown audiences during the lockdown and raising desperately needed funds for umbrella org Canada Food Banks.

advertisement

Jockeying meetings, phone calls and who knows what, he begged off in speaking over the phone but answered a few questions we put to him about Sunday's Stronger Together broadcast in an e-mail exchange.  

How quickly was this broadcast pulled together?

Randy Lennox: I called Lindsay Cox, John Brunton, Mike Cosentino and Tyson Parker 10 days ago and said we should do a television special to celebrate community heroes.

We certainly didn’t expect that it would turn into being available on over 100 platforms in Canada and that means that every station virtually in the country, be it television, streaming and radio are now a proud part of Stronger Together.

Now, of course, we also want to honour the incredibly tragic situation in Nova Scotia.

Clearly a lot of resources - technical, manpower, air time - go into this food bank fundraiser.

RL: We have worked very closely with insight and CBC, and we've had hundreds of people working from home to move things along as quickly as we can; and we now have over 100 people on the air for the commercial-free broadcast.

I understand Bell Media is donating a studio to pull the different feeds together. What is Insight Productions' role here?

advertisement

RL: Bell Media will be putting together the foundational feed and we’re working very closely with Insight to produce several dozen performances and stories for our 90-minute broadcast Sunday at 6:30 PM Eastern

How 'live' is the show, or are you pre-taping a lot of people who appear for quality control purposes?

RL: Everyone is performing from home and putting their songs and thoughts together between now and Sunday. (Right now) we are doing talent calls every 15 minutes all day today and tomorrow so we can actually try to mix and master and colourize the show on Saturday.

This is about honouring Canadian Heroes and also raising money for the food banks, and my dear friend Gary Slaight was the first person to step up and write a cheque for $100,000 just as we got started.

advertisement
NXNE
NXNE
NXNE
Concerts

NXNE Announces 2025 Board of Advisors

From The Grammys to the people behind the biggest global artists, this collection of major music industry figures will lead the festival to new heights.

NXNE is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year from June 11-15, 2025 in Toronto, and the festival has put together a major team of music industry experts to help lead it into the future.

The NXNE Board of Advisors features veterans from all over the industry, from Canada to the world. They are top executives in radio, managers and booking agents of some of the biggest global stars, heads of the most prestigious award shows, strategists at renowned media brands and more.

keep readingShow less
advertisement