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.

Alan Neal will replace Adrian Harewood as the host of CBC Ottawa’s afternoon drive show All in a Day.

Harewood left the show to join the local TV evening newscast.

Neal will be a familiar voice to listeners. He formerly hosted Bandwidth and Ontario Today. He has been a ‘guest’ host on All in a Day for some time.

Neal believes in reaching out to his audience, he’s a regular at community events, and connects with listeners through his Twitter account. He says using social media brings immediacy to the show. ”In a world of instant communications, the program needs to reflect peoples’ desire to interact in the moment — and that’s what I try to do from the hosting chair,” says Neal.

Once the news was announced, an number of people on Twitter congratulated Neal. “He was the obvious choice really,” Bob Durie, a local listener, said.

The show is on top-rated drive show in Ottawa.

“There are big changes coming but I think there are lots of reasons to be excited about that, and optimistic about it. Change is good,” Boag said.

Boag also praised his replacement, Terry Milewski, “When Terry is on you have a tendency to turn the volume up, not down,” Boag said to the paper.

For his part Milewski said he wasn’t relishing swapping Vancouver’s climate for Ottawa’s, “A thrill doesn’t run down your spine when you get the news that you’re to be condemned to five months of hellish winters,” he said. Nevertheless he told the Times that he’s looking forward to the prospect of a “juicy period” in politics.

The full Hill Times article his available here.

Nationally, Radio One and Radio 2 together reached 1.8 million Canadians in the eight markets surveyed. The two networks combined reached 12.8% of Canadians surveyed, and captured a share of 11.9, up slightly from the 11.2% delivered the previous period (S2 2006).

The biggest gains were in Edmonton (13.6 share, up from 7.2 last summer), Ottawa (Radio One overall up to 18.8 from 14.6 last spring, with a 25.2 share for Ottawa Morning) and Calgary (Calgary Eyeopener up to 13.6, from 7.2) while Vancouver, Montreal and Winnipeg also showed gains. But in Toronto the numbers dipped overall to 5.4, down from 6.0.

-PG

CBC Ottawa producer Danny Malanchuk died yesterday from complications following heart surgery.

Danny joined CBC news in 1980 as a writer/broadcaster on regional TV programs produced in Ottawa, moved to CBOT and then became one of the founding producers at Newsworld in 1989. In 2000, Danny moved to the Parliamenary Bureau as a field producer.

He leaves his wife, Lorna and son, Andrew, 12. The family has asked that donations be made to the Ottawa Heart Institute. Funeral arrangements have not been announced.

During his 27 years at the CBC, Danny was active with the Canadian Media Guild and served on local executive committees and attended national meetings and conventions as a delegate.

If you have any memories of Danny, feel free to leave them here.

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.

Random factoid: Chen was singer-songwriter Jann Arden’s university roommate.

• 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