By David Farrell
Canadian telecoms face $1 Billion cost to remove Huawei gear
The Globe and Mail cites an unidentified telecom executive who places the price of a Huawei ban at $500 million to $1 billion for Telus, while another unidentified person estimated it would cost BCE’s Bell Canada hundreds of millions of dollars. A third senior telecom insider, who has direct knowledge of the issue, said the total estimated cost for BCE and Telus would exceed $1 billion. – Dean Kjuka, Bloomberg
CRTC nixes Evanov’s plan for QC anglophile FM
Evanov Radio’s controversial plan to launch Quebec City’s first English-language commercial radio station will have to wait some more after being denied again by the CRTC.
In a decision released Thursday, the commission said the Quebec City radio market “cannot sustain an additional radio station at this time” and that the two applications for new stations — the other by Gilles Lapointe and Nelson Sergerie is for a French station — would be returned. – Fagstein
With Roger Ashby’s sign-off, who has seniority now?
With Roger Ashby's exit from CHUM-FM this week after 49-and-a-half years at CHUM or CHUM-FM, I got to thinking - who has seniority in Toronto radio now?
Ashby was the last Toronto radio announcer from the '60s still on the air on terrestrial Toronto radio. He was at CHUM-AM from 1969 to 1985, then on-air at CHUM-FM from 1985 until Wednesday.
If you consider stations licensed to Toronto only, I believe the longevity holder might be is 680 News traffic specialist Darryl Dahmer, who's been on-air at CFTR since its early years as a rock station in 1973. He celebrated his 45th anniversary at CFTR on September 17 of this year. Dahmer still has a chance to break the record of 50 years set by former CFRB morning man Wally Crouter from 1946 to 1996.
There's also the case of Brian Master, who started at CHUM-FM in July 1972. He's still on the air doing afternoons at the Jewel 88.5, which has studios in Etobicoke but is licensed to Newmarket. Master might be the GTA record holder but he has competition in Bob Magee.
Bob Magee is still on the air in Toronto radio at ELMNT 106.5. He started at CHUM-AM (as Mark Edwards) on the all-night show in July 1972 - 46-and-a-half years ago. Magee/Edwards appears to go back the furthest among announcers on Toronto licensed radio stations, but has not been on-air continuously and at the same market and station like Dahmer. Magee has been in Vancouver (CFUN) and Hamilton (Vinyl 95) since his 1972 debut at CHUM, and also in Toronto at CHFI-FM.
John Donabie was in Toronto radio for 50-and-a-half years, from his debut at CKFH in the fall of 1967 to his departure from CIUT earlier this year. He makes the half-century club with ease as he started in the GTA at CKLB (now CKDO) in 1965.
Also in the 50-year club is David Marsden, who started at CKEY in 1963 and was still on GTA radio in 2014 when his show on Oshawa's The Rock 94.9 ended. Fifty-one years for Mr. Marsden (and still going on the Internet).
Denis Snowdon debuted his show "A Little Breath of Scotland" at CHWO on October 25, 1965, and stayed there for nearly 50 years until his last show at AM 740 on August 9, 2015, two-and-a-half months short of 50 years - (geez couldn't they have waited?). He revived the show as a podcast, which is still going. – Dale Patterson, SOWNY.net
Brian Mulroney delivers eulogy for HW Bush
Former Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney has praised former U.S. President George H.W. Bush as a strong world leader who helped oversee the end of the Cold War and the collapse of the Soviet Union and was "responsible for the North American Free Trade Agreement" with Canada and Mexico.
Trump, Trudeau and Ford, according to Rick Mercer
Rick Mercer ended his television show the Mercer Report in 2018 after more than 250 episodes and 250 of his signature rants. He joined Power & Politics host Vassy Kapelos to discuss his new book and to give his take on the state of Canadian politics and some of the country's key political figures.
PETA threatens to sue Toronto, Astral Media over Canada Goose ads
The animal rights group said Friday that it would commence legal action against the city and Astral if they do not repost ads the group paid to put up in September criticizing the Toronto-based luxury jacket maker for using goose down and coyote fur in its jackets. – Tara Deschamps, CBC News
US FM hosts weekly oldies 8-track oldies show
An Ames, Iowa radio station is hosting a radio station unlike any. KHOI Community Radio is the home of Bob’s 8-Track Garage Sale. The weekly show features oldies music played only on 8-track tapes. Bob Anders, the host of the show, is a retired banker, with stints in radio in Iowa, and in military service in Vietnam. – Roger Riley, 13WHO TV (by way of SownyRadio.net)
Wall St. expects media merger mania to cool in 2019
After a wave of multibillion-dollar deals, bankers and M*A lawyers see a cooling off period through 2021 that are driven by political and economic uncertainties. – Alex Sherman, CNBC
Julian Assange rejects deal allowing him to leave London embassy
Conditions have been met for Julian Assange to leave Ecuador's embassy in London. Britain has guaranteed that the WikiLeaks founder would not be extradited to any country where his life would be in danger, but the WikiLeaks’ legal team has dismissed the offer. – Adam Forrest, Independent
