The CTV Family

Please note:  This was my April Fool’s day joke for the year, it’s not true, Char, Kaylin, Maks and I are very happy with the life we’ve made in London, and I really enjoy the work I do at Info-Tech.

I’ve been keeping this one under my hat for a long time, but now the big announcement can finally be made.  The two plus year experiment that has been the London move is over, we’re packing the family back up and heading back to the Big Smoke.

I’m pretty proud to announce that I’ve taken the role of Director of Internet Properties for CTV Inc. and in this new position I’ll be responsible for the future of CTV, Discovery, Much Music, Bravo, and my alma matter, TSN.ca.

I’m currently assembling my team, and it’s looking more and more like an opportunity to get the band back together.  I’m already deep in talks with my favourite graphic designer to resign his current position and come on board with me, and as soon as I can get an email to my buddy who’s travelling abroad, he’ll be on board too.  I’ve been talking to a very close friend in London about this for a while too, and I hope that I can get him to come along on this trip.

This is going to be hard work, the CTV properties are a mess.  It’s going to mean a lot of tough decisions, there are a bunch of “the old guard” who need to go.  It’s going to take a long time, and I’m going back to swimming upstream in a broadcast world that fears and misunderstands the internet.

So why am I doing it?

Simple, for the last two and a half years since leaving, I find myself saying “when I was at TSN” more and more rather than less.  When I started thinking about it I realized that what I was really saying was “I really wish I was still at TSN, and I made a huge mistake ever leaving.”  This is an opportunity to correct that mistake and close the book on a lot of stuff that I never completed.

This is a huge move for my family, Charlene and the kids will be totally uprooted, and it means moving back away from my family again.  This isn’t a conversation that I’m looking forward to having with my parents.

It really sucks from a social networking perspective too.  I’ve made some great friends here in London, and having to leave those friendships behind will be very hard.

However I look forward to the amazing opportunity, and a chance to reconnect with old friends in Toronto.  There will be a lot of stress over the next couple of months as I wrap things up in London, prepare to sell our house, and move back Toronto-ward.  We may look in Toronto proper this time, perhaps in the Scarborough or Agincourt areas so I can keep my nice short commute which has become incredibly valuable to me.  The condo market in Toronto is a real steal, and Char and I should be able to find a really nice condo for less than what we’ll get for our home in London.

Being back in Toronto will also mean we can sell a car, no more mini-van in my drive way!

Of course this is all an April Fool’s joke.  I’m not going anywhere, I’m absolutely ridiculously happy with my job and the life that we’ve carved out for ourselves in London, and I wouldn’t give that up for any title, or any amount of money.

HA HA!  April Fool’s!