Moses Znaimer (; born 1942) is a Canadian media executive. He is the co-founder and former head of Citytv, the first independent television station in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, and the current head of ZoomerMedia.

Early life and education

Znaimer was born to Jewish parents (Aron Znaimer and Chaya Znaimer née Epelsweig) from Latvia and Poland, who had fled the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union and relocated to Kulob in the Soviet republic of Tajikistan. Following the war, his family lived in a displaced persons camp in Germany, arriving in Halifax before ultimately ending up in Montreal 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.

Ultimately, CHUM Limited was acquired in 2007 by CTVglobemedia and the Citytv stations (including CITY and CKVU) are now owned by Rogers Media.

ZoomerMedia

In 2006, Moses Znaimer filed an application with the CRTC to acquire CFMX-FM, a commercial classical music 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 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 website similar to MySpace or Facebook 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 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.

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 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.

Notes

References

  • Official Web Site
  • CARP
  • Zoomer Magazine
  • 50 Plus
  • AM 740 Zoomer Radio
  • Classical 96.3 FM Toronto
  • MZTV Museum of Television