Peterborough Is Getting A TalkSports Radio Station

FM 90. 5 in Peterborough is launching a brand new TalkSPORTS radio format for their station, they have announced on social media. According to their Facebook page, the station will consist of "Petes, Jays, Leafs, Jim Rome & tons of local news and conversation!" Earlier today (August 12th), local radio legend John Badham was on the air guest hosting. 

[image via FM905 website]

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61 Awesome Things About Peterborough In 2012

There was so much awesome about this city this year. In no particular order really, here's 61 of them (we had to cut if off somewhere)...

1. Peterborough Lakers winning the Mann Cup. Best in Canada baby!

2. Red Pashminas, which empower women locally and globally.

3. Trent's LipDub video, a great showcase for the university.

4. Doug Tilley's comedy, whether it's his "singing" or tweeting or... what's next Tilley?

5. Bandwagon episodes. Now in its 2nd season, which launched with Sloan.

6. Wild Rock celebrating 20 years in the downtown. And making the decision to stay in the downtown when they could have moved.

7. PMZ, Peterborough's TMZ celebrating local "celebrities".

8. I'd Rather Be In Peterborough tees. Community spirit.

9. Spanky's annual ping pong tourney for Movember. Spanky's offering a place to play ping pong in town.

"Call Me Maybe" 10. The city rallying behind a teenager's right to play basketball on his own driveway.

11. Philanthropy month in Peterborough showcasing all the people doing good in the community. #bethechangeptbo

12. The new downtown nightclub ARIA, which rivals Toronto's finest.

13. St. Peter's high school students dressing as superheroes during Head of the Trent regatta.

14. Peterborough Cycling Summit. Bike this city. Let's make it as bike friendly as possible.

15. Elton John concert, the one where he actually played Peterborough—not his cancelled one.

GPA EDC's Dan Taylor at Creative Cocktail16. The Peterborough Calendar Girls naked truth campaign raising awareness about the affordable housing shortage here.

17. Breakfast Television broadcasting live from Peterborough. Great coup for our city.

18. Carrie Underwood and Mike Fisher at Gerti's. (We don't believe they had the polo sandwich, but it's excellent.)

19. Carly Rae Jepsen at Musicfest. Peterborough singing "Call Me Maybe".

20. Final photo of PCVS students and staff together. This city will never forget the impact this school had, and its legacy.

21. A canoe portage in downtown Peterborough.

22. The Taste of Downtown. So much great food down there. And great folk.

23. The Dragon Boat festival.

24. The Hootenanny on Hunter. It's a hoot.Mike Watt

25. The Gilmour Street Garage Sale. Epic as always.

26. Hunter Street, one of the best streets anywhere for food, drink, shops, live music, theatre, festivals, hot dogs, great vibe.

Rick Mercer at PCVS27. Maryam's Monsef's story about how a city and school saved her life.

28. Peterborough dog pictures.

29. Rick Mercer's Rant on PCVS.

30. Rick Mercer's visit to PCVS, in video and pictures.

31. Noah Leslie—aka @pennyboynoah, who raises money for the Salvation Army Toy Drive each year.

32. Pete Dalliday's unbelievable shot. Believe it.

33. Someone canoeing on a Peterborough street. Canoe Peterborough.

34. Koski.

35. The PeterTweeter awards. Twitter's where it's at. Amazing Twitter community in town. (Follow us here.)

36. Mike Watt's how-to plaid video. Hilarious.

37. Creative Cocktails—here's the one from Market Hall.

St. Peter's superheroes38. Jonny Trash DJing at Spanky's. Best DJ around.

39. The Peterborough web series Grimwell.

40. Petes Insider, giving us the inside goods on the Petes organization.

41. The excellent Canadian Canoe Museum. We're lucky to have it. And let's move it downtown by the waterfront.

42. Electric City Live, which covers the local music scene in Peterborough. Great name, great site.

43. The Art School of Peterborough. Creativity. Imagination.

44. Mike Judson, who went homeless on the streets of Peterborough for 48 hours to raise awareness about the problem here.

Silver Bean45. Peterborough Police for serving and protecting this community, and embracing social media by joining Twitter this year.

46. Rachel Seaman and Ashley Brzozowicz, who competed in the Olympics this summer (Ashley won a silver in her sport, rowing). The tees

47. Downtown Peterborough. Embrace it. Vital. Make it sustainable. Build a city from its core.

48. Silver Bean Café, beauty spot on the river.

49. Our friends at The Wolf and Kruz FM, huge supporters of Peterborough and us. And the always smiling Carol Edwards there, who lets us in through the out door.

50. Three Loonies, for Kawartha Food Share.

51. The return of the Wire Awards. Special night at Market Hall putting spotlight on amazing music scene in Peterborough—one of the best anywhere in Canada.

52. Gallery in the truck. A moving gallery. Great concept. Love it.

53. PtboFinds and PtboProps.

54. Kawartha Turtle Trauma Centre.

55. The DBIA's new website by BrandHealth. Excellent.

56. Lois Tuffin, the news diva of Peterborough and the Kawarthas. Never shy about expressing her opinion.

57. Fleming's Student Volunteering Club, students with a sense of community pride.

58. Funny hashtags. E.g. 6,000 people went without power for a couple hours, and #ptboblackout began trending on Twitter in Peterborough. Sample tweet: "I wonder how many babies will be conceived during this blackout #ptboblackout" 

59. John Leacy's mural art around town. Gabby's wall, Spanky's wall and more.

60. Natas Cafe, the epicentre for Peterborough's amazing people.

61. All our readers and followers on Twitter and Facebook. You rock.

Here's to a great 2013!

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Kruz's New Morning Show With Pete Dalliday & Catherine Hanrahan Starts Monday

The new morning team at Kruz FM is Pete Dalliday and Catherine Hanrahan, and their show starts Monday (November 10th).

[KRUZ FM]

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Mike Melnik Is Leaving KRUZ-FM To Focus On His Growing Business Impact Communications

Mike Melnik pictured reading Maclean's to his beloved RosieMike Melnik is stepping down as morning show co-host of Mike and Catherine in the Morning on KRUZ-FM to focus full-time on his growing media production business Impact Communications.

The radio veteran—known fondly to his devoted listeners as "The Morning Mayor"—will be finishing up with KRUZ-FM in November, the station announced this morning.
 
"While I am sad to leave my KRUZ-FM family, I am excited that my personal business, Impact Communications, continues to grow—so much so that it is becoming increasingly challenging to split my time between working at KRUZ-FM and my company," says Melnik in a release.
 
"Peterborough will be losing someone special on local radio but we are thrilled for Mike and the opportunity for him to focus on his media production business," adds JJ Johnston, General Manager, Corus Radio Peterborough in the release.

Melnik is proud of the fundraising KRUZ-FM has generated over the years—particularly to have been part of the annual Three Loonies Broadcast which started as a "lark" on the morning show and has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for Kawartha Food Share.

No replacement has been named yet for Melnik to work alongside his co-host Catherine Hanrahan. Let the speculation begin.

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Video From The Wire Awards At Market Hall Last Night

[CHEX TV]

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1st Annual PeterTweeter Awards To Take Place At Splice March 1st

Everyone is expected to wear plaid at one of the most hyped, exciting events to come to Peterborough in a while—the PeterTweeter Awards, which recognizes the best of Twitter in Peterborough.

Hosted by The Wolf's Dani Stover and KRUZ FM's Catherine Hanrahan, the #Petertweeter will showcase some of the Patch's best "tweeps", covering everything from food, music and crafts to entertainment, music and news.

The awards show takes place on March 1^st at 7:30 p.m. at Splice Lounge and Restaurant.

Tickets are $10 and available at the WOLF/KRUZ and Peterborough Green-Up, and proceeds from the event are going to Peterborough Green-Up.

We (@Ptbo_Canada) are pleased to be nominated in 3 categories, including Best Local News Coverage.

Cast your votes here.

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Backroom Briefing Q: Is The City Of Peterborough Going To Start Using Social Media In More Active Ways?

Note: This is the 3rd column of David Goyette's "Backroom Briefing" for PTBOCanada. For more info on it, click here.

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Q: I would love to know if the City is going to update its social media policy and start using social media in more active ways—especially as part of their City communication plan. Is it?  –Alana Callan

Goyette: Good question. Let’s begin with the assumption that social media—communication among online communities enabled by electronic tools and protocols—is here to stay. Online and cellular communication has already changed the way that people consume, relate to and share information. This website is an example of that. About 8 million Canadians have Twitter® accounts. There are a prescient few who foresee growing user fatigue, but the digital cat seems well out of the bag.  

Governments are not typically early adapters of technologies, and that caution is not necessarily a bad thing, especially when taxpayer money is at stake. On the other hand, the wider public sector has so much to gain in relating to its communities via social media that its employment seems obvious. Consider the advantages to government in dealing with its constituencies: wider and faster reach; interactivity and engagement; new marketing and survey possibilities; program and event promotion; staff collaboration; new payment options; and all with greater frequency and speed at less cost. Add to that the spin virtues of openness, transparency, going green and enhancing customer service and you have a genuine catalyst for change.

On the political front, the Obama campaign of 2007/2008 was a turning point in the value verification of social media. The 2010 Bennett mayoralty campaign employed online innovations such as a virtual campaign office, Twitter®, video messaging, monthly opinion surveys and accessible scheduling. It's important to remember, of course, that if you are going to reach out to the world, the world is going to reach back in ways that may not be to your liking. The promotion of engaged communities always has its price.

By any measure, the City of Peterborough has an excellent website. Eight corporate Facebook® and/or Twitter® accounts are held by City departments or agencies, including the Mayor. The City is now in the process of reviewing its social media policy, and it has to be said that this is more complex than it might first appear. First, it requires a cultural shift involving a more relaxed view of the sharing of information and tolerance for varied opinion. Second, care has to be taken with matters of content, confidentiality, privacy, personal information, record keeping, liability, intellectual property, online/offline integration, compensation and employee conduct outside of the workplace. I have many of these same issues to deal with in writing this column.

Nonetheless, there is no denying the benefits of a form of Local Government 2.0 that one day might have you contacting your public transit operator to check out bus schedules on the go; being engaged in a City-sponsored survey on current issues or budgets; contributing to an online public meeting; or updating a street by street data portrait or photo file. It’s a brave new digital world.

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David Goyette is the Executive Assistant to Peterborough Mayor Daryl Bennett. For more on his Backroom Briefing column, click here. Email your burning questions for David about City Hall to feedback@ptbocanada.com.

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Dani Stover's New Morning Partner At The Wolf Is Brian Ellis

Ellis replaces TJ Connors, who left for a job out west.

[chextvDOTcom]

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PTBOCanada Review: Mashup & Group Photography Show At Artspace

Mashup, currently on display in the front room of Artspace, is a collab/co-mingle of art from two artists: Montreal artist Nadia Moss uses sculpture and drawing in a fun, creative way which plays out as a cross between street art and comic book art; and London, Ontario artist James Kirkpatrick uses interactivity as a basis in his sculpture. This is an excellent installation.

Also featured in the mudroom of Artspace is Exposure: A Group Photography Show from the Electric City Lodge. A wild cross-section of photo based art is displayed by some local artists you may recognize, and some who will be new to you: Jessica Melnik, Bradley Boyle, Eric McKibbon and Esther Vincent are just a portion of the folks who's wildly eclectic work are on display in this show. 

Both of these shows run until Friday, November 25th. That gives you a good two weeks to check it out. It's a fun look-see. Artspace is located at 378 Aylmer Street.

[Text and pics by PtboCanada's Jeffrey Macklin]

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