Once every hour, on both Much Music and its more mature sister Much More Music, the music videos are temporarily interrupted for a few minutes of entertainment news. George Stroumboulopoulos is the host of MM’s RapidFax, while Karen Bertelsen (above, late of Toronto station CFMT’s info-breaks) hosts MMM’s The Loop. Since the two shows are, essentially, the same, I’ll concentrate on the performances of their hosts.
Stroumboulopoulos, while vastly superior to previous host Juliette Powell, seems uncomfortable with his new duties. Usually he’s hosting The New Music, interviewing “important” rock stars like Anthony Kiedis, and that’s where he excels. His casual interviewing style is more conversational than most and his subjects seem to open up more readily to him than with others. Hosting RapidFax has him standing motionless, staring into a camera, reading from the paper in his hand. He talks too fast, taking the “Rapid” too literally, and ends most stories with a forced witty remark that never fails to make an almost audible thud when it hits the floor amidst absolute silence. Every now and then, Stroumboulopoulos will be off on assignment somewhere and a VJ will fill in for him. Of these, Bradford How is most at home with the gig - although it was amusing when Master T squeezed in the “S” word while reciting new Eminem lyrics (Rick Campanelli, reading the same story hours later, just said “blank.”) Stroumboulopoulos needs to be taken off of RapidFax to give him more time to do what he does well, and the show should either be given to someone more at ease with the format or else have a revolving roster of hosts.
Bertelsen, meanwhile, is perfect as host of The Loop. She’s completely at home, her sense of humour is casual, and she talks at a relaxed pace, like she’s merely relating something she heard somewhere else that she thought was interesting. Unlike Stroumboulopoulos , and every other host RapidFax has ever had, Bertelsen seems to have read the stories before going on air with them. She never points her head at the paper in front of her and reads, like some nervous 14 year old in front of her class. Karen Bertelsen makes The Loop enjoyable to watch, in fact, she should be the one to take over RapidFax. I mean, they both cover the same stories anyway.
RapidFax: C-; The Loop: B+
Posted on January 1st, 2001
