Montreal Gazette

NEW HOST FOR CBC DAYBREAK

Sean Henry `will start the morning with a smile'

- BRENDAN KELLY bkelly@postmedia.com Twitter.com/ brendansho­wbiz

Sean Henry didn't hesitate a second when asked what his approach will be to his new job as host of CBC Radio One's Montreal morning show Daybreak.

“I will start the morning with a smile, that's clear, and that's where I always like to begin things,” said Henry, in a phone interview Friday. “You start with a smile. Then I'll open the floor a little bit. I'll have a bit of a round table with the people I'm working with. And if people are already starting to comment or text or reach out, that's when they come into the conversati­on. What I want to do is bring in as many people as possible as quickly as possible, at the beginning of the show.”

Henry, a seasoned CBC TV and radio reporter and host, is set to replace Mike Finnerty as host of Daybreak in January. Finnerty's last day as host was Friday. After 13 years, during which he twice left the job to live in London, he is heading back to England again to work in a cheese shop.

Henry was most recently anchoring the 11 p.m. local CBC TV newscast, replacing Nancy Wood, who moved over to take a leadership role at CBC Montreal's digital desk. Prior to that, he was anchoring the newscasts on the weekend. He'd had that gig since 2014.

He came to the CBC Montreal newsroom in 2012 after seven years at CBC in Windsor, where he had anchored both TV and radio shows, worked as a court reporter and as a video journalist. Before heading to Windsor, Henry — who grew up in Lasalle — reported from Quebec City for Global Quebec.

Henry says Daybreak is all about connecting to people on the most local level possible.

“I think it's local, I think it's really neighbourh­ood,” said Henry.

“(Friday) morning they were talking (on Daybreak) about what's changed over the last 10 years and one of the things I think has changed over the last 10 years in Montreal is that neighbourh­ood pride has increased. I live in Hochelaga-maisonneuv­e and it's had its bumps in the road but at the same time, there's been a lot of effort in the last few years to make sure we have everything we need in our neighbourh­ood, so we don't have to go downtown. The focus has shifted from downtown to the neighbourh­oods. For example, in Hochelaga-maisonneuv­e you can go to a concert in an alley in the summer or the street is closed for a circus party. Like the jazz festival in Verdun. I think we have to seek out these different situations in the different neighbourh­oods and talk to the people who're making it happen. And also see what people in the different neighbourh­oods are talking about.”

This is also a big step forward for visible minority representa­tion in the media here and comes just a couple of weeks after Maya Johnson was named anchor of the 5 p.m. and 11:30 p.m. newscasts on CTV Montreal, becoming the station's first full-time Black TV anchor.

“We know that we're carrying that weight, of having these firsts and milestones, but we do it in the hope that there will be others after us,” said Henry.

When it was announced Friday morning that Henry was the new Daybreak host, many tried to look him up on Twitter only to find that he's not on the platform.

“I haven't decided yet about Twitter,” said Henry. “I had a Twitter account and this summer I closed the account. It was just not a fun space … I am on Instagram. I have a work Instagram and I have a work Facebook page. So Twitter, I'll think about it. If we can bring the temperatur­e down and people stop screaming at each other, I might.”

 ??  ??
 ?? PIERRE OBENDRAUF ?? Sean Henry, the new host of CBC Radio Montreal's morning show Daybreak, says the popular program is all about connecting to people on the most local level possible.
PIERRE OBENDRAUF Sean Henry, the new host of CBC Radio Montreal's morning show Daybreak, says the popular program is all about connecting to people on the most local level possible.

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from Canada