The Canadian music industry gathered at Toronto’s soon-to-close Kool Haus over Canadian Music Week to honor more than 40 businesses and individuals at the 2014 Canadian Music and Broadcast Industry Awards, covering labels, agencies, management, promoters, radio, venues and retail (see full list below). Those were all announced on a screen via voiceover, while onstage time was dedicated to proper tributes for six honorees with a legacy and an impact.
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Joining the Canadian Music Industry Hall of Fame were Attic Records founder Al Mair, musician Tom Cochrane, and Astral founder, CEO, and president Ian Greenberg, while folk music icon Bruce Cockburn received the Allan Slaight Humanitarian Spirit Award and Rogers Media’s Paul Ski was given the Allan Waters Broadcast Lifetime Achievement Award. Liz Janik was selected for the Rosalie Trombley Award, celebrating women trailblazers in radio.
The evening began with a special video tribute to 81-year-old music legend Quincy Jones — one of CMW’s celebrity interviews at the conference — who took the stage after a rousing standing ovation to introduce his artist, 20-year-old Montrealer Nikki Yanofsky.
“The next performer is a young lady who I believe represents the next generation of female vocalists,” Jones said. “She is an accomplished singer-songwriter, performer that has shared the stage with heavyweights such as Stevie Wonder, Herbie Hancock, Celine Dion and many others, so you know that she is no joke.” He also mentioned he’s the executive producer of her just released album, “Little Secret.”
Slaight Music’s Gary Slaight and artist manager Bernie Finkelstein gave out Cockburn’s humanitarian award, named after Gary’s father, Allan, who built the media empire Standard Broadcasting. The family is made up of noted philanthropists.
“I’m greatly honored to be the recipient of this year’s Humanitarian Spirit Award,” said Cockburn. “I think it’s wonderful that there is an award honoring the spirit of our concern for each other’s well being. That spirit is easily eclipsed by the last kindly thing we do and get up to. The more we nurture it the better.”
Later, he added, “I don’t know if I’ve done anything special to merit this. I think each of us has a moral responsibility to share what we can of our material and personal resources, especially those of us for whom life is less precarious than it is for many of our sisters and brothers. The world is full of pain and anything we can do to lessen the amount of it, let’s do it.”
Comedian Tom Green joined the evening in progress as the host, asking, “Is everybody drunk yet? Is everybody having fun? . . . They asked me to host this because I’ve been in the broadcast industry and the music industry. I was nominated for a Juno in 1992 [with his hip hop group Organized Rhyme]. I lost to Devon for his song ‘Keep it Slammin’.’ My song was ‘Check The OR’ — ‘You like it so far?’.”
Astral (dissolved in 2013) co-founder Ian Greenberg called his induction “a priceless honor that I accept with humility because none of my achievements over the past five decades would have been possible without the [help] of so many people. I’m proud to say that Astral was forged in the spirit of family My brothers and I started he company because we needed a way to support our family and keep our siblings together after the death of our parents. But beyond the family aspect of it, Astral became a 50-year long love affair that now goes on with Bell Media.”
Al Mair was called “one of Canada’s original tastemakers” by Six Shooter Records’ Shauna de Cartier (who inducted him), noting how he ran school dances, was a DJ, and drove a red 1964 Pontiac Acadian convertible with a 45rpm player under the dash. Mair has a career-spanning five decades in the music business, most notably as the founder in 1974 of the since-defunct Attic Records, which went on to accrue 114 gold, platinum and multi-platinum records in Canada, the U.S., Japan, the UK, and Holland.
“I wanted to thank all the staff and the artists that we worked with Attic over the 27 years of fun,” Mair said. “I also want to recognize the people who helped us get established and get rolling.” He mentioned his first partner Tom Williams, who was in attendance at the awards, and some that were not, such as Les Weinstein and the Irish Rovers, who “were shareholders from Day One” and Allan Slaight, who “put us in touch with the venture capital company that came up with the money for us to do it.”
He also took the time to thank the Music Managers Forum for naming their annual award The Brian Chater Award, after the late music executive and tireless lobbyist. “No one deserves to be honored more than Brian did for what he did for the Canadian industry,” he added.
Mair also name-checked fellow honoree Paul Ski, with whom he went to Montreal’s 1967 Expo. Ski is now CEO of radio, responsible for overseeing Rogers Media’s 55 radio stations across Canada. ? Ski had said, “It’s an incredible honour to be recognized by my industry peers. Over the past 30 years, I’ve had the privilege of working with some of the best in this business and am truly humbled to receive this prestigious award.”
Tom Cochrane — inducted by his good friend and fellow Hall of Famer Gil Moore, of the rock trio Triumph, who called him “a celebrated musical icon” — performed a few songs and got the industry crowd on its feet. During his acceptance speech, the singer gave special thanks to his longtime friend Deane Cameron, with whom he was in a high school band and went on to become president of EMI Music Canada and signed him; his current label president Randy Lennox of Universal Music Canada; plus Bruce Cockburn, bandmates in Red Rider, The Feldman Agency’s Vinny Cinquemani, SOCAN “for collecting,” and others. He even rattled off the old and current broadcasters, including Corus, Newcap, Rogers, CBC, Slaight Communications, Bell Media, Sirius, American broadcasters and mom & pops.
“Our passion for music is the one thing that we have in common among a lot other things, being a proud Canadians in a lot of cases. I know we have some America brothers and sisters here tonight as well . . . Without music, it would be a pretty boring world . . . No man’s an island . . . We can’t do it by ourselves as writers and singers and we all love music so much, and we want to keep it alive. We have that in common, right?’
Among the winners of the basic 2014 Canadian Music and Broadcast Industry Awards were Universal Music Canada for Major Label of the Year; Dine Alone Records for Canadian Independent Label; Eone Music Canada for Independent Distributor; Universal Music Publishing for Music Publisher; Arts & Crafts for Management Company; The Agency Group or Booking Agency; Live Nation Entertainment for Promoter.
Toronto’s Massey Hall won Performing Arts Centre (Over 1,500 Capacity), Vancouver’s Vogue Theatre was awarded Performing Arts Centre (Under 1,500 Capacity), Toronto’s Molson Canadian Amphitheatre took home Major Facility Of The Year (Over 8,000 Capacity) and there was a tie for Major Facility (Under 8,000 Capacity) between two Ontario venues, Oshawa’s GM Centre and Kingston’s K-Rock Centre.
Montreal’s Osheaga was named Festival Of The Year; Orillia’s Casino Rama Casino/Specialty Venue and Vancouver’s Commodore Ballroom the Club Venue Of The Year. In the retail category, Toronto’s Rotate This won Independent Record Store Of The Year; HMV was called Mass Merchant/Retail Chain of the Year; iTunes was awarded Digital Music Retail Service and Soundcloud nabbed best Digital Music Streaming Service.
The complete list of 2014 Canadian Music & Broadcast Industry Award Winners
Music Director of the Year: Major Market
Lynch – X929 (CFEX) – Calgary
Music Director of the Year: Secondary Market
Anna Zee – Q104 (CFRQ) – Halifax
Music Director of the Year: Small Market
Jeff Winskell – Sun FM (CHSU) – Kelowna
On-Air Talent of the Year: Major Market
Roger Darren & Marilyn – Chum FM – Toronto
On-Air Talent of the Year: Secondary Market
Tucker & Sarah – 97.5 Virgin Radio (CIQM) – London
Program Director of the Year: Major Market
Al Ford – Sonic 102.9 (CHDI) – Edmonton
Program Director of the Year: Secondary Market
Wendy Duff – Chym FM – Kitchener
Program Director of the Year: Small Market
Mark Burley – Sun FM (CHSU) – Kelowna
Promotion of the Year
Kid Mitchell – Q107 (CILQ) – Toronto
Station of the Year: Small Market
99.9 SUN FM (CHSU) – Kelowna
Station of the Year: Country
Country 105 (CKRY) – Calgary
Station of the Year: CHR
Kiss 92.5 (CKIS) – Toronto
Station of the Year: Hot AC
Chum FM – Toronto
Station of the Year: Rock
Sonic 102.9 (CHDI) – Edmonton
Station of the Year: Classic Gold
Boom 97.3 (CHBM) – Toronto
Station of the Year: Multicultural
Chin – TORONTO
Station of the Year: News/Talk
680 News (CFTR) – Toronto
Station of the Year: Medium Market
HTZ FM (CHTZ) – St. Catharines
Station of the Year: Mainstream AC
98.1 CHFI – Toronto
LIVE TOURING
Performing Arts Centre of the Year (Over 1,500 Capacity)
Massey Hall, Toronto
Performing Arts Centre of the Year (Under 1,500 Capacity)
Vogue Theatre, Vancouver
Major Facility of the Year (Over 8,000 Capacity)
The Molson Amphitheatre, Toronto
Major Facility of the Year (Under 8,000 Capacity)
GM Centre, Oshawa *tie
Rogers K-Rock Centre, Kingston *tie
Festival of the Year
Osheaga, Montreal
Management Company of the Year
Arts & Crafts, Toronto
Booking Agency of the Year
The Agency Group
Promoter of the Year
Live Nation Entertainment
Casino/Specialty Venue of the Year
Casino Rama, Orillia
Club Venue of the Year
Commodore Ballroom, Vancouver
RETAIL
Independent Record Store of the Year
Rotate This, Toronto
Digital Music Retail Service of the Year
iTunes
Digital Music Streaming Service of the Year
Soundcloud
Mass Merchant/Retail Chain of the Year
HMV Canada
RECORDING INDUSTRY
Music Journalist/Blogger of the Year
Alan Cross, A Journal of Musical Things
Recording Studio of the Year
Metalworks Recording & Mastering, Mississauga
Canadian Independent Label of the Year
Dine Alone Records
Independent Distributor of the Year
eOne Music Canada
Music Publisher of the Year
Universal Music Publishing
Major Label of the Year
Universal Music Canada