And now CFNY is dead

Alan Cross is gone from Corus Radio

His last day was the 30th, and we find out (via a third party) a week later that's gone from the company. Given the Martin Streek fiasco, this shouldn't be surprising.

With any luck, Alan will come to an agreement to continue on with the Ongoing History of New Music. Or failing that he can talk to Brian Ibbott about how he is able to podcast using most any music he chooses, and make OHoNM a podcast.

I'll still listen to the Edge in the afternoon and evening when I'm around a radio, but it's not must listen to any more. I'm just as happy bouncing around from station to station to find something that I want to listen to.

Coming to put fear in Toronto...

Fearless Fred!

Yes, a new radio personality is set to join 102.1 The Edge. It's just unclear as to what shift he's taking. Toronto Mike thinks he will take the afternoon drive shift, with Dave Bookman moving to the evening shift. As much as that sucks, it does seem to make sense.

So what should we expect from Fearless Fred? Poking around his website, you can get a sense of what he's going to bring to the table. First, he seems to be a bit of a nerd. He's dressed up as the comic version of Doctor Doom in some of his pictures. His links includes a section for nerd links (and also includes a link to Home Star Runner.)

On his show page over at the Bear, he lets us now that, among other things:

• He can read, and he reads books without pictures


• He can beat Mega Man 2 in 2 men (more about that nerd/geek thing)


• He has season tickets to the Edmonton Opera


• He thinks that Voltaire is smarter than you...probably

So we're dealing with somebody who might be a bit more intelligent than we think.

But what about the radio? Well, we have some hints to this as well. He was the first winner of the Steve Young Broadcaster Award for best up and coming Canadian broadcaster under the age of 30 (which was presented at Canadian Music Week):

Then, there's the clips on his website. On there you find a a lot of comedic clips with him interacting with callers. But hidden amongst them are some good items, such as U-S-A and Hello Dearest Sir.

Based on those clips, he's better than Dean Blundell, which is admittedly setting the bar low. I'm willing to give him a chance - he could develop into a fun radio announcer. If he doesn't, then I'm sure I'll end up complaining here (or stop listening to CFNY.)