Visitor is in one of the elevators. Clearly, he’s lost. Nearly every floor button is pushed. A CBC staffer gets on and rides one floor down.

Visitor: How do you get out of this building?
CBC staffer: You can’t.
Visitor: Huh?
(door opens, CBCer walks out saying): It’s how we get funding. We hold visitors for ransom. Have a nice day.”

The visitor doesn’t smile.

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	Behind the Scenes, Fun Stuff	Posted at 5:31 pm (27 Sep 2007)

Marika Jorgensen, a fixture at CBC Vancouver, has lost her year-long battle with cancer,  passing away peacefully in Lions Gate Hospital, North Vancouver this past weekend.

Marika was born in Beirut, Lebanon on May 13, 1948.  Her family ancestry was Armenian and Marika was fluent in that language as well as Arabic, French and English.  She immigrated to Canada in 1970, settling in Montreal where she met Fred Jorgensen.  The couple married in 1974 and on March 16, 1976, Marika gave birth to their first child, Julien Garabet.

In 1977 the family moved to British Columbia where Marika instantly fell in love with the sea and mountains.  That same year, she joined CBC Vancouver staff in the Finance Department, reporting to Vern Thomas and as time passed she became the Travel Clerk and then subsequently worked in Accounts Payable and Petty Cash.  On March 13, 1982, her second child,  Ingrid Helene, was born.

Marika transferred to the Communications Department in 1998, and loved her work at the Reception Desk at the main entry of 700 Hamilton Street where she interacted with both CBC staff and the public.  Her bilingual fluency was an invaluable asset to the position.

For ten years, Marika was President of CUPE O&P and took great pride in her involvement with the Union and its members.

Aside from her work and union responsibilities, Marika was passionate about playing classical music on the piano as well as listening to classical music.  In her lunch hour and sometimes at the end of her working day, she would slip into one of the radio studios to practice piano and for anyone who had the pleasure of hearing her, it was always a treat.  Marika had a talent for flower arranging and her home was almost always filled with flowers in various stages of drying for the artistic arrangements and wreaths that she fashioned for herself and for family and friends.  She loved to cook and making hummus was a special passion.

Marika is survived by her ex-husband Fred Jorgensen, her son Julien and daughter Ingrid, her sisters Arpi, Anita and Aida and their families.  She was 59 years of age.

A Memorial Service for Marika will take place on Wednesday, September 26th beginning at 6:30 p.m. at the Center for Spiritual Living (CSL), 1495 West 8th Avenue (Masonic Hall building), Vancouver.  The Masonic Hall does not have its own parking lot, but street parking is plentiful and there is a parking garage nearby. 

In lieu of flowers, a donation to the Canadian Cancer Society will be appreciated.

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	Obits	Posted at 4:05 pm (26 Sep 2007)

The CBC Shop has cut prices significantly on its spoken word bundles.

For instance, the Massey Lectures (four lectures over 20 CDs) has dropped from $200 to $55. I’m not sure what the people at the CBC Shop are smoking, but if you’ve been interested in the lectures, better take advantage of this before they come to.
Another huge price cut is for the Dead Dog Cafe. This bundle contains all four volumes plus Dead Dog in the City. Used to be $150, is now $99. 

There are a lot more spoken word bundles which have had significant price cuts, so check them out while they still have stock.

Remember, employees get 30% off but only for another week. As of October 1, our discount drops to 20%.

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	CBC Merchandise	Posted at 1:30 pm (25 Sep 2007)

CBC Television is adding a new competition/reality show to its mix.

Andrew Lloyd Webber is looking for a Canadian actor to play the lead in a Toronto production of The Sound of Music. To find the person, he and CBC TV have concocted… wait for it… a TV show.

Like many popular reality and game shows, this one started in Britain. Last year, viewers of the BBC program How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria? (it’s from the lyrics of the musical) picked a 23-year old to play the role made famous (infamous?) by Julie Andrews. Thousands competed to be among the ten finalists, which viewers eventually whittled down to one.

CBC Television has experimented with competition reality shows before.

• The much-maligned American show The One bumped The National out of its time slot one day a week — it was part of the contract with the show’s producers. The show was cancelled after a few episodes.
• And Garth Drabinksy is producing the three-part Triple Sensation which premieres October 7 at 8 p.m. on CBC Television. (The winner will get a scholarship to study at a leading theatrical institution.)

I will admit: I thought reality competition shows were a fad. I figured after a couple of seasons of Survivor, people would tire of the format. Clearly not. Turns out, it created an appetite for the format which still seems to be growing.

I’m of two minds about this whole thing.

1. On the one hand, you can’t argue with the numbers. CTV’s Canadian Idol is a ratings powerhouse, often leading the pack in the overnights. Even CBC Radio’s similar shows like Canada Reads (in which five celebs bring their favourite book and have to “compete” to have their book picked as #1) is one of the network’s top shows when it airs.
2. Then again, I’d like to think that Canadians are different — maybe a bit more discerning in how they spend their TV time. Shows like Canada: A People’s History proved we want to see compelling, well-produced programs that inform as well as entertain.

Have we gone too far down the reality show rabbit hole, Alice? What do you think?

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	Programming	Posted at 1:14 pm (25 Sep 2007)

CBC is providing free flu shots to employees and pensioners starting next month. They’ll be in 25 cities/towns across the country providing this.

(CBC employees: Your local HR office will let you know the times and dates for your own shots.)

Frankly, I’ve always been afraid of flu shots, and I’m not sure why. Probably because I’m a wimp.

Are you going to get a flu shot this season? Why or why not?

CBC folks: If you have questions about the flu shots, please contact Suzanne Irvine at (151) 3274 or via GroupWise.

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	Health and Wellness	Posted at 11:31 pm (23 Sep 2007)

I’ve been trying to decide if I’d weigh in on the debate currently underway at the CRTC. The question: Is continued media consolidation good for Canada or bad for it? I’ve hesitated because I’m afraid of being revealed for the left-wing pinko commie bastard that I am.

Richard Stursberg, CBC’s head of English television, told the commission that the Canadian media industry has reached levels that “in any other country would be considered unacceptable.”

‘Hogwash,’ replied the Canadian Association of Broadcasters*, a lobby group representing most of Canada’s private/commercial broadcasters. “We see no diversity deficit in the Canadian system,” said Glenn O’Farrell, president of CAB, pointing to the many ethnic and cable TV channels that exist on the dial, despite all the mergers going on at the corporate level.

So far this year alone, three major mergers/acquisitions have occurred in the Canadian media space:

• CTVglobemedia Inc. bought CHUM Ltd for $1.4-billion
• CanWest and the Goldman Sachs Group bought Alliance Atlantis Inc.* for $2.3-billion
• Astral Media Inc. bought radio giant Standard Broadcasting Corp. Ltd. for $1.1-billion

The CBC’s position is this: Public broadcasting needs to provide a counterbalance to consolidation of large commercial broadcasters. But it needs more money to do that. Also, Stursberg said there should be, restrictions on the amount of market share that cable companies can amass, since they can control access to TV sets and Internet distribution.

(The CBC receives less than $1 billion from the federal government each year to operate. It raises about $400 million on its own through television advertising. The CBC has not had an increase in funding for 30 years — not even to adjust for inflation — and yet is expanding its reach for Canadians into many more platforms including satellite radio, podcasts, and the web.)

The CRTC is trying to decide if it needs to tighten up the rules.

The Globe and Mail recently talked about a system in Australia where media concentration is measured using a points system.

Each media operation in a given market – including newspapers, commercial TV stations and radio stations – is worth one point. If any company owns multiple outlets, its collection of media assets counts as one point combined.

If a particular market in Australia is found to have less than five points in total, it is deemed to have an “unacceptable media diversity situation.” In smaller, non-metropolitan markets, the threshold is set at four points.

As well, if any single person or company controls a TV station, a radio operation and a newspaper within a given market, that is considered an “unacceptable three-way control situation.”

Australia’s government reserves the right to prevent future media deals in any market it considers to have an unacceptable ownership situation.

Personally, I don’t understand why alarm bells aren’t ringing at the CRTC.

Major media firms in this country keep trying to widen their pie. But how much profit does a company need? I know very well that they need to continue to increase shareholder value (hell, I used to be CEO of a publicly traded company) but, really, is that all there is? Is that the only value that matters?

I guess that’s what keeps me at the CBC.

We tell stories for and about Canadians, not shareholders.

But, as Dennis Miller used to say, “That’s just my opinion; I could be wrong.”

What do you think? Where does the CBC fit in this consolidated media landscape?

* Disclosures: I have given a keynote address to the Canadian Association of Broadcasters. I used to produce a weekly web TV show on technology for Alliance Atlantis’ now-defunct blogtv.ca. I was paid for both of these.

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	Our Mandate	Posted at 11:16 pm (23 Sep 2007)

CBC Radio 2 will be adjusting its schedule early next month. Here are the details:

• Bill Richardson will host Saturday Afternoon at the Opera (Saturdays 1:00-6:00pm) and Sunday Afternoon in Concert (Sundays 1:00-5:00pm)
• Patti Schmidt will host a new music and ideas program called Inside the Music. It will be a highly produced show that features one-off and limited series documentaries about music (Sundays 12:00-1:00pm).
• Andre Alexis and Skylarking move to Sundays at 5:00pm.
• Pianist Gregory Charles hosts a new show called In The Key of Charles. He is a well-known personality in Quebec as a broadcaster, choral director, and performer, and he will be hosting the show sitting at his piano. (Sundays 10:00am-12:00pm)
• Canada Live will no longer have a national host. The nine regional hosts will host the show when it comes from their locations.
• More hourly newscasts will be added to the schedule. National news and regional weather forecasts will air at 6:00, 7:00, 8:00, 9:00, 12:00, 15:00, 16:00, and 17:00. The newscasts will expand to 5 minutes in length.
• Jowi Taylor will host Nightstream, the overnight music program.
• The Sunday schedule on Radio One will change as follows:
  • o Inside the Music (8-9pm)
  • o In The Key of Charles (9-11pm)
  • o Tonic (11pm-1am)
• The following programs will be cancelled: Symphony Hall, The Singer and The Song, and Fuse will be moved off of Radio Two

So… what do you think?

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	CBC Radio 2, Canada Live	Posted at 9:56 am (21 Sep 2007)

CBC Television is on the hunt for someone to develop new comedy programs for the network. And it’s casting its eyes on the Internet.

The job description makes it clear that trolling the Internet for new ideas and people is part of the plan. The position “monitors and assesses comedy talent appearing on-line with an eye to CBC Comedy’s needs — new writers, actors, on-line co-prods, original comedy production for CBC on-line.”

Why don’t we give whoever this person will end up being a head-start?

What is your favourite online Canadian comedy show? (i.e. as amazing as Mr. Deity is, it ain’t Canadian).

For instance, Galacticast, a weekly comedy sci-fi series produced in Montreal by Rudy Jahchan and Casey McKinnon (pictured here). I also really enjoy Tom Green‘s nightly Internet talk-show from his living room, but somehow the fact that his living room is in California probably disqualifies him.

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	Programming	Posted at 12:35 am (21 Sep 2007)

John Cruickshank, currently publisher of the Chicago Sun-Times and chief operating officer of the Chicago Sun-Times Media Group, has been picked to to lead CBC News as publisher.

He is expected to take up his new position within the next three weeks.

The newly created position will report to both the VPs of both radio and television.

Cruickshank has been with the Sun-Times organization since 2000. From 1995-2000, he was editor of the Vancouver Sun. Prior to that, he was with The Globe and Mail from 1981-95, from 1992-95 as managing editor.

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	Executives, Our Mandate	Posted at 1:41 pm (19 Sep 2007)

The Angus Reid Group seems to have bought Google ads whenever you type in “CBC” into Google. Have to admit, pretty clever.

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		Posted at 8:41 pm (17 Sep 2007)

CBC is cutting the employee discount of CBC merchandise from 30% to 20%. The change happens October 1.

A bulletin to staff late last week said CBC employees have “shared in our excitement and growth through the distribution of CBC/Radio-Canada merchandise.”

Uh, you’re welcome.

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	CBC Merchandise	Posted at 8:58 am (17 Sep 2007)

In case you’ve missed it, CBC Radio is using a new series of taglines to promote its regional programming. But the phrases like Totally Toronto and Very Vancouver aren’t ringing well with some people. (Montreal bucks the alliteration trend with So Montreal. I guess Mostly Montreal wasn’t quite right.)

On this blog, the taglines have received a bit of heat from listeners:

I have a problem with CBC Montreal always using that nauseating phrase, “So Montreal.” The word “Montreal” is not an adjective. I wish they would stop using it as such.

After a week of “Totally Toronto” and I want to take a hammer to my radio and smash it! Like, that’s so, like, really annoying to, like, listen to all the time! Like totally!!

Wow, I feel sorry for you Toronto people. I thought “So Montreal” was annoying. “Totally Toronto” is not only using a noun as an adjective, it’s unnecessarily alliterative too! I imagine it must be totally annoying to keep hearing that phrase. Why don’t they just come up with original (and grammatically correct) slogans for the different CBC regional stations?

A letter to the Hamilton Spectator newspaper says:

For the last 10 days CBC Radio 1 from Toronto has been constantly playing the tag line “Totally Toronto.” If CBC Radio 1 out of Toronto is “Totally Toronto” it clearly has nothing to do with the Greater Hamilton area.

Hmmm… good point.

(There are worse taglines, for the record. When I was a 20-year-old reporter for KBS Radio in the Kootenays, the network’s tagline was “It’s great to be in the Kootenays.” We had to say that every time we answered the phone.)

So, if you were picking a tagline for your own local CBC station, what would it say?

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	Programming	Posted at 8:01 am (17 Sep 2007)

You’ve gotta admire him. Bryan Pearson (not pictured here), owner of the Astro Theatre in Iqaluit, has been quietly running a not-quite-legal rebroadcasting, uh, “service” — oh hell, I’ll say it, a pirate station — carrying CBC Radio for 13 years now.

He started it when CBC dropped Saturday Afternoon at the Opera from its AM broadcast. “That’s the only show that I listen to religiously,” he told a local paper. “So I got pissed off and bought a radio transmitter and a satellite dish.”

Pearson used to operate the station from his home, but later moved it to improve the signal’s reach. Still, on rainy days, some people in Iqaluit have trouble picking up the signal. It operates on only 1.8 watts of power, although the actual broadcasting licence he has is for 1/600th of a watt. “The same as your toaster,” he lamented.

Pearson says he’s never been hassled about the station, despite it being illegal.

CBC Radio now has a new station in Iqaluit, at 88.3 FM. Pearson says he’ll leave his station running anyway.

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	Fanatical Fans, North, Transmission	Posted at 7:46 am (17 Sep 2007)

Sometimes, CBC signs come in handy for more than promotion…

Photo: “CBC recycled” by CAZASCO

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	Fanatical Fans	Posted at 7:17 am (17 Sep 2007)

Earlier this week, Net Pub Eng (the CBC email address that sends out all-staff announcements within the English service) sent out an email saying a change had been made to the H.R. policy. It provided an intranet link to the new policy, but didn’t spell out what the changes were.

I asked CBC’s human resources department for some clarification about what had actually changed.

Here are the key changes:

1. Payment of unused leave may now be made unilaterally for Management, Confidential and APS employees.
2. Payment of unused leave will be calculated at the rate the leave was earned.
3. Reinforce Management accountability to ensure leave is scheduled and taken.
4. Preserve Management’s ability to authorize leave based on operational requirements.
5. Contract employees must take their leave before the conclusion of their term, or have the balance paid out if a new contract or extension is issued.

Annual leave guidelines for unionized employees remain as per the applicable collective agreement.

Does this affect you? How do you feel about it?
P.S. This blog lives outside the CBC network. You will not be identified by posting.

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	Human Resources	Posted at 7:58 pm (15 Sep 2007)