My last show
For the last two and a half years, I’ve been blessed and fortunate enough to be the co-host and producer of The Starting Rotation, a weekly sports radio show on CJLO 1690AM based out of Concordia University in Montreal.
On June 23rd, I’ll be in the producer chair for one last show. I’ll be leaving to focus on my academics and other journalistic opportunities following the broadcast.
I’ve had a lot of fun with the whole group: Matthew Shanahan, Daniele Iannarone, Robert Arzenshek, Giordano Cescutti, and Justin Ferrara. That’s a lot of people attached to one radio show, and it’s partly my fault that it got to that point.
I had just gotten my feet wet in journalism school when I was asked about joining a potential sports radio show by Matt, known affectionately as Homer Shanny. The only other time we had ever hung out outside of class was for a Montreal Canadiens intrasquad game with Dan and Rob — -up until my REAL first game, it was the “first” Canadiens game I had ever been to — -and the few times we crossed paths at TSN 690 Montreal, when we were both interns. Rob and Dan were already in from what I remembered and it looked as if us four were going to pitch a show. But I insisted on having Giordano being a part of it. Unlike myself, he had tagged along with reporters at Bell Media, Rick Moffat in particular, and got to cover Montreal Impact practices as his intern. He had a bit more experience than myself and I figured it just made sense to have him involved in some capacity. Justin was friends with Giordano — -we had yet to know that his claim to fame was this song:
So we ended up coming together as a group of six. We knew that organizing air time was going to be an issue, but we still seemed pretty determined to be on the radio waves at CJLO. We’ve come a long way from our demo episode, having Genie Bouchard’s sister on as a guest, and our short-lived Wednesday morning one-hour shows. Thank you Matt, Giords, Dan, Justin, and Rob, for being amazing every time we were on air, and I’m glad I can say I got to work with each of you.
I’ve had the opportunity to interview and interact with tons of great guests on TSR, from the legendary personalities Mitch Melnick, Jay Onrait, Kate Beirness, Cabbie Richards and Jonah Keri, to current and former athletes such as Patrice Bernier, Cyle Larin, Kia Nurse, Lizanne Murphy, Nirra Fields, Duron Carter, Joel Anthony, Justin Mapp, Andy Mulumba, David Palmer, Patrick O’Sullivan, Alex Daigle (yeah, we had HIM on),Concordia Stingers athletes such as Mikael Charland, Roman Grozman, Luca Ciampini, Concordia Stingers baseball manager Howie Schwartz, and more. I’d like to thank our regular and occasional contributors who have taken time out of their schedules to help make the show great: TSN’s Dwight Walton, who’s the best basketball insider in this city, Joey Alfieri, Mitch Gallo, Amanda Stein, Conor McKenna, Sportsnet’s Ben Nicholson-Smith, Shi Davidi, and Jamie Campbell, and others such as Annakin Slayd, Christopher Curtis, Andrew Berkshire, Hoops Lounge’s Marc Griffin and Phil Boileau, Peter Yannopoulos, Moe Khan, Elliott Price, Eric Engels, Arpon Basu, Marshall Ferguson, Rick Moffat, Sofiane Benzaza, Abe Hefter, and tons more.
Can’t forget about the guest hosts who’ve pitched in relief including my Link colleagues Tristan D’Amours, Vince Morello, Safia Ahmad, and Alex Perez. Sean Coleman of CTV/TSN, Salim Valji, actor Rob Naylor, CJLO hosts Emilio Greco, Sam Obrand, Jacob Mann, and Dave Trentadue.
My departure from The Starting Rotation also means that I won’t be around the CJLO studio and office anymore. I spent a lot of my time at The Link Newspaper office and I sometimes wish I had spent a bit more time with the CJLO crew, including show hosts and station directors. They were always friendly and a joy to be around. They were open to many ideas and were quite supportive of our show, even if they weren’t exactly sports fanatics.
My Thursdays will be a little brighter but I’ll miss them when they were dark and filled with hilarious Nihilist Arby’s tweets, read by Program Director Andrew Wieler and Music Director Omar Husain. Thank you to them and promo director Ellen Smallwood for being amazing for as long as I’ve known you. I need to show love to the rest of the CJLO staff and crew as well: Joana Como, Brian ‘Doc’ Holidae, Patrick McDowall, Catlin Spencer, Saturn de Los Angeles, Kelly Belfo, Angelica Calcagnile, Emeline Vidal, Julia Bryant, Patricia Petit Liang, and Lucinda Marshall-Kiparissis, who is Superwoman. I can’t stress that enough. She helped Sam Obrand and I put the wheels in motion for CJLO Sports, something else I’ll miss. Thank you, Sam, for allowing me to be involved in the initiative and giving me one of the greatest experiences of my life; calling a nail-biting and thrilling football game at Molson Stadium. Can’t forget about past CJLO guys Michael Sailot, Alex Masse, and Mat Barrot.
Thank you, fellow CJLO hosts and DJs: Myles Perkins, Gordon Weekes, Pete Douglas, Jacob Greco, and everyone else for being so welcoming during my time at the station. Finally, thank you, CJLO, for honouring myself and the show with your Diego Awards. I’ve always held them in high regard and they mean the world to me.
Also, I can’t believe we got ranked #6 best radio show in the city by Cult MTL. Hopefully TSR can get back on this list for next year. Thank you to everyone who voted and thank you to everyone who actually took the time to listen to the show, whether it was once, multiple times, or whenever you wanted to win concert tickets.
The show’s still going to be great with the rest of the rotation running the show.
The Starting Rotation gave me a great base on how to run, organize, and plan a radio show. I have ways to go, of course, but everything I’ve gathered from TSR will help me. I can’t wait for the next step in my journalistic journey, but I’ll always treasure the memories from the radio station on the other side of the G Lounge.
Can’t wait to show you all what’s next.
