“I don’t think I’m done,” was his answer when asked if he’s going to miss radio. “I’m looking at the possibility of doing some other things. I’ve had some talks with people and hopefully something will come from it.”

Would any future radio plans for Rand include Paul Zakaib, better known as Tasso Patsikakis, his sidekick throughout most of his career?

More of my interview with Aaron Rand at Suite101.com

Love Bites - Image courtesy of Channel Canada/Global Television

Note: This review was written by Steve Hatton for Channel Canada and is reprinted here with permission. This review may contain some spoilers.

An advanced viewing of the new, romantic-comedy series Love Bites revealed a few things I wasn’t expecting, things that could either make or break it.  Even though it might be a refreshing change from what is normally seen on television, the pilot’s anthology-style format not only surprised me and left me wondering at times but it also created a few credibility issues.

The one-hour long episode consists of three different stories. Each one is independent from the other except for a few casual references to the preceding story scattered here and there, I guess to make sure that American audiences aren’t completely perplexed as to what is going on. In reality, though, the references are sometimes forced and are just more distracting than anything else.  All told, it felt like I was watching three short films back to back.

The separate plots that make Love Bites unique may also end up being its Achilles’ heel. Viewers are just not used to anthology-style TV and some might be put off by it. Sure, The Twilight Zone and The Honeymooners also had episodes with multiple stories, but those haven’t been on mainstream television in a long time.

In addition, there are a few aspects of the various plots I had a hard time believing. In one of the stories, an accountant finds himself out of a job as the result of a new software capable of doing his work. To make matters worse, he comes home early to find out that his wife has a new vibrator which, apparently, can do the job better than he can.

While the premise that he’s been replaced by a machine in both the workplace and the bedroom is smart, I had a hard time buying that the latter would become more of a preoccupation than the former.  His worries about money are essentially nonexistent.

I also had a hard time believing that his coworker, who was also fired, didn’t jump at an opportunity to take his high-paying job back because he got work as a clerk in a sex shop. Had the story had more time to develop, I might have been able to see it, but instead it seemed contrived solely so that they could quickly move the plot ahead to focus on the love and sex part.

Credibility is also an issue in another storyline featuring Judd (Greg Grunberg), a married guy who contemplates whether or not he will sleep with his all-time favourite celebrity Jennifer Love Hewitt, after he accidentally runs into her on an airplane. As luck would have it, she is on his list of famous people that couples tend to have which allow a spouse to have a free pass, meaning that it wouldn’t even be considered cheating according to his own wife. So just exactly how is this suppose to be a dilemma? I mean, really, how many ways are there to say yes?

However, Love Bites, does have a few moments that tug at your heartstrings, so some viewers will relate nonetheless. The characters are quirky, funny and likeable.  The Daily Show‘s Larry Wilmore’s performance as the boss who brutally fires his employee with a straight face and without a care, is actually quite brilliant. Some elements of the writing are definitely clever, and the short-story aspect somehow makes things feel genuine and real. It’s not impossible that this series will find a few loyal supporters.

Yet, sadly, insiders believe that Love Bites will never go beyond its nine episodes produced. It was supposed to be a Fall 2010 show, but numerous delays have made it a late starter. As a result, most of the actors involved have moved on to other TV projects. Oh… and it’s usually not good for your new show when the actress who plays the virgin (Becki Newton) gets pregnant in the middle of shooting.

The bottom line is that Love Bites is worth checking out. Not because the show will stick around, but rather because this might be your only opportunity to see an anthology-style romantic-comedy on television.

Love Bites starts June 2 on Global and NBC, 10/9c.

Some background

Launched in 1992, TV-27 was  promoted as an independent cross-border station. In the early days of its existence, they placed radio ads on CHOM-FM, including ones for Married with Children reruns. While it has been extremely difficult to pick up their UHF signal over-the-air in Montreal, it was not impossible. I myself have watched a somewhat snowy WWBI in LaSalle back in 1995. But overall, success in reaching an audience up here has been, for the most part, nonexistent.

The station was actually supposed to be added to Videotron’s digital cable line-up in 2004, yet that never worked out either. As a Pax TV affiliate at the time, WWBI even appeared in the illico on-screen program guide on Channel 56, but due to a technical difficulty, the programming was actually that of PAXSAT, Pax TV’s national satellite feed. I was informed, via email, from a source in New York State that they were working on the problem but the issue was never resolved and Pax was removed from Videotron in 2005.

Other network affiliations throughout the station’s history included UPN, Daystar Network and ion (the new name of Pax TV).

(Thanks to @UnWeirdo on twitter for the FCC update)

I was going through my inbox and I stumbled across this little treasure, among others, which I never got around to putting online, until now. Thanks again to Dan Kowal over at CTV Montreal.

The others, which include a CFCF-12 copy trade ad for Lunchtime Theatre, pics of Johnny Jellybean, Bill Merrill, Don McGowan, Dick Irvin and Art Leonard from 1963 can all be found on the facebook page.

Sarah Palin is coming to Sun TV - April Fool

(UPDATE: In case you haven’t figured it out yet, this story was a joke. I hope I didn’t fool too many of you. Happy April Fool’s Day.)

BREAKING NEWS: A source close to Brave New TV indicates that Sarah Palin has signed on to become a regular contributor to Sun TV News, similar to what she has done with Fox News in the United States. Her work with the new Quebecor-owned media outlet, set to launch on April 18, may be very brief depending on whether or not she runs for President in 2012, but Quebecor is happy to have her for now.

The individual responsible for bringing Brave New TV this scoop chooses to remain nameless so that he won’t lose his job at Quebecor. This site does not make it a habit of relying on anonymous tips, but this source would normally be a good one. He has also given us his most sincere assurances that his information is no less inaccurate than what one would typically find in the media on a day like today.  (April Fool’s Day)

The agreement between Palin and Sun Media was made nine months ago, actually, but was supposed to be kept secret until mid-April out of fear of further accusations of ‘Fox News North’ style journalism.  Her new show will supposedly look at her take on liberalism in Canadian politics from a conservative and American perspective. Look for Sarah’s Korner to air Fridays at 10 PM ET, starting April 22 on Sun TV News.

More on this story, later, as it develops.

Courtesy of Dan Kowal, CTV Montreal Engineering Supervisor

Why there’s a lot of contradictory information on the web regarding the exact age of the network and how a lot of it is the fault of their own PR.

Those who’ve been following up on the 50th anniversary of the CTV stations in Montreal, Ottawa and Toronto, among other places may have accidentally stumbled upon this awkwardly worded CTV national PR campaign stating that they are celebrating 50 years of providing local news. You’ll notice on the web page that, strangely enough, there’s no mention of when the CTV network itself actually went on the air or what or exactly happen 50 years ago that led to the creation CTV’s local news.

CJOH's Eye On Ottawa promo 1989

Following in the footsteps of CFTO and CFCF, now CJOH-TV is also celebrating 50 years of local TV. As a result, I thought it would be a good idea if I, once again, gave myself permission to republish an edited and updated version of the trivial facts of Channel 13 from my old TV Hat website (now defunct). The Ottawa television station began broadcasting, for the very first time, on March 12, 1961, at noon. The CTV Ottawa website has a special section dedicated to its 50-year history.

CJOH (CTV)

Before they became stars

A number of well-known people got their start at CJOH-TV including Peter Jennings and Alanis Morissette. Jennings was a local news anchor, although he actually made his TV debut as the host of the station’s teen show called Saturday Date in 1962. Alanis Morrisette’s first TV appearance was on a kids show called You Can’t Do That On Television where she was a regular. YCDTOT was syndicated to other Canadian channels, such as CFCF, and to the Nickelodeon cable channel in the States. YTV also picked up the show later on in reruns.

CJOH was also the former flagship centre for CTV’s national newscasts, the very first of which originated from the Ottawa studio in November 1962. Sunday Edition with Mike Duffy also originated from the Ottawa station where it was distributed to other Canadian channels (mostly Baton but CFCF as well). Later it became an official CTV show.

CJOH (CTV) Ottawa Night Court promo 1980s

CJOH was for Montrealers too

Ottawa’s CJOH-TV is also Montreal’s alternate CTV station since it has almost always been carried on local cable in Montreal. Even today, while CJOH may no longer be available on analog cable, it’s still on the basic digital cable line-up.

Since the CTV Network schedule once consisted of only 40 hours of network programming, back in the ’80s, CJOH provided an almost completely different schedule than that of CFCF. CJOH was like an extra English channel in Montreal. But that is no longer the case, now that both stations are owned-and-operated by CTV Globemedia.

Because of CJOH, CTV Network programming has always been easily available in Montreal, even during CFCF’s anti-network phase while owned by WIC. When CJOH’s parent company, Baton Broadcasting, took control of the CTV Network, Montrealers had access to the entire newly expanded CTV schedule. Actually, most of that schedule consisted of Baton programming which automatically became rebranded as CTV, but nevertheless, CFCF was still limiting itself to about 45 hours of CTV programming per week.

Transmitters

CJOH now has four transmitters serving Eastern Ontario. The first repeater station came along in 1963 when the original owner, Ernie Bushnell, bought CJSS-TV channel 8 in Cornwall (a CBC station until that point) and changed the call letters to CJOH-TV-1.

Since then, the Cornwall station has pretty much always been a full rebroadcaster of CJOH (CTV), airing the exact same programming, local news and even commercials. But there was at least one exception to the rule back when CTV carried the Blue Jays. The games were often blacked out on channel 8 (but not on CJOH’s other channels), because of Cornwall’s close proximity to Montreal. Channel 8 was from where Montreal cable subscribers got the CJOH signal from (and perhaps still do). So on Wednesdays (baseball night on CTV) in the late ’80s, I often saw a substitute CJOH feed with commercial-free programming. Sometimes you wouldn’t even know exactly when the alternate programming would end because of the tendency for ball games to go into extra innings.

By the way, if you’re wondering how CFCF handled the blackouts, they simply didn’t bother to carry any of the Blue Jays games at all, as they preferred to devote their baseball coverage to the Expos.

CJSS-TV had been on the air since October 18, 1959.

CJOH started a second repeater September 27, 1972, on channel 6, to serve the Belleville-Kingston area. The CJOH-TV-3 transmitter is located near Deseronto on Mount Carmel.

The final repeater came about when Baton Broadcasting decided to transform CHRO in Pembroke, still a CTV-BBS station up until that point, into an independent station to be sold to CHUM. CHRO was given permission to open a rebroadcaster in Ottawa on channel 43 and, in exchange, CJOH was also allowed to set up a repeater station in Pembroke, on channel 47, so that town would still have an over-the-air CTV service.

The meaning of call letters

The OH in CJOH is for Ottawa Hull.

CFTM-10 1969 logo

CFTM Channel 10 in Montreal went on the air on February 19 1961, just a few weeks after CFCF, and like CTV Montreal, TVA has also put up a whole bunch of vintage clips and pics on their website.

Happy 50th CFTM-10!

To me, you will always be CFTM-10 and not TVA. Now here are some interesting trivial facts about the TVA-CFTM relationship from the TV Hat archives (edited and updated):

And the owner is…

CFTM-10 was formally owned by Télé-Métropole. At one point, Télé-Métropole bought out Pathonic which owned four TVA stations including Quebec-City and Sherbrooke. The Sherbrooke station, Télé-7, used to be available in the Montreal area via cable, and had a radically different schedule compared to CFTM. With the exception of local news, all four Pathonic stations carried the same schedule as its Quebec City flagship station, Télé-4, while the other TVA stations carried Télé-Métropole programming. When Télé-Métropole bought Pathonic, they decided to change their name to Groupe TVA Inc. Now all stations carry more or less the same programming. TVA was purchased by Vidéotron Ltée. which itself is currently owned by media giant Québécor, by way of a deal approved by the CRTC in 2001.

CFTM ID - late 80s

CFTM has its own time shifting feed

TVA is available on the west coast but, unlike Radio-Canada, TVA doesn’t actually have any local stations in British Columbia. The TVA West feed is nothing more than a machine which records the CFTM signal from Montreal and then spits out the exact same programming 3 hours later for the benefit of cable and satellite viewers living on the other coast. Therefore, it can be argued that CFTM is the only local station to have its own time shifting feed.

You no longer need cable to watch CTV in HD in Montreal. CFCF-DT was on the air testing as of Friday, and a press release put out on Monday seems to imply that the signal is now official.

Watching CTV Montreal's DTV signal on 12-1

While I don’t actually have an HDTV, the image above shows what CTV Montreal looks like in NDG by way of a digital-to-analog converter. If you’re wondering what that is, it is what is used to watch digital TV even when you don’t have an HDTV. It’s also what a large number of Canadians will be scrambling to buy at the last minute come Wednesday, August 31, 2011. That’s when full power television transmitters would be forced to switch to ATSC digital broadcasting. That’s also when old non-HD television sets will no longer work without either the converter or cable TV.

The new DTV signal is pretty weak, for the time being. In spite of that, the image quality was actually crystal clear, although you can’t really tell by the photo (Mental note: I really should invest in some equipment that will allow me to take screenshots). That’s because a DTV channel either comes in perfectly clear or not at all. The signal should be stronger once the analog shutdown occurs in August.

My only complaint would be that the on-screen program guide wasn’t giving out any relevant info for CFCF (see images below), but that is a relatively minor grievance.

CTV Montreal has made the switch just in time the Super Bowl too. Good news right? Well, for cable HD local viewers, not really. CFCF’s new DTV signal means no US Super Bowl commercials this year.

If you really insist on watching the US ads, you can try what I’ve done and get out your old UHF antenna. But since the United States has already switched to DTV, you will need to have either an HDTV or a converter. If you’re lucky, you just might pick up Fox 44 from Vermont (WFFF-DT) with the American ads (see last image below). It’s also perfectly legal. But picking up this signal in Montreal can be difficult. You either need a rooftop antenna or just be blessed with good TV reception. Right now, I’m getting Fox without any problem, but it can come and go. I’ll keep my fingers crossed.

CFCF-DT: No program info

WFFF-DT with program info