After a long and rocky search for a host to replace Mike Finnerty as host of CBC Montreal’s morning show Daybreak, the CBC has found the perfect candidate.

Mike Finnerty.

Finnerty had hosted the show before he left for a job in London last summer.

After he left Nancy Wood stepped behind the mike, but the CBC let her go after a few months. The decision caused a bit of uproar in the local media in Montreal and disappointment among regular listeners.

I mean it wasn’t Conan vs Leno by any means, but people thought that Wood should have been given more time.

Now Finnerty has decided to return to Montreal and take up the hosting job again. He’s signed on until 2014.

Yesterday the CBC’s Steve Rukavina asked Finnerty about the controversy. “Here’s what I would say. It’s really not my place to say anything about what the CBC did and how the CBC acted,” Finnerty said, adding, “I completely understand that there was a lot of upset and I followed it from afar, and in many ways it broke my heart. Because I love that show. I love Daybreak. It was really hard to see the program coming under such trouble and listeners being upset.”

Now a corner has been turned, and whatever you thought of the last period, and whether you were a big fan of Nancy’s or not, now things are moving in another direction.

“I think we can rekindle the magic that we had,” Finnerty said.

The whole interview is available here.

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	CBC Radio 1, Montreal, Personalities	Posted at 6:25 pm (21 Jul 2010)

The CBC is planning some big changes at its Montreal HQ. The building is surrounded by a four hectare lot. According to the Gazette, the CBC plans to build 2,000 new housing units on the site and move its operations to a new building.

The project is projected to cost about $1.6 billion, all of which is planned to come from private developers – no taxpayer dollars on this project. The plan also entails opening up a few streets that the current lot blocks off.

Montreal employees, what do you guys think about the plans?

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	Centres, Montreal	Posted at 12:34 am (20 Nov 2008)

CBC Radio in Montreal is looking for a new host for its Radio Noon show.

Besides about five years of on-air or equivalent experience, you’ve got to understand the culture of French Canada and have extensive knowledge of current affairs, in particular of Quebec public affairs.

Your English musts be very goods and the Frenchs pas le mal.

Finally, in a requirement that seems to rule me out of all CBC work these days: “Extensive general knowledge.”

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	Getting a Job, Human Resources, Montreal	Posted at 12:45 pm (18 Aug 2008)

Their loss, our gain…

The Bureau of Broadcast Measurement‘s spring ratings are out – and ratings are up for the Montreal newscast by 28%; 22% of those are new viewers.

This article speculates that some of those viewers may have jumped ship with Frank Cavallaro, an award-winning Weather Specialist who just joined the CBC earlier this year when the CTV news team did not renew his contract. Cavallero was voted the World’s Top Weather Presenter at the International Weather Festival held in Paris in 2002, and has been forecasting since the late 1980′s.

Incidentally, if you’ve always wanted to be a weather forecaster on the CBC and live in Calgary, that very job just got posted on the CBC jobs site this morning.

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	CBC News at Six, CBC Television, Montreal	Posted at 11:56 am (15 May 2008)

CBC Radio Two listeners opposed to the changes to the network, specifically the reduction of classical music, are planning to march on the CBC Vancouver building Tuesday morning.

On Friday morning, a similar group is planning to protest at Maison Radio-Canada, the CBC Montreal building.

“The CBC has been taken over by a group of people dedicated to removing nearly all Classical Music,” the Vancouver group’s description reads. “They feel it is old fashioned and irrelevant to the ‘new demographic’ that they wish to attract. We feel this is misguided at best, suicidal at worst.”

Another group has been started to launch an email campaign campaign.

UPDATE: It is reported that the Music School at UBC is asking faculty to cancel classes and go with their students to the demonstration.

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	CBC Radio 2, Changes to CBC Radio Two, Montreal, Vancouver	Posted at 11:11 pm (30 Mar 2008)

The Montreal CBC Radio newsroom is offering internships:

Interested in a very special chance to learn the ropes? You’re inquisitive and you follow the news closely. You leave nothing to chance, and aren’t afraid to go the extra mile. This could be a golden opportunity for you to show off your talents as you discover a recognized journalistic environment.

As a Radio journalism intern, you’ll be required to cover events and produce reports for newscasts and other news programming, in accordance with the Corporation’s Journalistic Standards and Practices.

• Keen interest in Radio journalism

• B.A. underway (final year) in journalism, communications or a relevant field

• Very committed to high-quality spoken and written French

• Bilingualism

• Available to stay in the regions during the internship, and work various shifts

• Must be available to work full time from June 8 to August 17, 2007

If this is you, then stop reading this silly blog and go apply! Oh, and when you apply, tell them you found out about it from the InsideTheCBC.com blog (no, I don’t get a bonus).

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	Getting a Job, Montreal	Posted at 6:54 am (15 Mar 2007)

Now that the “Living” series (the regional daytime TV shows) have started to get their footing, I thought I’d do some quick captures of what the various shows are covering. This is taken from a couple of days last week.

Although what I don’t understand: In some cities, the show is called “Living [City]” and in others, it’s called “Living In [City]“. I know it’s not a big deal, but I hate inconsistencies.

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	Living In, Maritimes & Nwfld., Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto, Vancouver, Winnipeg	Posted at 12:08 pm (27 Feb 2007)

Turns out Living in Toronto isn’t the only show that will launch soon (see previous post). The total list is:

• Living Vancouver

• Living Calgary
• Living Saskatchewan
• Living Winnipeg
• Living in Ottawa
• Living in Toronto
• Living Montreal
• Living East (based in Halifax with content from Nova Scotia, PEI, & N.B.)
• Living Newfoundland & Labrador

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	B.C. Interior, Living In, Maritimes & Nwfld., Montreal, Ottawa, Saskatchewan, Vancouver, Winnipeg	Posted at 2:27 pm (05 Jan 2007)