Stompin' Tom Connors (1936-2013)

Canadians said goodbye to a true patriot Wednesday, as Thomas Charles “Stompin’ Tom” Connors punched his ticket for the good ol’ Heavenly hockey game at 77 years of age.

Tributes immediately flooded social media sites as fans of all ages shared their favourite Stompin’ Tom memories and songs. Our Breakfast Television viewers joined the outpouring, sharing what they’ll remember most about one of Canada’s most legendary folk musicians.

The man who famously returned six Juno Awards in fierce defence of keeping Canadian music “Canadian” came across my childhood radar the first time I heard “The Hockey Song.” On Thursday’s show, Michele McDougall told us about a personal encounter she’ll never forget. The more emails we received, the more we realized the making of a Stompin’ Tom memory has almost been a rite of passage for Canadians for decades.

Another great Canadian performer, Burton Cummings, joined the movement of those paying tribute to Stompin’ Tom on Facebook: One of Canada’s recognizable faces world wide. He never craved success outside his native Canada, and ALWAYS had both feet on the ground. Made untold millions smile while he was here…truly one of a kind. R.I.P. Charles Thomas Connors.

It made perfect sense that in lieu of a moment of silence, we close out Thursday’s broadcast by joining in on the first verse and chorus that might be better-known from coast to coast to coast than O Canada itself…

Rest in peace, Stompin’ Tom Connors. A true Canadian beauty.

rpj.

(Trouble viewing the video? Try clicking here.)

Never a dull moment with Bridget on BT...

Actor. Author. Playwright. Director. Gallery owner. TV host.

Bridget Ryan wears a lot of hats…and she wears them well. On Tuesday’s BT,  we celebrated ten years of Bridget on Breakfast Television. From humble beginnings as a fill-in weather host to being honoured as Edmonton’s Woman of the Year in 2010, it’s been one heckuva ride for the friend I sit next to in studio every weekday morning.

Tuesday’s show was full of memorable moments, including surprise visits from former co-workers, well wishes from the Mayor and other recognizable Edmontonians and a must-see trip down Spank Alley. Be sure to check out the video below for those highlights.

It was a thrill to see so many loyal Breakfast Television viewers share their own favourite Bridget moments over the past decade. Amanda Gizowski remembers “All the moments that Bridget has laughed so hard she can’t speak. Those are the best ones to watch.”   Ryan Bolin referenced Bridget playing a role in his marriage proposal live on BT, “ I still think my wife was more excited to meet Bridget than to receive a ring on her finger!” All of us at BT echoed Ashley Donaldson’s message, “Your positivity is contagious and your smile lights the lives of many.” We couldn’t possibly put it any better than Salli Bruno, who shared the buzz around their family’s breakfast table today, “In my 12 year old daughters’ words, ‘She lights up everyone’s morning EVERYDAY!’ Thank you Bridget for making us smile, laugh and giving us a feel good start to our days! 10 years down and many more to go! Lots of love!“

I have to admit, I wasn’t surprised to see so many people share such wonderful words. I’ve never worked with such a “total package” of talent, humour and humanity. Bridget connects with Edmontonians in a very special way and it’s an honour to call her a colleague and a friend.

Here’s to another ten years on Breakfast Television, Bridget. Here’s to you!

rpj.

I swear too much.

It’s not for lack of good examples. My parents are clean-talking, clean-living folks. I never heard my grandpa swear a day in his life. It’s tough to know when I started letting that lazy language creep into my daily dialogue but it’s time to turn that trend around.

I’m not the most religious person on the planet but I’m more than happy to join my fellow BT hosts in making a commitment for Lent. For the next forty days, I’ll keep four-letter words outta my mouth. (I mean, I’m able to do it through 3.5 hour broadcasts of Breakfast Television – why not all the time?)

It won’t be easy. My bark is worse than my bite when the boys get together to play hockey. I can tend to be quite “expressive” as frustration mounts in traffic. I love to tell a good story…and sometimes, that involves colourful words to add some punch to my delivery. I know I’m not alone there.

I’ll have to find ways to compensate for my loss of the “crutch” words. I’m sure, despite my best efforts, the odd expletive will sneak out. For every time that happens, I’ll donate $1 to Edmonton’s Youth Empowerment & Support Services, currently facing a six-figure budget shortfall (though I’m hoping I don’t get them into the black with this commitment).

What are you giving up for Lent? Leave a comment here and let us know. We’re all in this together!

rpj.

“A man’s kiss is his signature.”    - Mae West

What can I say about the devilish developments on Friday’s Breakfast Television? If you missed it, let me set the scene. Courtney Theriault had just shown us a Jeannie Moos feature on that famous GoDaddy Super Bowl ad featuring a make-out session between supermodel Bar Refaeli and “ordinary Joe” Jesse Heiman. The story wrapped up and Courtney handed things over to Michele for a look at the forecast.

What happened next was…well…unexpected (even for me). Safe to say Courtney learned a quick lesson about calling out his co-workers on live TV (and the two of us have never been closer).

Enjoy:

rpj.

If you have trouble viewing the video here you can check it out on YouTube.

Valentine’s Day can be a real drag. Unless you’re happily linked to a lover, February 14th can act as an annoying reminder of everything you may be missing out on.

It’s no wonder, then, that Eric Petersen became the talk of the town with his recent craigslist post (text posted below). Recently single, Eric’s looking for a “Valentine’s Day girlfriend.” Somebody he can be “generally lovey-dovey with” until the end of the Valentine’s weekend, at which point he and his new friend “will resume (their) regular lives.”

We couldn’t resist the opportunity to help Eric on his quest. On Thursday morning, he joined us to roll out our BT Valentine’s Day Bachelor blind date. We’ve partnered up with the Fairmont Hotel Macdonald to present an unforgettable Valentine’s Day morning. We’re looking for three women interested in a blind date breakfast with BT’s Bachelor Eric. It’s easy to apply – just email us a few paragraphs and a current photo according to the criteria Eric lays out (below). We’ll work with Eric to narrow the (already impressive) list of applicants down to three. Each of the three women will enjoy some one-on-one time with our Bachelor on a special Valentine’s Day edition of Breakfast Television. As breakfast wraps up, Eric will invite one of his three dates to continue with him on what promises to be an unforgettable weekend.

Of course, it wouldn’t be a special event on BT without a few surprises. Whether you wind up spending the weekend with Eric or not, you won’t leave our studio empty handed. Go ahead and apply – you’ve got nothing to lose!

We’ll notify our finalists in the days leading up to February 14th. Be sure to tune into a very special Valentine’s Day edition of BT! Eric’s breakfast dates will kick off in the 7 o’clock hour.

Yours in life, love and the pursuit of happiness,

rpj.

=======================

Eric’s original craigslist ad:

I do want a girlfriend – I just don’t really want one right now.

After enduring the Christmas/New-Year season and all of it’s “couple oriented” festivities, I’m looking for a girl-friend to hold hands with on Valentines Day. Like me, you have probably spent the past year doing one (or more) of the following:

1. working on your career/jorb (not a typo)
2. volunteering in youth programs
3. training for a race of some sort
4. painting the finishing details on
5. your Battlestar Galactica figurines

These responsibilities likely have kept you from playing the “pin down a boyfriend” game. Even if you happened to catch one, you’d probably just want to throw him back anyway.

Here’s what I propose:

You join me for a whirlwind Valentines Day breakfast date, live on City’s Breakfast Television. Here’s the catch: there will be three women there. Each woman will join me for some one-on-one time over one course of a gourmet breakfast prepared and served by Andrew Ihasz, Executive Chef and Mark Chisholm, Maitre D’ at the Fairmont Hotel Macdonald. After the three courses, I will invite one of the three women to continue their Valentine’s Day plans with me.

This is when the gf/bf status will commence. We can go to a fancy restaurant, leisurely stroll under the waxing crescent moon or maybe even crash a wedding reception at a seedy hotel here in the city. The sky truly is the limit here. We will accompany each other to any parties or appearance either of us may be obligated to throughout the weekend and just be generally lovey-dovey. Once Sunday morning rolls around we will resume our regular lives again.

How it works:

You reply with a clear, current picture (mandatory) and a brief bio with at most 396 words (include any activities you are obligated to attend or would like to do. If your story sounds compelling, Breakfast Television producers will reply with some questions. If everything feels groovy, my people will call your people and they will do whatever they do to make things official, starting with our Breakfast Television appearance the morning of Thursday, February 14th.

Things like hand holding, loving pats on the rear end and other rules regarding affections can be set out at the start – or, we can just fly by the seat of our pants. After the weekend is done, we can still be friends (unless we can’t stand each other, in which case we can downgrade to the nemesis level – I’ve always wanted one).

The benefits:

• You have someone to keep your fingers warm on our witch tit cold Edmonton nights. I’m an excellent cuddler by the way (I can provide references, and not just from my mother)
• You have a built in designated driver (I stay away from “the sauce” – I fear it may just be my Kryptonite)
• I love to cook. I’m not Chef Ramsey or anything, but I know what to do with some meat and veggies if we decided to stay in rather than go out.
• You won’t be stuck having to kiss someone like Tyrone, in Accounting (you know, the guy that looks like Steve Buschemi’s cousin). Boom, got you covered.
• I have a car. You don’t have to walk. This will really mean something to you if you happen to be Amish.

What’s on the agenda:

I’m really easy going. Have a work party to go to? With me on your arm, you can send a message to Tyrone that you just aren’t into him OR his unhealthy obsession with 1960’s G.I. Joe dolls. Are your friends having a get-together at their house for “couples”? I’ll slide right in and socialize like a champ. Family get-together? I win Mom’s heart so sweetly that she will be asking “whatever happened to that cute boy?” for the next 5 years. Don’t really want to stay at the crowded parties for very long? Then we can hit the supermarket, cook up a storm at your/my place and watch catch up on all those Walking Dead episodes we’ve both been waiting to see. Beyond that, we can do anything from rock climbing, to bungee jumping, you name it and I’m in.

About me:

I figured that this may be the ONLY time in my life I have to do something so whimsical/spontaneous/irresponsible so here I am: the Breakfast Television Bachelor. I’m 37 years old (most mistake me for under 30) and recently became single. It took me a few days to get up the courage to post this ad, but now I’m super excited about the possibility. I was raised by 4 sisters (like being raised by wolves, only instead of claws and teeth, they had eyeliner and mascara), I LOVE to laugh, I work as a professional, I’m physically active (long distance runner, skier, mountain biker, mountaineer), outgoing, social, warm and friendly, excellent conversationalist, hard to be nervous around, and easy on the eyes.

About you:

This list is the “It’s not me, it’s you” list. In other words, if any of these apply to you, you should likely find a different ad to reply to (like this one): Lazy, mean, unkind, prude, think drugs are cool (pharmacists and anesthetists excluded), still infatuated with last years boyfriend (or at least be kind enough to not blab endlessly about him/her), intolerant. Well, lets get this party started…

Want to invite us to your event?

If you have an activity on Valentines day weekend that you would like my “girlfriend” and I to attend, please message me with the subject “Invitation”. I will respond directly to let you know if we are available. There has already been a few good offers so please get your request in right away. Preference will be given to odd/interesting invitations. I want to crash at LEAST one wedding, preferably with a live band. It would be even more awesome if I can propose a toast.

Shortened season or not, we’re thrilled to be dropping the proverbial puck on our fourth annual BT Edmonton Hockey Pool. While some past competitors may boycott this year’s edition out of spite following a lengthy NHL lockout, we have no doubt hundreds of you are as eager as we are to see our favourite players back on ice…and our hockey pool back up and running.

As always, it takes 30 seconds to get started and it’s free to enter. Click here to register and pick your players. If you’ve entered the BT hockey pool in past years, you’ll just need to enter your email address and password to access your saved profile. This year, you’ll pick ten forwards, two defencemen and one goalie. Skaters receive one point for a goal or an assist, goalies receive two points for a win and one point for an overtime loss. Select one player from each round. There are no trades through the season. Registration closes Saturday, January 19 at 4:30pm MST.

It’s an especially interesting year for Oilers fans entering the BT Hockey Pool. You’ll have to decide if your favourite players are worth choosing over other NHL stars. For example, do you go with Taylor Hall or former Hart Trophy winner Corey Perry in round three? RNH, Pavel Datsyuk or Zach Parise in round four? Jordan Eberle or Bobby Ryan in round five? Ales Hemsky or Jordan Staal in round six? Whatever your draft strategy, we hope you have fun making those tough decisions and seeing how you stack up against other hockey diehards in the BT family.

Huge thanks to Wayne Wagner at Wayne’s Sports Cards & Collectibles for supplying yet another fantastic prize pack for this year’s BT Hockey Pool winner. We’re also grateful to the team at www.PoolExpert.com for their support every step of the way.

This year, we’re offering an extra incentive to join the BT Hockey Pool. One competitor will win two Oilers jerseys and $150 to spend at Boston Pizza just for signing up. We’ll make that random draw on Monday, January 28.

We’ll check in on the BT Hockey Pool standings throughout this shortened NHL season. Be sure to watch BT to see how your team stacks up.

Let’s drop the puck!

rpj.

"Beefs & Bouquets" - Fridays on BT

We would be nothing without you. Our Breakfast Television viewers are some of the most passionate, articulate, opinionated people in the city and we’re all about providing a platform for those opinions to be shared. After all, our broadcast is a two-way dialogue. We give you the information you need to know each and every morning and you let us know how you feel about it via Facebook messages, tweets and emails.

On Fridays, our “Beefs and Bouquets” segment gives you an opportunity to get something off your chest. Whether it’s a rant or a rave, a positive or a negative thought, the floor is yours. This Friday, to get the ball rolling, I shared a beef of mine – a couple road-related stories where I felt humans had fallen short of their obligations to their fellow man. About five minutes after my comments, we received an email from a man named Ted.

When you work in TV, you’d better have thick skin. I’d be a rich man if I had five cents for every email referencing my weight, intelligence, relevance or appeal. I enjoy some of the more cleverly-worded ones and shrug off the others. Ted’s email would have been one of the latter…until I got to his final thought. In one sentence, Ted took my heart rate from resting to revved up.

I couldn’t help myself:

Let’s be better humans, everybody. Have a great weekend!

rpj.

If you believe the hype, Sean Lowe might be the most perfect Bachelor in the reality TV franchise’s history (if by “perfect” you mean pec decked, ab blasted and tanned). I’m sure he’s a nice guy…a gentleman, even…but simply being a nice guy won’t earn you your very own drinking game. See the video below for details on that.

We were thrilled to welcome our all-star Bachelor panel back to Tuesday’s Breakfast Television at 8:10am following the two hour season premiere of The Bachelor (Mondays, 9pm, OMNI). I had no doubt Trevor Schmidt would have plenty to say after his Bachelor Canada sabbatical (and he didn’t disappoint). Katy and Carla both seemed inspired by Trevor’s return. Can you blame them?

It’s way too early to know how Sean’s season will play out and who will receive his final rose (unless you read the spoilers) but that didn’t stop our panelists from sharing their thoughts on episode one. Check out today’s segment below. If you have a comment or a question, be in touch! Your email could be read on BT next Tuesday right after the 8am news.

Until then…
rpj.

Legendary news anchor Edward R. Murrow

Just days into 2013, it’s no surprise New Year’s resolutions are still fresh. All around us, gyms are packed and “stop smoking” strategies are evidenced almost everywhere.

One of our BT team members showed up to work with an interesting device on Friday morning. Back in the day, we wouldn’t have looked twice. Smoking was acceptable behaviour in the workplace (even more so in newsrooms, it seems). Some of the greats, like anchor Edward R. Murrow, even let cigarettes smoulder while they were on the air. Today, smoking is much less acceptable. Sure, the odd broadcaster gets caught mid-puff (prompting public apologies) but across the board, it’s safe to say “real life” TV is smoke-free.

Most of the time.

Bridget and I couldn’t resist having a little fun with our pal’s smoking cessation aid. No surprise we made the decision at 5:28am, a time where we’re typically more prone to pursue a somewhat silly start. Check out the video link below to see how we kicked off Friday’s Breakfast Television.

Thanks for watching!

rpj.

ps – Don’t smoke, kids.

Dreams coming true on the BT stage...

I’ve never considered myself a drummer. Sure, I can keep a decent beat. But I’m far from being able to keep a band on track (and a screaming crowd satisfied). As a (real) musician once clarified for me, “If you’re in a band, you’re a drummer. If you’re not in a band…you play drums.”

You can imagine, then, my excitement when Serena Ryder invited me to sit at the kit for a quick jam after she blew us all away with a live performance on Tuesday’s show. She’s got three Junos on her mantel and two Gold records under her belt. My friends and I loved her set at the Edmonton Folk Music Festival last summer. Her new album Harmony sounds absolutely fantastic. No pressure, right?

Anyway. Click on the video link below to check out my (admittedly amateur) drumming debut on the BT stage. Serena’s long gone from our Citytv studio as I write this blog yet my face still hurts from smiling.

You can follow Serena on Twitter and become a fan of hers on Facebook. Be sure to check out her new album here.

Yours in making rock and roll dreams come true,
rpj