Samantha Taylor (; born 1958) is a Canadian radio and television personality from

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 ...

. She is perhaps best known as the host of the popular

CBC Television CBC Television (also known as CBC TV, or simply CBC) is a Television in Canada, Canadian English-language terrestrial television, broadcast television network owned by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the national public broadcasting, p ...

music video A music video is a video that integrates a song or an album with imagery that is produced for promotion (marketing), promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a music marketing device intended to ...

program '' Video Hits'' from 1984 to 1989.

Bio

Early life

Born to Ukrainian parents in Toronto, Taylor's family moved to Pennsylvania when she was three years old. She began her broadcasting career while a student at

Pennsylvania State University The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State or PSU) is a Public university, public Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related Land-grant university, land-grant research university with campuses and facilities throughout Pennsyl ...

, using her birth name Myra Luciw as host of the Ukrainian students' radio program on the university radio station while also using the pseudonym Michele Michaels at a commercial station she was an intern. After graduation, Taylor worked briefly in Washington, D.C., before returning to Toronto in 1980, where she was hired as station librarian and part-time disc jockey for Q-107. At Q-107 she rose to become the station's music director.http://www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/portrait-portal/Pages/ARProfile.aspx?ArchivalRecordKey=4293196 Library and Archives Canada MIKAN Number 4385063. During that same period she also began hosting

CFMT CFMT-DT (channel 47) is a television station in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is one of two flagship stations of the Canadian multilingual network Omni Television. CFMT-DT is owned and operated by Rogers Sports & Media alongside sister Omni outl ...

's ''Metro Music'' show, giving her the music video experience that would lead to the eventual job with CBC's ''Video Hits'' in 1984. On ''Metro Music'' she typically introduced the videos and then answered phone calls live on air from fans in the Toronto area.https://www.thestar.com/entertainment/music/2015/11/21/retropolis-torontos-pioneering-music-video-shows.html Retropolis: Toronto’s pioneering music video shows, November 21, 2015. While later working for the CBC, Taylor also judged some episodes of the network's 1985 battle of the bands competition series ''

Rock Wars ''Rock Wars'' is a Canadian television variety series, which aired in 1985 on CBC Television."CBC opens fire with Rock Wars". ''The Globe and Mail'', February 1, 1985. A national "battle of the bands" competition, the series featured unsigned musi ...

''.Keith Sharp, ''Music Express: The Rise, Fall & Resurrection of Canada's Music Magazine''.

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, 2014. . p. 143.

''Video Hits'' success

In an era in which many viewers across Canada, particularly in non-urban areas, did not have access to cable television programming such as

MTV MTV (an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable television television channel, channel and the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group sub-division of the Paramount Media Networks division of Paramount Global. Launched on ...

and

MuchMusic Much is a Canadian English language discretionary specialty channel owned by BCE Inc. through its Bell Media subsidiary that airs programming aimed at teenagers and young adults. It is headquartered at 299 Queen Street West in what was o ...

, ''Video Hits'' quickly became the best bet for many viewers to see the latest hit

s.http://www.cbc.ca/allinaday/2014/10/20/celebrating-the-30th-anniversary-of-video-hits/ Celebrating the 30th anniversary of Video Hits. CBC.ca, October 20, 2014. As the show's popularity grew, Taylor came to be regarded as "Canada's coolest young lady".http://www.thesuitedelight.com/2012/04/video-hits.html CBC's Video Hits With Samantha Taylor, January 7, 2015. At its peak, the show attracted one million viewers weekly and drew higher ratings than any other music video program in Canada.

References

* Smith, Diane "Taylor Made for TV" Toronto Star, April 12, 1986

External links

*
1985 clip of Samantha Taylor on ''Video Hits''

Bociurkiw, Mykhailo "Samantha Taylor: An Interview with Canada's No. 1 V. J." (pp. 9, 14) Interview with Taylor about her life and career, her ethnic roots, and about the music industry at a time when music videos were a new art form. {{DEFAULTSORT:Taylor, Samantha 1958 births Living people Mass media people from Toronto Donald P. Bellisario College of Communications alumni Canadian video jockeys Canadian people of Ukrainian descent