Former CBC broadcaster and executive John O’Mara, 63, passed away Sunday in hospital in St. John’s after a brief illness.

O’Mara began his career with the CBC as an announcer in Corner Brook in 1964 and later moved to St. John’s. After 20 years in the business, O’Mara worked his way to the top job at CBC Radio in Newfoundland and Labrador, serving as director of radio for nine years.

During his time with CBC, he hosted many programs and specials for both radio and television, including On the Go, Newfoundland and Labrador’s weekday afternoon radio current events program, which he hosted from 1973 to 1975. He also hosted Weekend Arts Magazine from 1976 to 1978, and the popular program, The Fisheries Broadcast, from 1978 to 1979.

Historian and former broadcaster Paul O’Neill was a friend and former co-worker of O’Mara’s. On Monday, he spoke with CBC Morning Show host Jeff Gilhooly about O’Mara, and the legacy he has left as a well-known broadcaster and local community volunteer.

O’Neill told CBC that O’Mara’s volunteer projects were too numerous to mention.

“Most active volunteer person I think I ever knew in Newfoundland,” O’Neill said. “You could hardly mention something that John wasn’t involved in in some way.”

Full story at cbc.ca

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	Maritimes & Nwfld., Obits	Posted at 2:59 pm (27 Aug 2007)

From the Cape Breton Post:

Bill Doyle made a career out of sound, and after 34 years, he’s looking forward to some peace and quiet. he producer for CBC Radio One in Sydney retired Aug. 1….

Doyle said career highlights included working on the original IWK Telethon that is now done by CTV, the Fresh Air show on Saturday mornings, the Talent Cape Breton show on Saturday afternoons, Island Echoes shows and both Information Morning and Mainstreet shows.

He has been an associate producer, a director and a producer. He has called people to line up interviews for on-air personalities, worked on budgets and pitched story ideas, and done technical surveys to make sure remotes were technically possible.

Full story (photo by Tom Ayers, Cape Breton Post)

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	Maritimes & Nwfld., Personalities	Posted at 11:44 am (16 Aug 2007)

The CRTC this morning approved a CBC request to install a transmitter in Elmira to broadcast a CBC Radio One signal. The new FM transmitter will provide Radio One service to the eastern tip of Prince Edward Island, including the community of Souris — currently just outside of the Charlottetown transmitter’s coverage area. The new transmitter will operate at 92.3 MHz. <geek>It has an average effective radiated power of 940 watts.</geek>

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	Asides, Maritimes & Nwfld., Transmission	Posted at 11:44 am (10 Aug 2007)

A children’s television program producer has been hired as the new Regional Director for the CBC in the maritimes.

Andrew Cochran, executive producer of Theodore Tugboat and Pit Pony. He replaces Ron Crocker, who retired from the CBC earlier this month.

His production firm, Cochran Entertainment, was a key player for 12 years on the east coast television scene. But after Pit Pony was not renewed by the CBC and Theodore Tugboat ended its nine-season run, Cochran Entertainment went into receivership in 2002.

The Halifax Chronicle Herald picks up the story:

At that time Cochran told The Chronicle Herald the company’s problems began when it got into the U.S. market in 1997, after Theodore Tugboat joined the prestigious lineup of PBS pre-school programs like Sesame Street, Teletubbies and Arthur. The expansion into the U.S., with merchandising attached, was too much for the company to handle.

Cochrane will start his new job Tuesday.

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	Executives, Maritimes & Nwfld.	Posted at 11:58 am (02 Aug 2007)

A spider has spun a web smack-dab in front of the CBC.ca webcam in St. John’s.

The spider, which has been on the scene since at least this weekend, has spun a web that measures about a metre long, outside the window where the webcam is anchored.

The webcam is pointed at the Prince Philip Parkway and the north side of Memorial University’s campus.

On Tuesday, a second, smaller spider spun its web nearby. A number of flies — which look like specks of dust on the webcam screen — dot the two webs.

The larger spider has attracted enough interest for CBC Radio’s Ted Blades to solicit possible names from his listeners. Early suggestions include famous spiders like Charlotte, the heroine of E.B. White’s Charlotte’s Web, and Boris, the subject of the rumbling 1966 Who song Boris the Spider.

Text from cbc.ca

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	Bloopers, Maritimes & Nwfld.	Posted at 2:42 pm (24 Jul 2007)

The Ceeb has asked the CRTC for permission to extend its radio coverage across the eastern tip of P.E.I. Currently, people east of Souris are outside the CBC’s broadcast range.

The problem of local radio reception was made worse last year when the Island’s last AM station, CFCY, switched to the FM band. That meant people in both the eastern and western ends of the province were unable to pick up any local radio signals.

The CRTC has already approved an application for new transmitter in western P.E.I., and Coffin is impatient for a new signal to reach into eastern Kings County.

The CBC hopes to have new transmitters up in the eastern and western ends of the province by the summer of 2008.

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	CBC Radio 1, Maritimes & Nwfld., Transmission	Posted at 7:46 am (12 Jun 2007)

C’est ironique, non?

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	Maritimes & Nwfld., The Odd File	Posted at 10:42 am (11 Jun 2007)

Karl Wells, Atlantic Canda’s Here & Now‘s weatherperson for almost 30 years, is retiring  from the CBC.

Karl plans to pursue freelance writing. He already writes a regular column for The Telegram and he hopes to expand into magazine writing.

Karl began his 31-year career with the CBC in 1976 as an announcer in radio and television. In Radio, he was the first host of Weekend AM and the voice of the Morning Show’s satirical segment, His Worship, an impersonation of former St. John’s mayor John Murphy. In 1978 he moved to television to begin his Here and Now weather assignment and to anchor the very successful late night news program, Newsfinal. In 2001 he went national for two years as the Country Canada channel’s morning weatherperson on CountryWide.

During the past 31 years Karl has spent almost 30 years reporting the weather on Here and Now, becoming an icon across the province for his weather knowledge.  During that time he became one of our most visible CBC personalities, in large part because of the highly successful live community segment he helped develop during the early nineties, reporting from winter carnivals, fire stations, church basements, fishing boats and live from the Hibernia platform, over 350 km offshore!

As well as the weather, Karl used his passion for arts and food to bring many arts personalities to our show and to launch the popular ‘Cooking with Karl’ series.  And he has always been an ambassador for the CBC at community events, including his role as volunteer host of the CBC Janeway Telethon.

Do you have any memories of Karl you’d like to share?

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	Maritimes & Nwfld.	Posted at 10:36 pm (28 May 2007)

A Cape Breton newspaper columnist is calling on the CRTC to deny a CBC request to switch frequencies of its Sydney NS station, until the CBC extends its Sydney programming to all parts of Cape Breton. (Right now, people living in south and west Cape Breton receive programming from the Halifax station.)

Bill Dunphy wants the broadcast transmitter in Mulgrave to be switched from Halifax programming to Cape Breton programming. (The Mulgrave transmitter is actually on the mainland, but the local community has an affinity to Cape Breton Island.)

* Note: The photograph of Cape Breton in this image has been digitally altered.

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	CBC Radio 1, Maritimes & Nwfld., Transmission	Posted at 2:18 pm (29 Apr 2007)

CBC Radio’s Radio Noon program in Newfoundland and Labrador is losing its well-liked host. Ann Budgell will retire on Friday. She’s been with the CBC for 34 years and has held pretty much every job in the book: Reporter, first female host on ‘The Fisheries Broadcast’ (if you’re “from away,” it really can’t be explained how big and important this show is), host of several CBC TV shows, and eventually was tapped as executive producer of radio news and current affairs.

As the popular local blog Meeker on Media notes:

As the host of the call-in program Crosstalk, Budgell figures that “by now she’s probably spoken to you on the air and if not you, then someone in your family.”

Although she is well known for her aggressive interview style (when it is called for), Budgell also has a soft side which is apparent whenever she deals with sensitive or light-hearted subjects. The recent Crosstalk about ‘What Makes You Happy’ (March 26) was pretty off-the-wall and had the potential to fall on its face, but Anne pulled it off in style, delivering one of her most entertaining programs ever.

In other CBC Newsfoundland news, the radio and TV units are finally merging. CBC will close the radio building on Duckworth street in downtown St. John’s on Friday; those people will move in with the TV folks who have a building out in the boonies.

Kinda sad. I really think we should have more CBC locations in front of people and on the “main drag” like CBC Edmonton (in a mall) and CBC Ottawa (right downtown).

Thanks to Peter Cowan for sending me news from his region! If you have any news from your region you’d like to get out, please drop me (Tod Maffin) a line in Groupwise!

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	Maritimes & Nwfld., Personalities	Posted at 2:52 pm (23 Apr 2007)

The Halifax division of DHX Media has been commissioned by the CBC to produce 26 half-hour episodes of a new preschool show entitled Bo on the Go! The series will be delivered for an autumn launch on CBC.

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	Asides, Maritimes & Nwfld.	Posted at 12:41 pm (11 Apr 2007)

Now that the “Living” series (the regional daytime TV shows) have started to get their footing, I thought I’d do some quick captures of what the various shows are covering. This is taken from a couple of days last week.

Although what I don’t understand: In some cities, the show is called “Living [City]” and in others, it’s called “Living In [City]“. I know it’s not a big deal, but I hate inconsistencies.

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	Living In, Maritimes & Nwfld., Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto, Vancouver, Winnipeg	Posted at 12:08 pm (27 Feb 2007)

More details are emerging about the which forced CBC Fredericton off the air briefly on February 1. It began in an equipment room used by the St. Thomas University Journalism program, a tenant in the CBC building. Fire crews arrived on the scene within a few minutes and the fire was contained to a small area but the toxic smoke had already spread throughout the building.

Staff for the radio morning show arrived to discover fire crews at the scene. The Business Continuity Resumption Plan (BCRP) kicked into play and all key personnel were notified. All staff were contacted by phone and an off-site newsroom was set up across the street at a hotel.

Fire and safety officials assessed the building and a disaster clean-up crew was called in immediately to begin eliminating the soot. The radio side of the building was less affected and staff were able to come back to work in radio by late afternoon. Radio staff worked around the cleaning crews and mess and have been able to provide full programming ever since.

TV is a different story. That side of the building – including all of the equipment – is covered in the grimy soot. It has been deemed unsafe to use by the fire officials. So, to get to air the night of the fire, the French-language staff at RadCan in Moncton drove to the rescue with their mobile control room, including the crew. While TV couldn’t record their hourly updates that day, they were able to get on air for the full newscast at 6:00 by pulling together equipment that was no longer in use and staff took on many extra roles. CBC sent a producer to our Saint John location to begin working on the lineup. Portable edit suites were pulled out in Fredericton and people worked from whatever space they could find. TV has been able to provide full programming, including the hourly station breaks, ever since.

TV staff are now working in a makeshift newsroom in the old radio studio and using laptops brought by IT in Halifax. They are putting together makeshift edit suites and viewing areas in any space that is deemed clean enough to use. The Moncton RadCan mobile has to leave and a truck from Montreal will replace it but TV staff in Fredericton will have to double up on their jobs in order to staff the truck. A company that specializes in cleaning electronics after a disaster is attempting the massive undertaking of taking apart and cleaning EVERY piece of TV equipment. The entire TV side of the building is being gutted, cleaned, and reassembled.

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	Behind the Scenes, Maritimes & Nwfld.	Posted at 1:26 pm (05 Feb 2007)

 A fire in the basement of the CBC building in Fredericton Thursday morning forced the cancellation of the local morning show. Fire crews arrived on the scene just after 4 a.m. There were no reports of injuries.

Terry Seguin, host of Information Morning in Fredericton, said the fire has been dealt with but that it generated a lot of smoke and a strong odour. “They had fans going when I got there to try and get the smell out, but that was going to take a long time, so they thought it would be best for us not to do the show this morning,” Seguin said.

CBC Saint John is providing morning radio programming for listeners in Fredericton. The extent of damage is unknown.

Gary Arsenault, a CBC manager in Fredericton, said the fire had a major impact on the St. Thomas University school of journalism program in the basement of the building. He said there was substantial smoke damage to CBC’s television operation and that could have an impact on the CBC News at Six. Arsenault said CBC Radio should be back in operation by this afternoon.

(text from CBC.ca)

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	Maritimes & Nwfld.	Posted at 2:14 pm (01 Feb 2007)

Turns out Living in Toronto isn’t the only show that will launch soon (see previous post). The total list is:

• Living Vancouver

• Living Calgary
• Living Saskatchewan
• Living Winnipeg
• Living in Ottawa
• Living in Toronto
• Living Montreal
• Living East (based in Halifax with content from Nova Scotia, PEI, & N.B.)
• Living Newfoundland & Labrador

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	B.C. Interior, Living In, Maritimes & Nwfld., Montreal, Ottawa, Saskatchewan, Vancouver, Winnipeg	Posted at 2:27 pm (05 Jan 2007)