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SOWNY » Bell CEO To Be Forced To Report To Commons Cttee. Over Mass Firings » March 26, 2024 9:29 am

AspectRatio
Replies: 4

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newsguy1 wrote:

he noticed that the Bentley, owned by the then CTV CEO was parked so that it took up two parking spaces. 

Hey, maybe he was just showing some CTV pride, as a vehicular tribute to Christine Bentley! 

SOWNY » Melanie Ng Returns To City TV - But Not On Air » March 14, 2024 3:58 pm

AspectRatio
Replies: 2

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Sounds like the hours work better for her in this role, I know she departed before as child care with her husband's work schedule and her own schedule was too difficult. She wrote on Instagram that: "That’s why I’m excited to be able to help launch an expanded version of this new channel alongside an incredible team, while also being there for my son in the mornings/afternoons and having the flexibility to work on other fulfilling projects (when I’m able)". 

SOWNY » Anyone remember this song and singer? » March 11, 2024 4:05 pm

AspectRatio
Replies: 4

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Probably "Where I'm Going" by Toronto-based Melanie Durrant (Wikipedia).

Google-Ninja'ing, someone else had a similar "What the heck was that song?" here and I saw the answer there.    Based on the Wikipedia entry in the paragraph above, the single was 2003 (feat. Common) but the album was 2005.


SOWNY » AM640's Format: What Else They Considered Before Mojo Radio » March 4, 2024 2:14 pm

AspectRatio
Replies: 7

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newsguy1 wrote:

I still can't imagine what they were thinking when they went MOJO.
Talk radio for guys?
What?
You alienate 50 per cent of the audience.

I have heard in retrospect that for that format, the station was actually somewhat effective at generating curiosity in the female listener - "What are 'guy topics'? What are guys being told there? What's this 'secret club'?" and that they DID have a female share of the audience. I liken it maybe to a "The View" (or "Oprah") scenario; "The View" clearly is targeted towards women, but I've heard of any number of boyfriends/husbands watching it because their female partner thought the segment would interest them, or simply being in the room - or liked the personality of the hosts. "The Other Half" was an experiment of a male version "The View" that didn't last long, however.

SOWNY » Local Weekly Radio Feature Celebrates 20 Years On Air » March 1, 2024 11:07 am

AspectRatio
Replies: 7

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Jody Thornton wrote:

He started mornings after Bill Carroll was taken off mornings, and I think that was 2009/ 

Correct. Based on his Wikipedia entry, "Moore in the Morning began airing on October 5, 2009"

SOWNY » AM640 Resurrects Old Corus Weekend Show On Fridays » February 28, 2024 1:50 pm

AspectRatio
Replies: 9

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Jody Thornton wrote:

Was it Viewpoints?  I'm guessing too  

A common and appealing enough name in talk radio, but interestingly, also the name of that Todd Van Der Heyden show they rolled out to much fanfare in 2019. That one seems to have quietly ended in early 2021.

SOWNY » Documentary On True Radio Original Phil Hendrie Is Coming Soon » February 23, 2024 4:31 pm

AspectRatio
Replies: 9

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mic'em wrote:

The CFRB page loads, but no buttons  will work for me. 

If you use an ad-blocker, you might need to wait up to 20 seconds for the pre-roll ones to be done (that you don't see) and those controls then become visible. Alternatively, as RadioActive says, try disabling/safelisting or another browser temporarily (or, say, Firefox in an Incognito session).

SOWNY » CFRB Morning Show Live On Family Day But Not AM640 » February 19, 2024 8:50 pm

AspectRatio
Replies: 15

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newsguy1 wrote:

This was done without any warning to the car driving public... no public service announcements, nothing.

I wouldn't say it's been without warning. I've been hearing about it on talk radio for what seems like daily for the last week, to the point I'm sick of hearing about it every day. They issued a press release on Monday, February 12th:

https://www.tps.ca/media-centre/news-releases/58764/

And been picked up by much media including:

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/toronto-police-parking-enforcement-statutory-holidays-1.7113219
https://toronto.ctvnews.ca/no-free-parking-in-toronto-starting-on-family-day-1.6765356
https://toronto.citynews.ca/2024/02/12/toronto-on-street-paid-parking-stat-holidays/
https://mobilesyrup.com/2024/02/13/toronto-police-will-enforce-paid-parking-on-public-streets-this-family-day/

SOWNY » When Is It "Sampling" & When Is It Plagiarism? » February 19, 2024 3:23 pm

AspectRatio
Replies: 6

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I've always found this topic interesting. In Wikipedia "Sampling (music)" article, there's a "Legal and Ethical Issues" section. I've read over the years that now, labels are typically extremely careful and diligent in paying the necessary clearances before an album (or single) is released to avoid later problems, but it was much more the "Wild West" in the early days of sampling in the 80s into the 90s.

The Information Society's late-80s song "Pure Energy" sampled not music, but some "Star Trek" TV episode dialogue and there wasn't the infrastructure for this type of clearance at the time.


SOWNY » Toronto Mike with update on Reshmi Nair and The Rush » February 17, 2024 8:56 pm

AspectRatio
Replies: 8

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newsguy1 wrote:

Also The Rush has tended to have two hosts who play off each other, so really would be best with two new voices. 

John Tory and Deb Hutton as the male/female duo?

Restoring John Moore to the afternoon shift and Tory/Hutton do that AM shift?

SOWNY » John Tory Filling In On Newstalk's The Rush Next Week » February 9, 2024 1:30 pm

AspectRatio
Replies: 12

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Hansa wrote:

Are these actually paid gigs or does Tory just offer to do it for free to give him something to do?

It's probably part of this overall deal they signed with him in December - whether he gets an extra stipend above-and-beyond for the fill-in work, not sure:

https://www.bellmedia.ca/the-lede/press/former-toronto-mayor-john-tory-joins-iheartradio-canadas-newstalk-1010-and-ctv-news-as-municipal-affairs-expert/

SOWNY » Agar the horrible » February 5, 2024 8:16 pm

AspectRatio
Replies: 7

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newsguy1 wrote:

as guest host John Tory was handing over to Gerry Agar. 

Jerry Agar. I've never fully understood why more names aren't accuracy/spell-checked in our amazing age where a new browser tab can be opened and two seconds later the answer found after a quick Google search. It makes the rest of a post read with more credibility. When I see a misspelling of a key fact like a name off the top, I tend to tune out the validity of the rest of the post.

SOWNY » The new Trivago ad-bad lip synching » January 21, 2024 9:31 am

AspectRatio
Replies: 3

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Muffaraw Joe wrote:

Has anyone noticed the newest Trivago ad? There is a delay in the sound and his mouth moving, my gut feel it isn't him talking and that the actor and voice over are out of synch, it makes for a shitty advertising experience.

Not an ideal experience, I'd agree.

This particular campaign's audio work is an AI production actually - one real actor on-screen (a UK one), but multiple languages (and potentially accents like your above "US" one) generated:

https://skift.com/2023/12/14/trivago-ad-campaign-replaces-20-actors-with-just-1-supported-by-ai/


Here's the French version for example:


 

SOWNY » I was wrong, there is some great talk radio in Toronto » January 20, 2024 3:34 pm

AspectRatio
Replies: 3

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Mike Bendixen? Is that you, posting under an alias? 

SOWNY » MIA - Reshmi Nair » January 12, 2024 10:02 am

AspectRatio
Replies: 26

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Curious statement from John Moore introducing Deb Hutton on this morning's "Moore in the Morning":

"...who's been hosting the afternoon show for a good long time and for a good long time to come, apparently, it would seem."


So, sounds like odds are that Nair might not return this coming Monday, anyway.

SOWNY » It's no wonder they're 1.3 » January 10, 2024 11:40 am

AspectRatio
Replies: 16

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RadioActive wrote:

Case in point on Wednesday morning - Laura Babcock on as a Roundtable panellist yet again. Is there no one else they can get? Enough already!

Agreed. I'm tired of hearing her name and hearing her pop up yet again on more appearances that I usually tune out when she does. I don't even typically listen to 1010 more than an hour or two a day (usually Moore) yet I feel over-saturated with someone who's not even on-staff as a host. As you've pointed out before, she frequently joins Jim Richards in the evenings as well. It's not even about the particular person (I'm sure she's a lovely individual and perhaps had some novel perspective about 1800 appearances ago), it's the repetition.

SOWNY » Donating to RetroOntario » January 9, 2024 7:22 pm

AspectRatio
Replies: 1

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You can use the Contact page at the website:
https://retrontario.com/contact/
 

SOWNY » Why would someone hack the Toronto Library? » January 5, 2024 9:06 pm

AspectRatio
Replies: 22

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The most relevant link for new updates is the landing page at:
https://torontopubliclibrary.typepad.com/tpl/home.html
They've mentioned the "later in January 2024" timeframe they reference for a while now, but these things can, unfortunately, take some time.

SOWNY » CFRB's Morning Meltdown » December 31, 2023 11:37 am

AspectRatio
Replies: 5

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Audio of the aftermath of this issue can be heard here, in Friday's "Hour 3" audio. I thought Agnew did okay under the circumstances.

Jason discusses the issue briefly off the top, then gets into it in more detail starting at time index 10:44 after the pre-recorded interview including the engineer's explanation and fix for the issue ("Power source failed; I replaced it"):

https://www.iheart.com/podcast/962-moore-in-the-morning-107770507/episode/jason-agnew-for-moore-december-29th--138979418/

SOWNY » TVO Documentary On Record Collectors Turns The Tables On Obsession » December 28, 2023 6:15 pm

AspectRatio
Replies: 6

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I've been anticipating seeing this one, so thanks for the heads-up. As the link mentions, its a sequel to Zweig's "Vinyl" from 2000. That original can be seen at an official link here and is fascinating in itself:



 

SOWNY » Stephanie Smyth Gets A Shot At Hosting Talk Radio » November 25, 2023 10:38 am

AspectRatio
Replies: 11

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Fjiri wrote:

I did some digging and found the details about Smyth and Smyth's two-day tango in December 2006.

I recall that Stephanie also discussed the lack of Dick Smyth relation on one or both of her "Toronto Mike'd" appearances, in 2016 and 2023 respectively:

https://www.torontomike.com/2016/11/toronto_miked_podcast_episode_206/
https://www.torontomike.com/2023/08/paul-cook-and-stephanie-smyth-toronto-miked-podcast-episode-1311/

SOWNY » The Talk Show Guests You'd Rather Not Hear » November 15, 2023 1:20 pm

AspectRatio
Replies: 14

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Shorty Wave wrote:

I say bring back Dave Trafford for the CFRB round tables, still not sure why they decided not to include him anymore, he was highly listenable, more so than most of their current pundits as you can see here!

I know this link was posted over at https://gta.boardhost.com/viewtopic.php?id=10119 , but easy to miss. No firm reasoning, but "hallway rumblings"/rumors is maybe his podcast startup network was seen as competition (for Bell's/iHeart's podcast app/presence)? Trafford speaks out on this starting at 1:57:



 

SOWNY » Why would someone hack the Toronto Library? » November 14, 2023 10:59 pm

AspectRatio
Replies: 22

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SpinningWheel wrote:

while e-books and audio books are fine.   The latter is probably under another system.   It looks like it's contracted out. 

Yes, like most libraries who make such agreements, these "multimedia" materials are provided by third-party content providers like Naxos, Flipster, Hoopla, Kanopy, Overdrive, Pressreader, etc.  They are not housed on any TPL server cloud or on-prem infrastructure.
 

SOWNY » Bob McCown: "I Really Would Like To Be Normal, Or Close To Normal.” » November 5, 2023 8:55 am

AspectRatio
Replies: 3

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cash wrote:

He is still smoking cigarettes??

I was surprised at this too. However, I recognize it's (nicotine) a medical addiction so willpower alone is never sufficient and perhaps he sees it as one "creature comfort" he's allowed while he disintegrates otherwise. But I don't know more of a lifestyle/habit "wake up call" than this re: the smoking. As one commenter on RA's Toronto Star link wrote:

"It’s too bad the Drs didn’t drive home the smoking cause. Continuing to smoke, is setting him up for the ‘big one’. I can’t believe that he still is, yet recognizes the state his previous stroke left him in. Smoking and strokes go hand in hand."

SOWNY » Reshmi 1010 Bad Attitude » November 3, 2023 4:48 pm

AspectRatio
Replies: 17

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DenPas wrote:

She is awful.  Why is she even in this time slot?!

She was a reasonably strong profile hire for the "Quibi" short-form experiment in spring 2020 that never took off and later folded. They were looking for a spot for her across Bell's holdings. She's strong at news anchoring (and perhaps reporting, though I haven't seen her work in that space), and as she may be finding out, talk show host is a separate "set of skills". She has no co-host to play off which was the original concept which I think was designed to help the inexperience in that format by relying on some banter/chemistry and a more experienced host (Scott MacArthur) guiding her.

She actually may be good at something like weekend mornings, 3 hours per - local event segments, some interviews, curating some clips from the week, etc. More kind of light talk/banter and "variety" in a way. Unfortunately Bell killed the 1010 early weekend slots and is just a CP24 simulcast for much of it and 1010 rerolls for the rest.

SOWNY » Reshmi 1010 Bad Attitude » November 1, 2023 7:37 pm

AspectRatio
Replies: 17

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RadioAaron wrote:

Sounds like they had an equally snippy exchange, but only Singh is being called out for it.

Who's "Singh"? Her name is Reshmi Nair.

It'll be interesting to see what they do with that still-important "afternoon drive" slot longterm.

SOWNY » Are you serious YouTube? » November 1, 2023 2:58 pm

AspectRatio
Replies: 11

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Radiowiz wrote:

Just an update: Looks like, if I don't sign in, I am blocked for using a blocker.
IF I sign in, (using a gmail address)  it no longer blocks me (with Ad blocker still on)
& I DID NOT pay for YouTube Premium.
 

Correct, since it "knows who you are" if you sign-on (with a Gmail address); and you're getting ads from other Google services. You're not just anonymous traffic/an IP that they should serve ads to because they can't relate that to a Google service sign-on which is subsidizing their free offerings anyway. If you're in the ecosystem anyway (and they know that - your sign-on), they can make some revenue elsewise.

SOWNY » Camilla Scott » October 27, 2023 7:50 am

AspectRatio
Replies: 6

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Radiowiz wrote:

Her Linked in profile mentions that she is heavily involved with Airborne international.

Just a correction to this statement, as "Airborne International" as you wrote it implies (to me anyway - was my assumption!) she might be doing communications/PR for some sort of airline, vacation, etc. firm.

She's actually involved with "Arbonne International" which is a multi-level marketing firm doing skin cream, cosmetics, nutrition, etc. Her Instagram is at https://www.instagram.com/camillaeves/?hl=en .

SOWNY » A-I Nonsense » October 18, 2023 10:02 am

AspectRatio
Replies: 7

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Evuguy wrote:

but when she closed off the newscast by giving her name as "Linda Lovelace", I nearly went off the road with laughter. 

Sense of humor indeed if it was really "Linda".    Some AI systems are named "Ada Lovelace" (or just "Ada"), however, as a tribute to one of the early figures that many computer principles are based upon. Did you really hear "Linda" or was it "Ada"?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ada_Lovelace

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