The CRTC has approved CBC’s application to operate a new FM station in Vancouver at 88.1 FM. This will improve the quality of signal in Vancouver’s urban core.

Unfortunately, the Commission turned down our request to add an FM transmitter on Gabriola Island at 98.7 MHZ. This transmitter was intended to fill in coverage gaps along the Sunshine Coast that would result from lost signal following the proposed conversion of CBU to the FM band.

In the same decision, the CRTC turned down a separate application to add a transmitter of CBCV-FM Victoria in Nanaimo, British Columbia at 104.1 MHZ. The transmitter was intended to fill in coverage gaps in Nanaimo with the surrounding area that would result from loss of signal following the proposed conversion of CBU to the FM band and provide a Victoria based regional service to the Nanaimo area, which is currently served by CBU Vancouver.

Ultimately, the Commission decided that the public would be better served by using 104.1, the last available FM frequency in the Vancouver market, to provide a new radio service in Vancouver. The frequency was awarded to a numbered company to operate a new commercial FM station with an Adult Alternative Album (Triple A) music format.

Given the scarcity of frequencies in the relevant areas and the applications before it, the Commission decided that most appropriate and efficient way for the CBC to make its programming available to listeners in Vancouver, the Lower Mainland, Vancouver Island and the Sunshine Coast would be to make use of 88.1 MHZ to serve Vancouver and maintain operation at its current AM frequency in Vancouver, to ensure good coverage in outlying areas.

The CBC will continue to operate AM 690.

	4 Comments »	See also: The CRTC, Transmission, Vancouver, Vancouver Island
	Email this	Posted at 1:47 am (01 Jun 2008)

Ken Gibson and Peggy Oldfield have put together a comprehensive online newsletter under the Employee Assistance Program for CBC staffers and retirees living in Vancouver and B.C.

The site offers memories from CBC archives, provides a home to the CBC 20 Year association, and helpful information on the EAP. The newsletters are composed quarterly, corresponding with each season, and are packed with CBC news and interesting tidbits.

It also provides the service “Where Are They Now?“, on which the authors post the current careers and whereabouts of past CBC B.C. colleagues. This is definitely a site worth subscribing to for any employee or alumni in the B.C. area.

	Add Comment »	See also: B.C. Interior, Other Internet, Retro, Vancouver, Vancouver Island
	Email this	Posted at 10:28 am (21 May 2008)

Longtime CBC Radio One co-host Jeff Weaver says it was the untimely death of his friend of colleague David Grierson that made him rethink where his life was going.

“He died at 49 years old; I’m 47,” Weaver told the Victoria Times-Colonist newspaper, pointing at the empty chair in the sound booth facing him.

“You become so close; you share the morning across the glass. He’s a good friend. So yes, his death has something to do with it. I want to be out living when I’m 50.”

Weaver has been a co-host, rarely a host, nearly all his career at CBC Radio.

“I don’t like being the centre of attention,” says Weaver, putting to rest any question that his departure has anything to do with always being a co-host, never a host at Victoria’s CBC station on Pandora Avenue. “I could have been host, but I like being second-in-command; it’s my role to make the host sound better. And it’s less pressure.”

CBC Radio’s program manager in Victoria, Peter Hutchinson, calls Weaver a “station builder.”

“From a beginning which was little more than a construction site and some brave hopes, he has been instrumental in building a thriving and popular CBC Radio station in Victoria,” he wrote in an email to B.C. staff. “He is a modest man but our listeners have been flooding us with calls and emails affirming how proud Jeff should be of his story telling gifts and warm on-air personality.”

Jeff, his wife Colleen and their two Siamese cats left the Island this morning after his last show and are now en route to settle in his hometown in southern Ontario.

	2 Comments »	See also: Personalities, Vancouver Island
	Email this	Posted at 2:42 pm (01 Feb 2008)

CBC Radio’s Kelly Nakatsuka, an AP/Tech who was about to begin work with All Points West in Victoria was in an accident this past weekend.

He was helping some people who were in an accident on Highway 1 when another var hit him.

He’s going to be fine, but he has several broken ribs as well as other injuries, so he will be at home recovering for some time.

But CBC Vancouver folks are chipping in to put together a love basket for while he’s recovering and having to stay put.

He loves movies, so we’re going to get him a DVD delivery service. Also, Small Potatoes, the organic delivery company, offers fully prepared organic meals - so we’re going to set up an account with them, put in a certain amount of $$, and then Kelly can order as he wishes.

If you would like to chip in, please contact Jen in Groupwise.

	2 Comments »	See also: Personalities, Vancouver, Vancouver Island
	Email this	Posted at 4:45 pm (12 Dec 2007)

A commercial radio station in Vancouver has applied to the CRTC to use the frequency CBC Radio One wants for a new FM transmitter in Nanaimo.

Ted Kennedy, chief of staff for CBC English radio, told a local paper the application could squelch the CBC’s plans.

Earlier this year, the CBC applied for a spot on the FM dial to rebroadcast programming from its Victoria station. Eventually, the CBC wants to put a full station in the central Vancouver Island city.

But last week, the CRTC said an unnamed private station in Vancouver has applied for the same frequency that the CBC has in mind.

The CRTC will continue to accept other applications for the signal space until October 9.

	2 Comments »	See also: Transmission, Vancouver Island
	Email this	Posted at 11:32 am (16 Aug 2007)

CBC Radio host Paul Vasey is heading back to Windsor, after only two years hosting the Victoria CBC Radio One morning show, saying Victoria is just too expensive to live in.

“We just can’t afford to stay,” he told a local newspaper. “When we came out, we had a house in Windsor that didn’t sell, so we rented, and by the time it finally sold things had gone crazy here. At my age, I don’t want a $400,000 mortgage, especially when I can get a bigger house in Windsor for $200,000.” The original plan was for his daughter and son to move out from Ontario also, “but it’s just prohibitive to live here, and we don’t want be far from the kids,” both of whom are expecting babies this fall with their spouses. “It’s scuppered our plans.”

Vasey replaced David Grierson, who died suddenly of a heart attack at 49.

Vasey hosted the morning show in Windsor for nearly two decades. He’s already found a house in his old town — near a ball park, Tim Hortons and golf course. “That’s the triangulation,” he laughed.

Gregor Craigie, previously Nelson bureau chief and legislative reporter for the CBC, will debut as the next On the Island host on August 7.

	16 Comments »	See also: Personalities, Vancouver Island
	Email this	Posted at 10:08 am (03 Jul 2007)

Gregor Craigie has been selected as the new host of Victoria’s morning show, On The Island.

Gregor has been CBC Radio’s Nelson bureau reporter since 2005. Before taking that position, Gregor was producing for The Current in Vancouver following a stint for CBC TV as legislative reporter in Victoria.

Gregor and I bumped into each other occasionally in the Vancouver plant, and I asked him about his background with the Island:

I was only in Victoria for a year, but it left me with a lasting impression of a community I wanted to return to. Victoria feels like both a big city and a small town to me. You can walk or bike most places, and still bump into friends and neighbours fairly regularly. Yet you can also disappear in a maze of downtown city streets and alleys. And then there’s the politics. Even though I won’t be in the legislature, I look forward to paying more attention to BC’s entertaining political scene. I also loved the rest of Vancouver Island. In some ways it feels like a province in and of itself, and there are so many beautiful towns and nature spots to visit, I don’t expect to be on a ferry for a long time to come.

Gregor’s a good guy, a solid journalist, and he’ll be a great host, imho.
He has worked in CBC newsrooms in Vancouver, Ottawa and Montreal. Gregor has also worked for both BBC World service and CBS News in London, England. Gregor takes up his duties in Victoria this summer.

Gregor replaces Paul Vasey, who has chosen to retire from the CBC.

	1 Comment »	See also: Personalities, Vancouver Island
	Email this	Posted at 3:50 pm (28 May 2007)