Toronto – June 7, 2004 — Ross Porter, known to jazz lovers from coast-to-coast as a respected jazz authority and national broadcaster, will assume the role of President and Chief Executive Officer at Toronto’s JAZZ.FM91, in early July. Bernard Webber, Chairman of the JAZZ.FM91 Board of Directors, announced today that the award-winning on-air personality and experienced broadcast executive will relocate from Winnipeg to Toronto to assume the leadership role at ‘Canada’s Premier Jazz Station’.

Board Chairman Webber, who has been directing operations at JAZZ.FM91 throughout the four-month mission to identify the “right person to lead ongoing development of our expanded vision for jazz music in Canada”, cited Porter’s “intimate knowledge of the jazz genre, his incomparable experience as an on-air host, superior skills in radio station management, his sensitivity to JAZZ.FM91’s charitable status, and the respect in which he is held by the jazz community as a whole” as just some of the attributes which led to his selection.

Best-known to jazz aficionados for his distinguished career as a broadcaster and producer with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s national radio network for many years, Ross Porter more recently developed, launched, and spearheaded programming for Canada’s national jazz channel COOL-TV, also managing day-to-day operations of CanWest’s 24-hour jazz station, COOL-FM. Winner of numerous honors throughout his illustrious career, Porter was accorded the 2000 CanWest Award for his ‘Outstanding Contribution to Jazz’. The prestigious National Jazz Awards named him ‘Broadcaster of the Year’ in both 2002 and 2004. He is currently Vice President of COOL-TV, COOL-FM and COOL Recordings.

JAZZ.FM91 is an alternative radio voice that covers 95% of Ontario through a combination of on-air coverage from the CN Tower, through most cable systems in the province, via satellite, and the Internet. Originally a non-commercial, listener-supported radio station known as CJRT-FM, the station was born 30 years ago out of the former Ryerson Polytechnic training radio station. When government support ceased in 1996, necessitating restructuring as
a self-sustaining public broadcaster, CJRT-FM expanded programming to include an educational component, classical music, and jazz. In January of 2001, the station known since that time as JAZZ.FM91 has focused both programming and outreach initiatives on jazz, supporting its extensive programming through membership, limited advertising, special events, and grants from corporations and foundations.

For information, please contact: Fay Olson Torchia Communications Phone: (416) 341-9929, Ext. 226 or (416) 595-0404, Ext. 267 E-mail: folson@torchiacom.com or folson@jazz.fm