Craig Norris from CBC Radio 3 notes on the Radio 3 blog that much hoopla has been made of CBC Television’s decision to simulcast the American version of The One, an American Idol knock-off, throughout the summer.
     ”Yes, everyone’s pissed off. We’re all missing a much more serious topic, though; Who will host the damned thing?”
     Good point. Will Ralph Benmergui be back? I think Adrienne Clarkson’s probably looking for a gig. Maybe we can coax Ben Mulroney over to our side with promises of, uh, free stickers. Oh, and a free coffee mug! I can’t imagine that would happen. Then again, stranger things have happened.
     Anyway, on Craig’s Radio 3 show tomorrow at midnight (it airs on CBC Radio Two — don’t ask), he’ll explore some options for the CBC.

So, who do you think should host The Canadian One? Add your comment to CBC Radio 3′s blog.

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	CBC Television	Posted at 3:21 pm (30 Jun 2006)

One of the CBC’s best-kept secrets (until now) is that our technology group puts out an outstanding semi-annual broadcast-technologies journal. Warning: It is highly, highly geeky.
     It covers everything from computer security, remote production at the winter Olympics, new compression paradigms (only true geeks refer to compression technologies as “paradigms”), new delivery platforms and transmission.
     Here are the articles (each one is a PDF):

• IT Security – Basic Insurance to Protect our Business

• JPEG 2000 The New Contender in Content Production and Transport
• Inclusion of Foreign Bureaus in the CBC/Radio-Canada Wide-Area Network
• Cost Saving and Production Enhancements for the 2006 Winter Olympics
• Computer Security: A Broadcaster’s Challenge
• First Canadian Encounter with the New Radio Transmission Technology
• Aspect Ratio Terminology: Bilingual Glossary
• What is DMB?

Source: It popped up on the CBC/Radio-Canada Corporate News RSS Feed.

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	The Outside	Posted at 1:44 pm (30 Jun 2006)

Canadian Press reports [see Macleans coverage] that Canadians are fairly divided in their preference for CTV or CBC national news. The Decima poll says 40% favour and 38% prefer CBC.
     But the poll found that among those who said they watch The National, 57% would be less likely to watch it if the program were moved permanently to 11 p.m. Only 14% said they would be more likely.
     CTV has been successful in building its national news audience partly with popular lead-in programs, Decima said.

Truth is, I switch between the two. It has nothing to do with the quality of reporting; it has everything to do with the time-slot. (I’ve got a PVR so I don’t ever need to be “led in” to news.) If I happen to be ready for news at 10, I watch Peter. If I’m around at 11, I’ll watch Lloyd.
     If the CBC were to move Peter to 11, then I’d have to make a real decision. Which, as a Canadian, makes me somewhat uncomfortable.

My source: Found it in one of my usual Google News searches.

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	CBC Television, The National	Posted at 10:48 am (30 Jun 2006)

CBC Television vice-president Richard Stursberg gave an interview to Report On Business Television recently about the CBC’s business model. It’s actually quite an interesting discussion. Nice to see a longer-form Q&A about the issues at hand. Usually these things get reduced to a quote or two in a newspaper.

My source: CBC Communications told me the interview happened and I tracked down the audio and made it an MP3 file.

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	Executives, Our Mandate, Programming	Posted at 10:25 am (30 Jun 2006)

Wha?! An official CBC blog? Yes indeed.

I recommend you read the About This Blog section, or just feel free to peruse some of the stories here (I’ve been putting content into here for the last few weeks, just to test the system out.) Anyway, welcome, and I look forward to your participation.

So, let’s start. What do you think — is this a good idea for the CBC to be doing? What kinds of things do you think should be blogged about?

Reaction so far:

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	About This Blog	Posted at 9:12 am (30 Jun 2006)

The CRTC has just released its annual Broadcasting Monitoring Report in which it presents recent results for the Canadian broadcasting industry. Highlights:

Radio

Television

New media

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	The CRTC	Posted at 9:07 am (30 Jun 2006)

The CBC’s Jane Angel has been promoted to manage the business and rights matters for the documentary and new factual-entertainment unit of CBC Television. A great opportunity for what sounds like an extremely qualified individual. Unfortunately for her, her business card is likely to be completely illegible, thanks to the enormous title she’ll be saddled with:

Director, Business, Rights and Content Management for News, Current Affairs and Newsworld (‘NCAN’), the Documentary Unit and Factual Entertainment Programming (‘NDF’).

Yowza. (How NDF became the acronyn for words that start with D-U-F-E-P is a mystery I’ll never know.)
     In English, this means she’ll manage NDF’s business (including in-house productions and acquisitions). She will make sure that the rights and funding sources obtained by NDF are appropriate and “effectively exploited.”
     Jane used to work at CBC as a manager in A&E Production Financing. Before accepting this new position, Jane was a senior member of A&E’s business team.
     Before coming to work with the CBC, Jane was Director of Legal and Business Affairs at Paragon Entertainment and, before that, legal counsel at Greenlight Film & Television.
     Anyway, Jane, congratulations.

Note: I’ve emailed Jane and asked if she’s willing to play “Five Questions for the Fresh Meat” — a new column for this blog I think you’ll like — let’s hope she’s up to the challenge!

My source: All-staff internal email. See the comments about this.

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	Executives	Posted at 7:05 am (30 Jun 2006)

Some people have too much time on their hands. And then, there’s this guy. Press the Play icon in the bottom left.

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	CBC Radio 1, Fanatical Fans, Freestyle	Posted at 1:14 pm (29 Jun 2006)

Macleans has an interview with culture minister Bev Oda in which she’s profiled as a moderate and even the calming force that kept Prime Minister Harper from making the CBC a big issue in the last federal election campaign.

Oda’s reluctance to get embroiled in the summer scheduling furor is in line with her cautious approach so far when it comes to the CBC.
    Many had expected her to announce a sweeping rethink of CBC’s mandate at the recent Banff World Television Festival. But she put off that review, instead ordering a six-month Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission study into how new technology is changing broadcasting.
    Inside the CBC, the delay was greeted with sighs of relief, and Oda, despite her private-sector broadcasting background, began to be viewed by some CBC insiders as a benign figure — even a buffer against those Tories who are instinctively hostile toward Canada’s biggest state-owned cultural institution.
    But in an interview with Maclean’s, Oda left little doubt that she suspects the CBC’s English TV service may have lost touch with what Canadians want it to be. Although she declined to comment specifically on Mansbridge’s news taking a back seat to reality TV schlock, Oda did express skepticism about the CBC trying to follow the lead of profit-seeking networks. “If the CBC is going to provide service that’s very similar to the commercial broadcasters, if they are providing programs that are very similar, people are going to ask the question, ‘Why the use of public funds to deliver those services and programs?’ ” she said. “It’s a natural and very valid question to ask.”

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	Our Mandate	Posted at 12:37 pm (29 Jun 2006)

On Peter Rukavina’s great blog today, he posts a myraid of ways you can rent parts of the CBC: 

Want to televise your own event? Why not rent a CBC mobile production truck! Are your needs more “pretend Charlottetown is Toronto?” Rent a Markham Street backdrop (or one of their other city backdrops). You can even rent the Barbara Frum Atrium for only $2,900/day.

My personal favourite: The “I’ve-just-dropped-acid” backdrop.

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	Behind the Scenes, Fanatical Fans	Posted at 11:00 am (29 Jun 2006)

Here’s a follow-up from my previous posting about the controversy around the Tommy Douglas mini-series (from CBC.ca):

The writer behind the controversial television miniseries about former Saskatchewan premier Tommy Douglas is speaking out in response to CBC-TV’s decision to pull the show after citing historical inaccuracies.
     Screenwriter Bruce Smith said he stands behind the work he did for Prairie Giant: The Tommy Douglas Story, which CBC broadcast over two nights in March. In particular, he is defending his portrayal of Saskatchewan’s former Liberal premier Jimmy Gardiner, a political opponent of Douglas in the 1930s…. Gardiner’s family members said he was portrayed in a negative light, as a leader who didn’t care about farmers or immigrants.
     In response to their concerns, the CBC engaged an independent historian to research the case. It announced earlier this month that as a result of that review, it would pull the movie from circulation and halt DVD sales.

More here: Writer of Tommy Douglas miniseries defends script

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	Programming	Posted at 10:08 pm (28 Jun 2006)

CBC employees, Friday is your last chance to nominate me anyone you like for a CBC Radio PEER Award. (Truth be told, I don’t qualify since I haven’t been on staff the last year.)
     The awards honour employees for outstanding contributions to their unit, station, the network or the community. If you know of individuals or teams within CBC Radio who have made exceptional contributions, fill out an online nomination form.
P.S. This link won’t work outside of the CBC’s firewall.
P.P.S. If this link works outside the CBC’s firewall, please, I beg of you, do not hack any further. Well, maybe have fun in the financial stuff, but really leave the rest of it alone.

Bonus Quiz: Ten points if anyone remembers what PEER stands for. If you want to know, drag your mouse through this box and highlight the hidden text:

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	Awards	Posted at 3:35 pm (28 Jun 2006)

Canadian music icon Stompin’ Tom Connors has taken a one-hour concert he filmed CTV to air on July 1. It’s a move clearly intended as a stomp in the face to the CBC from Mr. Connors.
     Stompin’ Tom says the CBC encouraged him to tape a Hamilton concert (in high-definition), but then the CBC decided not to air the finished product. CBC says it never agreed to air it — that no contracts were signed and only said it would consider buying the rights if Connors completed it on his own. The Connors special has performances of 13 of his best-known tunes — including The Hockey Song, Bud The Spud and Sudbury Saturday Night — plus interviews and behind-the-scenes footage.
     Either way, it’s not exactly the best timing for CBC Television which has been under the gun for its decision to air an American reality show one night a week in prime-time during the summer.

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	Personalities, Programming	Posted at 11:45 am (28 Jun 2006)

The Le Devoir newspaper is reporting a Canadian Press story that Heritage Minister Bev Oda has abandoned her review of the CBC’s mandate owing to lack of support from her colleagues in cabinet.
     Oda has been expected for several months now to announce a working group to examine the CBC’s mandate.
     Le Devoir says sources tell it a cabinet committee rejected an earlier mandate review proposal from Oda, and that while the Prime Minister’s office could have intervened to give it a higher priority, Stephen Harper has kept an arms-length distance from the review proposal.

English translation of Le Devoir article

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	Our Mandate	Posted at 9:31 am (28 Jun 2006)

Somehow, in one of those odd Internet moments one has every so often, I ran across the blog of the lead singer of Trooper. (Oh, Gowan… why have you forsaken me?). Turns out a couple of months ago, he was interviewed by Shelagh Rogers on Sounds Like Canada and he blogged about it:

Shelagh was such a joy to work with that both of us forgot that we were on the radio. We were just having a great conversation with a really cool new acquaintance…. It really was one of the most delightful interviews I’ve ever done. Shelagh Rogers is beyond professional and has the creative courage of a lion. We wandered fearlessly from topic to topic. She is THE best audience – and it was a total treat to meet and talk to her. And Connor, of course, loved it.

Shelagh said the book should be re-named; “Canada”. God I loved that.

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	Behind the Scenes, Sounds Like Canada	Posted at 8:00 pm (27 Jun 2006)