The Radio Marketing Bureau announced its 2010 board of directors Friday, with Astral Media’s Lesley Conway-Kelley maintaining her role as chair and Rawlco Radio’s Sandee Reed as first vice-chair.
The board members are the same as 2009, save for a couple of positions on the board that were vacated and not filled, Gary Belgrave, president, Radio Marketing Bureau, told MiC.
Members of the 2010 RMB board include Derek Berghuis (second vice-chair) of Rogers Media Radio, Glenn Chalmers of Astral Media Radio, Lesley Conway-Kelley (chair) of Astral Media Radio Sales, Chris Gordon of CHUM Radio/CTVglobemedia, Patrick Grierson (past chair) of Canadian Broadcast Sales, Elmer Hildebrand (treasurer) of Golden West Broadcasting, Breydon MacDonald of CHUM Radio Sales/CTVglobemedia, Jacques Parisien of Astral Media Radio, Sandee Reed (first vice chair) of Rawlco Radio, Gerry Siemens of Jim Pattison Broadcast Group, Stephen Sienko of Target Broadcast Sales and Paul Ski of Rogers Media Radio.
‘The board is largely a carry-over from last year, as it is a strong group that has directed the bureau through the financial turmoil of the past year,’ Belgrave said. ‘The board is focused on growth now that we are gradually coming out of the economic downturn. Since radio was not affected as negatively as some other media, the board is hopeful that 2010 will see advertisers return to radio because of its effective and efficient reach in all markets across Canada.’
The announcement came on the same day a media survey by Synovate, the market research division of Aegis Group, indicated that a sizable number of Canadians still consider radio to be an important medium. Of the 1,000 Canadians surveyed, 16% said they ‘can’t live without’ radio, while 37% said they would ‘miss it a great deal.’
