CBC Radio 3′s top 30 chart program, the R3 30, is teaming up with Chartattack.

Chartattack compiles the Top 50 Canadian Campus Radio Chart, along with its genre-specific charts World/Folk, Metal/Punk, Jazz/Blues, Electronic and Hip-Hop. They’ve been doing this for 20 years. Under the deal Chartattack’s charts editor Chris Burland will participate in a segment called “CHARTattack Way Back Track” as part of The R3-30 three-hour broadcast.

Pedro Mendes, the producer on R3-30 had this to say:

The history of indie music has long been an integral part of The R3-30, says Mendes, “and Chris, with his intimate knowledge of almost 20 years of CHARTattack hits, will take our show to a new level of depth and relevance. Plus, he always brings pie. We love pie.”

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	CBC Radio 3	Posted at 8:13 pm (30 Sep 2010)

The CBC’s digital and business development department, essentially the guys responsible for a many of the cool clickity-click projects, a lot of CBC’s online presence, and some of the corporation’s business strategy, is being broken up and split into two units.

The re-organization left Steve Billinger, a key executive during Richard Stursberg’s tenure at the CBC, without a position.

His department will now be split into two units, a revenue unit will fall under to the CBC’s sales and marketing department, while the digital unit will fall under the media operations and technology unit. About 100 staff members are being shifted around as part of the re-organization.

Kirstine Stewart, Interim Executive Vice President of English Services, indicated on the internal employee portal that the move was made to better serve programming objectives. “By consolidating our operations we are better able to react quickly and take advantage of technology changes which benefit all areas of CBC. Digital is not to be viewed as separate; it is in fact central to how we conceive and deliver the best-made programming in Canada,” she said.

The move comes after a similar overhaul was pushed through the CBC’s French services, in which some members of the digital department were assigned to the sales and marketing end of the business. Some insiders think the success of that move prompted the re-organization on the English side of the house.

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	Behind the Scenes, I.T.	Posted at 6:34 am (30 Sep 2010)

The CBC dominates the list of all-time favourite Canadian TV shows.

As part of the Gemini Awards 25th anniversary celebration, the Gemini folks have asked TV critics to send in suggestions of their all-time favourite television shows. Of the 25 most popular submissions, 17 shows were broadcast by the CBC.

The list reads like a romp through the highlights of CBC television: Anne of Green Gables, The Beachcombers, Wayne & Shuster, Mr. Dressup, Da Vinci’s Inquest, North of 60, The Nature of Things, The Rick Mercer Report, This Hour Has 22 Minutes and a bunch more.

Without putting too fine a point on it, it says a lot about legacy and potential of Canadian produced broadcasting. So there.

The full list is here.

Voting on the all-time favourite ends on Sept 30th.

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	Programming	Posted at 10:28 pm (29 Sep 2010)

One of the CBC News’ senior leaders is leaving the organization to pursue a consulting role in the media and communications industry.

Cynthia Kinch, a long-time news veteran who has covered more major stories than you’ve had hot meals, is well regarded across the network. “In her more than 30 years with the organization, she has been a leader, a trailblazer and a mentor. She has set an example for all of us– seize challenge, envision possibilities and celebrate success,” Jennifer McGuire, the GM of CBC News, said.

Kinch contributed to tons of high-profile projects during her time at CBC News. Most recently Kinch was involved in the news renewal project and tackled the massive project of rebranding CBC News Network.

McGuire’s full note is here.

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	News & Journalism	Posted at 9:37 pm (29 Sep 2010)

Hockey Night in Canada will broadcast the first-ever 3D HD hockey games this season. The CBC will broadcast two 3D HD games Montreal versus Toronto on Saturday, December 11, and the Heritage Classic from McMahon Stadium in Calgary on Sunday, February 20, 2011.

The Toronto Sun covered this here, or employees can access the press release on the internal CBC site here.

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	Hockey Night in Canada, Sports	Posted at 9:34 pm (29 Sep 2010)

^{Image from kongming9234′s Flickr photostream}

The CBC is throwing it’s support behind Culture Days, a six-day celebration of the arts in Canada.

Today in Toronto, the CBC hosted a series of events around the theme ‘the art of broadcasting.’ A number of CBC radio and television personalities participated in the day long series of events.

That culminates in a one-hour special tonight at 7pm hosted by Jian Ghomeshi, George Stroumboulopoulos, and Bob Mackowycz featuring Great Lake Swimmers, Bedouin Soundclash, and Sloan.

Then in on September 25 CBC Ottawa studios will hold an open house. Visitors can get a glimpse inside the newsroom, sit behind a TV news desks, and read scripts into a microphone like a radio personality.

On Saturday, CBC St. John’s is holding an open house. Finally, on Sunday September 26, CBC Vancouver audiences will have a chance to meet stars of CBC shows like Heartland, Battle of the Blades, Being Erica and radio personalities like Rick Cluff, Margaret Gallagher and Sheryl MacKay.

The idea of culture days is to to raise awareness and accessibility of the arts, and to celebrate the creative spirit and vitality of communities across the country through thousands of free, interactive events that unite artists with their public.

There are more photos of the Culture Days events here.

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	Ottawa, Toronto, Vancouver	Posted at 5:49 pm (23 Sep 2010)

A reader left this note about the CBC’s logo:

I thought you might be interested in this company’s logo. It looks eerily familiar; I just can’t think where I’ve seen it before.

Of course this isn’t the first time the CBC logo has been appropriated. The gem has also shown up in an ad for a dental clinic in Peru, a gay bar in Sydney, Australia, and various other places, including dresses, t-shirts, and strangely a frying pan.

Thanks Megan for the heads up.

Have you seen weird uses of the CBC logo? Let us know.

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	Asides	Posted at 6:44 am (21 Sep 2010)

Kim Fox, the social media guru at the CBC pointed out how much she likes this promotional poster for CBC Radio’s Wiretap. I have to agree, it’s a fantastic poster.

The poster was done by Montreal artist Jack Dylan for a live show in 2009. You can find out more about Jack and his work at his web site. I love how he incorporates the super hero references into his work.

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	Asides, Wiretap	Posted at 1:35 pm (17 Sep 2010)

At the CBC English Services first quarter update this afternoon in Toronto, Kirstine Stewart, Interim Executive Vice President of English Services, said the corporation is “doing very well,” it’s ahead of revenue targets, while underlining the importance of content.

This was Stewart’s first quarterly update following Richard Stursberg’s departure, and it had a distinctly different tone.

Although Stewart kicked off the presentation with an update on the revenue picture, the discussion quickly turned to content.

“The CBC is here to reflect Canadians, and what it is that they want to talk about,” she said before turning over the microphone to the heads of the radio, television, news, and the regions to elaborate on the content picture.

Denis Donlon, the general manager of English Radio, said radio is still on a roll “virtually all of our morning shows, which is prime time on the radio, are top three in their markets.”

Donlon added that CBC Radio now has 13 shows that are broadcast internationally, and radio is well positioned to respond to the new multi-platform world. “The Debaters is going to television in January,” Donlon said, and Canadians are downloading 1.2 million podcasts every week. “We will thrive in the world of choice.”

Christine Wilson, the interim general manager of CBC Television, said the TV side has had a number of big successes recently, pointing to Dragons’ Den, Battle of the Blades, Being Erica syndicating in 40 countries, the Nature of Things’ 50th anniversary season and the upcoming premiere of the the Queen in 3D, on September 20th.

Jennifer McGuire, the general manger of CBC News, also focused on the content, “enterprise journalism defines us as a public broadcaster,” she said, noting that the news department had broken an unprecedented number of stories this spring and summer.

Concerning the news renewal process, McGuire acknowledged how difficult it has been, calling it a “tremendous upheaval,” that had challenged all the assumptions about how the department operates.

McGuire said “It was necessary to take a good hard look at what we do,” and “work on ways to better serve our audiences.”

She added that there are still tweaks to make as part of the renewal process, “but the emphasis this year for CBC News now shifts to content.”

In response to a question about the ratings for The National, McGuire said “Specifically with News we need to shift the narrative not only to an audience-revenue narrative, but also in terms of the value of the journalism.”

McGuire said CBC News set the news agenda a number of times recently, and that contribution needs to be acknowledged.

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	Behind the Scenes, Executives	Posted at 12:30 pm (15 Sep 2010)

The Great Canadian Songquest, CBC Radio 2′s musical exercise that marries music with iconic Canadian places, has started up again.

This year, instead of celebrating towns and places, fans are being asked to nominate their favourite stretch of Canadian road. From there the audience will vote on the submissions and CBC Radio pairs the winners with a short list of musicians to turn them into road songs.

The submissions run the gamut, for instance a thoughtful submission was recently made to turn the Highway of Tears to music.

The nominating round closes on September 22nd.

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	CBC Radio 2	Posted at 6:20 pm (14 Sep 2010)

There are a few pictures of the George’s new set showing up on Flickr.

The shots above are from Tyson Williams, a local blogger and photographer, who was sitting in the audience for an interview with Danny Boyle. There’s more on that on Tyson’s blog here.

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	Behind the Scenes	Posted at 5:59 pm (14 Sep 2010)

I was recently asked to put together a list of innovative ways that the internet has been integrated into television or documentary narratives. Since I thought this list could be a thought starter for producers, I thought I’d share it here.

Note that I purposely didn’t include some of the more obvious and well known examples, like Xenophile Media’s work on the first couple season’s of Regenesis, or say Jamie Oliver’s online presence, because, well, most producers already know about those projects.

Also I was trying to find examples that extended beyond simple marketing or Facebook integrations, or simple viewer voting mechanisms like American Idol.

1. The World Without Oil – Smart, Participatory, Fun, Awareness-Raising

‘The World Without Oil’ was an online project by PBS in 2007. It really broke new ground by incorporating an alternate reality narrative with social media participation to answer a simple question: “What if there was an oil shortage. Starting today, how would your life change?”

Over 1,800 people participated in this make-believe world without oil. They simulated the first 32 weeks of a global oil shortage by writing blog posts, shooting videos, images and leaving voicemails.

The participants really got into the spirit of the simulation, they stopped driving, pretended they had blackouts at home, and imagined a future where food choices were limited because of the lack of fertilizer.

PBS packaged the submissions into videos that explored questions about energy use, sustainability, the role energy plays in our economy, culture, worldview and history.

2. One Day on Earth – Great concept, results remain to be seen

I love this project because it plays to the strengths of social media participation online – it invites input from around the world. The challenge will be to try to funnel that into a single narrative.

The aim is to create a time capsule for the whole world to better understand itself. As their site says: “We strive to find out who we are as human beings because it is beneficial to our sustainability as a species.”

Will it work?

Remains to be seen, the documentary will be released on October 10th.

3. AgendaCamp with Steve Paikin – A social media conference that was the springboard for a television series

AgendaCamp was a series of conferences that took place in Ontario in 2010. Under the banner of Re-inventing Ontario in the face of the recession, they sought to answer these questions:

What directions are key to strengthening Ontario’s future? What role should government play? Where do new citizens fit into the changing economic landscape?

The camps were organized as a road show, with a local focus for different cities and towns. As their web site says “It’s all about face time with fellow citizens, local and regional decision makers, thinkers, questioners, way finders, underwriters and implementers. Ideas are challenged, validated, recalibrated; understanding develops, plans on common cause may be sketched out, and all of it happens in real time.”

TVO captured this conversation, added interviews and other elements and packaged it as a road show series on TVO. It was definitely cerebral, but it was also an illustration of the possibility of combining a traditional conference format, capturing that on social media and repackaging it for TV. Did I mention it also marketed itself on Twitter, Facebook and Youtube?

4. Social Media and TV: There’s an App for That

The U.S. science fiction channel Syfy recently teamed up with Shazam to integrate some of their television content with their online content.

Syfy has taken a really simple, yet innovative approach here.

Shazam is an iPhone smart phone app that is normally used to identify the name of a song and the artist singing by listening to it. But instead of music, Syfy is using the app to engage with a TV show.

Under the deal, viewers can use the Shazam app to listen to one of two Syfy shows in order to unlock hidden online content.

This approach requires that viewers watch the show on TV to unlock hidden content.

Pretty smart.

5. Being Erica

When the CBC comedy Being Erica launched in 2009, the producers used social media tools to extend the narrative of the show.

A month before the show launched the fictional ‘Erica’ starting writing her own blog.

The blog turned out to be a prequel for the television show – an attempt to hook the viewers before the show launched. It served to set the stage for some of the story lines and introduced the quirky character. Then once the show started the action moved to Facebook, where the ‘Erica’ character made friends with viewers and discussed the story lines.

This same kind of approach has been very successful in the U.S. with Heroes and Lost.

By blurring the lines between the fictional characters and reality, the producers make the characters more multi-dimensional than they could ever be on TV alone. It’s strategy that also creates an emotional investment in the story and can result in loyal fans.

What Do You Think?

Have a missed a few obvious choices? Are there other examples that I’ve overlooked? Any radio projects that spring to mind?

More generally do you think these kinds of projects are even worthwhile in the broadcast world, or maybe they’re just pointless experimentation?

Let me know your thoughts.

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	The Media Landscape	Posted at 11:16 pm (13 Sep 2010)

The deal that Bell announced with CTV this morning is rattling the media industry.

From the CBC’s point of view the new Bell-CTV company looks like a major new competitor, especially in the online and mobile space.

But it’s not that the CBC will be left out in the cold on this.

In May the CBC signed a major deal with Rogers that sees the corporation provide Rogers customers with access to the CBC’s TV shows (including hockey and the world cup) for its on-demand, digital cable, and mobile platforms.

The fruits of that deal were evident during the world cup when Rogers customers could watch games on their smart phones. Remember that ‘Gooooooal’ commercial with that shirtless guy running around in his office?

So the CBC has gone with Rogers.

And now CTV has gone to Bell.

It’s a big realignment.

The industry newsletter for CARTT wrote this afternoon,”the new company will bring under one roof the top broadcaster and specialty service company in Canada, our biggest ISP, largest traditional telco, second-largest wireless provider, third-largest TV carrier and several of the most popular web destinations in Canada (sympatico.ca, ctv.ca, tsn.ca, rds.ca).”

That’s a lot of properties and platforms – all together under one company.

Now that the different carriers have pretty much caught up to each other in terms of their platforms and speed, it looks like they’re going to compete on content.

For the CBC, which produces or owns a lot of its content, that may be a good thing. We’re content rich.

On the other hand if Bell starts limiting access to its online and mobile networks, or even if it starts to show preference to its CTV content, that could spell trouble for the CBC. It would essentially prevent us, or hinder us, from reaching a chunk of the market on Bell platforms. We’ve already seen a bit of that last  week with the fight over local satellite signals and now there may be more to come.

What do you think of this deal?

Leave a comment with your thoughts, I’d love to hear your perspective on the deal.

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	The Media Landscape	Posted at 6:01 pm (10 Sep 2010)

Apple has finally spared CBC staff from those huge CTV ads that used to be directly across from the CBC headquarters in Toronto.

Now we have huge iPad ads.

Thanks to Jamey for the pic.

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	Asides	Posted at 7:08 am (10 Sep 2010)

The President of the Manitoba Bar, Ken Mandzuik, says the CBC’s coverage of a Manitoba judge’s online nude photos is “tabloid journalism at its worst.”

The Manitoba Bar Association, a branch of the Canadian Bar Association, has filed a complaint with CBC President Hubert Lacroix.

The complaint says: “The emphasis of the story and the inappropriately graphic details of the allegations simply go too far, especially given the potentially damaging effect these allegations will undoubtedly have on the people involved.”

Last Tuesday, Cecil Rosner, the managing editor of CBC Manitoba, wrote an editorial to explain why the CBC is running the story: “We also recognize that in reporting stories, harm can often be one of the consequences. Some people pressure us not to report things.

But we are guided by the principle that important stories in the public interest must be told and, in doing so, we make our best efforts to minimize any harm that might ensue.

“This reporting was tabloid journalism at its worst,” Ken Mandzuik, president of the Manitoba Bar Association, said in the letter.

What do you think? Did we go too far on reporting the lurid details of this story?

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	News & Journalism	Posted at 10:04 pm (07 Sep 2010)