CBC TV news anchor joins Montreal radio station
Dan Say
going to leading English station in Montreal.
He'll hate it.
Dennis Trudeau Joins 940-AM, Montreal
The Corus management team is excited to welcome Dennis Trudeau as the new 940
Montreal morning man! Dennis is one of Canada's foremost broadcast journalists
and interviewers and his
wide experience in the media and his broad coverage of current events gives
him a unique perspective on public affairs and the changing media universe.
As a broadcaster, Dennis worked on national CBC programs such as As It Happens
and Cross-Country Check-up on radio and on The National and Midday on CBC
Television as well as the CBC all-news channel Newsworld. He was also the
long-time host of CBC Montreal's Canada Now.
"Dennis brings world class experience to mornings on 940 Montreal," said Mark
Dickie, General Manager of the station. "This long time anchorman of CBC
Montreal's 6 o'clock news has a close relationship with the Montreal community
and our listeners will be getting a real treat as of September 3rd," added
Dickie.
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asp?id=72534&issue=08162007
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Dan Say
Wednesday » August 29 » 2007
Retirement? What retirement? Unfettered Trudeau is back behind
mike - at Montreal 940
by MIKE BOONE Wednesday » August 29 » 2007
The (Montreal) Gazette
Wednesday, August 29, 2007
It's easier to sneak the sun past a rooster than it is to slip a
misstatement - especially one he finds personally irksome - past
Dennis Trudeau.
So when I suggested, in a recent phone conversation, that his
retirement had been a short one, the former TV news anchor was
quick to pounce.
"I never retired," Trudeau pointed out tartly. "I kept on writing
and commentating and doing some private corporate work. I was
doing stuff for French TV and radio, keeping relatively busy."
He'll be really busy beginning next week. Trudeau and Aphrodite
Salas start Labour Day morning as co-hosts of a new radio program
on 940 Montreal.
Trudeau, 59, anchored his last CBMT-6 newscast 22 months ago. He
had been at the CBC since 1979, starting in Quebec City and then
becoming host of Daybreak - another morning show that was heard
at the 940 AM frequency in Montreal.
During his, umm, shall we say sabbatical from daily broadcasting,
Trudeau has kept busy, just not on a daily basis. After 18 years
of competing with the CTV Montreal newscast, Trudeau has been
host of a weekly political discussion on CFCF television and
anchored the pundits' panel during coverage of the provincial
election results. He has also been a regular on Bazzo.tv on
Télé-Québec.
Trudeau's website - www.dennistrudeau.ca - trumpets his
availability as a "master of ceremonies, moderator, discussion
leader or facilitator for your national or international meeting
or event," promising he will perform with "tact, humour and
elegance."
I'm sure he can be a discreet and debonair funnyman when the
occasion (and the contract) demands backslapping bonhomie, but
Trudeau is at his best as a journalist.
It's a craft he's honed through 35 years in print and broadcast
newsrooms, compiling a CV that did not go unnoticed by 940
Montreal general manager Mark Dickie and program director Chris
Bury.
"We made contact with Dennis within 72 hours of him leaving the
CBC," Dickie recalled. "We went to lunch just to say hi and talk
about what his plans were.
"Someone of his stature, when they become available, you talk - at
least to open communications and say, 'We're here.' "
There was no kissing on the first date, and the courtship lay
dormant until a few weeks ago. When FM sister station Q92
targeted Ken Connors - who had been doing 940's morning show -
for its afternoon drive program, Dickie "put a bunch of names
together, and Dennis was on top of the list."
Dickie wanted a co-host format on the morning show. He expects
good chemistry between Salas and Trudeau.
Despite a promotion campaign that Dickie says will highlight "the
best-looking morning team in Montreal radio," don't expect
Regis-and-Kathie-Lee fluff from Trudeau and Salas.
"Aphrodite is much younger than Dennis," Dickie said, "but she
brings one heck of a résumé to the table. There will be great
guests and great discussions between the two hosts.
"I'm afraid to use the term 'serious journalism,' because I don't
want listeners to think it will be a borefest. But when a major
story breaks, the place to get the facts and what's happening
from all angles will be here at 940."
The station is turning into a CBC Montreal old boys' club. Jim
Duff, who succeeded Trudeau as host of Daybreak on CBM, does the
afternoon drive show on 940 Montreal. If they get Dave
Bronstetter for mid-mornings, the Daybreak Alumni Club would be
complete.
But there's a difference between CBC and private broadcasting. At
940, Trudeau will be his own man, more outspoken and opinionated
than was permissible at the CBMT anchor desk.
Relishing a return to radio, Trudeau says he has "lots of
questions to ask and lots to say."
An unfettered, tough Trudeau will be a treat. His will be the most
authoritative voice in Montreal morning radio. The only guy with
comparable journalistic chops works mornings down the hall at
98.5 FM - and not even Paul Arcand can match the variety and
depth of Trudeau's experience as a newsman.
Tanned, rested and not nearly ready for retirement, Dennis Trudeau
is back.
Dan Say
> Forced retirement from CBC has Dennis Trudeau
> going to leading English station in Montreal.
> He'll hate it.
General News
Back behind the microphone
By Anthony Bonaparte, The Suburban (west Island, Montreal)
Photo by Martin Chamberland, The Suburban
Dennis Trudeau co-hosts 940's morning show.
Dennis Trudeau, communicator, MC, moderator, discussion leader.
The words are used to describe the 59-year-old veteran journalist
on his own website. He can now add newly-minted 940 Montreal
morning man to the list because as of Monday, Trudeau joined
Aphrodite Salas as co-host of the station's new flagship radio
show and he says the plan is simple; "To be me, and to have a
good time and to talk about the things that people are talking
about -- to help the continuing conversation."
Throughout his 35-year career, Trudeau has done just about
everything there is to do in media, starting off in print before
moving on to radio and television. He is perhaps best known for
having spent 18 years as the local supper time anchor of CBC
television's Newswatch, which later morphed into Canada Now, and
Trudeau himself says it's hard to believe the time flew by so
quickly.
Although the fluently bilingual broadcaster kept up regular TV and
radio appearances as a commentator and analyst in both official
languages, the two-year hiatus from a regular broadcast gig made
him eager to take on the 940 challenge. The two parties had
spoken days after Trudeau left Canada Now and had kept the lines
of communication open all the while, until things finally fell
into place. "It just sounded like the right fit at the right time
for me," says Trudeau. "This just seemed like too much fun and
tailor made for me."
Trudeau is at his best behind the microphone. During stints at CBC
Radio's Daybreak, the local morning show, and at As it Happens,
CBC Radio's national evening news and current affairs broadcast,
Trudeau interviewed countless people, running the gamut from - as
his website humorously points out - heroes to scoundrels.
Asked which of the two he preferred gabbing with, Trudeau laughed
and said "It's easier to be mean to scoundrels than it is to
heroes for one thing, but I don't think I've ever met anyone I
didn't like one way or the other - even scoundrels."
Apart from making regular radio and television appearances over
the past two years, Trudeau says he's done some travelling and
some private corporate work, hired as a master of ceremonies and
discussion leader for business, government, non-governmental
institutions and not-for-profit groups.
"I really enjoyed the sort of nice freedom of not being in that
day-to-day thing for a change. After 35 years, it was a nice
break," he says, adding that also having the freedom to say what
he thought as a political commentator "was very liberating."
With a degree in political science and philosophy, a post-graduate
degree in journalism, and tens of thousands of interviews over
three decades, Trudeau will no doubt be the best prepared
journalist on English morning radio. Nevertheless, he says he
learned quite a few things along the way. "You've got to be
yourself and you've got to relax because you'll be on radio again
tomorrow. Nothing is so crucial that you can't just enjoy what is
happening."
Trudeau can't predict where the show will take him and co-host
Salas in the coming months since, on any given day, yet another
unforeseen issue can pop up.
"It's hard to make predictions about the future," he says. "You
know, we've got a great year of politics coming up, the markets
are in turmoil and the city is having its problems with its
concrete slabs, so there's no shortage [of topics]," says Trudeau
with a laugh.
Asked prior to Monday's show if an old pro like him could be a tad
nervous, Trudeau answered like, well, an old pro.
"One trick I learned in the business is if you think you're
nervous, just say to yourself that you're excited, 'cause that's
what nervousness is, excitement, and I am excited about it and I
just hope that I can live up to people's expectations."
http://thesuburban.com/content.jsp?sid=11512482611929996671136170947&ctid=1000000&cnid=1012655
2007-09-05 09:43:45