Welcome to Speaking of Media – the Podcast where communicators and the media come together to consider and critique the world of mass storytelling … I’m Keith Marnoch – former journalist turned corporate communicator…
I have been participating in and following media and the news business for over 30 years now. Wow – that is a long time. And I can tell you that the one thing in this industry that has remained constant during that time …is constant change.
I’m hoping that YOU - As a communicator - or perhaps someone who speaks on behalf of your organization, will join me for each episode here to learn from experts on both sides of the media microphone
…with the tangible goal of picking up effective ways to share your positive stories and messages and also – perhaps more importantly - how to avoid getting caught in a negative media storm.
Throughout - I will be drawing on my professional communication experiences.
I have always said that matching my passion for comms with my personal loves has really been the key to my career successes and satisfaction - from a small-market freelance reporter to a communicator who has helped to shape and influence some of Canada’s most recognized brands and leaders; The Globe and Mail, TSN & Discovery Channel, Tennis Canada; two Universities, York and Western, as well as time spent advising an Ontario Cabinet Minister at Queen’s Park. I have been exposed to so much through my 30-year career … so much - that you may have consumed some of my work as a part of my many targeted ‘audiences’ over the years.
I’ve made the decision to share my expertise here and hopefully spawn discussions that move the media industry forward.
I also want to encourage more people to understand the communications field; how it works and why it is important to any organization and if you are in the field … offer approaches – I hesitate to call them ‘hacks’ – but approaches that you can be using right now to attain better media results.
Moving forward (a great bridging phrase for any communicator, ) this podcast will be more about interviewing guests from the industry - but for this first episode I want to give you an understanding of where I’ve been and why my story might resonate with you …
WARNING - If you are not into war stories – however minor - from the front lines of Canadian media … you might want to skip ahead to about the 20-minute mark of this show … :)
As a young boy, I was weaned on radio and television – not books, those came later. But I have always been fascinated and yes obsessed with mass media.
Perhaps it started when I used to read the daily announcements over the loud speaker to my entire high school in suburban Toronto. Later, I studied broadcast journalism at one of the best places to do so in Canada - Ryerson University – then Ryerson Polytechnical Institute.
There, I was taught by professors and instructors who were still actively working in the news media while simultaneously teaching at Ryerson – it was one of the reasons why I chose to go there for my education.
The late CBC commentator and humourist Stuart MacLean, he was my broadcast news mentor …
My passion for news and being on-air in general was real,
…while going to school I can remember getting out of bed at 5 am in the dead of winter to travel for more than an hour by city transit – bus, LRT and subway downtown to No.1 Yonge Street – The venerable Toronto Star building … but not to work at the Star, but rather intern at on the 25th floor of that building – namely 590CKEY radio. … it was a station that my parents listened to in the morning … The Keith Rich show! With newscasters like Robert Payne, and sportscaster Jim “Shaky” Hunt…it was quite surreal placing names with faces and voices in my early radio newsroom days .. hardly anyone looked like what you might have imagined …
Thanks to news director Jim McLean who agreed to let me hang out on those mornings when I could get my butt to the station … and to do whatever needed to be done to assist with the newscasts… there was a lot … ripping the wire … the old way that way news services used to share news stories by print … and editing audio tape – the sounds that made radio come to life … which back then - meant actually marking and physically cutting reel to reel tapes and then copying the stories over to carts … basically an 8-track tape (if you even know what that is) with one story or audio clip per cart …
Back in the day .. newscasters had to be their own news producers and insert and run their carts on their own in the studio… as they were going …. Now sometimes - I can remember being pushed into service to ‘roll tape’ from the newsroom for last minute edits … that had some pressure attached to ti .. I can certainly remember the adrenaline flowing at those times .. but it was exciting … it was news … so that was fun …
In my final year at Ryerson I entered and won a scholarship from CITYTV in Toronto for a news documentary … I did a documentary length news piece on the Toronto Blue Jays … the Jays had just qualified for their first- ever appearance in an MLB post season …it was the 1985 ALCS series and the gist of the story was – whether it would be too cold to host MLB playoffs in Canada – this wouldn’t be a story in Chicago for example … anyhow it was the Jays against George Brett and the Kansas City Royals. Interestingly … it was the first year that the series was the best out of 4of7 … it was previously 3of5 .. the Jays led the series 3-2 games before the Royals heart-breakingly won it in 7 Games …
….anyhow as a result of winning the scholarship … CITY TV paid my final year tuition at Ryerson … PLUS they gave me the chance to volunteer at the station … I loved being in a big city tv newsroom – there was always a buzz throughout this state-o0f-the-art innovative open-concept news production/studio .. no more anchor desk for these guys … just news being reported from the newsroom ..
and hanging out with anchor personalities like Gord Martineau, Anne Mrocscowski, and Mark Daley was a real thrill for a media junkie like myself..
At CITY I ended up working mostly in sports – another passion of mine… I reported to producer Perry Gray – but everyone just called him STATS ! … he had this encyclopedic knowledge of sports, hence the nickname … I got to edited pro sports highlights and do some subsequent script writing … and again I was working with people I knew before I arrived at the station … former Toronto Maple Leaf defenceman Jim McKenney was one of the sports reporter /anchors at the time … or Howie as he was – as he was known (for hi sresemblnae to a loing ago hockey star - Howie Young) it was cool hearing all his war stories – I loved hearing about players, coaches and owners that I idolized and wondered about … growing up in Toronto
… Howie had one of the driest wits I had ever encountered – he was so funny but also very genuine .. running into him years later he remembered me and took time away from what he was doing to come over and say hi….
… being a big Leafs fan .. this was special for me
… I also worked with Russ Salzberg, a larger than life character at least in his own mind with a maudlin New York accent … but actually, he lived up to his aspirations … a native New Yorker …he eventually went on to a big sports career in the tough New York media market at WWOR and then well beyond that … in the Big Apple market …
One of the fun things I got to do back in those days was to go to Toronto Blue Jays baseball games with a videographer – a camera person - you see back in those days … not all the games were televised … and so I was issued a media pass… and I get to go to the games …
I would take notes and keep track of scoring plays until about the 5th or 6th inning … I would leave the cameraman to shoot the rest of the game … while I hopped in a cab … booted back to the station to assemble the highlights for what was then a 10 pm newscast ..earlier than other local stations. The best part of that experience was going down early for the pre-game media meal .. and rubbing shoulders with other sports media writers and commentators … but also seeing how the Jays media relations personnel operated … a valuable skill for me later in my career …
Much of this happened while I was at school … but I carried on with CITYTV beyond graduation ,,,
During this time after Ryerson … I was also volunteering my at Scarboro Cable .. not cable like a nationally syndicated network - no, a cable company that supplied cable tv to local residents – it was basically a community service channel that over time expanded as more and more budding tv wanna-bes like me showed up with ideas for community programs to air .. they even had a daily news show … perfect for someone like me who was hoping to get a reporting job at a so-called real station – this let me develop a very robust audition tape … and it was a proving ground for many who went onto bigger and better media gigs - reporters like Tom Hayes, well known in the Toronto market, hosts like Nancy Newman who went from TSN to CNN and now currently hosts the New York Yankees pre-game show on the YES network, newspaper and magazine writer Dave Gross in Ottawa, and camera operators like Jeff Long … a renowned news videographer and video innovator; he designed the original apparatus that CTV Toronto uses for its helicopter cam …
All my on-air work at Scarboro Cable was volunteer work … but an amazing training ground both behind and in front of the camera…
I eventually did start getting paid for doing “journalism” I was hired as a news editor for NEWSRADIO.. a nationally syndicated news service providing stories and clips to stations across Canada… they actually shared space with CKEY .. so back to No.1 Yonge I went…
HOWEVER it was not long before that long-running operation was bought by CKO – a national news radio station … that had a venerable line-up of old school newscasters ….. but also some amazingly talented young blood – the like of Erin Davis, Karen Horsman, Jim Morris, and Steve Kee … who went onto an impressive career in media relations himself … at the TSX and later with the Insurance Bureau of Canada … I am hoping to have Steve join us here on a future episode… anyhow … I went to CKO and edited news tape and scripts …
On a few occasions … I can even recall filing stories … stories that actually got picked up bought by other sources. I was suddenly a stringer …
I once received a cheque from CBS News in New York for a clip I sent them from one of my stories I believe it was a post-game clip for a Leafs game … anyhow I remember I cashed the cheque – for I think $12 dollars – but $12 AMERICAN – but of course I photocopied it before cashing it in … now I felt like I was a real journalist … and I had the paycheque to prove it
All the while I kept doing intern work at Scarboro Cable tv… both shooting and reporting my stories for ‘Scarboro Today’; their daily news show, and hosting the weekend show “Scarboro This Week’ …
eventually I got my break with a commercial tv ‘ station about an hour west of Toronto – CKCO-TV … a CTV affiliate … the station was unique for its coverage area… and in fact their coverage area was the secret to their business success – the station had four separate broadcasting areas – from Windsor to Brantford, to Kitchener Waterloo through midwestern Ontario (Hanover and Owen Sound) …all the way up to Muskoka .. for those not familiar with southern Ontario … this was a massive area that also broadcast into parts of the Greater Toronto area… the beauty of this set up was that the station could sell advertising to all these areas …
… and the way they pulled this off was to have an all in one news segment to start their evening ‘cast… after ten minutes they would go to commercial
and then when they came back … they would localize their coverage .. so if you were in Windsor, you would see Windsor stories, if you were in Owen Sound, you would see mid Western Ontario stories … ALSO - you would get your local weather during this segment … so, presto … localized coverage over a huge geographic area … those regional segments had to be pre-taped before the 6 pm live newscast … they inserted those into the live show …
SO - I was going to be assigned to cover an area about an hour north of the station on a regular basis ..
HOWEVER - before I was able to set off to start my reporting career .. I had to get my orientation … both in the newsroom but also out in the field to understand the CKCO-TV way
…. I was fortunate to be teamed up with then -reporter, Lisa LaFlamme to shadow her in the field. .. I was familiar with her work at that time …being the tv news junkie … I used to watch CKCO more in the summertime – it was the ‘local’ station in the small town of Southampton,,, where I spent and still spend my summers..
Anyhow many of you will recognize Lisa as the current anchor and senior editor of the CTV National News, she was appointed with well-deserved fanfare back in 2011, replacing the legendary Lloyd Robertson …. Like everyone else at the Kitchener station, I found Lisa to be extremely generous in sharing her approach to news gathering … and to0 be very supportive of me while shadowing her for a week or two … however you could also tell she was driven and a real pro .. she is full marks for her current post atop CTV News !
I was hired by CKCO-TV to be a freelance videographer/reporter …they traded use of their equipment for exclusive rights to my stories … this meant that I could still do freelance on the side … which I did …
I covered town council meetings in Hanover and nearby Walkerton for the local Owen Sound newspaper … this also doubled as a place for me to get tips on upcoming stories in the area …
… anyhow I was a videographer - the majority of reporters today shoot their own stories … not then – back in the early 90’s … I was assigned to work with a veteran reporter – Vicki Gough … she lived and operated out of Hanover Ontario … and so … I moved there too!
Vicki was a very good-hearted and generous person but also a disciplined and ethical news person – that was always reflected in her reporting and in her dealings with everyone she interacted with … regular contacts and individuals she met along the way
.. she taught me the ropes when it came to shooting and producing news items and also how to get the most out of people she reported on .. I can remember being invited with her to a local politician's farmhouse to tape a year-end retrospective .. while we were there, that same politician offered us a sampling of a fairly potent liquer to toast that year and the season at hand … this was about 10 am in the morning ! whooo anyhow …
My best story from doing that job for just over a year was how I actually produced tv news stories to air in Kitchener, out of this small, rural town of Hanover
… three days a week, I acted as Vicki’s camera operator… we went out as a team… she would do her own thing two days a week… I worked the weekends by myself …
There are pluses and minuses to working in a small town … for me it was mostly pluses because I happily embraced the quaint-ness of my new surroundings – being the big city boy and all…
I would go out and shoot a news story .. on weekends
It could often be a festival of community meeting … anything!
… once I had shot my visuals and done my interviews and stand-up if appropriate.. I would gather up my hockey bag full of bulky tv equipment; tripod, lights, cables and wires, you name it – it also seemed heavier than it needed to be … I would head back to my one-bedroom, second-floor apartment that overlooked the PetroCan gas station next door to me in Hanover…
My ¾” video cassette recorder that I slung over my shoulder along with the accompanying big-ass 10-lb tv camera fully adorned with the CKCO-TV News logo …that helped for gravitas when people didn’t know who the hell you were shooting video .. but honestly back in the day … not everyone was able to be shooting video on a whim … it was obvious I was …wherever I went …especially in rural Ontario …
Anyhow … back to small-town realties … I would replay the video that I shot on my 23” colour – big tube TV … to see what I had .. I would then type up my story in my big ass $3000 IBM computer and with the accompanying printer.. once written I would add my voice through the microphone onto the same tape I shot the story … I would then send my news script down to the station through my computer modem down to Kitchener, this alerted the assignment editor would know I had a story - Magic!
That was the high-tech part .. now the low-tech…
So the station had my script …but now they needed my tape … specifically video editors needed my tape …NEWS tape… timely perishable news,,. in KITCHENER!!
I printed off my script… folded it up and stuck it in the videocassette case.. I would then … stick IT in a bubble-wrapped courier package… pre-addressed for CKCO-TV in Kitchener … I would add an orange URGent T sticker to the outside – THIS WAS PEOPLE - then!.. I would throw on my coat and walk to a house a few blocks over from me in the neighbourhood WHATT!?!?! There, I would place this package inside the front porch of this person’s house…
What … well it turns out that this house belonged to the owner of the Bulk Food Store on the main street of Hanover
Again - HUH!?!?! … well it turns out that that store is where the Cha-Co Trails regional bus line stops each day… including Sundays… in addition to passengers these buses also doubled as couriers … the owner ensured that the packages – including my tape – was on the bus.
When it arrived in Kitchener … the package would then be delivered to the station … it would then- again magically - find its way to the video editors … and eventually onto my – and everyone else’s - tv screen usually the next day… oh how we have progressed thanks to technology …
Budgets cuts meant I wasn’t at CKCO for very long .. and during that brief window of time … I decided there might be better ways of using my journalism degree … instead of being alone away from the big city always working different hours than everyone else … in time I funneled into the corporate communications i … and loved getting behind the scenes of sectors that I had an equal fascination with ….
And while technology has changed … knowing how and why stories become news is really what I have to bring to this conversation …
understanding what the media needs and how they need to get it … is crucial for communicators to understand …that necessary relationship that must exist with the media … especially when the story is not favourable.. the more you know your audience as well as those who might report your story to THAT audience, the better off you will be in the long run .. when it comes to communicating… and we will dive into this in much greater detail in future episodes…
I wanted to start this Speaking of Media podcast with my grounding in media; it is great to reminisce about those … so much has changed in media – but that has always been the case.. and it continues to evolve
And so why this podcast ?? … I feel like I am well placed to examine media and the news business
…especially with the contributors, I intend to have on this show … and I hope to bring these great stories and even better insights to you through this podcast
… and so through the eyes and experience of experts on both sides of the media microphone, I hope you will learn the most effective ways to share your stories and messages and ….also how to avoid getting caught in a negative media storm.
I want to thank you for listening… my thanks to everyone who has supported me in getting this show up and running … while it sounds like a solo effort – that is far from the truth ..…
I hope you will check out this show in its other forms on social media as we develop them … we have complementary platforms on Facebook where I hope we can interact most directly – as well as on Twitter, Instagram and soon to be added on LinkedIn … where we will post the show notes and takeaways that we have listed here on this podcast platform.
And so until next time … I thank You for listening and look forward to be Speaking of Media with you again soon … I’m Keith Marnoch. Be well.