The CBC Radio Revolution
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Alternative Models: Public Broadcasting Outline 1. Review/Intro 2. CBC Overview a) Mandate b) Profile of Services 3. Creating Canadian Cultural space a) Declining Audiences b) Canadian Content c) Viewing to Canadian Programming 4. CBC Funding – Myth Busting a) Declines b) Relative to other countries c) By Service 5. CBC Radio: Public space for debate 6. VIDEO: “Dominion of the Air” 7. Regional Programming 8. Your articles 9. Summary 1 1. Review/Intro What have I learned? What’s a bit muddy? What would I ask? 2 Our Cultural Sovereignty – web site http://www.parl.gc.ca/InfoComDoc/37/2/HERI/Studies/Reports/herirp02/01a-cov2-e.htm 3 2. CBC Overview a) CBC Mandate (Broadcasting Act, 1991) (l) the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, as the national public broadcaster, should provide radio and television services incorporating a wide range of programming that informs, enlightens and entertains; (m) the programming provided by the Corporation should (v) be predominantly and distinctively Canadian, (vi) reflect Canada and its regions to national and regional audiences, while serving the special needs of those regions, (vii) actively contribute to the flow and exchange of cultural expression, (viii) be in English and in French, reflecting the different needs and circumstances of each official language community, including the particular needs and circumstances of English and French linguistic minorities, (ix) strive to be of equivalent quality in English and in French, (x) contribute to shared national consciousness and identity, (xi) be made available throughout Canada by the most appropriate and efficient means and as resources become available for the purpose, and 4 (xii) reflect the multicultural and multiracial nature of Canada. b) Profile of CBC Services The CBC reports annually to Parliament through the Minister of Canadian Heritage. It operates: - Four commercial-free radio networks - Two television networks It also offers: • Radio and television services to northern Canada; • Two 24-hour news and information television services: CBC Newsworld and the Reseau de l'information; • Three specialty television services: Country Canada, ARTV and The Canadian Documentary Channel; • English and French web services; • Galaxie, a digital pay audio service offering 30 music channels. 5 3. Creating Canadian Cultural Space a) Declining audiences 6 b) Canadian content 7 c) Viewing to Canadian programming 8 9 4. CBC Funding – Myth busting… a) Real declines 10 b) International comparisons UK Canada USA 11 c) By Service 12 THINK BREAK What have I learned? What’s a bit muddy? What would I ask? 13 5. CBC Radio: Public Space for Debate The CBC Radio Revolution In the late 1960s, Canada, like all the Western democracies, was in a state of social ferment. As the children of the post-war baby boom came of age, their agenda — social justice in all areas of life —forced its way onto the stage. In this atmosphere, CBC English Radio began the long process of self-transformation known as the Information Radio Revolution. While not clearly articulated at first, the objective of the new journalists at the CBC became clear through action: it was to provide Canadians with the information they needed to be involved in public debate, to transmit the voices of ordinary people and to challenge leaders to account for their actions. In pursuing this agenda, CBC English Radio made itself a cherished institution — as was plainly seen even 30 years later in the national outpouring of emotion at the deaths of the great on-air journalists of the Radio Revolution, Barbara Frum and Peter Gzowski. The changes started as early as May, 1965, with Cross Country Checkup, Canada's first national phone-in show, which allowed listeners to instantaneously hear the opinions of other Canadians from anywhere in the country. By 1968, the spontaneous immediacy of the telephone became the essence of the weekly As It Happens, which "phoned-out" to capture live interviews on breaking issues from around the world. But it was also a local revolution. The "Winnipeg Experiment" created the model for the local CBC morning show, a three hour block that abandoned music for interviews and discussion of the top local issues. And many programs embraced the new approach — get out of the studio using lightweight portable recorders, tape the comments of ordinary Canadians from all walks of life, and present them in the context of the national debate. 14 The CBC Radio Revolution (cont…) But in 1969, much of the radio schedule still consisted of the kind of 15 - minute programs that had been around before television arrived in 1952. To reach its potential, the Radio Revolution needed the focal point it found when the CBC Board commissioned a report from two of their young journalists, Peter Meggs and Doug Ward. In their report in May, 1970, Meggs-Ward synthesized ideas gathered from their nationwide consultation with radio staff into a set of far-reaching recommendations to make radio relevant. The result: continued change. As it Happens went nightly; the local Information Radio format was seeded across the country; This Country in the Morning, with Peter Gzowski, was created; and the CBC began the process of consolidating information into Radio One and creating an FM network as its performance counterpart. There was, of course, resistance. CBC management rejected a non-commercial policy for radio, but then implemented the measure in 1974. The CRTC rejected the proposal for two networks, but ultimately approved the application for an FM network years later. And management's discomfort with the confrontational approach of the young journalists it had hired also changed over the years — eventually, one of radio's key producers from these years, Mark Starowicz, went on to produce CBC Television's The Journal (with Barbara Frum) and the epochal series, A People's History of Canada. Fundamentally, however, the Radio Revolution could be seen from an early stage to be one of broadcasting's successes, recreating CBC Radio, in the television age, as a central meeting place for public debate and cultural exchange in Canada. 15 THINK BREAK What have I learned? What’s a bit muddy? What would I ask? 16 6. VIDEO: “Dominion of the Air” CBC-TV, 2002 17 THINK BREAK What have I learned? What’s a bit muddy? What would I ask? 18 7. Regional Programming (if time allows…) 19 THINK BREAK What have I learned? What’s a bit muddy? What would I ask? 20 8. Your Articles 21 9. Summary 1. CBC Overview a) Mandate b) Profile of Services 2. Creating Canadian Cultural space a) Declining Audiences b) Canadian Content c) Viewing to Canadian Programming 3. CBC Funding – Myth Busting a) Declines b) Relative to other countries c) By Service 4. CBC Radio: Public space for debate 5. VIDEO: “Dominion of the Air” 6. Regional Programming 22.