News of the passing of Sinéad O’Connor at 56 is heartbreaking for many reasons. I never met her, but my partner Sandra, who ran publicity for MuchMusic was lucky enough to enjoy a memorable encounter, finding the surprisingly petite Irish singer to be positively “luminous… with a magnetic energy that was simply from another, higher
Last, but certainly not least among Canada’s media companies to hold a virtual upfront to advertisers this week was Bell Media. Their pre-packaged ad reel went “live” around 2 p.m. ET and, while there was one drop out on my screen for a minute or two, it wrapped up at the 3:07 mark. Bell boasted
Saturday, August 31 marks the 35th anniversary of one of Canada’s most successful TV ventures — MuchMusic. The popular specialty channel — which started out as a pricey Pay-TV service — caught the wave of the music video revolution just as it crested. The music video for Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” was released the December before
“Hello, I’m Kim,” said the wiry, friendly fellow sitting next to me yesterday in the muffin-filled CHCH green room. Took me a sec but I placed him: Kim Clarke Champniss, one of the first VJs back when MuchMusic truly was Canada’s Music Station. Champniss waved off my suggestion that he was a MM Day Oner.
Hey all you Beatle people. I’ve been slow on the draw on this but you can still catch the last of Conan O’Brien’s salute to George Harrison. Tonight on Conan (11 p.m. TBS; 12:30 a.m., MuchMusic), Norah Jones–daughter of Harrison’s friend and mentor Ravi Shankar–closes out the tribute Thursday night. O’Brien’s Beatle bonus is in support
For years, CHML’s Scott Thompson has called down to LA to get the scoop on the Summer TCA Press Tour. It did not surprise me that he seemed most keenly interested in a VH-1 show promoted Friday called Dating Naked. The premise is fairly simple: a dude and a lady strip down and go on a
Last week, the Canadian Radio-television Telecommunications Commission released their annual financial report on Pay and Specialty services. Among the things that jumped out: The Comedy Network, which could be re-named the Match Game network ’cause that’s the only thing on there whenever I look, earned a pre-tax profit of $31.3M on revenues of $60.8M in
Robin Thicke looks on as Miley Cyrus destroys an entire inventory ofDisney Channel content at Sunday’s 2013 MTV Video Music Awards DID YOU SEE IT?? That shocking, shocking display Sunday night on MuchMusic’s broadcast of the 2013 MTV Video Music Awards?? No, not Miley Cyrus in her undies. PUH-lease. I’m talking about the countless promotional