Moses Znaimer

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.

CBC Znaimer's career in broadcasting began when he joined the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) in the mid-1960s in Montreal and Ottawa. He became well known for his work as host of CBC Radio's Cross Country Checkup, as well as co-host of CBC Television's Take 30 with Adrienne Clarkson. After being denied the opportunity to pursue his creative vision at the CBC, Znaimer quit and went into private broadcasting.

With Citytv, he gradually began to pioneer a distinctive style of broadcasting, inspired in part by Marshall McLuhan, which emphasized a strongly local, hip and casual format aimed at young audiences.

In 1981, Toronto-based media conglomerate CHUM Limited purchased Citytv, and Znaimer became vice-president of CHUM and executive producer for all of City's programming. By 1984 Znaimer's vision of a 24-hour music video station was realized with the creation of MuchMusic. MusiquePlus, a joint venture based in Montreal and catering to the French-speaking audiences of Canada, was launched in 1986.

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 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.

A 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.