Tag Archives: RCI Sackville Closure

Blueprints, maps, and test equipment: RCI Sackville items for sale

I snapped this photo inside the RCI Sackville transmitter site in 2012, a few months prior to its closure.

Earlier this year, we posted a note by Marc Goldstein who is in the process of dismantling the Radio Canada International Sackville, New Brunswick, transmitter building.

Marc is tasked with selling some of the equipment that used to make this site hum. The First Nations group who now own the site are using the revenue from sales to help fund site cleanup and renovation. Mark recently passed along the following note:

We are trying to determine the value of the large quantity of 1940 era engineering blue prints of the station. I hoping your readers will be able to establish their worth.

While rummaging through an old file cabinet in maintenance building (RCI Sackville, New Brunswick), we located about a 100 or so more engineering blue prints (1938-1945), about a dozen black and white photos (RCI reporters interviewing what appears to be world celebrities), and annual engineering reports (1938-1980). Would any of these items be of interest to your readers?

Post readers: If you are interested in any of these items, Marc can be contacted via the following email address: [email protected]. He is open to offers and happy to ship these items internationally.

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CBC News picks up story about sale of RCI’s WWII era transmitter

Want a gorgeous 1940 RCA 50 kW shortwave transmitter from the RCI Sackville station?

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Many thanks to Amanda Dawn Christie who contacted me this morning regarding a message she received from Marc Goldstein, who is seeking a home for a beautiful piece of international broadcasting history. Marc writes:

We have been dismantling equipment at Radio Canada in Sackville, New Brunswick since July of last year. Most of the contents have been removed.

The original 1940 RCA 50 KW transmitter is still intact. First Nation’s–the current owner of the site–is looking for a home for this piece of history. […] I am hoping you may know someone, or an organization who may help preserve the radio. First Nations has requested $5,000 Canadian for the radio, and will remove and ready it for shipping at their expense.

Thanks for passing this information along, Amanda!

I actually snapped photos of this very transmitter when I visited the Sackville site in 2012–a few months before the site shut down. It’s an elegant piece:

I have no idea if this RCA transmitter is serviceable, but I did contact WBCQ with details just in case (if you recall, they’re in need of a 50 kW transmitter).

If you’re interested in purchasing this transmitter, contact me and I’ll put you in touch with Marc Goldstein.

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RCI Sackville land sold to Mi’kmaq group

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View of the western cluster of curtain antennas from the roof of RCI Sackville’s transmissions building. I took this photo in 2012 while the site was still in operation. (Photo: The SWLing Post) –Click to enlarge

(Source: CBC News)

A Mi’kmaq group has bought the land outside Sackville where 13 Radio Canada International towers stood for decades, CBC-Radio Canada confirmed Friday.

Five years after the Tantramar Marsh site was put up for sale, the New Brunswick non-profit Mi’gmawe’l Tplu’taqnn bought it for an undisclosed price.

“This transaction closes the book on an interesting chapter for CBC/Radio-Canada and Canadian broadcasting in the world of international shortwave broadcasting,” CBC’s Martin Marcotte wrote in an email.

A long broadcast history

The shortwave service ran for 67 years, and the site’s towers facilitated the service around the world until budget cuts in 2012.

The 90-hectare property was initially listed with the towers, to avoid the high cost of dismantling the facility, but in 2014, CBC began dismantling the towers in hopes the blank slate would entice more buyers.

“It’s tough to take something down that served such a purpose for the country, you know, during the Second World War,” Larry Wartman, CBC’s senior manager of transmission operations for Western and Atlantic Canada, told CBC News in 2014. “There’s just not that many of them around the world anymore.”

Building the future

The New Brunswick Mi’kmaq group Mi’gmawe’l Tplu’taqnn purchased the land Thursday but has yet to announce any plans or comment on the purchase, other than to confirm it. The non-profit group’s members are the nine Mi’kmaq communities in the province.[…]

Click here to read the article on CBC News.

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Amanda Dawn Christie shares footage of RCI towers falling

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Documentary filmmaker, Amanda Dawn Christie, has been gathering footage to create Spectres of Shortwave: a 90 minute documentary film focusing on the Radio Canada International Sackville transmitting site. Little did Christie know when she started shooting the film several years ago that the site would not only be be shut down but dismantled.

Christie recently shared back-up footage of the towers falling. She describes her videos on Vimeo:

“In the spirit of the founding principles of the CBC and public access to information, i am sharing the back up videos i shot this week of the RCI shortwave towers falling. I retain the copyright to these images, but i do want to share them with anyone who would like to watch them sooner rather than later (given that my film will still be a few month in post production before release). i would also like to thank the CBC for giving me permission to film, and all of the workers on site for being so cooperative and supportive.”

Click here to continue reading and to watch Christie’s footage on Vimeo.

It’s with a heavy heart that I watch these majestic towers fall. After all, I’ve been pretty vocal about how foolish I think Canada is for destroying Sackville. Still, I’m glad someone is documenting it properly. Click here to follow Spectres of Shortwave on Facebook, set to be released later this year (2014). I’ll certainly post updates about the film here.

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Sackville Tribune-Post reports on dismantling of RCI site

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Many thanks to Ken Reitz for sharing this:

(Source: Sackville Tribune-Post)

A piece of local history is slowly disappearing as crews dismantle the former Radio Canada International transmission towers on the marsh near Sackville, N.B.

The towers, erected prior to the Second World War, were declared obsolete in October 2012 after the CBC ended its shortwave service because of changing technology and the use of the Internet and satellite radio.

When no use was found for the facility the decision was made to have the towers dismantled.

“It’s really sad to see it coming down, there are so many great memories working there,” said former manager David Horyl, who spent more than 35 years working at the facility on the marsh. “It’s really going to change the look of thing over there. It’s quite a landmark.”

[Continue reading…]

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Senator Segal’s motion receives unanimous vote: special committee enquiry into RCI cuts

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An excellent development in Canada: Senator Hugh Segal’s motion for a special committee enquiry into the CBC decision to slash the Radio Canada International budget by 80 per cent has received a unanimous vote in the Senate. Committee hearings will begin as early as February.

Below is the full press release I received from Senator Segal:

(Source: Office of Senator Segal)

Senator Hugh Segal has issued this statement on the unanimous vote in the Senate to have a special committee enquiry into the CBC decision to slash the RCI budget by 80 per cent.

“I am delighted that, in a non partisan way, the Senate voted to have the RCI matter go to a full review of the Standing Senate Committee on Transport and Communications. My motion was amended by Senator Champagne to go to a full committee hearing rather than a one day appearance before bar of the Senate.

That a ten percent cut to the CBC budget produced an 80 percent slash and burn of Radio Canada International reflects an internal CBC management decision which needs to be better understood. CBC management may well believe that if they let people go and dismantle transmitters, the problem will go away.

The importance of Canada’s voice to the rest of the world is not a detail of no consequence. The chance to call witnesses, pursue how other enlightened countries have expanded their short wave capacity, among other facts, will be a constructive step ahead in strengthening Canada’s international voice.”

Committee hearings on this matter may start as early as February2013.

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