RBC Taylor Prize About To Hit The Toronto Airwaves

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NEWSTALK 1010 presents the third in a three part series:

“In Conversation with the RBC Taylor Prize Finalists”

Interview with 2014 RBC Taylor Prize winner, Thomas King airs this Saturday, March 15th on 6:00 pm program

TORONTO: March 14, 2014: A feature interview with Thomas King, who this week won the prestigious $25,000 RBC Taylor Prize, will air on NEWSTALK 1010 this Saturday, March 15th at 6:30 pm.  The author of “The Inconvenient Indian: A Curious Account of Native People in North America” will talk candidly with host and Toronto communications specialist, Stephen Weir. 

Stephen Weir

Mr. King, a former radio comedian (Dead Dog Café), talks with wit and humour, about how the history of Native people that Canadians studied in school and saw in film and on television is not the history “Indians” know.  He tells listeners it is time we all got over the Tonto and Iron Eyes Cody archetypes and saw the history of our indigenous peoples the way it really happened.

Thomas King

Thomas King has written a book which Prize jurors, Coral Ann Howells; James Polk; and Andrew Westoll found: “subversive, entertaining, well-researched, hilarious, enraging, and finally as hopeful as this very personal take on our long relationship with the “inconvenient” Indian.  King dissects myths (noble Hiawatha, servile Tonto, the Sixties nature guru) against the tragic backdrop of real Indians abused in mission schools, penned together on reserves, and bludgeoned by vicious or ham-fisted government policies. A sharp, informed eye is cast on Riel, Crazy Horse, and Sitting Bull, on the dark and tangled stories of Native land claims, on Alcatraz, Will Rogers (a Cherokee), and the maid on Land o’ Lakes butter; on Batoche, on Wounded Knee. In this thoughtful, irascible account, and in characteristically tricksterish mode, King presents a provocative alternative version of Canada’s heritage narrative.”

 

Ben McNally

The first interview on this Saturday’s program will air at 6 pm with RBC Taylor Prize Finalist, David Stouck.  Host Ben McNally of Toronto’s Ben McNally Books, will talk to the author about his short listed book, “Arthur Erickson: An Architect’s Life”.  The interview with the 2014 RBC Taylor Prize winner, Thomas King will follow.

David Stouck

This is the third year NEWSTALK 1010 has presented its series, “In Conversation with the RBC Taylor Finalists”.  In previous years, the show aired as “In Conversation with The Charles Taylor Prize Finalists”.  Each year, all finalists for the Prize come to Toronto to be interviewed. The series runs for three weekends leading up to and following the RBC Taylor Prize winner announcement.

 This weekend’s hour long show is the final segment. The three-part “In Conversation with the RBC Taylor Prize Finalists” can be heard on podcast here: http://www.newstalk1010.com/feature/charlestaylorprize/  

For information on the RBC Taylor Prize visit: www.thecharlestaylorprize.ca

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For further information about the RBC Taylor Prize:

Media contact:

RBC Taylor Prize publicist

Linda Crane: 416-727-0112 | cranepr@rogers.com

North America’s getting the Caribanabuzz

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The Buzz has already started! Websites. Blogs. Twitter talk. Newspapers. Radio and Television. The Scotiabank train has just left the station and is picking up steam.
It is May and the flowers are only now beginning to come out, yet, people are talking about this summer’s festival already, using words like, bigger, better and international. Why is it all this excitement beginning so early this year?
The big reason is that the media has turned its collective eye on the festival, predicting to its readers, listeners and viewers that Scotiabank Caribana will be the recession buster for Toronto’s tourism industry. They learned this late last month when the Festival held its kick-off press launch at the Royal Ontario Museum.
Over 45 reporters, photographers, videographers and bloggers from 22 different media outlets covered the one-hour morning press conference. The “presser” was information heavy – news about new corporate sponsors, new media partners and increase in support from title sponsor Scotiabank was released by Scotiabank Caribana.
The big story, delivered by Christine Williams, vice-president of Scotiabank, is that the bank has extended its two-year sponsorship of Caribana by an additional three-years. This is the second year that the bank is sponsoring the festival – so the bank’s name will be twinned with Caribana until at least 2012.
David Whittaker the CEO of Tourism Toronto and Joe Halstead, the head of Scotiabank Caribana talked candidly to the media about the economic climate in North America at the press conference. They told the media heavy audience that they expect large numbers of GTA residents will be staying in Toronto this summer and hundreds of thousands of them are talking about taking in the festival for the very first time. And, in the US border states, people will be looking to the festival as “The” vacation of the summer -- with a lower Canadian dollar, reduced gas prices, and special Caribana hotel and restaurant packages luring them north.
The MCs for the event were: Melissa Grelo, Co-host, CP24 BREAKFAST (left) and Andria Case, Anchor and Reporter, CTV News (http://www.stephenweir.com/gallery1/main.php?g2_itemId=580). The pair was at the podium directing the press conference because CTV and CP24 are the new television media partners for the festival. CTV was the media partner two years ago. All news CP24 – recently acquired by CTV - has never been a media partner of the festival.
CP24 broadcast the press conference live on television and the Internet. As well, new radio partner; CFRB conducted a live on-air interview from the Museum during its noon news programme. CFRB has been a media partner of the festival for many years; however, it was not a sponsor in 2008.
The festival announced at the presser that the Toronto Sun is once again the newspaper sponsor of the festival and that Sway is the official magazine of Scotiabank Caribana and Toronto Lime is the on-line media partner.
Three media representatives in the audience found out first hand about Scotiabank Caribana’s newest corporate sponsor … the Blackberry phone. There was a lucky draw held following the press conference and three reporters went home with new Blackberry cell phones. The festival’s PR department has already fielded requests from phoneless reporters wondering when the next press conference and Blackberry draw is going to be held!
CUTLINE:CTV and CP-24 are the new media partners for Caribana'09. The two TV newsrooms sent help for April kick-off of ScotiaBank Caribana 09. Master of Ceremonies are: Melissa Grelo, Co-host, CP24 BREAKFAST (left) and Andria Case, Anchor and Reporter, CTV News

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Interested in covering Caribana events for your blog, website, newspaper, radio, television or newspaper? Make sure you feel out a media application located on the Scotiabank

How Not To Get Radio Coverage Of Your Event

Cutlines: Dave Trafford outside Studio 1010 interviewing Minister Fonseca and pannist Joy Lapp at the Scotiabank Caribana City Hall launch 2008.
Cutlines: The crowd at the Scotiabank Caribana launch
Cutlines: The crowd at the Scotiabank Caribana launch

This Blog is nominally about how public relation people like me can help clients get that extra 5 minutes of fame. As this item will show, the Blog is also about what NOT to do when dealing with the media.

Getting publicity is not usually a difficult task. The "secret" is to really understand the event/persons/thing that is to be promoted and determine what aspects of the project will have some interest to the media. Media outlets do not all have the same interests in stories; so, a publicist has to match up the news worthiness of a project with the appropriate outlet.

Timely informing the proper media contacts by email and phone calls, coupled with an informative data package, does wonders for getting coverage. Reporters and Assignment Editors get to know publicists and usually will listen to their pitches ... and positively respond to their calls.

There is also a growing trend that publicists help create partnerships between media outlets and events/persons/things.

Media partnerships come in many different forms, but, typically it means free advertisements, story coverage ("good" coverage is not guaranteed by any means) and access to the people that matter are given in return for the media's name, logo and, sometimes their "stars" given top billing by the event/persons/thing that you are promoting. Often times the media outlets are given exclusive access over their competition.

For their part, publicists have to support the responding media by getting what they need, on time, and in a form that they need. That could mean a succinctly written, honest press clip, or, an interviewee that can perform well on camera, or a good voice on radio. In short, they must make good for their client in supporting the media partnership.

The annual Scotiabank Caribana festival depends on media partnerships. Television networks, radio stations and newspapers have paid monies to attach their name to a Festival that attracts over a million participants every summer. It delivers an audience that mainstream media has had difficulty in reaching.

For years CFRB has been a media partner with Caribana. It has given the parade cash donations, free advertising and live broadcast coverage of the parade. That relationship crashed and burned this year, and, as the publicist of record, it was my fault.

CFRB is a Toronto talk station and at first blush would seem to be an odd station to supporting a Caribbean Canadian event. It tends, at least in the high rating weekday mornings drive, to lean heavily to the right. Its prime time hosts are almost exclusively white and male. The one black host has a short Sunday shift when the ratings are very low. Both the CRTC and the broadcast standards association have received complaints from minorities -- blacks, Jewish listeners and even overweight Canadians -- about so called unfair comments made on air.

Despite that all, CFRB has been a strong voice for Caribana. It even went live – with our help – for four hours from the 2007 parade.

This summer things did not go well. This is what happened.

After getting verbal agreement from CFRB to be our sponsor. I arranged to have their broadcast truck - studio 1010 – to have exclusive radio access onto the City Hall property for the Scotiabank Caribana launch in early summer (not a mean feat, City Hall doesn't want heavy trucks on the patio).

CFRB promised to go live at noon and asked that Joe Halstead, the CEO of Scotiabank Caribana, come over to their booth for an interview at 12.02. We agreed.

The Square was bedlam. TV crews, reporters, and over 5,000 spectators crowded onto a space meant for 2,000. Loud Soca music boomed over the speakers and politicians jostled to get onto stage.

At noon Halstead was standing 50 feet from the CFRB truck. I sent him over for his interview. On his way, a Global TV crew grabbed him and started interviewing him live. I went over to extract him. By the time I got him to the CFRB booth to be interviewed by News Director Dave Trafford, the spot was lost. (Picture taken of Global broadcast wrap-up seconds after Joe left for CFRB http://www.stephenweir.com/gallery1/main.php?g2_itemId=474)

Personal apologizes to the news director and later the station's PR person, fell on deaf ears. CFRB did not formalize the partnership agreement and much of the support that was given in previous years did not occur (but their news team did cover events and there were in studio appearances by Caribana people including Joe Halstead). A 40-some relationship appears to be over.

What follows are 3 emails sent during the summer. The first is from me, to, a producer who had called to see if we were going to have our regular Thursday Caribana update on the CFRB noon package.


Stephen Weir: (The Launch Broadcast) didn't go well at 12.01. Dave (Trafford, news director) is pretty pissed. Sent Joe (Halstead) over for his inte'rview at CFRB and Global grabbed him. By the time their just "one minute" was up the (CFRB) interview was lost. Tried to apologize to Dave afterwards but ... Tourism Minister and musician (we brought on for the second interview) was great radio.

Thanks. Let me know about Thursday, ain't holding my breath on David chilling out

Dave Trafford saw that email and responded. This is the email a publicist never wants to get!


Stephen,

You certainly got the right read yesterday.

I wouldn't be so annoyed if this were something new. We deal with all the major festivals and their organizers and dealing with you is the most trying. Whether it's slack response or no-show guests, doing LIVE remote broadcasts from Caribana events present unnecessary stresses. I don't expect things to run perfectly, but I do expect that you don't just abandon us when things fall apart at your end. That's what happened yesterday.

Pointing Joe in our direction is not good enough. You should have delivered him as promised, made Halstead keep his commitment with us.12 noon is 12 noon...not 12:08 when I'm in the middle of another segment. Apologies and excuses are meaningless to our audience. The opening of our show didn't deliver as promised. It was an "on location" Caribana special...with nothing "on location" from Caribana! You made us sound weak.

We committed a full hour of LIVE programming to the event, based on your commitments, and you blew us off WITH NO NOTICE so the TV guys could get a 20 second quote from Joe. If our coverage of Caribana is not a priority for you, I'm happy to accommodate. I'm not interested in wasting time, resources and programming.


Dave Trafford
News Director
Newstalk 1010 CFRB
Astral Media Radio GP
2 St. Clair Ave. West
Toronto, ON, M4V 1L6
dave.trafford@cfrb.com

I responded a week later by email. My associate Alicia Sealey (a broadcaster who had been our voice on Radio Noon the year before) made several calls to Mr. Trafford. Neither of us got a response but, that is par for course when you are a publicist.

Dave:

Got your email. Wanted to wait a week before responding -- time has a way of putting things in perspective.

First off, your email is right on. If I had it all to do again I would have taken Joe by the arm and dragged him to 'RB. I went through hoops with city hall to get the mobile truck on the plaza, and it was personally disappointing to loose the opportunity to have our CEO talk to your audience (and your numbers are way better than Global at Noon). Our CEO only had to walk 50 feet without me to make the interview. I can't believe he didn't make it. Joe Halstead is mortified; I sent him a copy of the CFRB letter. He did try to apologize, but you had left by the time he got off stage.

I have worked with CFRB on a variety of live broadcasts over the years, from the boat show to the gourmet food and wine show, to the home show and others that I have long since forgotten. So to say all those remotes went without a hitch would not be an accurate statement. But, because of the very nature of Caribana (run by a variety of committees and thousands of volunteers), our shortcomings are much more spectacular than the failings of events that are run by private industry. Sorry that this is the way it ends between CFRB and Caribana. Historically our festival and the station have had a strong relationship even though one would immediately identify your audience as being interested in Caribana.

In the early days Gary (Slaight - the former owner of the station) would write a personal cheque to Caribana's Caribbean Cultural Committee. The first time I met him was in 1999 when I came by the building to pick up one of those cheques. FLOW, which at one time Standard owned 25% of, donated monies as well to the parade and now, I believe gives support to individual mas bands in our parade.

The Festival Management Committee (representatives from the city, the province, the mas bands, the Calypsonians and the pan artistes and the CCC) is aware of your concerns and the end of your sponsorship. I have tried to remove the CFRB logo from our list of proud sponsors, but I am afraid it is too late. All of our print material deadlines have long since passed.

The City Hall launch fiasco does have a certain amount of irony for me. The last time Caribana worked with CFRB was at the parade launch in 2007. Your station was to go live for four hours from the route.

In preparation for the day I took parking passes, maps and press kits over to your host's Riverside home and briefed her on getting into the grounds. I drove her son around for part of an afternoon in preparation for his being on the line during the parade and reporting back to his mother. I had my staff seek out suitable interviewees (including Joe Halstead), and scheduled them to come on air during the parade.

The day of the parade I met your truck at Yonge and Eglinton and drove with them into the grounds to make sure they got on location without problems. We moved them around a couple of times until they got the spot they wanted within the confines of the judging area.

One of my staff members, Alicia Sealey, was to help on-air by describing the floats marching by to your host. Like me she has worked in radio and is comfortable behind the mike, but, up until that day didn't know how 'RB physically put a show together (what buttons to push, what spots to throw to etc)

Just before CFRB was to go on air, Alicia, our first guest and myself came over to your truck. Nancy (the PR director) meet us as we came across the parade route. She gave us the news. No host! Your host was lost/stuck in traffic. And, there was no one back at the studio that could take over ... So, Alicia put on the headphones and filled in. With Taggart's (sp?) help she did very very well.

Your host didn't have a cell phone with her, but, I was able to put out a call to our 300-security force and we did locate the missing announcer and bring her to the trailer. I can't remember how long Alicia was in the chair, but she says it felt like 24 hours.

Anyway, as you can see, with 'RB and Caribana, it isn't always the guest that misses their time check.

I hope you have a good summer. I have copied Nancy on this email. The Festival Management Committee understands why CFRB will not be covering the festival and again I do apologize again for not being able to remove your logos from our many banners and printed materials.

Stephen Weir

ps - not one for e-mails, but when I did try to apologize in person, but as you know you were not having anything of that.