Moses Znaimer (; born 1942) is a

Canadian Canadians () are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''C ...

media executive. He is the co-founder and former head of

Citytv Citytv (sometimes shortened to City, which was the network's official branding from 2012 to 2018) is a Television in Canada, Canadian television network owned by the Rogers Sports & Media subsidiary of Rogers Communications. The network consis ...

, the first independent television station in

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

Ontario Ontario is the southernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Located in Central Canada, Ontario is the Population of Canada by province and territory, country's most populous province. As of the 2021 Canadian census, it ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

, and the current head of ZoomerMedia.

Early life and education

Znaimer was born to

Jew Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, religion, and community are highly inte ...

ish parents (Aron Znaimer and Chaya Znaimer née Epelsweig) from Latvia and Poland, who had fled the

Nazi Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During H ...

invasion of the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

and relocated to Kulob in the Soviet republic of

Tajikistan Tajikistan, officially the Republic of Tajikistan, is a landlocked country in Central Asia. Dushanbe is the capital city, capital and most populous city. Tajikistan borders Afghanistan to the Afghanistan–Tajikistan border, south, Uzbekistan to ...

. Following the war, his family lived in a displaced persons camp in Germany, arriving in Halifax before ultimately ending up in

Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

in 1948 where they settled in a third-floor flat on Montréal’s storied Saint Urbain Street. In his youth, Znaimer attended United Talmud Torah and then Herzliah High School in the United Talmud Torahs of Montreal private school system, where he developed a reputation for the quality of his voice while performing Friday services. He has remarked that the young women flocking to hear him sing the prayers gave him a taste of what it is like to have groupies. He graduated from

McGill University McGill University (French: Université McGill) is an English-language public research university in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Founded in 1821 by royal charter,Frost, Stanley Brice. ''McGill University, Vol. I. For the Advancement of Learning, ...

in Montreal with a B.A. in philosophy and politics (and served as president of the McGill Debating Union), and from

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

with an M.A. in government in the mid-1960s.

CBC

Znaimer's career in broadcasting began when he joined the

Canadian Broadcasting Corporation The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (), branded as CBC/Radio-Canada, is the Canadian Public broadcasting, public broadcaster for both radio and television. It is a Crown corporation that serves as the national public broadcaster, with its E ...

(CBC) in the mid-1960s in Montreal and Ottawa. He became well known for his work as host of CBC Radio's '' Cross Country Checkup'', as well as co-host of CBC Television's '' Take 30'' with Adrienne Clarkson. After being denied the opportunity to pursue his creative vision at the CBC, Znaimer quit and went into private broadcasting.

Citytv

With all of the VHF television licences in Toronto taken, Znaimer and a partnership applied for and was awarded the city's first UHF commercial broadcasting licence, on channel 79.

launched in 1972, and changed frequency to channel 57 in 1983. With Citytv, he gradually began to pioneer a distinctive style of broadcasting, inspired in part by

Marshall McLuhan Herbert Marshall McLuhan (, ; July 21, 1911 – December 31, 1980) was a Canadian philosopher whose work is among the cornerstones of the study of media studies, media theory. Raised in Winnipeg, McLuhan studied at the University of Manitoba a ...

, which emphasized a strongly local, hip and casual format aimed at young audiences. In 1981, Toronto-based media conglomerate

CHUM Limited CHUM Limited was a Canadian media company based in Toronto, Ontario in operation from 1945 to 2007. The company was founded in 1945 as York Broadcasters Limited when it launched CHUM (AM), CHUM-AM 1050 but was acquired by salesman Allan Waters in ...

purchased Citytv, and Znaimer became vice-president of CHUM and executive producer for all of City's programming. By 1984 Znaimer's vision of a 24-hour music video station was realized with the creation of MuchMusic. Much like City, MuchMusic emphasized the liveness and spontaneity of television, relying largely on hand-held cameras, and impromptu shots of VJs taken just about anywhere in the CHUM-City offices. MusiquePlus, a joint venture based in Montreal and catering to the French-speaking audiences of Canada, was launched in 1986. In 1987 CHUM-City purchased a former publishing building in Toronto's downtown west end and renovated it into the CHUM-City Building, a landmark media centre. Throughout the 1990s, Znaimer presided over a considerable expansion of the CHUM-City television empire. Bravo! was launched as a new style arts channel in 1995, and

Space Space is a three-dimensional continuum containing positions and directions. In classical physics, physical space is often conceived in three linear dimensions. Modern physicists usually consider it, with time, to be part of a boundless ...

in 1997. He continued his original vision for television with the launching of Canada's first 24-hour local news station, CablePulse 24 in 1998. Further cable channels included Canadian Learning Television, Star!, Drive-In Classics,

FashionTelevisionChannel Fashion Television, also known as Fashion Television Channel, was a Television in Canada, Canadian English language specialty channel owned by Bell Media. It was originally established in 2001 by CHUM Limited as a brand extension of the Citytv s ...

BookTelevision BookTelevision was a Canadian English language specialty channel owned by Bell Media. The channel was originally established in 2001 by Learning and Skills Television of Alberta Ltd., then partially owned by CHUM Limited, airing programming rel ...

, CourtTV Canada, SexTV: The Channel, MuchLOUD and MuchVibe. Znaimer also oversaw the launch of Citytv Vancouver. Znaimer left Citytv and CHUM Limited in April 2003, but stayed on in certain production roles. He co-founded and for a time served as chairman of Cannasat Therapeutics, a publicly traded company pioneering a new class of drugs from marijuana; he continues as a shareholder and advisor to the company. Ultimately, CHUM Limited was acquired in 2007 by

CTVglobemedia Bell Media Inc. ( French: ) is a Canadian media conglomerate that is the mass media subsidiary of BCE Inc. (also known as Bell Canada Enterprises, the owner of telecommunications company Bell Canada). Its operations include national television ...

and the Citytv stations (including CITY and CKVU) are now owned by

Rogers Media Rogers Media Inc., operating as Rogers Sports & Media, is a Canadian subsidiary of Rogers Communications that owns the company's mass media and sports properties. Operations Current television brands owned by Rogers include two television sys ...

ZoomerMedia

In 2006, Moses Znaimer filed an application with the CRTC to acquire CFMX-FM, a commercial

classical music Classical music generally refers to the art music of the Western world, considered to be #Relationship to other music traditions, distinct from Western folk music or popular music traditions. It is sometimes distinguished as Western classical mu ...

radio station licensed to Cobourg with a rebroadcaster in Toronto. In 2008 he gained CRTC approval to relaunch the Toronto rebroadcaster as a full-fledged station, using the call sign CFMZ-FM to reflect his initials. In September 2007, he announced a deal to acquire CHWO, a

pop standards Traditional pop (also known as vocal pop or pre-rock and roll pop) is Western pop music that generally pre-dates the advent of rock and roll in the mid-1950s. The most popular and enduring songs from this era of music are known as pop standards ...

AM station in Toronto. The station had operated from the former transmitter of CBC Radio outlet CBL, allowing it to blanket most of the eastern half of North America at night and much of the Great Lakes region and northern United States during the day. Znaimer officially took control of the station in 2008 and rechristened it CFZM. In addition to pop standards, it also offers news and some public-service talk programming, primarily aimed at the Toronto and southern Ontario market region, as well as a weeknight hour devoted to rebroadcasting classic radio dramatic and dramatic shows, usually programs first produced for the U.S. networks between the late 1930s and the late 1950s. He also announced a subsequent deal to acquire web developer Fifty-Plus Net International, with the intention of launching a

social networking A social network is a social structure consisting of a set of social actors (such as individuals or organizations), networks of Dyad (sociology), dyadic ties, and other Social relation, social interactions between actors. The social network per ...

website similar to

MySpace Myspace (formerly stylized as MySpace, currently myspace; and sometimes my␣, with an elongated Whitespace character#Substitute images, open box symbol) is a social networking service based in the United States. Launched on August 1, 2003, it w ...

Facebook Facebook is a social media and social networking service owned by the American technology conglomerate Meta Platforms, Meta. Created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with four other Harvard College students and roommates, Eduardo Saverin, Andre ...

but aimed at older adults. In 2008, Znaimer officially incorporated ZoomerMedia to operate his new media holdings. In June 2009, the company announced a deal to acquire the media assets of S-VOX, which operated several channels of religiously-oriented television programming, for $25 million.

Personal life

In 2005, Znaimer received a

Governor General's Performing Arts Award The Governor General's Performing Arts Awards are an annual Canadian award, presented to honour distinguished achievements in Canadian performing arts and culture. Administered by the Governor General’s Performing Arts Awards Foundation in associ ...

for Lifetime Artistic Achievement, Canada's highest honour in the performing arts, for his lifetime contributions to broadcasting. In 2006, he was made a member of the

Order of Ontario The Order of Ontario is a civilian honour for merit in the Canadian province of Ontario. Instituted in 1986 by Lieutenant Governor of Ontario, Lieutenant Governor Lincoln Alexander, on the Advice (constitutional), advice of the Executive Council ...

. Moses has been in a relationship with Marilyn Lightstone since they met at McGill University in the early 1960s. They never had children. An avid collector of vintage television sets, including the set

David Sarnoff David Sarnoff (February 27, 1891 – December 12, 1971) was a Russian and American businessman who played an important role in the American history of radio and television. He led the Radio Corporation of America (RCA) for most of his career in ...

presented at the 1939 World's Fair, Znaimer's MZTV Museum of Television is located at The ZoomerPlex (ZoomerMedia building), in the Liberty Village area of Toronto.

Early life and education

CBC

Citytv

ZoomerMedia

Personal life

Notes

References

External links