While Trina McQueen’s resignation as CTV’s president and COO and announcement that she will be retiring from the profession on which she’s so gracefully placed her mark sent shock waves through the Canadian industry in late November, the venerated ‘mother of modern broadcasting,’ as one collegue puts it, says she has no intention of falling off the radar screen.

After she completes the next six months as the network’s deputy chair, she confirms, ‘You’re not going to find me at home in a stained robe, drinking gin and watching daytime TV.’

While TV has been McQueen’s life for the past 35 years, she says she’s still mystified by its magic. ‘If there’s something I can do that’s exciting in television, I will,’ she says.

Meantime, she will use the next six months as a ‘decompression period’ to ponder a plethora of opportunities. ‘One of the things I wanted to do was leave while I still have enthusiasm,’ she says. ‘My working life is not over.’

At a recent CFTPA holiday reception in Toronto, McQueen was in attendance looking every bit her calm and amenable self as she unassumingly commanded the attention of the producer-filled room, which was noticeably abuzz with speculation about why the most powerful woman in Canadian broadcasting is giving up the reigns. Comments included: ‘She’s a real class act.’ ‘She’s like a celebrity – look at everyone staring at her.’ ‘I can’t believe she’s leaving. Everything’s changing so fast.’

The particulars of why McQueen, 58, is stepping down at this time remain a mystery and the news of her departure has left many industry insiders saddened and confused.

McQueen herself admits to having a lot of mixed emotions right now, not the least of which is relief when she looks to all the problems she no longer has to solve.

The biggest challenge she says she’s had since joining the CTV team as executive VP in August 1999 is ‘trying to be profitable in a conventional TV business, and even in specialty. In the past two years, audiences have fragmented, costs have risen and people have been forced to be innovative.’

She sees her role in designing the BCE benefits package, especially the $170 million dedicated to Canadian programming, as one of her crowning achievements of the past two years. ‘And having a hand in rolling it out has been the most satisfying part of my job.’

She has also been instrumental in CTV’s 50% growth over the past two years, including the acquisition of NetStar, RobTV, CKY and CFCF, as well as the launch of six new diginets. ‘Putting these things together was among my most interesting experiences.’

McQueen says the best advice she could give to her successor is ‘Ratings. Very little else matters and very little else can be done unless people are watching.’

McQueen’s television career started at CFTO, where she was the station’s first woman reporter and the first female host of CTV’s W-Five. She later moved to the CBC, where she held various positions in journalism, entertainment programming, business operations and advertising sales, eventually becoming VP of news, current affairs and Newsworld.

In 1995, she launched Discovery Channel in Canada, which according to Nielsen data is perceived as Canada’s highest quality channel. She remained president there until making the move back to CTV.

She is also a member of the Canadian News Hall of Fame. For her contributions to broadcasting, she has received honorary degrees from Mount St. Vincent University in Halifax, Carleton University in Ottawa and the University of Waterloo.

Other accolades include: the Crystal Award from Canadian Women in Film and Television, the Woman of the Year award from Canadian Women in Communications, and the A.D. Dunton Award from Carleton.

On the association front, she is chair of the Banff Television Foundation, and her board memberships include the Canadian Association of Broadcasters, Historica, the University of Waterloo and the Queen’s School of Policy Studies.

As of Jan. 4, McQueen will assume the role of deputy chair of CTV, which she is committed to for six months. During that time she will be working on a yet-to-be-announced project that she says may or may not entice her to stay beyond her commitment.

Meantime, when McQueen becomes deputy chair her existing job will be split in two: NetStar and CTV.

NetStar, which includes TSN, RDS, OLN and Discovery, Dome Productions plus the digital channels, will be run by president Rick Brace, who will report directly to Ivan Fecan.

Fecan will act as CTV president until a replacement is named.