Shame on CHOM for intentional sleight to our war veterans

Like you, I do have my favourites, such as CHOM, usually, and Virgin, occasionally. I adored Q-92 before Paul/Tasso and Suzanne were unceremoniously dumped, because, as good as he is, as hard as he tries, Aaron Rand cannot carry a morning show by himself. And excellent, music savvy, veteran DJ Marc “Mais Oui” Denis had me listening to 940 AM every morning, until he, too, was unceremoniously dumped by the same guy, Chorus Radio local GM Mark Dickie, who is very much in need of a good dump himself at this point.

Yet of all the outrageous things to have occurred on Montreal radio recently, it is the lack of respect shown by my favourite station, CHOM, this past Remembrance Day, which draws my most passionate ire.

Bit of background: My late father volunteered for the Black Watch HRH during the Second World War and, while he did not see service overseas due to poor vision, he was proud of his duty to his country and remembered his ID number, D129017, until the day he died in 1981. He also lost many friends in battle during the war. I buy a poppy every year in his memory and, indeed, sport it proudly, way past its expiry date.

So, it was with a sense of sadness and outrage that I learned of the “devotion” to our fallen comrades-at-arms shown by Astral Media’s radio property CHOM-FM, which held a meagre 15 seconds of silence at the 11:00 a.m. mark on November 11, 2009. I mean, how patriotic of them. Astral Media properties CJAD and Virgin radio marked the occasion with two minutes and one minute of silence respectively, but I was stunned by the lack of respect – and there is no other way to perceive this offense – shown by CHOM, where I worked as a sales rep in the late 1980s.

Based on my year there, I learned that CHOM considers itself a bilingual station and panders toward

francophones in order to pad their BBM rating figures, used to determine how high a station can jack up their sales rate cards. When I was there, for instance, CHOM got away with selling 30 second spots for a nervy $130 each, based in large part to its French-language audience.

That does not, however, minimize the fact that many French Canadians remain proud of soldiers who have given their lives for country, if not necessarily for crown. Many French Quebecers died for Canada in all of our wars and this 15 seconds of non-lip service was, for me, my acquaintances and several outraged veterans I spoke to, nothing short of a slap in the face.

I spoke with CHOM’s program director, Daniel Tremblay, on November 24 and he seemed taken by surprise when I raised this issue. “Well, to us (CHOM) it was a question of highlighting that day,” he stated. “I did not think that spending more time than that was relevant... at the end it is the act of paying respect that means anything.” When I mentioned that many people, including veterans, were upset with CHOM’s short-changed “paying (of) respect”, he added “That’s really not the point.”

Last week, I left a message for Jacques Parisien, head of Astral’s radio properties. Two days later, I received a call from Hugues Mousseau, of Astral Media’s corporate communications department. He listened to my reason for calling, told me he was unaware of these details and said he would get back to me.

Before he did, Mousseau learned I had spoken with Tremblay and this was his response: “We (Astral) wouldn’t have anything to add on this,” he said. So, in essence, stated through their spokesperson, Astral stands by the comments of their program director. Fifteen seconds is ample time to pay respects to men who fought and died so that we even HAVE freedom of speech on radio to begin with! Incredible.

I guess what really surprises me here is what Astral stands for. Over the years, since the late avowed federalist and Order of Canada honouree Harold Greenberg, who was also a proud Quebecer, worked his film and TV magic, Astral’s progress has been remarkable. It has steadily, quietly, turned into one of our country’s great media giants. The Greenberg family is still very much involved, with Harold’s brother Ian Greenberg the reigning CEO.

Even though a significant portion of Montreal English radio is as amateur-hour as it can get, this sort of thing should not be allowed to happen... certainly not under Astral’s watch.