The Montréal-headquartered multimedia company that owns the Breezeline MVPD operating in the U.S. has said goodbye to its radio division President, tapping a former Bell Media executive to succeed her.
As first reported in French by Montréal daily Le Devoir, Caroline Paquet has been dismissed as President of Cogeco Media.
Her successor is Martin Spalding.
Company employees learned of the change in an internal memo sent by Cogeco’s executive leadership team on Wednesday afternoon. It partially confirmed information previously published by the newspaper.
In the memo, Cogeco President/CEO Frédéric Perron confirmed Paquet’s exit after “a mutual agreement” had been reached.
Paquet had been in the role since July 5, 2021 and was previously with Vidéotron as its VP of Marketing and Content. She maintained oversight of the group’s 21 radio stations, including Francophone spoken word giant CHMP-FM 98.5, French-fueled heritage Top 40 station CKOI-FM 96.9, and French Adult Contemporary CFGL-FM “Rythme 105.7” in Montreal.
Cogeco Media’s other radio stations are in Québec City, and five other regions of the province of Québec.
Like Corus Entertainment and Bell Media, Cogeco has had its financial difficulties as a radio operation under Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission authority. In autumn 2023, she appeared at a CRTC hearing in which she shared details of Cogeco’s revenue struggles as part of an ultimately unsuccessful appeal for reduced regulations for radio in Canada.
With Paquet now out, Spalding — her one-time rival at Bell Media — is in, starting Monday. Spalding headed up that company’s radio stations from 2013-2021 as RVP/General Manager for Local Radio & Television. Before that, he was VP/Operations and Local Sales at the former Astral Media’s radio group.
