Barrie city councillors have invited the CBC to make a presentation about a Barrie-based station for the Simcoe-Muskoka area. But there’s already some static about CBC’s proposal from… wait for it… the commercial local rock station.
I know, you totally didn’t see that coming. 
Doug Bingley, Rock 95’s general manager said “I don’t know if there is a need for it. I think the local stations do a good job covering the local issues.”
He added that he doesn’t consider CBC Radio to be a threat to his business. (It was not immediately clear if he was crossing his fingers behind his back when he said it.)
At least one counsellor, Michael Prowse, sides with the commercial stations. “I’m not opposed to the CBC, but I do feel that we currently have several privately owned/operated radio stations currently servicing the city, and I would not want to be seen as supporting a corporation paid for by taxpayers over the private operators who do not operate using tax dollars.”
(CBC Radio One already reaches Barrie listeners, but nearly all of the content comes from Toronto.)
The region is one of more than a dozen communities across Canada that could get its own CBC Radio station. The plan would create 15 production centres, expand coverage for five existing small stations, and the form eight new bureaus.
On a side note, Simcoe’s Spirit Catcher, pictured above, might make a good radio tower. I’m just sayin’.
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“I’m not opposed to the CBC, but I do feel that we currently have several privately owned/operated radio stations currently servicing the city, and I would not want to be seen as supporting a corporation paid for by taxpayers over the private operators who do not operate using tax dollars.”
Which I guess translates as:
“People in my community pay taxes anyway, but I’d rather they didn’t get some of the benefits because of how it would make me look ideologically.”
What a prize citizen Mr. Prowse is.
Ten years ago, Doug Bingley was my boss at Rock 95, but he was pretty far in the background and I have no reason anymore to suck up to the guy. I don’t think he had his fingers crossed - Rock 95 is probably the station which would be the least threatened by a new CBC station in that medium market. And I agree the local media there does a good job covering the area. I can see the purpose the CBC would serve in terms of the broader region - certainly it wouldn’t be bad - but there’s a difference between a region where the CBC would be a nice addition and a region that really needs it. Hopefully there is more focus on the latter in these plans.
Is this the same plan that hopefully will include Peterborough? I thought it got canceled!
I live in Mississauga, and listen on 99.1, but to hear the morning and afternoon drive time shows, you’d think the only interesting stuff was happening in Toronto. I wouldn’t mind some southwestern Ont. coverage - I am from Wellington County originally, and my brain doesn’t shut off once I go north of Steeles. I can’t get the Barrie Radio One signal now, but maybe if they have more of a presence, maybe the signal will get stronger and I can tune it in?
Hamilton Hamilton Hamilton…. yes, I’m broken record, but most of the half million people here don’t give fig about what’s happening on the DVP.
Anyhow, grumbling from commercial operators isn’t likely to have any effect on licenses for new CBC services. The CRTC understands that they are entirely different animals and that a CBC outlet won’t have any effect on commercial ad sales.
Besides, private broadcasters have been fighting for years to reduce or eliminate local staff and local news production.
@not from TO
if your radio/antenna setup is good, you may be able to pull in shows like:
http://www.cbc.ca/ontariomorning/
from london or shelburne. 93.5 from london just makes it to waterloo.
No new Radio One stations until Hamilton gets one. Not form TO is right that the Toronto CBC doesn’t represent anyone outside Toronto and when I say Toronto I mean the new city (formerly Metro) not the GTA.
I believe the current Barrie signal is just a Toronto relay.
Barrie/Central Ontario content would be wonderful. Currently, Ontario Morning covers it occasionally, but their newscast is London, ON based and sounds like it.
The drive home, Here and Now, doesn’t even acknowledge that it’s heard outside of Toronto, with its repeated people in different languages telling us we’re listening to 99.1 in Toronto, when really we’re listening to 98.7 in Orillia.
I hope Barrie can embrace it.
Kitchener-Waterloo Cambridge Guelph has more than half a million people in it.
Like Hamilton and Barrie there is no CBC coverage. We don’t even get Ontario Morning, we just get the direct Toronto repeater. I know more about the traffic on the Gardiner than I really want to.
KW is in a black hole. The entire city would have to burn down before CBC decided to cover it.
Please bring us local coverage!
I figure Barrie’s as deserving as Hamilton of a full-up CBC branch. And Hamilton definitely deserves it.
We should look at the American model; I find it disturbing that markets like KW, Barrie, Ham et. al. have such a paucity of radio and tv stations to serve THEM. Ditto Peterborough, Pembroke, Cornwall…the list is long. Go to rronline.com and snap the ratings page and check out Toledo, O, a city that is in a similar spot as Hamilton, sandwiched between two large markets [Det and Cle] yet has as many radio stations and TV stations as Toronto and as such has its own stories told, its own traffic reports reported, its own sports teams glorified/villified in its own town.
The zero sum mentality of Cdn broadcasters not only doesn’t serve the public is also depresses the price of their properties and limits their profits.
Dan Shields,
Ottawa.
“I’m not opposed to the CBC, but I do feel that we currently have several privately owned/operated radio stations currently servicing the city, and I would not want to be seen as supporting a corporation paid for by taxpayers over the private operators who do not operate using tax dollars.”
Wow - whoever said irony was dead?
Coun. Prowse and Doug Bingley are blowing smoke or inhaling it.
How could a CBC radio outlet in Barrie possibly affect any of the commercial outlets?
Bring it on - or at the very least strap a transmitter to the big tower so the few folk that do listen to CBC could actually hear it without investing hundreds of dollars for an antenna.
These comments strike right to the heart of the matter. Hamilton deserves its own station. So does Barrie. They’re not Toronto and want to hear about what’s important in their town.
A lot of other cities are in the same boat. That’s why the Local Radio proposal calls for 15 new stations and production centers, to give local CBC coverage for an additional 8 million Canadians. These are big, fast-growing communities needing news and information targeted to people in their cities.
For the record, new stations would be established in Hamilton and Barrie (to cover the whole Simcoe-Muskoka area), as well as Kingston and southwestern Ontario. In western Canada, new stations would be established in Nanaimo for Vancouver Island and in Cranbrook for the Kootenays. There’d be a new station in southern Alberta to cover Lethbridge and Medicine Hat. Stations would be added in Chilliwack, Red Deer and Fort MacMurray. Saskatoon and Kelowna would be upgraded to full stations. In Quebec, production centers are proposed for the Laurentians, Drummondville and the South Shore as well as additional news resources in francophone bureaus across the country.
And Mr Bingley is a smart guy. He knows CBC Radio is non-commercial and doesn’t compete with the music heard on Rock 95, or CHAY, or B101, or KOOL FM. The cities are best served by having both options available.
Ted Kennedy
Chief of Staff
CBC English Radio
Okay, so consider me biased because of my American-ness, but I see something here that is almost similar to how an NPR station in my area of the US operates. This station is called WBUR in Boston. Here in RI, they have a station called WRNI which is similar to WBUR except for the following:
*All the local news in the NPR flagship programs “Morning Edition” and “All Things Considered” is produced in Providence (RI), not Boston.
*There are some differences in the schedule - i.e. WRNI does not area a salsa music programme that WBUR airs in the late night.
*Finally, WRNI is purported by WBUR to have a separate identity, which is good.
The same is also done for two other stations on Cape Cod - WSDH in Sandwich, MA and WCCT in Harwich, MA. The differences there is that they are operated by high schools (WSDH by Sandwich High School and WCCT by Cape Cod Technical High School) and during the afternoon the schools have control over programming.
Not a bad idea for Radio One. I wish that the Ottawa area, however, had more local news coverage than what is on there now.
It certainly sounds wonderful to create a greater CBC local presence across the country. But at whose expense? Is the proposed expansion contingent on more money from the federal government? Or will it come from an already-stretched radio budget? Existing small stations across the country are funded on goofy staffing models. There isn’t a day goes by when you’ll not find at least two people in off the street backfilling for someone who’s sick or on a traiing course. (Sometimes there’s nobody to do that, leaving the remainder to deal with the stress of putting on daily programming) Before the CBC jumps into this expansion, it should put its staffing/financial house in order first. And that’s not done by sacrificing its existing services on the alter building new empires for bureacrats.
Please fix the typo in the lede. Really. It has been days.
The Local Radio proposal is contigent on a modest increase in operating budgets from the federal gov’t. With a past history of deep cuts and no inflationary increases, there is absolutely nothing in existing budgets that can be redirected from somewhere else without a degradation in service.
Ted Kennedy
Chief of Staff
CBC English Radio
Stranger: Typo? What typo?
While we’re at it, anyone feel like switching Vancouver from static-laden AM to FM? This has probably been canvassed before, but I’m just saying.
Mr. Kennedy: thanks for the explanation. If nothing else, I’m putting my support for this on the blog for all to see. I hope you get that extra money.
It’s 4 pm on a Friday afternoon and the phone rings - A newspaper reporter wants to know what I think about a new, local CBC station ( first time I’ve even heard of the proposal). I make one, relatively neutral statement; the next thing I know I’m a “CBC basher”
To set the record straight:
1. I’m a big fan of the CBC and I am not opposed to the expansion of local radio service.
2. I do believe that the six existing private stations serving Barrie do a great job of covering local events, news and information. ( And yes both of my stations support local arts groups including advertising for and sponsorship of Jazz and Blues festivals and local theatre groups.)
3. I believe that the greatest benefit CBC radio brings is it’s national scope, that both television and radio are chronically underfunded, and therefore I don’t see any pressing need for expansion of local CBC service in Barrie or other communities.
4. On the other hand, many Barrie residents would enjoy a local CBC station, so if the money is there, I support the idea.
Doug Bingley
PS - Ted, thanks for the “bright guy” comment…must be a result of my experience as a CBC employee!