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March 25, 2022 5:29 pm  #1


What Became Of Some Of The Most Prominent Fired CFRB News Team?

Ever wonder what happened to some of the more high-profile members of the CFRB newsroom who got caught in the huge Bell bloodbath of Feb. 2021? Some of them had been with the station for years, before being summarily - and without much warning - cut loose from their 1010 microphones.
 
I’m glad to say at least a few of them appear to have landed on their feet, with new positions and hopefully, a new outlook on life. It’s interesting that none of the three named below are still in broadcasting. What follows came from Linked-In, where they have all listed their status, so while I can't 100% guarantee its accuracy, the information does appear to be up-to-date.
 
Here’s what happened to three of the most well-known news types:
 
David McKee
 
He was the smart-aleck afternoon anchor for CFRB’s drive home show, and even had an entire 6-6:30 PM segment to himself for a while. But when he got blown out along with the rest of the newsroom, it appears McKee used his old contacts to land himself a steady gig.
 
For the past year and a bit, he’s been the fulltime Director of Correspondence for the Premier of Ontario. Not quite sure what that entails, but given all the shots he took over the years at Doug Ford, it’s amazing where he landed!
 
Russ Courtney
 
He provided the drivetime news for Moore in the Morning for around a decade. When the end came, he needed first aid, so he got a brief 8-month gig as the Communications Director for the Red Cross, putting his communication skills to work.
 
But he didn’t stay there long. He’s now the Senior Media Relations and Digital Officer for something called the Financial Services Regulatory Authority of Ontario, which - according to its website - “is an independent regulatory agency created to improve consumer and pension plan beneficiary protections in Ontario.” I heard him earlier this week being interviewed by Tom McConnell on CKTB and he still sounds good. 
 
He’s new at the job, having been there for about 3 months.

Kym Geddes
 
She was the news director at 'RB, until there were no more people to direct. Now she’s described as “self-employed,” in leadership coaching, helping companies to work as a team. She’s been doing that for just over a year.

--------
 
No one is guaranteed a job in radio, but what Bell did to these talented people seems especially cruel, tossing them overboard with what I can only presume was a severance life preserver. Nice to see they’ve landed on their feet for the most part and are gainfully employed.  

 

March 26, 2022 8:42 am  #2


Re: What Became Of Some Of The Most Prominent Fired CFRB News Team?

Charlie wrote:

Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer.  Never liked his smart-ass delivery of the news.  It was more annoying than informative.

And got him smacked by the CBSC too.

 

March 26, 2022 9:42 am  #3


Re: What Became Of Some Of The Most Prominent Fired CFRB News Team?

Was his newscast introduced as "News and Comment"?  When Charles Doering did the news on CFRB, his newscasts were always introduced as news and comment with...

 

March 26, 2022 11:43 am  #4


Re: What Became Of Some Of The Most Prominent Fired CFRB News Team?

mace wrote:

Was his newscast introduced as "News and Comment"?  When Charles Doering did the news on CFRB, his newscasts were always introduced as news and comment with...

The entire article I linked to focuses on the specifics here, but essentially he made a quip in a regular newscast (a 5 pm one) and not his "News & Views" segment introduced as such (an hour later):

McKee has a regular News & Views segment in which he makes wisecracks like this, but the “Views” part of the title, in the straitlaced broadcast setting, acts as a legal license to use the airwaves to “editorialize.” The regular newscast is not supposed to contain “editorializing,” which is defined, for this purpose, as something like “adding an explicit indication of one’s personal opinion to a descriptive news text.”

 

March 27, 2022 4:04 pm  #5


Re: What Became Of Some Of The Most Prominent Fired CFRB News Team?

The idea of the 'serious' newscaster from CFRB now relishing his role transcribing crayon scrawl from a waterhead is amusing to me.

 

March 27, 2022 7:30 pm  #6


Re: What Became Of Some Of The Most Prominent Fired CFRB News Team?

Charlie wrote:

Never liked his smart-ass delivery of the news.  It was more annoying than informative.

I simply didn't trust anything that he read or said.  The smug opinions belong in the other 50 minutes of the hour, not where people expect a newscast to be. 

 

March 27, 2022 7:36 pm  #7


Re: What Became Of Some Of The Most Prominent Fired CFRB News Team?

I have to say I agree with the sentiments expressed here. Snide remarks don't belong in a credible newscast. They should have been saved for his commentary section. But it appears then P.D. Mike Bendixen liked his shtick, because I believe he was responsible for bringing him to Toronto from CJAD. 

Anyway, I hope for his sake he can keep that tone out of the correspondence he does for the Premier's Office or you can only imagine the fallout!

     Thread Starter
 

March 29, 2022 11:53 am  #8


Re: What Became Of Some Of The Most Prominent Fired CFRB News Team?

David Woodard @davewoodardnews is doing afternoon news on 900 CHML, Global new radio

Last edited by Centerline (March 29, 2022 11:54 am)

 

March 29, 2022 4:58 pm  #9


Re: What Became Of Some Of The Most Prominent Fired CFRB News Team?

RadioActive wrote:

Kym Geddes
 
She was the news director at 'RB, until there were no more people to direct. Now she’s described as “self-employed,” in leadership coaching, helping companies to work as a team. She’s been doing that for just over a year. 

Add she's also now a program coordinator/professor for the Radio and Media Production program at Humber College!