1973:

The Montreal skyscraper that serves as the headquarters for CBC’s French-language operations (and some of its English ones), Maison Radio-Canada, was officially opened. You can listen to its inauguration (in French) here.

1990:

Another round of budget cutting at the CBC as the corporation announced layoffs of 1,100 employees.

1902:

Italian engineer Guglielmo Marconi transmitted the first readable wireless radio signals 3,200 km across the Atlantic from his station at Glace Bay, Cape Breton to Poldhu in Cornwall, England. A year earlier he had sent the first transatlantic wireless test signal – the letter ‘S’ repeated over and over – from Poldhu to his assistant Percy Wright Paget flying a box kite trailing a 121 metre long copper wire antenna on Signal Hill, St. John’s. Nfld.

Canadian inventor Reginald Fessenden sent a radio signal in 1900 from his lab near Washington, D.C. to a receiving station 80 kilometres away. See this clip for more on the Marconi-Fessenden debate.

In 1943 John became CBC Radio’s “Roving Reporter”, travelling Canada from the Magdalen Islands to the Queen Charlottes to tell stories about the nation’s people in the three-times-a-week series John Fisher Reports. It was during this time that he got his nickname “Mr. Canada.” He died Feb. 15 1981 at age 68.

You can listen to reports from John Fisher on the CBC Digital Archives site.

Much of the longevity of Gilmour’s Albums, besides its low cost, can be attributed to Gilmour’s quiet demeanour, knowledge of his subject and respect for his audience. “I always think of my audience as just one person,” he told the CBC’s Knowlton Nash. “Radio after all is just one person talking to another. I don’t talk down. I don’t talk up to the listener. I just say ‘hello’ and have a conversation.”

More at the CBC Archives web site.

He began in local & CBC radio drama, including the long-running family drama Jake & the Kid.

On TV, he did live CBC drama before moving to New York where he worked on Studio One & Alcoa Hour.

He was host of CBC’s This Hour has Seven Days for one season, and starred in the US drama series ‘Scarlett Hill.’

Hat tip to the excellent web site Today in Broadcast History.

Walking with Minister of Canadian Heritage Sheila Copps, the then-CBC Chair Carol Taylor introduced the Queen to the new media presenters. The Queen approached the display to inquire, “And what is this, exactly?”

Turns out it was a television clip of the 1959 Calgary Stampede showing the young Queen sitting in the crowd with Prince Philip. The Queen also viewed archival footage of her opening the Canadian Parliament in 1957.

(Factoid: While watching the archival footage, the Queen was told the website documents CBC radio and television clips from the past 70 years in both French and English. Sounding surprised, she responded, “In both languages?”)

Hat tip to the Puget Sound Radio Board, which provides this info.

“If much of that world arrives at the same time, all wanting the same story, then that could overload the server, jam the system and stop those people from getting the story they want.

In the early days, the small staff at Newsworld Online could tell instantly when a breaking story was attracting a huge public demand. The system slowed to a crawl. And that’s what happened at Newsworld Online the week Diana, Princes of Wales, died in a traffic accident.”

More at CBC.ca archives | Some audio clips of the coverage from the BBC.