Three CBC radio shows have been picked for distribution in the United States by Public Radio International.

The deal with see PRI offer Q, Wiretap, and As it Happens to public radio affiliates across the U.S.

The news follows a week-long trial broadcast of Q in several radio markets in the States last January.

I had the opportunity to discuss the news with the Executive Director of Q, Arif Noorani:

Q seems to be on a bit of a roll lately, what does the distribution deal mean for the show?
I think the deal is very exciting for the show, because it opens up our content to an even broader audience.

One of Q’s main goals is not only to create the show but to get that content to wherever people consume it, Youtube, podcasts, whatever, because there’s a huge audience online, and now there’s a huge potential audience in the United States.

How much of a factor was Q’s cross-platform strategy in this? And did the Billy Bob play into this as well?
I think our visibility on many platforms is a factor. They’ve never mentioned Billy Bob, but they’ve been introduced to Jian as a host, the mix of conversation, the style of in-depth interviews. There was awareness of the show. We didn’t have to sell them very much, because they already knew the show.

How will you balance the show for both a Canadian and American audience?
The mix we have right now is a good one. I don’t see changing that. It’s a show that has appeal to Canadians but also to an international audience.

Will the show in the States be the same as the CBC version, or is it being revised for the American distribution?
There’s no plans to change it. We’re committed to producing the show with Canadian content but also an international outlook. There’s no plans to change that.

But the version of the show will be an one hour version, just because that’s the U.S. format. We may have to take out some of smaller features to get it down to a one-hour version, but it’s no different than what we do already for the evening broadcast on CBC.

	4 Comments »	Email This Post
	As It Happens, Q, Wiretap	Posted at 5:38 pm (20 Apr 2010)

Tonight was Ian Hanomansing’s last night co-hosting CBC News: Vancouver.

The veteran CBC journalist is moving to The National, where he’ll join Duncan McCue as a regular West Coast contributor.

Over the years Hanomansing has frequently appeared on the show, most recently during the Olympics. On the internal CBC portal they recapped his career so far:

Ian joined CBC News in 1986. During this time he has had a wide variety of assignments as a reporter, anchor and interviewer. Among the major stories he’s covered: the Exxon Valdez oil spill and San Francisco earthquake (both in 1989), the Los Angeles riot (1992), Vancouver’s Stanley Cup riot (1994), the Hong Kong handover (1997) and numerous Olympic Games. He hosted Pacific Rim Report, which focused on Canada’s connection to Asia; Times 7, a joint venture between CBC News and the New York Times; Canada Now, a national supper-hour newscast; Still Talking Hockey, a sports-themed late night program on CBC British Columbia; and Feeling the Heat, a summer series about the environment on CBC Radio One. Ian won the 2008 Gemini Award for the best news anchor.

What do you think of the move?

	4 Comments »	Email This Post
	The National	Posted at 10:59 pm (08 Apr 2010)

The daytime lifestyle show ‘Steven and Chris’ has launched a healthy living campaign. It’s called The Better Choice Challenge.

The campaign’s picking up a lot of steam. To date they’ve received over 18,000 pledges to participate.

The campaign invites participates to complete one challenge a day. By completing the challenges you’re also entered into a draw for a trip for four to Cancun – I guess so you can then go on to make better choices on the beach in Mexico : ).

	Add Comment »	Email This Post
	Steven and Chris	Posted at 5:11 pm (16 Mar 2010)

^{Props to the Dragons}

If you think you’ve got the next million dollar idea, or you’ve invented a better mouse trap, or even some wacky board game, you could pitch it on Dragons’ Den.

The hit CBC show is holding auditions across the country. A post on the show’s web site says, “due to overwhelming demand, producers are expanding the search to over 40 stops.”

The full schedule for Dragons’ Den auditions in all the cities hasn’t been figured out yet, but some have already been arranged starting in early March.

Need a little help with your pitch? Dianne Buckner is offers up tips for pitches, and the late Dragon Laurence Lewin, shared the following wisdom, “It is not up to me to understand the entrepreneurs business. It is up to the entrepreneur to explain it clearly to me.”

This could be big.

	1 Comment »	Email This Post
	Dragons' Den	Posted at 2:08 pm (10 Feb 2010)

^{Andy Barrie wakes up fellow campers at his first hosting job at summer camp. Photo via P.O.V.}

This morning Andy Barrie announced that he will be retiring from Metro Morning.

The host of the CBC radio’s Toronto morning show said on the air today he will be relinquishing the chair after 15 years.

“Andy is part of our station and that station is like an extended family,” said Susan Marjetti, Managing Director CBC Toronto. “He will continue to be part of that family and certainly part of this station’s rich history.”

^{The crew assemble after Andy Barrie announced his retirement this morning. Photo via metaviews.}

Barrie told the Globe and Mail that there “has been a lot of stress these last three years.” Barrie has fighting a public battle with Parkinson’s Disease since 2007. At the time he said he hoped to continue “waking you up every morning, as long as my old bod allows me to keep answering that 4 a.m. wake up call.”

But he admitted last week that the daily grind of hosting daily radio show was wearing him down. “Fifteen years is more than anybody’s held this job. A guy’s got just so much stamina,” he said to the CBC.

Hosting a show like Metro Morning is a little like driving a high speed vehicle down a highway and occasionally I would feel myself veering off onto the shoulder or towards the centre line. Globe and Mail.

The same year he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s, his only brother was killed in  a car accident in Russia. He was dealt another blow last February when his wife of 40 years died of cancer.

“It’s not mortality, it’s unpredictability,” he says quietly when asked what the last few years have taught him. “Life turns around in different directions for the better and for the worse.” Globe and Mail.

This morning Barrie said the “this is, for me, good news! This is my idea… this is what I’m really ready for.” The full script of his retirement announcement is here.

Barrie’s last show will be on March 1st.

	2 Comments »	Email This Post
	Metro Morning	Posted at 11:45 am (01 Feb 2010)

This week Q makes its American radio debut. The hit CBC Radio show is being broadcast as a one-week pilot run on WBEZ, the public radio station in Chicago, as well as other Public Radio International affiliates in the United States. The WBEZ blog says “We’re testing out a show on our air and asking you to share your thoughts on it… We want to know what you think of this show.”

The CBC and PRI haven’t yet decided to offer this show full-time to public radio stations – and we’re not certain whether we’d take it if they did. That’s where you come in. We’d love to hear what you think – good or bad.

So far the comments on the WBEZ blog have veered between “hating it” to “love it” to “the show’s ok.”

	Add Comment »	Email This Post
	Q	Posted at 3:59 pm (26 Jan 2010)

**UPDATE** The Globe is reporting that Gillis (or someone from the Canucks organization) will meet with the CBC this week to discuss the spat. “We’re going to meet with them and we’re going to see what their reaction is and go from there.” Gillis said today.

The ongoing spat between the Vancouver Canucks and the CBC is dragging into a second week, with Canucks General Manager Mike Gilles saying yesterday that he doesn’t know if he will make Vancouver Canucks players available for CBC interviews this weekend.

“I don’t know yet,” Gillis said when asked if he would make players available for Saturday’s Hockey Day in Canada game. Scott Moore, the boss over at the sports unit, said an apology might be forthcoming after he talked with Gillis on Monday. “The only thing I’ll say is we’ve had very good discussions,” Moore said to the Province.

The row started last over a segment and interview on Hockey Night in Canada on the Alex Burrows-Stephane Auger affair. The controversy is over Alex Burrows’ allegation that a Stephan Auger, a referee, was out to get him. MacLean’s segment on the incident infuriated the Canucks management. The segment is below.

What do you think? Should the CBC issue an apology?

	26 Comments »	Email This Post
	Hockey Night in Canada	Posted at 2:42 pm (26 Jan 2010)

“I got pretty sick and I couldn’t really participate for a certain period,” he notes. “In the writers’ room they just set up a bed for me – they put a mattress on the floor and whenever I would feel well enough to join in I would and then if I was going to vomit I’d go outside, have some medical marijuana, and come back in.”

Scott Thompson, speaking to the Canadian Press, about struggling through cancer and chemotherapy while shooting on the new CBC mini-series ‘Death Comes to Town’ from the Kids in the Hall, which debuts tomorrow at 9 pm ET.

Thompson finished his chemotherapy and is now cancer free.

	1 Comment »	Email This Post
	Shows	Posted at 6:32 pm (11 Jan 2010)

After far too many wasted hours in front of my television I can say, without any doubts, that Connect with Mark Kelley is the worst new current affairs show on TV. This program is two hours of non-news, old news, inane filler and just plain nonsense. Worse still, the attempts at humor are juvenile at best and completely flat most of the time. (via Medium Close Up)

Howard Bernstein is a former TV producer for CBC, Global and CTV, offers his opinion on the CBC News Network show Connect with Mark Kelley.

	3 Comments »	Email This Post
	Connect	Posted at 3:51 pm (08 Jan 2010)

The first episode of the new CBC drama Republic of Doyle airs tonight. A bunch of TV critics weighed in today with their reviews, and overall they sound pretty positive.

The Toronto Star said “Doyle rules!” The article says the show has “tons of potential” and “is cause for some genuine excitement on the Canadian TV front.”

Over at the Canadian Press Bill Brioux wrote that the show is “throwback to the good old gun-and-car capers” like Magnum PI and Rockford Files. On his blog Brioux added “It is a guy’s show, a welcome shot of testosterone on a CBC schedule that was too girly after a string of Sophies, Wild Roses and Ericas.”

Even John Doyle from the Globe, who rarely has anything positive to say about the CBC said it was “deliriously foolish, empty-headed, old-fashioned TV”.

Expectations for the show will be high. It follows Dragons’ Den, one of the strongest lead-ins on the schedule, and throws to The National. The show is also the only new CBC drama premiering in the winter schedule, so it will get some undivided promotional attention from the communications department.

If you watch the show tonight, leave a comment below with your thoughts on the first episode.

	3 Comments »	Email This Post
	Republic of Doyle	Posted at 6:20 pm (06 Jan 2010)

Television is the most interesting hobby I’ve ever had. I love the chaos of TV, I love the discipline of investing. My real job is chairman of O’Leary Funds, but I look at it this way: O’Leary Funds is science, television is art. There’s room for both in a person’s life.

Kevin O’Leary explaining to the Globe and Mail the difference between his television profile and his job. He also talks about the success of Dragons’ Den, and why he’s on Twitter but not Facebook. The whole interview is available here.

	1 Comment »	Email This Post
	Dragons' Den	Posted at 2:04 pm (06 Jan 2010)

^{Kary Osmond, a chef who worked a Toronto restaurant after finishing chef school at George Brown College, is the host of Best Recipes Ever.}

The first episode of the new CBC show “Best Recipes Ever” launches today at 3 p.m. Eastern. The show is a collaboration between Canadian Living and the CBC. The format will see recipes from the Canadian Living archives brought to life on television. The show will have three touch points for viewers, on television, in the Canadian Living magazine and online. Both the CBC and Canadian Living have their own show sites.

The CBC is expecting an audience of about 75,000 to watch the show. In order to meet that target, Kary Osmond, a Toronto chef with no broadcast experience, will have to sustain the energy. Judging by the trailer, she may have the verve to pull it off.

What are your thoughts on the new show?

	5 Comments »	Email This Post
	Best Recipes Ever	Posted at 4:09 pm (04 Jan 2010)

After a break of nearly nine months, Steven Sabados and Chris Hyndman are back on the dial at 2 p.m. today with new shows.

The show had been on hiatus since March of last year, one of many victims of a multi-million dollar revenue shortfall from a sharp drop in advertising last spring.

During the hiatus, the show’s blog says “Steven and Chris traveled across the country and abroad, researching the latest trends in lifestyle, decor, food, fashion and more.”

Although the show didn’t have a huge audience, Hyndman said since the show went on hiatus a core group of loyal viewers had been asking for its return. During the hiatus the CBC marketing department secured enough advertising to offset the production allowing the show to return to air. The show is produced in-house at the CBC broadcast center in Toronto.

	1 Comment »	Email This Post
	Steven and Chris	Posted at 2:36 pm (04 Jan 2010)

According to people involved in the production, the CBC Calgary-based drama, Heartland, has been renewed for a fourth season. The web site Kelowna.com posted a story a few hours ago saying the show had been renewed. They didn’t provide any sources.

The show has had strong ratings this season, frequently toping a million viewers, which it rarely did in it’s first couple seasons.

	Add Comment »	Email This Post
	Heartland	Posted at 10:31 pm (22 Dec 2009)

The set was hot and hectic, with the smell of horse definitely in the air, but no one seemed to mind as the cameras rolled capturing the images for what will be Heartland’s last episode of its third season.

The Cochrane Eagle on the a five-day shoot of Heartland at a riding arena in Cochrane, Alberta. Pictured on the left is the director, Steve DiMarco, the star of the show, actress Amber Marshall is on the right. The episodes will air in March.

	1 Comment »	Email This Post
	Heartland	Posted at 4:08 pm (16 Dec 2009)