Posted on January 21, 2013
By Mike Ross
Features, Front Slider, news, TV and Radio, tv and radio

You can launch like a mighty rocket roaring into the sky, and everybody says “Wow!” Or you can do it like a balloon full of hot gas, until someone notices, “Hey, how’d that get up there?” In Radioland, this is the difference between a “hard” launch and a “soft” launch. The perfect example of the [...]
Posted on January 18, 2013
By Mike Ross
Entertainment, news, TV and Radio, tv and radio

Millions, perhaps billions of people hang on Oprah Winfrey’s every word. OK, hundreds of millions. Celebrities line-up at her television confessional. She’s presides over a global media empire. She can make us laugh, cry, get mad or say “Aha!” Her generosity has touched millions. She attends to the poor. One word from Oprah can bestow [...]
Posted on January 7, 2013
By Mike Ross
Entertainment, entertainment, Front Slider, life, Music, TV and Radio

Musicians and other performers are deeply conflicted over the end of the NHL lockout – judging from the gust of passionate comments on social media after Sunday’s good news. Amongst the expected grumbles of “who cares?!” and cheers of “yay! drop the puck!” was a nagging worry that the return of Edmonton Oilers games will [...]
Posted on December 31, 2012
By Mike Ross
Comedy, Entertainment, entertainment, Film, The Latest, Theatre, TV and Radio

We should’ve known what would happen if we put Mark Meer on the list. Of course he was voted GigCity’s Edmontonian of the Year – in a landslide, with 68% of the vote. He’s such a tireless self-promoter and wields such a formidable clout in social media that winning our little contest/social experiment was a [...]
Posted on December 28, 2012
By Mike Ross
Culture, Entertainment, entertainment, Front Slider, Life, Lit, Music, TV and Radio, Visual Arts

The most popular stories GigCity published in 2012 started in January with a viral video of “strange sounds in the sky” that prompted a local debunker to create a hoax video to prove the original was a hoax, but the plan backfired when her video went viral, too, as did the article we wrote about [...]
Posted on December 26, 2012
By Mike Ross
Comedy, Entertainment, entertainment, Film, Lit, TV and Radio

If Time magazine can choose a “Person of the Year” from eight billion prospects, we can certainly do it from among the mere one million citizens of Edmonton. It’s kind of like Vue magazine’s “best of Edmonton,” but there can only be one. We just don’t have the budget. The only criteria was “made waves [...]
Posted on December 23, 2012
By Mike Ross
Entertainment, Film, Lit, TV and Radio

We’re making a list – but we’ll be checking it three times, at least. The hunt is on for Edmonton’s “Person of the Year,” for no other good reason than “why the hell not?” And you – yes, you, reader – can play a part. In the first phase of what will undoubtedly be a [...]
Posted on December 17, 2012
By Mike Ross
Entertainment, Theatre, TV and Radio

Why has this not been in Edmonton before? We love shopping! Part of a successful series of touring TV game shows, the “Price is Right” is coming to town – at the Jubilee Auditorium on Sunday, March 10 – and we get to play. Tickets go on sale Friday. This is a for-real game show, [...]
Posted on December 12, 2012
By Mike Ross
Front Slider, Lit, TV and Radio

You thought McCartney was huge? Oprah Winfrey is coming to Edmonton – and right soon! The talk show queen will appear for an “inspirational evening event” on Monday, January 21 at Rexall Place. She’ll share her stories, and she’s got a few, with an overriding theme to “illustrate ways attendees can take control of their [...]
Posted on December 1, 2012
By Mike Ross
Comedy, Features, The Latest, TV and Radio

Tiny Plastic Men isn’t just another little TV comedy – it’s an important signpost to a modern world where grown-ups have refused to grow up. The Edmonton-produced sitcom-sketch comedy series – premiering Monday at 8 p.m. on Superchannel – stars the local writer-creators Mark Meer, Chris Craddock and Matt Alden as a trio of numbskulls [...]
Posted on November 27, 2012
By Mike Ross
Culture, Music, The Latest, TV and Radio

Tucked away at the end of the radio dial, waaaay up at 107.9 FM, is Fort Saskatchewan’s very first radio station – which launched Tuesday morning as Mix 107.9 FM with a format that could only be described as “Somewhat Contemporary Hits Radio.” Once CFKT’s big-ass 20,000 watt transmitter is fired up, we’ll be able [...]
Posted on November 20, 2012
By Derek Owen
Front Slider, Theatre, TV and Radio, Visual Arts

If we had a time machine, a young Ron Jeremy would’ve experienced an existential crisis at this year’s Taboo: Naughty But Nice Show, which wrapped its three day run in Edmonton on Sunday. The world’s most famous porn star likely would have been wandering around the Edmonton Expo Centre in a daze, wondering where the [...]