Source : Ottawa Citizen

Popular programs casting for hosts

CBC Radio has a swath of loyal listeners in this town. Ottawa Morning and All in a Day are dominant in their time slots.

The local audience for As It Happens, the national flagship show, is high, as it is for The House, the hour-long, all-politics show that airs on Saturdays.

The four shows have one thing in common: None has a permanent host.

The tearful departure of Anthony Germain on Tuesday -- some 1,000 listeners sent goodbye e-mails -- leaves the jobs at CBC Morning and The House vacant with no replacements in view. Germain, who is leaving to open a CBC bureau in Shanghai, could be heard four mornings a week on CBC's local show and across the country on Saturdays on The House.

As It Happens host and interviewer Mary Lou Finlay retired in November and has yet to be replaced. Brent Bambury left All in a Day eight months ago and, like Finlay, has been succeeded by a procession of temps.

While it's inconceivable a commercial station would leave such valuable spots without permanent, well-promoted hosts for even a day, CBC insists it's most concerned with finding "the right fit."

Jennifer McGuire, CBC's executive director of programming, says there is "nothing mysterious" about the delay. Indeed, she says, they are "very, very close" to announcing Bambury's replacement -- "in the next few weeks."

The As It Happens spot may also be filled soon: "We have been talking to people and trying people out. It won't be long. It's about finding the right fit for the show and having very high standards. Jobs get posted, people get invited to reply and at the same time active scouting is going on. The net is cast very wide."

McGuire, who was briefly a CBC reporter in Ottawa in the late 1980s, says they are not working against a set deadline. "There is no sense doing it tomorrow if you don't have the right host."

The base rate for CBC radio hosts in major cities is between $75,000 and $100,000, although there are exceptions. The host of As It Happens is at least at the top end of that range. The House has typically been a second job for a CBC employee such as Germain and his predecessor Jason Moscowitz.

In contrast, announcers on top-rated, big city commercial radio stations -- usually the on-air morning crew -- will routinely be paid between $100,000 and $150,000 and many in excess of $200,000.

Among the highest paid in Canada is veteran Toronto deejay Erin Davis of 98.1 CHFI who was fired in 2003 when the station decided to pursue younger listeners and then rehired barely 18 months later after the youth-seeking strategy turned into a ratings disaster. She returned to the station for a reported $500,000 annually.

Morning shows on commercial radio can account for 70 per cent of a station's advertising revenue and because a station's ad rates are based on audience size, or mass appeal to specific demographic group, an announcer attracting a large audience can increase a station's annual revenue by millions of dollars.

The CBC's McGuire rejects any comparisons to commercial radio: "What we do is so unique and our standards are incredibly high."

© Ottawa Citizen