Broadcast Dialogue - The Podcast

Imagine the station you’ve dedicated years of your life to suddenly going completely dark. That’s the reality for 80 Rogers Sports & Media employees this week as the company shuttered six radio stations Tuesday and laid off a total of 230 staff across the media division. On this episode of the podcast, we’re holding space for the people who built these stations. We're joined by a lineup of Rog...

Josie Dye and Nat Hunter are making history as the first new morning show to launch on Toronto's legendary CHUM-FM in more than 40 years that doesn't include long-serving hosts Marilyn Denis or Roger Ashby . Nat & Josie joined Broadcast Dialogue - The Podcast , alongside CHUM 104.5 Program Director Christian Hall , ahead of their launch in the weekday morning time slot to talk about the monume...

  Radio news veteran Craig Lester bet on himself in 2022, leaving his full-time job at Calgary's 660 News Radio to pursue his passion for agriculture media.    Rural Roots Canada now reaches radio stations across Alberta and B.C. with both weather and daily features, in addition to providing communications support to the industry.   Lester and Tim Parent join Broadcast Dialogue...

The theme of this year's Echo Podcast Summit is community. Returning to Halifax for a third year on June 18, founder and Podstarter Chief Creative & Partner Rhys Waters is on Broadcast Dialogue - The Podcast talking about what's in store for this year's event. He also shares his thoughts on setting realistic markers for a podcast's success, and discusses his Canada’s Best Podcasts Ranked proje...

Radiodays North America was dominated by discussion of regulatory challenges , overcoming measurement hurdles, meaningfully reaching media buyers , and the impact of AI, among other timely topics. Listen to our audio recap of some of this year's RDNA highlights featuring Pattison Media President Rod Schween and Chief Innovation Officer Andrew Snook , Trailblazers Chair Nancy Brown Dacko , Paul Rii...

WideOrbit’s  William “Dub” Irvin , Managing Director and VP of Radio Automation, and  Jason Hancock , Senior Director of Global Sales, join  Broadcast Dialogue – The Podcast  to discuss the launch of  WO Aurora  and what cloud-based automation means for radio operators facing rising cost pressure, aging infrastructure, and shifting operational needs. The conversation...

The original mission of the Trailblazers hasn't changed, but as the media landscape continues to evolve, the advocacy organization for Canadian women in media is evolving with it, marking its most transformative year to date. Celebrating its 22nd year, Trailblazers is moving forward with a renewed focus, including the introduction of the Next Gen Trailblazer Awards , and the new Trailblazer Honour...

In this episode of Broadcast Dialogue - The Podcast , Publisher Shawn Smith talks with MusicMaster , Director of Operation s, Jerry Parker about where radio programming technology is headed and how MusicMaster is evolving to meet it.  See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info .

Combining engineering precision, faster delivery, and long-term reliability to help broadcasters modernize transmission infrastructure. In this episode of Broadcast Dialogue - The Podcast , Publisher Shawn Smith speaks with Dielectric President Keith Pelletier about how the company is using deep legacy knowledge, digital twin design, and strong industry partnerships to deliver faster, more reliabl...

Some of the most influential voices in music, film, TV and media will gather in Toronto, May 4-10, as Departure Festival + Conference gears up for its second annual event. We welcome festival co-founder Kevin Barton to this episode of Broadcast Dialogue - The Podcast to tease this year's lineup and the event's evolution, including why the festival is much more than Canadian Music Week "reimagined....

Erica Ehm has been doing a lot of reflection as she looks to add the title of author to her long list of credits.  The MuchMusic icon, multi-platform host and entrepreneur joins Broadcast Dialogue - The Podcast to talk about the process of writing her forthcoming memoir, how the ongoing theme of reinvention continues to play out in her life, and the importance of supporting Canadian artists....

The new book, Track Changes, examines the rise of all that came with the internet and how it changed Canadian music from new media to message boards, fan sites, MP3 blogs, and more, diving into how legacy brands were forced to evolve, including major record labels, retailers, and of course the media and radio. Authored by Cam Gordon , Track Changes essentially chronicles the shared cultural histor...

CPAC  President & CEO  Christa Dickenson  is sounding the alarm that the Cable Public Affairs Channel is running on fumes. The  CRTC announced in November, it would put off making decisions on requests from CPAC, TV5 , and  Canal M to increase their mandatory per-subscriber monthly wholesale fees until the commission completes a larger policy review.  Dickenson sa...

Rob Hopkins - aka "Radio Rob" has used his DIY ethos to become a pioneering force in community broadcasting and open-source innovation in Canada's North. He's the founder of Yukon community stations CJUC Whitehorse and the low-power CFET-FM in Tagish, Yukon, as well as OpenBroadcaster - a web-based, open-source system to run community radio and TV broadcast transmitters. He joins us on Broadcast D...

Since its launch in 2017, Kristi Lee has built the Canadian True Crime podcast into a global hit with over 75 million downloads and a consistent chart presence. More impressive yet, the podcast has turned a profit, all while retaining its financial independence without the backing of a network. Lee joins us on Broadcast Dialogue - The Podcast as Canadian True Crime publishes its milestone 200th ep...

The Pro Bono Group's latest PSA is a call to action, asking Canadian advertisers to apply the "Buy Canadian" message to their media buying. A merging of the not-for-profit creative agency's Pro Canada Project - which has been running for the past year urging Canadians to "shop as if your country depends on it" - and their Pro Radio Project, promoting the value of radio, The Pro Bono Group has enli...

Bill Welychka is best known for his time at MuchMusic , but what you might not know is that after his 13 years with the channel, he chose to go into local news, culminating in spending more than a decade at CKWS-TV in Kingston where he was part of cutbacks at Corus Entertainment last year and ultimately chose to walk away from media. Welychka has since published the second edition of his memoir, A...

Inside the CCSA Conference – Where Telecoms Exchange Ideas and Gain the Collective Scale to Win In this episode of  Broadcast Dialogue – The Podcast  we take a deep dive into the vital role of the  Canadian Communication Systems Alliance (CCSA)  and its  CONNECT Conference  in supporting independent broadcast and telecom operators. We look at how the CCSA se...

Deepa Prashad , one-half of the Daryn & Deepa show on Virgin Radio (CKFM-FM) Toronto, has been named the 2025 Young Broadcaster of the Year . Presented annually in memory of late programmer Steve Young , the award is voted on by past honourees and was handed out this year alongside Broadcast Dialogue's Canadian Radio Awards . Deepa joins Broadcast Dialogue - The Podcast to talk about her meteo...

For more than 80 years, Dielectric has earned their reputation for providing the most sophisticated antenna signal transmission solutions. Their unique processes help their clients get it right with an up-front design ethos, monitor and predict failures, even respond to and recover from catastrophic weather events in record time.  Keith Pelletier is President of Dielectric and he’s here to pr...

The 2025 Canadian Radio Awards were hosted by Connie Thiessen (Broadcast Dialogue) and Matt Cundill (The Sound Off Podcast) on Friday November 28, 2025. You can watch the entire show on the Broadcast Dialogue YouTube and Linked In Pages. A full list of winners can be found here. By station,  Stingray Radio’s boom 97.3  (CHBM-FM) Toronto won three awards, including  Program Director...

While there was little in the recent federal budget for commercial radio and television broadcasters, Canadian Association of Broadcasters (CAB) President Kevin Desjardins believes there's still reason for optimism in the sector. We welcome Desjardins back to Broadcast Dialogue - The Podcast to talk about the CAB's ongoing lobby efforts to help set private broadcasters up for success, the current...

Peter Bissonnette's memoir Count On Me reflects on the retired telecom executive's decades in the cable, internet and media industry - from humble beginnings to rising to the position of President of Shaw Communications . Bissonnette joins Broadcast Dialogue - The Podcast to share his personal and professional journey, informed by values of integrity, empathy and fairness. He also shares his ethos...

Across the U.S., broadcasters are proving what radio has always known that it drives real results. In this episode of Broadcast Dialogue - The Podcast , our U.S. partner Warren Kurtzman of Coleman Insights sits down to talk about how Cox Media Group is using Validate to show advertisers the measurable impact of their campaigns, connecting streaming and broadcast listening to actual website vi...

Veteran broadcaster Dini Petty has stepped back in front of the camera after a 25-year absence from television with Trailblazing Talks with Dini Petty , a new series airing Monday nights on The News Forum. Launched with a one-hour special on Thanksgiving Monday, the series promises conversations about resilience, courage, and leadership, with a goal in Petty's words - who is now age 80 - to remind...