Today in CBC History: CBC Television goes 24 hours

On this date only a year ago…

CBC Television went to a 24-hour schedule. It was one of the last major English-language broadcasters to do so.

And yesterday happened to mark the 14th anniversary of Peter Mansbridge reporting about a new kind of computer network — a “revolution” called “Internet.”

The clip has become somewhat famous online, mostly because back then, people didn’t put the word “The” in front of “Internet.” It just sounds so, I don’t know, hokey now. It’s worth watching on the CBC Archives site if you have a moment.

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  CBC Television, Programming

5 Responses to “Today in CBC History: CBC Television goes 24 hours”

    Allan says:

    The line “one of the last major English-language broadcasters to do so” is so indicative and a historical characteristic of the CBC - it doesn’t lead, it follows … near the back of the line.
    Remember that when you think the CBC is right up to date in anything it’s currently doing.



    nancy bee says:

    the minute they started the 24 hour schedule they stopped repeating the National. great.



    toujoursdan says:

    I miss the old signoff with the national anthem [sigh]



    Michael says:

    Whenever I run across (or pass thru) a small BC town like Yahk, Tahsis, Sparwood or Masset, I always think of the “start of the broadcast day” message that ran on CBC Sunday mornings at 8AM.
    IN the 80’s CBC in Vancouver opened with a graphic tour of the province that displayed all the transmitter sites.

    Now when I think of 24 hour CBC I wonder if the money would be better spent on a 12 hour day.
    How about 7AM - 1PM and 6PM to 12PM.

    Why bother broadcasting when no one is watching?



    Allan says:

    Michael,
    George and I had a little discussion about that recently.
    He has a show on at 4 am as you may know.
    He argued both for and against it.
    I argued for original content.
    As a futurist, I predict that all content will be time-shifted in due course anyway, with the exception of news, so why not all new programs 24 hrs a day?