Media
Best Radio Station
1. CKUT 90.3FM
2. CJFM Mix96 95.9 FM
3. CHOM 97.7 FM
4. CBC Radio One 88.5 FM
5. CISM 89.3
6. Hits 94.7 FM
7. CKGM Team 990 AM
8. K103.7FM Kahnawake
9. 99.9 FM The Buzz
10. Radio Canada 95.1 FM
Honourable mentions: CJLO • CJAD 800 AM • Q92.5 FM
CKUT, CHOM and the Mix stay on top of the local radio heap, while Ceeb One jumps to fourth spot, up from 2007’s sixth. UdeM’s 89.3 retains #5, but K103.7 drops four rungs.
TV Station
1. CTV
2. CBC
3. Global
4. RDS
5. Radio-Canada
6. Télé-Québec
7. TVA
8. TQS
9. MusiquePlus
10. No such thing/All terrible/Eww/TV in this city sucks balls
CTV has been voted Best TV Station about as consistently as Pops is voted Montrealer Closest to Sainthood, and this year is no different. Nor is the CBC’s second-place, or Global’s third-place showing. RDS, which broke viewer number records with the playoffs, continues its grip on fourth. TQS’s recent financial problems and acquisition by Remstar marked a difficult year, including the soon-to-be-non-existence of its newsroom, but it actually jumped a spot to #8. But more people registered disgust with the boob tube’s offering this year than before.
Local Radio Show
1. Cat, Lisa and the Sheriff (Mix 96 morning)
2. Ted, Kim and Kemp (CHOM 97.7 FM morning)
3. We Funk (CKUT 90.3 FM)
4. Blues with Dan Behrman (Espace
Musique 100.7 FM)
5. Street Sounds (K103.7 FM)
6. Melnick in the Afternoon (Team 990 AM)
7. Stock Exchange with P.J. Stock
(Team 990 AM)
8. Aaron and Tasso and Susanne (Q92.5 FM)
9. Daybreak (CBC Radio One 88.5 FM )
10. Off the Hook (CKUT 90.3 FM)
Honourable mentions: Folk Roots and Branches (CKUT 90.3 FM) • Native Love with Luke Native (Techno.fm) • Dykes on Mykes (CKUT 90.3 FM)
Hits 94.7’s Java Joel disappears this year, as the Mix morning crew resurges to win after a disappointing fifth spot appearance in 2007. And CHOM’s morning group places second, another surprise considering the departure of longtime host Terry DiMonte for richer pastures in Cowtown, Alberta. We Funk rises from an Honourable mention last year to a strong third spot. Dan Behrman cracks the Top 10, as do Daybreak and the Team’s Stock Exchange.
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Best Local Radio Host
1. Don Smooth (K103.7 FM)
2. Dan Behrman (Espace Musique 100.7 FM)
3. Ted Bird (CHOM 97.7 FM)
4. Aaron and Tasso (Q92.5 FM)
5. Mitch Melnick (Team 990 AM)
6. Cat Spencer (Mix 96 FM)
7. P.J. Stock (Team 990 AM)
8. Luke Native (Techno.fm)
9. DJ Static (CKUT 90.3 FM)
10. Mike Finnerty (CBC Radio One 88.5 FM)
Honourable mentions: Terry DiMonte (formerly of CHOM) • Andrew Carter (CJAD 800 AM) •Bernard St. Laurent (CBC Radio One 88.5 FM)
Java Joel dominates on all fronts! Also new this year is Mike Metal, host of CHOM’s Friday night metal show, who sneaks past Mitch Melnick and seems poised to make a move on Cat and Terry.
Best Local Newscaster
1. Mutsumi Takahashi (CFCF)
2. Todd van der Heyden (CFCF)
3. Bernard Derome (Radio-Canada)
4. Michel Godbout (CBC)
5. Bill Haugland (CFCF ret’d)
6. Jamie Orchard (Global)
7. Tarah Schwartz (CFCF)
8. Brian Britt (CFCF)
9. Pascale Nadeau (Radio-Canada)
10. Debra Arbec (CFCF)
Honourable mentions: Celine Galipeau (Radio-Canada) • Frank Cavallaro (CBC) • Jean-Luc Mongrain (formerly of TQS)
The Mits-Todd duo for CFCF’s local evening news is a winning combo, it seems, as the junior of the pair rises from sixth to second. Maybe more francophones are voting, because Derome jumps from #10 last year to #3 here, displacing his anglo colleague Godbout. And Montrealers miss old Bill Haugland, as his shadow still looms here despite his retirement in 2006.
Best Local TV Personality
1. Mutsumi Takahashi (CFCF 12)
2. Geeta Nadkarni (CBC)
3. Guy A. Lepage (Radio-Canada)
4. Marc Labreche (Radio-Canada)
5. Frank Cavallaro (CBC)
6. Orla Johannes (CFCF)
7. Jamie Orchard (Global)
8. Lori Graham (CFCF)
9. P.J. Stock (CBC)
10. Ben Mulroney (CTV)
Honourable mentions: Ron Reusch (CFCF) • Louis José Houde (various)
Last year’s cover girl Geeta Nadkarni is elbowed aside in only her second year on the BOM list, making way for reigning TV queen Mits. Still, second isn’t anything to worry about. Jolly weatherman and zucchini aficionado Cavallaro, who was bounced from CFCF but picked up by CBC, drops two spots, while former CFCF sports director Reusch goes from eighth to Honourable mention. P.J. appears again, while Ben Mulroney, it would seem, actually has some fans.
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Urban air
>>The best local material finds a home with
K103.7’s Don Smooth and his Street Sounds
GIVING ARTISTS AN OUTLET: Smoothby PATRICK LEJTENYI
Kahnawake’s K103.7 FM is unique, no other word for it. Its board of directors are Mohawk, its programming director is Italian, its arguably most popular host—at least according to BOM voters—is a West Islander of West Indian descent, and management doesn’t insist on repetitive playlists. For 2008 Best Local Radio Host Don Smooth, the host of K103.7’s Street Sounds program (Monday to Thursday, 6 p.m.–midnight), which ranked fifth in the Best Local Radio Show category, that’s a recipe for a fun job, one that he’s held for the past four years.
The show, as the name suggests, focuses on urban music, from R&B to hip hop to reggae. “But I enjoy all styles of music,” says Smooth over the phone. “To me, music is only spelled one way.”
Smooth considers himself the voice for the “unheard and unsigned artists,” he says, and he takes that position seriously. It was on his show that many Montrealers got their first dose of many a local hip hop act. He drops names like Mikey Dangerous, FAMN (last year’s Best Local Hip Hop Act), D.P.C. Movements, Malicious and Leïla as Montreal standouts on the scene, among many others.
Besides his evening duties in Kahnawake, Smooth spends his time at Taboo Ultra Lounge on Mackay and Ste-Catherine, where he holds a Friday night residency, as well as playing a slew of parties—where, he says, he will always try to slip in at least one Michael Jackson song per set (Thriller remains a particular favourite. Growing up, “I had the Thriller glove, the Thriller jacket and the Jeri Curl hair,” he laughs).
Smooth has been a professional DJ for the past 15 years, he says, and still has an obvious passion for music, as well as this city. “Montreal has a lot of personality, it’s a very comfortable city,” he says. “I go to Toronto often, and, for me, it’s so spread out. We have a very strong identity here.”
If there’s one thing he’d change though, it would be a greater exposure for some of the urban music being produced here. “The artists need an outlet, so I try to do that for them, I do what I can. As long as it’s good, I’ll play it, and who knows where it goes from there.”
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