George Stroumboulopoulos interviewed CBC News anchor Peter Mansbridge a little while ago and you’ll hear:

– How close he came to leaving Canada for a high-paying job for CBS

– How did the conversation with Knowlton Nash play out when Nash offered Mansbridge the anchor chair.

…and more.

Watch the video on The Hour’s recently redesigned web site.

CBC Radio has announced two new music shows for CBC Radio Two.

Debuting May 31, from 5 to 6 p.m., is a new show from Calgary called In Tune. Hosted by classically trained musician Katherine Duncan, the program will focus on trends in classical music. Currently, Duncan is the Calgary host of Canada Live, and before that hosted Symphony Hall for 10 years.

Tom Power, a newcomer to CBC, will host Deep Roots. Based in Newfoundland, Power will offer listeners music in the roots/folk genres with a special emphasis on Canadian musicians. Deep Roots replaces I Hear Music in the 11 a.m. to 12 p.m. timeslot.Robert Harris, who had hosted I Hear Music since September 2000, will now produce documentaries for Radio 2. “Inside the Music is the likely spot for Robert’s new work,” explained CBC Radio’s director of programming, Chris Boyce. “But given his enormous talent, we have no doubt that Robert will be heard throughout the Radio 2 schedule.”

On this date in 1965, Cross Country Checkup debuted with a debate on a national, publicly funded health care system. Years later, we have the national health care system and a radio program that continues to entertain and provoke. (Although I really do miss the standard two-question opener to each caller from years back: “Cross Country Checkup, where are you calling from? What do you think about ________”)

Their loss, our gain…

The Bureau of Broadcast Measurement’s spring ratings are out - and ratings are up for the Montreal newscast by 28%; 22% of those are new viewers.

This article speculates that some of those viewers may have jumped ship with Frank Cavallaro, an award-winning Weather Specialist who just joined the CBC earlier this year when the CTV news team did not renew his contract. Cavallero was voted the World’s Top Weather Presenter at the International Weather Festival held in Paris in 2002, and has been forecasting since the late 1980’s.

Incidentally, if you’ve always wanted to be a weather forecaster on the CBC and live in Calgary, that very job just got posted on the CBC jobs site this morning.

George Stroumboulopoulos has people stopping him to shake his hand in many American states because of The Hour’s popularity due to widespread viewing on YouTube.

The Canadian Press reports that The Hour has been getting millions of hits on YouTube since the show started uploading segments last fall. The Hour is also one of the top video podcasts in Canada on iTunes. Strombo says that the show has a wide appeal since it fills a gap in late-night TV; unlike other late-night shows, it isn’t pure comedy.

Viewers as far afield as New Zealand and Australia are also members of the shows’ Facebook group.

Okay, fine, so there’s no such thing as a Caption Writer at the CBC. I mean, people do write captions, of course, but it’s usually the story producer who develops the captions (”lower thirds” in the parlance).

But then how do you explain this caption, from one of CBC Television’s “Living” programs (not sayin’ which one), and emailed to me by a viewer.

Airport Dude?! Really?! Did someone lose his business card? Couldn’t we at least have said Airport Official or something? 

The Royal Canadian Air Farce, one of Canada’s longest-running comedy troupes, is wrapping up its weekly television show next season.

The sketch comedy show will produce nine shows in the fall, then end with a New Years Eve special.

It made its CBC Radio debut in December 1973, producing more than 600 radio broadcasts over 24 years. After brief stints on television in the 1980s, Air Farce took up its permanent place on the CBC-TV roster in 1993. It ran on radio and television for four seasons before moving exclusively to TV in 1997. In 2007, the show returned to a live format with Air Farce Live.

A wee bit of photo fun submitted by Kate Dalgleish, pictured here.

If you’ve got a photo or funny mockup you’d like to submit, email insidecbcblog@gmail.com

There’s no money, but a small amount of glory will accrue.

Casting has begun for a made-for-TV movie (in two-parts, natch) tentatively titled The Don Cherry Story.

The movie’s author? Cherry’s son, Tim.

The script follows the Coach’s Corner star’s early life in hockey’s minor leagues. It ends, oddly abruptly, when Cherry met the CBC’s Ron MacLean nearly 25 years ago.
“We’re trying to find out if Brad Pitt can play the leading role,” Cherry joked.

(Er, at least I think it was a joke.)

Provided the CBC gives it the green light (and really, why wouldn’t it? Sadly, it will likely be one of the most-watched programs of the year), shooting should start within a few months. It is expected to air during next spring’s Stanley Cup playoffs.

Mark Critch and Shaun Majumder riff on, well, each other in their satire of CBC TV and CBC Radio’s young(ish) hosts. From This Hour Has 22 Minutes.

Nora Young and the over-caffeinated crew at Spark have put out a quirky little video about how to make a radio show.

If you’re looking for Radio 101, look elsewhere. This tongue-in-cheek production is Radio 001. (For instance, one line from the piece: “When you’re in the studio, say the words and phrases that you wrote down earlier into the microphone.”)

Be sure to watch for how they get the audio tape into the recorder. I’d been trying to figure that out for years now!

Here’s the embed code if you want to share it on your blog:

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