Krista Harris passed away this weekend in her family’s hometown of Barrington, Nova Scotia.
Krista was a cherished colleague and a fervent supporter of CBC and of public broadcasting, one who had worked her way up through the ranks of the Corporation over the last twelve years, first in the Maritimes and then at the network.
Since joining the Corporation in 1994, she has served in a number of senior roles, including Regional Director of Operations for CBC Radio in the Maritimes, Regional Director of Radio for the Maritimes, Deputy Head of Radio New Media and Interim Managing Director of CBC.ca.
In 2002, Krista became Associate Director of Programming for CBC Radio, and later that year was appointed Executive Director Of Production and Resources. In March of this year, Krista became Executive Director, Digital Programming & Business Development for CBC’s English Networks.
Krista’s family is in the process of making funeral arrangements, and CBC is planning a memorial to celebrate her life and her many achievements.
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I am deeply, deeply saddened to hear this. I worked with Krista on a number of projects, most recently being the CBC Radio podcasting initiative. She really “got it” right from the first steps. In fact, it was Krista who started it all going at CBC and called me. I remember that first call. She said “Hey, want to start putting some of those ideas you talked about during the lockout into action?”
And as soon as she said it, I thought “My God. Someone gets it. There’s hope in there.”
I since came to learn that Krista surrounded herself with others who similarly get it and I know will carry on her legacy. She was a tireless worker who had a huge heart. She believed in taking risks. In fact, I rather think she believed the public broadcaster wasn’t doing its job if it wasn’t taking risks. I loved that about her.
And she was also refreshing honest. She wasn’t afraid of giving me shit when she felt I deserved it (which, gratefully, wasn’t often). But she would tell me, then say we would keep working together and work past it, which we did to a wonderful relationship.
Krista was a radiant bright light in CBC’s crown. Luckily, she infected a great many people with her enthusiasm and commitment to Canada, so her spirit will continue to live among us all.
God speed, friend.
If you have any memories of Krista you would like to share, feel free to post them here, and I will make sure this gets to her family.
I yawn every time I see a story like this. While I expect this kind of coverage in America (they are American celebrities, after all), I’m usually stunned and morbidly disappointed to see Canadian media gleefully jumping on board as well. (The sample to the right is taken from CBC’s own Arts page — agh!)
I posed this question to Dave Editor, the guy that writes that arts page on CBC.ca (note to CBC Communications: This is fictional — just a sample of how it would be handled) and he told me that the last time they did a survey of CBC.ca readers (5,900 respondents) that celebrity news was the third most-requested topic.
I don’t know. Maybe I’m over-reacting.
What do you think? Should we be covering American celebrities and their life stories at pace with American media? Are you interested in their stories? Let me know.
Maybe I’m just grumpy. Hell, it is 6:20 a.m. here in Vancouver and I haven’t had my coffee yet.
Yes, here’s your big opportunity to fix everything you hate about reality television. CBC Television is looking to find an executive in charge of “factual entertainment” — code-word for talk shows, game shows, and reality TV.
The CBC’s Olympics website Torino 2006 at CBC.ca was among the winners Monday at the Canadian New Media Awards gala in Toronto.
So, are you using the new 
