Moses Znaimer
Moses Znaimer is an internationally renowned Canadian broadcaster and media pioneer, and founder of over 20 popular television stations and channels including the Toronto-based Citytv and MuchMusic. Currently, Moses is the Founder, CEO and controlling shareholder of ZoomerMedia Limited, a unique multi-media company serving the interests and needs of Canada’s 45plus demographic. In 2008, Marketing Magazine named Moses one of the Top 10 Canadian Media Moguls Of The Past 100 Years.
In the 1970s, 80s, and 90s, long before Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, or MySpace became worldwide phenomena, Moses anticipated the popularity of viewer-generated content. His groundbreaking concepts such as Speaker’s Corner (a video equivalent of Letters To the Editor), Videography (first-person, hand-held reporting), Televised Diversity, and the Streetfront/Studioless television operating system, he devised were at the core of the over 20 popular and independent Stations and Channels he co-founded and executive produced, including Citytv, CityPulse24, Bravo! - Canada's NewsStyleArtsChannel, SPACE: The Imagination Station, FashionTelevision, Star! – The Entertainment Information Station, Book Television, SexTelevision, ACCESS: The Education Station, and Canadian Learning Television: Television That Teaches; not to mention MuchMusic and MusiquePlus, which served to define a generation of Canadian youth in both official languages. Moses’ impact extends throughout the broadcast world with TV ventures and licenses in Argentina, Colombia, Finland, and Spain. To permanently commemorate his visionary contribution to Toronto’s urban landscape, the City of Toronto designated the famous downtown stretch in front of the former Citytv building at 299 Queen Street West – MOSES ZNAIMER WAY.
In February 2008, Moses announced A New Vision Of Aging for the 14.5 million Canadian Zoomers, (a word derived from “Boomers With Zip!” that he has popularized to define the population traditionally and formerly known as “50plus”). Moses extended the demo to 45plus to encompass the youngest of the Baby Boomers.
In the short time since, Moses has created a unique multi-platform organization, comprised of a national non-profit Advocacy Association, national and local television channels and stations, regional radio stations, a national magazine, and websites serving the interests and needs of the 45plus.
Moses is the President of CARP, Canada’s largest non-profit, non-partisan advocacy association for the 45plus, with ±350,000 members nationwide. Moses is also the Founder, President and CEO of ZoomerMedia Limited, a public company that trades on the Toronto Venture Exchange (TSXV) under the symbol ZUM. ZoomerMedia publishes ZOOMER Magazine, Canada’s premiere lifestyle magazine for men & women 45plus offering unique content aimed at Baby Boomers in the areas of health, finance, travel, sex, longevity, fashion, beauty, style, and life in general. ZoomerMedia also operates a suite of e-newsletters and websites including www.CARP.ca - the online voice of CARP the association; www.zoomers.ca – the social networking site for adults; www.zoomersingles.com - Mating, Dating & Relating for the 45plus; and www.50plus.com – Canada’s foremost purveyor of Zoomer-related content and supplier of such to Sympatico, Yahoo! Canada and TMXMoney.com. ZoomerMedia also produces the ZoomerShow, Canada’s first large scale consumer trade show and lifestyle expo for Zoomers and those who love and/or are responsible for them.
ZoomerMedia also operates The New Classical 96.3 FM & 103.1 FM, English Canada’s only commercial all-classical radio stations; The New AM740 – Zoomer Radio, the last music service left on the AM dial in the Greater Toronto Area; MZTV P&D, a boutique independent television production and distribution company for which Moses serves as President/Executive Producer; and Toronto's prestigious three-day ideaCity Conference featuring 50 presenters, each of whom has 17 minutes to speak on a wide range of subjects. Since 2000, Moses has presented ideaCity. In 2008, he introduced the first CARPConference, a mini-ideaCity featuring talks on aging, longevity and radical life extension.
June 2010 marked Moses’ official return to television as ZoomerMedia Limited acquired the broadcasting assets of the Vision TV Group, comprising VisionTV, a Canadian English language cable and satellite television analog specialty channel that airs multi-faith, multicultural and family oriented entertainment programming in over 9 million homes; the diginet One: the Body Mind & Spirit channel in over 1 million homes; plus two Canadian over-the-air (OTA) television stations JoyTV10 (Vancouver) and JoyTV11 (Winnipeg).
In 1992, Moses founded the MZTV Museum of Television & Archive housing the world’s largest private collection of pre-WWII and vintage television sets and associated popular culture in the world, some 10,000 objects in all. His rare and precious sets have appeared at Toronto’s Royal Ontario Museum, the Canadian Museum of Civilization in Ottawa/Hull, the Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies in Banff, and at the Cinémathèque québécoise in Montreal, Quebec to which he donated the collection in 2008. Selections of his sets are currently on permanent display in both Montreal and Toronto.
Moses was born during World War II in Kulab, Tajikistan to East European parents of Jewish descent fleeing Nazi persecution. In 1948, he arrived in Montreal, a post-WWII “DP” (Displaced Person). Following an Honours BA in Philosophy and Politics at McGill, he completed an MA in Government at Harvard University. Moses’ broadcasting career began at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) in the 1960s, where he co-created Canada (and the world’s) first live national, open-line radio show, Cross Country Check-Up (still on the air today); and then went on to network television with 20 Million Questions, Take 30 and The Way It is.
Moses holds honourary doctorates from York University, the University of Windsor, and Athabasca University. He is also the recipient of the Queen Elizabeth Golden Jubilee Medal (2002), the Order of Ontario (2005) and the Republic of France’s Chevalier de L’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (2005).
Moses’ multiple broadcasting honours include the Canadian Association of Broadcasters’ CAB Gold Ribbon (1998) – Canadian private broadcasting’s highest award to an individual; Canadian Music Hall of Fame Inductee (2004); the Governor General’s Performing Arts Award for lifetime achievement (2005); Canadian Film and Television Hall of Fame Inductee (2007); and the Walt Grealis Special Achievement Award at the 2008 Juno Awards for his “invaluable contribution to the advancement of the Canadian Music Industry”.
For his outstanding promotion of tolerance and multi-culturalism, Moses has received The Urban Alliance on Race Relations Diversity Award, the Canadian Council of Christians and Jews Human Relations Award; and the Jane Jacobs Lifetime Achievement Award for his “extraordinary contribution to the public realm over many years and in more than one field, thereby gaining reputation and acclaim for his vision, passion, and impact”.
Created July 6, 2010 by ZoomerMedia Limited. Not to be altered without permission. We update our biographies regularly. Please destroy all previous biographical material. For additional information, please contact: Leanne Wright, VP Communications 416.367.5353 X 200 or leanne@zoomer.ca
Station History
A short history of Classical 96.3FM, which started its life more than a quarter century ago.
