The Gazette from Montreal, Quebec, Canada • 35

C5 ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT Global goes live in the mornin CKMI is gambling Montrealers will tune in to a local TV show of news, sports and features THE GAZETTE. MONTREAL, SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 1998 took CKMI-46 a year to do it, but Montreal's Global station is finally bringing something new and different to television viewers. This Morning Live will make its debut on Tuesday. English Montreal's first locally produced TV morning show will provide 2 daily hours of news, weather, sports, traffic and features. Producer Jim McKoy, who firmly believes that TV viewers absorb information quickly and bore easily is making a solemn promise to Montrealers who tune in This Morning Live: "There won't be any 10-minute features on flower arrangement" McKoy worked at CFCF-12 for 19 years before Global lured him over with an opportunity to produce the kind of show he thinks is long overdue.

The producer pushed the idea of a local morning show at Channel 12, but the station remains committed to Canada AM, the if 'V4 IS? -L did Mark McGwire homer last night" Through its first half-hour, This Morning Live will feature quick hits of news, weather and traffic. As the show progresses and loses viewers leaving home for work This Morning will incorporate more of the soft features that Aubin characterizes as "the 300-pound mushroom grown in Iowa." "The atmosphere of the show will be busy, but cool," Aubin said. "We'll give viewers faces that they'll be happy to see-fully awake, fully informed, but not aggressive." While working at Tele-Metropole, his last stop before joining Global, Aubin was in on the planning of Salut, a pioneering (and tremendously popular) locally focused morning show that Aubin describes as "based on a good hunch and a terrific understanding of where TV is going." Aubin is hoping that This Morning Live will duplicate the success of Salut, Bonjour! He says that market research in the U.S. pinpoints local morning shows as a hot TV trend. The Global network, which carries children's programs in its morning slot everywhere else in Canada, will be watching This Morning Live and weighing the feasibility of launching the format in other cities.

Aubin and CKMI president Glenn O'Farrell, who pushed hard for the new show at head office, are on the spot to prove that a new concept can fly in English-speaking Montreal, a market not noted for readily embracing new ideas. "When Salut, Bonjour! began, the French market was dominated by AM radio," Aubin recalls. "Everyone told us 'You're crazy no one watches local TV in the "It reminds me of the old joke about two shoe salesmen in Africa," Aubin added. "One phones head office and says, 'We're wasting our time here; nobody wears The other says "This is great a completely untapped market' "It's always interesting to be first with something." This Morning Live airs weekday mornings at 6:30, beginning Tuesday on CKMI-46. venerable CTV program that, McKoy suggests, lacks "pertinence to the Montreal market." This Morning Live will be different "We'll offer a snapshot of the world, but the fo MIKE BOONE TV RADIO Jamie Orchard, Richard Provencher (centre) and Andy Peplowski will team up for This Morning Live.

cus will be on what's happening right here in our back yard," McKoy said. "We're going to do a show for Montreal by Montrealers." Jamie Orchard will be host of This Morning Live. Orchard's short-lived entertainment series -born in January, dead by July was canceled by Global as part of the resource reallocation that preceded launch of This Morning Live. Andy Peplowski, whose late-night newscast also was whizzed in June, resurfaces as the morning news anchor. Richard Provencher will do sports on the debut This Morning Live, but he'll be leaving CKMI imminently tojoinCTVSportsNet press review and daily rants will be simulcast on radio and TV The new show will employ a platoon of freelance contributors.

There'll be weekly commentary and critiques from Peter Blaikie, Mix 96 DJ Ken Connors and Gazette writers John Griffin, Elizabeth Bromstein and Bill Brownstein. To further muddy the distinction between TV and radio, This Morning Live is hoping to hire retired CJAD icon George Balcan. Producer McKoy envisions vignettes called Balcan's cuisine has progressed from the good old days when the lunch special was a pickled egg and two drafts. Times have changed at the Monk -and everywhere else. Morning television, which began with Dave Gar-roway and a chimpanzee, the legendary J.

Fred Muggs, on NBC's Today show, is adapting to the news-and-in-formation demands of sophisticated viewers. "The TV news audience at 6 p.m.is more or less passive," says CKMI news director Benoit Aubin. "They are sitting there saying, 'Fill me in on what happened today' The morning audience has different energy and different expectations. We'll give them something that's fast-paced and tightly scripted. "No one, apart from me, will watch This Morning from beginning to end," Aubin added.

"People will tune in while they're doing something else, and they'll watch us for 20 to 30 minutes on average. We're going to make sure that they get the information they need: how to dress the kids for school, do they need to take an umbrella to the office, Montreal -weekly walkabouts highlighting interesting people and places around town. Over a recent lunch, Balcan offered Orchard some This Morning's other regulars are Tanya Churchmuch, who will report from the field using CKMTs new microwave truck; Leta Poulson, who will "We'll give viewers (aces that they'll be happy to see fully awake, fully informed, but not aggressive." advice on how to cope with a work day that begins at 4 a.m. This Morning Live's host admits she's not a morning person. "But I'm learning," Orchard said.

"George told me that it's important to have a good meal at noon. He explained that eating heavily in the evening is not a good idea when you have to go to bed at 9 o'clock." Orchard has scouted out a good spot for reasonably priced midday dining. She likes the Monkland Tavern, where have access to Transport Quebec's 36 cameras, giving viewers a Lecknerian overhead view of traffic, and weatherbabe Erin Selby, who'll do her reports from the great (and, between October and April, not-so-great) outdoors. News, traffic, weather-hmm, This Morning Live shapes up as a TV version of morning radio. And the plot thickens: The new show will have a camera set up at CIQC.

Morningman Jim Duff's MORDECAI RICHLER is completely reasonable in his own outrageous way. Now you can read this best-selling author's views every Sunday, in The Gazette's MAGAZINE. TV TONIGHT Comic genius Harold Lloyd profiled in two-part show Mj grid Bergman classic. Saturday Night Live (WPTZ-5 at The Best of Dan Aykroyd. POV(WCFE-57at She Shorts.

Lcs Violons ell ERoj Gazette television columnist Mike Boone picks the best of tonight's pro-'grams: Harold Lloyd: The Third Genius (Bravo at Two-parter begins. History lands (History TV at Grosselle. Norma (Bravo at Joan Suther-; land sings title role. Witness (CBMT-6 at 8): Toronto street kids. ConcertPlus (MusiquePlus at 8): Van Halen in Australia.

The Paper (WPTZ-5 at 9): Life at a New York daily. Austin City Limits (VPTV-33 at 9): Asleep at the Wheel. Intimate Interactive (MuchMusic at 9): Smashing Pumpkins. Intermezzo (Channel 33 at 11): In- BERNARD LAB AD IE Artistic and Musical Director present Alhm Chamber or 'mum. The Suites for Orchestra Conductor Bernard Labadie soloist Andre Papillon, flute Montreal Saturday, September 19, 1998 at 8 p.m.

Pollack Hall McGill University Tickets and subscriptions (514) 398-4547 presented in collaboration with 18th Season 1908-1909 faci September 1 0 Ticket required in advance UeasMis October 29 November 19 January 21 February 4 March 4 April 29 Admission free Thursdays at 8 p.m. Redpath Hall, McGill University McTavish Street Entrance Info: 484-0333 DONOHUE PECCY CURRAN loves living in Montreal even when it makes her crazy. Look for her column on Page A 3, four days a week. A iMf Ft I tins iii ipiiiiiiiiniji( The finest theater tradition (n the world North American ItlneraryBOSTONNEW Y0RKM0NTREALT0R0NT0 m. i ff.