Tag Archives: Canadian Broadcasting Corporation

“CBC President Catherine Tait on trust, raising money and attracting a younger audience”

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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Bill (WD9EQD), who notes:

[Recently] the Radio Canada program Sunday Edition had an interview with CBC President Catherine Tait. Very interesting on the challenges facing CBC and radio/tv in general:

(Source: CBC Radio)

It is the job of the CBC to build social cohesion in Canada, according to CBC/Radio-Canada president and CEO Catherine Tait, but “we also have an obligation to run a business.”

The longtime Canadian television and film executive told Michael Enright, host of The Sunday Edition, that her experience will help with that goal.

“I don’t think it was a surprise that I was selected as an entrepreneur to run this corporation, to try and find ways to uncover revenue that we might not have considered as possible for the public broadcaster,” she said.

The CBC depends on the government for about 70 per cent of its budget. It has never had stable, long-term funding. Budgets ebb and flow because they’re decided by the government of the day.

When it comes to financial support for public broadcasting, Canada ranks third-lowest among Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries. The average per capita funding is $90 — in Canada, it’s $34.

About a year into her mandate, Tait revealed a new strategic plan to guide the CBC through a period of unparalleled media competition, over the next three years.[…]

Click here to listen to the full interview on Sunday Edition.

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CKZU unlikely to return to shortwave

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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Dave Zantow, who writes:

From DXLD today in case you missed it . Well at least CKZN St. Johns [also on 6160 @ 1kw] is still on (last I checked) , the one I can hear at my QTH.

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Bad news re: CKZU 6160 Khz

Volodya S

Fellas, from an insider at the CBC. Unfortunately, it doesn’t look good for CKZU ever returning to the air. 🙁 Thanks to Colin Newell for digging into this further.

Walt Salmaniw, Victoiria, BC

Got the answer.. not gonna like it.
Basically, it broke and they don’t have parts to fix it because it’s too old and no parts available. The money required to purchase a new transmitter doesn’t make sense because of the low numbers of people who use it (changing world, everything’s online, blah blah). Before you say it, yes I know, I know.

Anyway, there is no other way to voice your displeasure than the 1-866-306-4636 audience relations number. If enough people call, they might notice, but I doubt it.

Sorry to be the bad news messenger. I kinda figured that was the deal of why it was off the air.

This is sad news indeed for those who enjoyed CKZU. What amazes me, is how a 500 watt shortwave relay covered such a large broadcast footprint in British Columbia and western North America.

On that note, I just discovered this post by Colin Newell (referenced above) on his blog, the Coffee Crew Blog. Colin mentions when he started listening to CKZU and what it meant to him. Check out his post.

CKZU was a reasonably tough catch here on the east coast of the US–especially due to CKZN who shared the frequency–though I’ve heard them numerous times. Indeed, this will prompt me to go back a few years in my SDR spectrum archive recordings and tune them in once again–sort of a postmortem DX–? I’m sure I’ve captured them.

As Dave mentions above, CKZN St. Johns is still on the air and, perhaps, listeners on the west coast will have a better chance snagging their 1 kW signal now. According to an article about CKZN in the latest WRTH, the station should be around for many years to come.

Thanks again, Dave, for the tip and many thanks to Colin for the research.

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Medium Wave DX: CBC Radio 1 Gander, 1400 kHz, remarkably clear signal in Oxford UK

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CBC Radio 1, Gander, heard in Oxford UK

A really great signal from CBC Radio 1 Gander – the best I’ve ever heard on this or any other medium wave frequency, complete with a clear station ID and very much out of season so-to-speak. I can’t remember recording any Medium Wave transatlantic signal with an audio bandwidth filter of 7 kHz, which says everything about the relative strength of this signal; 2.5 to perhaps 4 kHz would be more typical. As the subscribers to my youtube channel Oxford Shortwave log will know, I dabble in Medium Wave DXing, however, it requires a lot of patience because conditions of good propagation can occur quite infrequently. This is where the band recording features incorporated into the Elad FDM-SW2 software (and similar software for other SDR receivers) come into their own, allowing you to record the entire medium wave band, for example, for later analysis. As for the Wellbrook ALA1530 active loop antenna, I can’t praise it highly enough, both in terms of combating QRM and overall performance as a function of compactness.

Recorded in Oxford UK using an Elad FDM DUO and Wellbrook ALA1530 active loop antenna (indoors) on 29/06/16 at 03:00 hrs UTC.

Clint Gouveia is the author of this post and a regular contributor to the SWLing Post. Clint actively publishes videos of his shortwave radio excursions on his YouTube channel: Oxford Shortwave Log. Clint is based in Oxfordshire, England.

 

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RCI on Saving Canada’s Public Broadcaster

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CBCbuilding

Many thanks to SWLing Post reader, David LW4DAF, who shares this link from RCI news:

 

After seven days of walking, a group of supporters of Canada’s public broadcaster, has reached its goal on Parliament Hill in the national capital, Ottawa.

The group calling itself “Tous Amis de Radio-Canada” is protesting the severe budgte cutbacks to the institution. They, and the English equivalent “Friends of the CBC” say the funding reductions from the federal government have resulted in severe staff reductions in the past couple of years, along with an inability to properly fulfill its role.

The group of marchers and supporters stood on Parliament Hill today after walking about 200 km to arrive in the capital on this National thanksgiving holiday to deliver a message to politicians now in the final stretch of a close federal election campaign.

The group says that Radio-Canada/CBC has always been a vital national cultural institution, and critical source of Canadian viewpoints on world affairs. It notes however, that role is increasingly more important in the light of a globalized digital world, where the voice of Canada as a producer, distributor, and aggregator of domestic and world news from a Canadian perspective, current affairs, and Canadian entertainment, is often swamped by the vastly bigger content from foreign sources.

Continue reading on Radio Canada International’s news page…

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Thousands protest cuts to CBC

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CBCbuilding

Many thanks to SWLing Post reader, David Iurescia, for sharing this story from Radio Canada International:

“Thousands of people marched in several cities in the province of Quebec and the New Brunswick city of Moncton on Sunday to protest ongoing cuts to the public broadcaster CBC/Radio-Canada.

Beginning in the 1990s, successive Canadian governments cut funding to the service. The latest round will lead to 1,500 job losses by 2020. That represents almost 20 per cent of the current, total number of employees.

Cultural groups in particular are concerned about the cuts to the English-language CBC and the French-language Radio-Canada. Preserving culture is particularly sensitive issue in the French-speaking province of Quebec.

Radio Canada International has also suffered from the budget cuts and had to dismantle its international shortwave service in 2012. RCI is now only accessible by internet.”

Also check out this article on the Montreal Gazette.

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