Things have been a little slow this summer thanks to the holidays, so here are just a few tidbits of CBC news to start this week off. (P.S. Anything of note happening in your centre or unit? Just email me at insidecbcblog@gmail.com)

A blogger from the New York Times had some flattering words for our coverage of the Olympic opening ceremonies: Speaking of HNIC host Ron McLean and chief correspondent Peter Mansbridge, the Times said:

They were both admirably low-key and often simply silent for long stretches as the opening ceremonies began, appropriately letting the images from the Bird’s Nest speak for themselves. Let’s see anyone on NBC match that tonight….

At about 9:45 the Canadian team made the scene, and here was the sharpest example of the contrast between the Canadian and American approaches to Olympic coverage. CBC went to split-screen, so we could almost see the other countries marching in on the lower right as we focused on the Canadians at the upper left. Always, a low-key, warmly supportive, naively optimistic note on each Canadian competitor as close-up and time permitted, with a calming advisory that “they may not medal.”….

Hat tips to the many who pointed me to this.

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The Globe and Mail told the story this weekend of how the CBC “narrowly escaped a technical calamity during its telecast of the Beijing Olympics’ opening ceremony on Friday.”

Just as the CBC telecast went live on the air, the broadcast’s audio dropped out. The glitch happened with the host broadcaster and affected about 15 other broadcasters.

The CBC had its own backup lines installed for just such a calamity, so Canadian viewers only missed a few seconds of coverage.

Still, in broadcast time, a few seconds feels like an eternity.

“Without having those backup lines in place,” Trevor Pilling, the CBC’s Olympics executive producer told the Globe, “It could have been a disaster.”

(Well, maybe not “a disaster,” but certainly stressful.)

The Globe article continues:

The only other technical glitch that affected the CBC was difficulty in communicating with Canadians at the National Stadium’s infield. Organizers refused to give CBC access to the athletes.

As an alternative, the network used a cellphone system linking co-hosts Peter Mansbridge and Ron MacLean to the athletes. It was largely ineffective, although a clear interview with flag-bearer Adam van Koeverden was achieved.

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The folks at CBC Radio 3 are trying to build the Canadian Rock Shirt Museum. On their blog, here’s how they describe it working:

Take a photo of yourself in as many of your rock shirts as you can dig up. They can be new, they can be old, it doesn’t matter so long as they’re Canadian. So this means The Arcade Fire, goes hand in hand with Black Mountain, and DOA with Barenaked Ladies and Rush. Yeah, I know, CRAZY eh?

Photos in hand you have two ways to submit. If you’re all web savy and you belong to Flickr, you can join the CBC Radio 3 Canadian Rock Shirt Museum pool, or you can simply email your entries to rockshirtmuseum@cbcradio3.com.

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Good news for multi-platform broadcasters like the CBC: a recent survey conducted on behalf of the Television Bureau of Canada (TVB) has found that Internet use and television viewing go hand in hand.

According to a June 2008 survey, television use among Internet users almost identical to that of the general population aged 12+ (24.2 hours per week), while average weekly hours spent listening to Radio falls slightly with increased Internet use. Even heavy Internet users—defined for the survey as 37.4 hours per week—spent 24.1 hours per week watching television, more than “light” and “medium” Internet users.

“Television and the Internet enhance each other,” says Therese Treulter, TVB’s president and CEO. “It is not a matter of competition, but rather one of synergies.”

More details on iO! (intranet link)

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Don’t forget that CBC staff members can purchase discounted tickets for The Sound of Music, on stage Oct. 3 at Toronto’s Princess of Wales Theatre. CBC employeess can also purchase discounted tickets for Dirty Dancing and We Will Rock You. Details and information on iO!

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Some housekeeping: I’m thinking this kind of daily bulletin format might be a better way of covering the happenings inside the CBC rather than me trying to make a news story post out of big items? I’d love your feedback over the coming week or two of if you like it.

And finally, I’ve now got some help in moderating the comments on here and posting occasional items. I hope that’ll increase both the quality and quantity of the posts here.

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