Cathy Haika

Cathy Haika is delighted to be the writing instructor for the RTBN program. A proud graduate of the program (class of 2006), Cathy teaches commercial and script writing in the radio program.

After graduating, Cathy was hired directly from her SAIT practicum at Rawlco Radio in Saskatoon serving as a creative writer and voice talent. A few years later, she found her way home to Calgary, working at the station that sparked her interest in radio…CJAY 92.

For the next 15 years, Cathy became an award winning creative writer for Bell Media Alberta, writing for 6 radio stations province wide. She also enjoyed an extensive voice acting career, doing commercial work that aired across the country, bits with the CJAY morning show, and as the Imaging Voice for the launch of Funny 1060 AM.

Cathy’s passion is brainstorming and writing effective creative for clients and stations, that captivate the listener, develops local business and sparks imagination.

Marilyn Kirkby

A graduate of the SAIT Radio program in 1998, Marilyn has been working in the Commercial Radio industry ever since. She currently specializes as a voice-over talent and audio producer. Over the years she has also hosted many radio shows all over Western Canada, been involved in voicing and producing thousands of commercials and radio imaging and has had the pleasure of meeting a few rock stars along the way. When she’s not teaching at SAIT, or behind the producer’s chair at the radio station; she’s hitting up concerts, teaching gymnastics, or spending time with friends.

Beesley

Beesley is the on-air instructor at SAIT. Specializing in Speech, Presentation, Voice and On-Air. Recipient of multiple Instructor Excellence Awards – for his passion, dedication, and undying love for sharing his knowledge with the next generation of announcers.

Prior to joining the SAIT Faculty Beesley spent over 30 years in Radio and Television. He began his career in Kamloops BC, before moving his young family to Calgary where he spent a decade behind the microphone at CJAY 92. He also has worked with the Rogers family of stations including Rock 97, Lite 96, 66 CFR and Jack FM. He also spent 3 years as the morning show host of Rawlco Radio.

In addition, he has over a decade of experience in Television as a host and voice talent.
One of the first events he hosted was the Opening Ceremonies of the ’88 Winter Olympics at Olympic Plaza – since then he has become one of Calgary’s most recognized voices. Hosting everything from CTV’s Stampede Talent Showdown for 25 years, voice of Spruce Meadows, Calgary Stampeders sideline announcer and since 1996 the Arena-Voice of your Calgary Flames. He’s an active volunteer with more than a dozen charities and more than 50 emcee events a year.
Committed to family, community and education and his students.

 

 

Richard Stroobant

Richard always knew he wanted to be in Radio. He graduated from the SAIT Radio program as a teenager, and became a multi-award winning producer at CJAY 92 for almost two decades. He began teaching evening audio production classes at SAIT and then became a full time instructor in 2006.

Richard currently instructs a variety of courses, with a main focus on audio production as part of the Radio, Television, and Broadcast News program. He has been nominated by his students on nine occasions for an Instructor Excellence Award, and was selected as the SAITSA’s Instructor Excellence Award winner in 2016 & 2017. Richard was also given an Excellence Award from the National Institute for Staff and Organizational Development from the University of Texas in 2013. And in 2019, Richard won the inaugural Clarence Hollingworth Alumni Employee Award of Excellence from SAIT.

Richard is an active member of the SAIT community and served on SAIT’s Board of Governors from 2014-2018, as well as on the Board of Directors for The Canadian Media Educators Association and the Broadcast Educators Association of Canada for many years.  He also served as the Interim Academic Chair for the RTBN and FVP (Film Video Production) programs in 2022-2023. Richard is thrilled to be back in the classroom and have the privilege of training and helping guide the new generation of content creators.

Sally Haggis

Sally graduated from the broadcasting program at Mount Royal College.  Her first job was with Cable 10 (the community channel).  She worked a lot with volunteers, so it was a little bit of teaching and a lot of community events with a focus on sports, Stampede coverage, magazine shows, and phone-in shows.

In 1985, Sally began her career at CFCN Television as an editor in the newsroom.   A year or two later, CFCN began doing a morning news show and they groomed her as a director.  Canada AM was looking to do “local cut-in newsbreaks” and for 5 years Sally worked directing these newsbreaks and then the morning news.  She was also fortunate enough to work as a field producer on several projects including Pope John Paul II’s visit to Fort Simpson, NWT in 1987, the Olympic Torch Run in 1988, the medal ceremonies for the 1988 Calgary Olympics, and the Special Olympics in Reno, NV in 1989…to name a few.

Since 2008, Sally has worked with TSN as a Production Assistant on all the Stampeder home games.  She started at SAIT as a contract instructor in 2009, and was hired full time in 2011.  Sally enjoys working with the SAIT Athletics department live streaming hockey, basketball, and volleyball games with television students working as the crew.

Sally has also been the president association twice and was  appointed a panel member of the Subdivision and Development Appeal Board 2011-2016.

She also plays the trombone!

Paul E. Swanson

Paul Swanson is a visual thinker, who has a BA in Economics from Concordia University in Montreal, a BFA in Filmmaking from SUNY Purchase, New York and a Master’s in Digital Media from The Centre for Digital Media in Vancouver, Canada. Paul teaches writing and post-production editing at SAIT.

Paul has lived and worked in Manhattan, Los Angeles, the south of France and South East Asia, where his area of expertise has been in Visual Communication, Multimedia Design and Filmmaking, both as a professional and academic.

Leen Kranenburg

During the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary, Leen had the opportunity to work alongside crew members of ABC Television. This positive experience led to the decision to pursue a career in television. Leen has worked with all three of the major television networks in Canada: CBC affiliate CHAT in Medicine Hat, Global station CISA in Lethbridge and CTV Calgary’s CFCN. In September 1997, he was chosen to put the very first video on air in both Calgary and Edmonton for the upstart A-Channel, Alberta’s first digital TV stations.

In December of 2003, Leen took his experience of training dozens of people in the television industry to teaching television students full-time at SAIT. He really enjoys the opportunity to teach and then work with former students in a professional environment. Leen’s students have nominated him for an Instructor Excellence award five times.

Audio is another passion for Leen, he started working for the Calgary Sports and Entertainment Corporation in September of 2000. Leen is now the senior audio technician for the Calgary Flames. A career highlight was mixing audio for Game 6 of the 2004 Stanley Cup Finals. (It was in!)

SAIT encourages faculty members to expand their education, so Leen graduated with his Bachelor of Communications Studies from the University of Calgary in 2009.

Shane McQueen

Shane McQueen is the EFP/ENG Camera and Editing Instructor in the RTBN program, specializing in Television and Broadcast News field production.

Shane has been teaching in the RTBN program since the fall of 2000.  In his over 29 year career in the television industry, he has worked for Global, CTV, CITY-TV, and Newcap TV among others.

Laura Knop

Laura loves radio and is so happy to be teaching at SAIT!

Laura graduated from the Radio option of the CTSR program, (which later evolved into RTBN). She started working in radio news in the final year of her studies at SAIT, and continued working in Calgary radio for her entire career.  During that time, she held every job imaginable in a newsroom, from the “traffic girl”, to political reporter, entertainment reporter, news anchor, show host, producer, and News Director.  She has worked in all formats from rock radio, to country, jazz, adult contemporary, all-news and news-talk over her 30+ years in industry.

During Laura’s radio career, she also taught as a sessional instructor at SAIT.  She is an award winning instructor who is thrilled to be back in the program so she can share her knowledge and insights with up and coming broadcast journalists.

Lisa MacDonald

Lisa MacDonald is a graduate of the Broadcast News option of the SAIT CTSR program (the precursor to RTBN).  Lisa’s first job was at CFAC Radio here in Calgary as the “All Night News Girl”.  That’s what they called her back then.  Lisa spent about a year there before moving on to CHQR Radio as a reporter and desk announcer.

18 months later, she started at Global Television where she was a news producer for 24 years producing all the shows.  She spent the final 14 years there on Global News Morning Edition.

Lisa ended her 30+ year broadcast career at City TV Calgary as the Assignment Editor for five years before joining the RTBN program here at SAIT as the Television Broadcast News instructor.  She says it feels very full-circle to be back here at SAIT and feels 18 again when strolling down the ugly blue hallway downstairs.

Lisa has been awarded several Instructor Excellence Awards from SAITSA.  Not only is she a recipient of a Broadcast News diploma, but is also a facilitator of the Instruction Skills Workshop for new teachers and holds a certificate in Brightspace training.

Lisa is honoured to mentor the new generation of young broadcast journalists.

Mark Villani

Mark Villani is a broadcast news and television instructor for the RTBN program. He currently works as a news reporter and videojournalist/anchor with CTV News Calgary. Mark is a proud SAIT graduate with several years of experience in the broadcasting industry. He has a passion for visual storytelling, effective writing, and getting to the root of what impacts viewers in his community.

He began his career in 2013 working as a freelance writer for the Calgary Sun and a radio anchor with 660 News while continuing his studies to become a journalist. In 2016, Mark was hired for his first role in television at CKPG News in Prince George. He then took on a new opportunity one year later with CTV News Saskatoon before moving back to his hometown in 2018.

Mark holds a Bachelor of Communications Studies degree with honours from the University of Calgary. During his time at SAIT, he also received the Governor General Academic Bronze medal. Mark is excited for this new opportunity to mentor the next generation of broadcasters.

Joe Mcfarland

At his heart, Joe McFarland is and always has been a storyteller.  A product of Lethbridge College, he graduated with honours in 2005 and embarked on a 15-year radio career that included stops in Lloydminster and Medicine Hat as news anchor and morning show co-host before landing in Calgary for his first stint as a reporter at CHQR in 2007. He returned to Medicine Hat in 2008 to help launch CJCY 102.1 The Lounge as the station’s news director, then returned to Calgary for good in 2010. At CHQR, he served as a reporter for three years before becoming the station’s news director in 2013, then the afternoon drive host in 2018.

Since 2020, Joe has been a media relations and communications specialist at the University of Calgary, where he has been able to continue telling stories in a different way. He also has had his plethora of a side projects, including long-time game-day host for the Calgary Hitmen (and many other teams in and around Calgary) and the co-founder/writer/podcast host for Alberta Dugout Stories.

Most importantly to him, Joe is a husband, father, son and brother. He’s been married to his wife, Erin, since 2019, and they now have two children, Lochlan and Hannah.

Joe says it is an absolute honour and privilege to be one of the instructors for SAIT’s RTBN program, and looks forward to helping guide and mentor them as they begin their respective journeys.

Chris dela Torre

 

Chris dela Torre has worked as a broadcast journalist at CBC Radio for more than 15 years. He started as a TV news intern while in college before falling in love with radio – and, in particular, interviewing. He’s proud to say that he’s earned several Radio Television Digital News Awards for a variety of stories he’s told. He’s even hosted his dream show, (the national arts & entertainment show ‘q’) many times in Toronto, as well as several other national CBC programs. 

After living and working in southwestern Ontario for five years, he’s currently the host of The Homestretch on CBC Radio One in Calgary. He has the privilege of doing all kinds of stories — interviewing fellow journalists, artists, politicians, and ordinary folks in extraordinary circumstances. (The latter is his personal favourite).

Chris is very excited for the opportunity to teach RTBN students what he’s learned on the job over the years.