The word of the day is pansy. Hockey Night commentator Mike Milbury used the term “pansification” to describe the impact of banning fighting in the NHL a couple weeks ago. Now a gay-rights group has complained to the CBC about his use of the term.

So what does pansy mean? The trusty Merriam-Webster dictionary defines it:

pan·sy: 1: a garden plant (Viola wittrockiana)

2: a usually disparaging a weak or effeminate man or boy. b usually disparaging: a male homosexual.

Now I don’t know what Milbury was thinking when he used the term, but I’m pretty sure he wasn’t describing a flower. CBC spokesperson Jeff Keay said “the way the language evolves over time, 20 or 30 years ago it would have been seen, reasonably enough, as a direct slur against gay people… But I think with usage now, I’m not sure the association is so immediate.”

A letter to the editor in the Globe and Mail today says “Politically correct attacks on seemingly mild language have grown tiresome over the years… his preferred term seems more quaint than insulting.”

So what do you think, did Milbury go to far? Is pansy a gay slur, or has it lost that meaning?

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	Hockey Night in Canada	Posted at 11:38 am (30 Jan 2009)

The new collective agreement was ratified with a vote of 93 per cent in favour.

I can’t tell you how delighted I am with this news. Not only because we don’t have to hit the pavement again, but because it’s the culmination of a new relationship between the union and management that has been long overdue at this corporation.

What are your thoughts?

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	Labour/CBC Unions	Posted at 11:16 am (30 Jan 2009)

Today is the last day to vote on the new collective agreement. You can vote until 8 PM eastern time. If you don’t know the details of the agreement, go here for a quick summary, if you want to read the full agreement, go here to download it.

If you want a summary of the agreement in one sentence, here it is: While pink slips are flying across the media industry, this deal sees a 1.5 per cent salary increase for CBC employees and increases some benefits.

To vote on the agreement go to www.cmg.ca and follow the links. You’ll need your nine-digit CMG number, which is the number on your union membership card, not the number on your employee access card. If you don’t know your number, email vote@cmg.ca and they’ll send it to you.

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	Labour/CBC Unions	Posted at 10:24 am (29 Jan 2009)

Yesterday’s federal budget clarified one source of CBC funding but left two others unanswered.

A note from CBC President Hubert Lacroix this morning says the Canadian Television Fund has been extended for two years. “In the last few years, we’ve been able to draw on nearly $100 million per year in CTF benefits to independent producers,” he said. However the bigger funding picture is not yet clear.

The CBC’s overall funding and the additional $60 million yearly allotment for programming were not spelled out in the budget yesterday.

But Lacroix said this isn’t unusual:

I can’t stress this enough — neither of these things has typically been addressed on budget day, but rather later in the year…  In other words, that neither of these matters was specifically dealt with in the budget is not in itself cause for concern.

Stay tuned.

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	Parliament	Posted at 11:09 am (28 Jan 2009)

CBC’s Hockey Night In Canada scored its largest audience for an NHL all-star game in nine years after a national average audience of 1.516 million viewers tuned into Sunday’s festivities in Montreal.  For more, read the full article at cbc.ca.

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	Hockey Night in Canada	Posted at 6:00 pm (27 Jan 2009)

This image is from a 1968 promotional poster for CBC TV. I’ve cropped out the top part of the poster, but it used to read:

Television Is … the eyes and ears of today. A glimpse at tomorrow. Television is front-row seats on opening night and the thrill of an intercepted pass. It’s exploring the universe and expanding the mind. It’s the violence of war and the striving for peace. Television is emotions and ideas, politics and poetry. It’s bright, bold, exciting programming. Television is CBC TV.

I found the image on Connor Molloy’s Flickr page.

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	Asides	Posted at 4:16 pm (27 Jan 2009)

As Finance Minister Jim Flaherty tables the federal budget in Ottawa this afternoon, many CBC employees and executives will be watching closely.

As CBC President Hubert Lacroix said last week “it’s shaping up to be a rough year everywhere… our commercial revenues have been severely affected.”

Right now the CBC is projecting a shortfall of $55 to $60 million dollars for the current fiscal year. “And this picture doesn’t take into account the outstanding question of the continuation of the $60 million in one-time special programming funding that we have received for the last eight years,” Lacroix said.

So, what does that mean for us at CBC/Radio-Canada? Lacroix said “the answer to that question might be found in the upcoming federal budget… In some respect, we all have to wait and see.”

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	Parliament, The Media Landscape	Posted at 11:19 am (27 Jan 2009)

An note that was forwarded to me last Friday says a lot about the grim state of the media industry these days. The note was from CanWest Global’s President Peter Viner. Among other things, it asked employees to refrain from printing too many documents.

Although printing documents doesn’t seem like a big expense, executives at CanWest are leaving no stone unturned in an effort to slash costs. Viner also froze all salaries and expenditures, asked employees to cut back on cell phone usage and couriers, cancelled the employee hockey tournament and said he’s open to employee requests for unpaid leave.

Viner said “Just think – if every Canwest employee could save $1,000, the collective savings to the company would amount to $10,000,000!”

The cost cutting comes after CanWest cut its morning and noon TV newscasts last week, and said last November it would cut five per cent of it’s work force. The company said advertising sales have been eroded by the deteriorating economy.

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	The Media Landscape, The Outside	Posted at 12:06 pm (26 Jan 2009)

“In 2009, Internet radio may not just reinvigorate the medium of radio. It may reinvent it.” This prediction comes from the consulting firm Deloitte, which has published annual reports on upcoming media trends for the last eight years.

If the report is correct, 2009 will see much more widespread adoption of WiFi enabled internet radio sets (like the one pictured above). These sets, which retail for about $200, are designed to connect to digital radio signals from around the world via the internet.

“It’s the future of radio,” Alex Bowden, a salesman at Bay and Bloor Radio in downtown Toronto, said to The Financial Post. He said the store has seen an uptick in sales of the devices, especially over Christmas, as prices have gone down.

Deloitte sees this as a major opportunity for radio broadcasters.

There are about 2.5 billion analog radio sets in the world, and conventional radio broadcasts will continue to serve those listeners for the next few years, but the internet has 1.5 billion users, two-thirds of which have broadband. Serving the internet market properly could lead to substantial numbers of new listeners both from people listening at work on computers and from these new digital radio sets.

Digital radio also has the advantage over satellite radio in that the sets usually don’t require subscriptions. Currently only about a quarter of the worlds 44,000 radio stations broadcast online but that will likely increase as digital radio sets become more popular.

Not everyone agrees on the potential for internet radio though. David Bray, a radio industry analyst, told the The Financial Post, it was “wildly improbable,” that internet radio would led to widespread shift. He said it’s too early to tell if most consumers would spend a couple hundred dollars on new sets.

The Deloitte report concludes that although digital radio represents a big opportunity for broadcasters, they need to make the station easy to search and find by building electronic program guides and recommendation engines. Broadcasters also need to ensure that ensure that their content is listing on the large aggregators site like RadioTower. Finally there are still issues that need to be resolved about music royalties.

What do you think? Will internet radio change the face of the medium, or will it another internet related innovation that doesn’t live up to its promise?

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	Digital Radio	Posted at 11:31 am (23 Jan 2009)

CBC.ca has moved from the second floor up to the ninth floor over the course of the past two weeks. Us, along with the finance department were the first “guinea pigs” for the office space redesign.

Because this is going to be our permanent home, we were literally given keys to the blueprint. After playing around with little chairs, tables, and desks on a floor plan the workers starting building our “dream office”. In 7 months or so, they were complete!

You can see a few select photos of our new space from my co-worker Julian Dunn on his flickr page. Additionally what our old space looked like is also available on flickr.

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	, CBC.ca web site, Under the Hood	Posted at 12:18 pm (22 Jan 2009)

A note from Todd Spencer went out this afternoon stating that George Hoff, Managing Editor of CBC News’ Ottawa bureau, “is no longer with the CBC.” The email says:

During his 29 years, George has served as director of newsgathering for TV and Radio, as Senior Executive Producer of newsgathering for TV and was our Washington bureau’s producer, covering events throughout the U.S., Central and South America.

We know everyone in CBC News will join us in thanking George for his many years of service and commitment. We wish him all the best for the future.

An announcement regarding who will fill the post in the interim will follow shortly.

No word on the why he’s leaving. With John Cruickshank leaving in December, this marks the second major news departure in as many months.

If you want to wish George the best, leave a comment below.

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		Posted at 2:37 pm (20 Jan 2009)

Barack Obama’s inauguration speech watched by many at the CBC atrium in Toronto.

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		Posted at 12:33 pm (20 Jan 2009)

The votes are in. After more than 130,000 votes cast, the top 49 Canadian tunes for the new U.S. president are now set.

Now even though it wouldn’t have been eligible, I wish there had been a way to include Coco Tea’s “Barack Obama” song.

The full list is after the break… [Read more →]

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	Asides	Posted at 11:09 am (20 Jan 2009)

Lise Lareau, President of the Canadian Media Guild, has launched a new blog “from the front lines of Canada’s media.”

The blog aims to “discuss what the media is not covering about itself and to share comments and ideas.”

Her first post is on the economic crisis currently hammering the media industry in both Canada and the United States. “What’s not being told is that a perfect storm is battering virtually every North American media company,” Lareau writes.

You can read her entire post here.

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	Labour/CBC Unions	Posted at 4:12 pm (19 Jan 2009)

Here’s a little Monday morning catch up. The National Post ran an article on Friday headlined “How to Fix the CBC.” They invited a five Canadian industry types to weigh in – they included filmmaker Bruce McDonald, Alfred Hermida a journalism prof at UBC, Amanda Rosenthal president of a talent agency, John Fluevog a fashion designer, and Nicholas Campbell from the Da Vinci series.

There were a few interesting suggestions, like this one from Bruce McDonald “Before Christmas, I sent Fred Fuchs, who runs CBC’s English programming, a couple of joints and two tickets to see Broken Social Scene. Like, ‘Hey, you should know one of the greatest bands in the world.’” Here are a few more:

“A ‘star system’ is a general term that means we need to create vehicles that celebrate our talent in a way that makes it appealing for them to stay in Canada and work. CBC has really stepped up in this area over the last few years… I think The Hour is a great show for my clients. The format is cool, edgy and young; any of my clients would want to get an interview with George.”
Amanda Rosenthal, president of Amanda Rosenthal Talent Agency Inc.

“CBC has no need to apologize. It’s not our culture, that’s too much pressure. It’s the glue that holds Canadian culture together. Hip is being yourself, it’s a naturalness of owning who you are. Be quirky and offbeat, but don’t try to be cool – young people smell that a mile away.”
John Fluevog, fashion designer

“Most of CBC’s problems stem from the fact that it’s allowed to sell commercial time and get a whack of dough from the government. That invites enemies… There’s a prejudice out there against them, like it’s CBC so it’s not very good or it’s a copy of American things… I love CBC and I’m willing to fight for it. Loyal, patriotic Canadians should have something that blows their minds.”
Nicholas Campbell, actor

“CBC can’t just translate what it does for new media, it needs to evolve how it delivers the news. BBC built a new delivery system for its brand… CBC must stop thinking of itself as a broadcaster. It’s a content provider.”
Alfred Hermida, assistant professor of journalism at the University of British Columbia

What are your thoughts? Do you have any ideas on how to “fix” the CBC, to weigh in post your comments below.

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	Asides	Posted at 10:24 am (19 Jan 2009)