‘Phyllis is the best of the new breed of broadcasters that has been created largely because of the licensing of specialty channels,’ according to Arthur Weinthal.

Weinthal, a 36-year veteran of ctv, recalls first meeting Phyllis Yaffe when she was with Owl Magazine, ‘working on the fringe of production, mainly with children’s programming.’ He remembers her as being, ‘very bubbly, warm, bright, cordial and professional.’

Now she’s his boss.

Approached by Yaffe and Robert Lantos three years ago to help organize and structure History Television, and later Showcase, Weinthal became a senior programming consultant for Alliance. ‘With the [Alliance-Atlantis] merger, Atlantis people inherited me,’ he says. ‘I stayed on, always under the authority of Phyllis.

‘She has superb management skills, it has been a real pleasure for me to be associated with her. She manages her staff superbly. She’s always up, she’s always cheerful. She is in many ways what a president should be; aside from having skills to do your job, you have to be a cheerleader for your staff. Whoever is the boss you like them to be there for you, encouraging, seeing the good and finding ways to correct things.’

And beyond her people skills, Weinthal has great respect for her skills as a broadcaster.

‘It takes a very creative leader to define what that channel has to be, how it is to be defined, how it is to be defined internally, the type of people to run it. The marketing of it to the public, the marketing of it to the advertising community, and marketing it to the crtc so that you get the licence to begin with. And she has those skills. She’s very well connected and respected by the crtc, the cable people know her and like her.

‘She has enormous energy. She’s always traveling and in meetings, she’s constantly working.

‘And each of these channels is like her children growing up around her and each one of them, like children, is different and has its own characteristics and problems and is chasing a different audience. The people who watch History don’t necessarily watch Life. It is not mass marketed the way a national general-interest television service is; it is literally a boutique.

‘She can take a concept for a channel and fashion it in her mind, at least in broad strokes – how it should be staffed, how it is to be designed, how it is to be marketed, how it is to be sold, and the kind of profile you are putting out in the public.

‘Broadcasting is a very public business. Someone once said that lawyers send their mistakes to jail, doctors bury theirs, and broadcasters broadcast their mistakes. You can’t get it wrong very often.

‘I admire how she tackles what is a demanding job and she does it with great humor and great style, and I think most importantly, great devotion and loyalty by her senior staff.

‘And it isn’t just from her being a nice lady, it has grown significantly because she has presided over the growth of this thing in a very competitive, very aggressive, very demanding way and made it successful. I really enjoy being a part of that.

‘The hard evidence [the growth of her broadcast unit] supports the fact that she is not only nice, cheerful, pleasant and competent, but very productive.’