Category: CBC

‘Blades’ skates to new location
When Battle of the Blades returns to CBC this fall, the skating will take place on a sound stage in Toronto, rather than historic Maple Leaf Gardens.
The Gardens has been sold and is undergoing renovations, so it wasnít available for season No. 2 of the highly rated Battle of the Blades. The series pairs female figure skaters with ex-hockey players in a figure skating competition.
ìThe Gardens was part of the charm and will be missed, but it served its purpose,î host and former figure skating champion Kurt Browning said.
ìCertain things about it will not be missed. It was decrepit and it was cold and there were no bathrooms. But it was a gift to be able to start our journey there. Theyíre bringing the set, so it will look the same.î
CBC general manager Kirstine Stewart sees a bright side in the move, while not closing the door on a return to the Gardens at some point.
ìWeíre going to get a little more control over the rink and the building by doing it this way (at the sound stage),î Stewart said. ìBut Iíve heard theyíre building a rink again on an upper floor of Maple Leaf Gardens, so if we go another year (with Battle of the Blades), maybe weíll go back.î
Hockey players participating in the second season include Russ Courtnall and Theo Fleury. Stewart, Browning and Courtnall were in attendance at the CBC fall launch event in Toronto on Thursday.

CBC’s Galloway to replace Barrie on Metro Morning
A familiar voice will greet listeners of CBC Radio One’s Metro Morning in Toronto starting in March, when afternoon show host Matt Galloway takes over the mic of his long-standing a.m. colleague, Andy Barrie.
Galloway will step into the role permanently beginning March 1, the CBC announced Monday morning.
Since 2004, the 39-year-old Galloway has hosted Here and Now, CBC Radio One’s Toronto afternoon drive show. More recently, he added a regular stint as the main back-up host of the top-rated Metro Morning.
“Matt is, in many ways, already a member of the Metro Morning team,” Susan Marjetti, managing director of CBC Toronto, said in a statement.
“He’s been filling in for the past year when Andy is away and has helped the show maintain its number 1 standing in the community. We’re delighted he’s decided to make the leap to morning radio full-time.”
Prolific CBC credits
A familiar voice on CBC Radio for the past 10 years, Galloway has worked on a range of programs, including The Current, Sounds Like Canada, Global Village and Q.
The passionate soccer fan also had an early CBC gig as a roving reporter for Metro Morning during the 1998 World Cup, anchored the public broadcaster’s coverage of the 2007 FIFA Under-20 World Cup of Soccer and was a part of the team reporting live from the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing.
Previously, Galloway was a music writer for the Toronto alternative weekly NOW and hosted radio shows, including for the campus station of York University, his alma mater. After having grown up listening to CBC shows like Brave New Waves, his first connection with the CBC was as an occasional freelance producer for the acclaimed, now-defunct alternative and indie music and culture show.
Raised in Kimberley, about 27 kilometres from the resort community of Collingwood, Ont., Galloway lives in Toronto’s west end with his partner and two daughters.
Barrie, who revealed he had Parkinson’s disease in 2007, informed listeners of his impending retirement on Feb. 1, near the end of that day’s show.
“All I know was [my] body was getting a very loud wake-up call of its own, and the call said: ‘Fifteen years is more than anybody’s held this job. A guy’s got just so much stamina. You have been there and done that, and it’s time to do something new,'” he said.
The CBC said Barrie would continue to be involved with the public broadcaster in a different capacity, but wasn’t releasing details yet.

CBC host Andy Barrie to retire
Andy Barrie, the widely respected host of Toronto’s CBC Radio One program Metro Morning, has announced he’s stepping down from the top-rated show.
With his deep baritone voice and incisive questioning, Barrie will continue his hosting duties until March 1.
The 65-year-old broadcaster, who revealed in 2007 that he had been diagnosed with the degenerative disorder Parkinson’s disease, made his announcement at the end of his show Monday.
Barrie said that when the show moved to a new start time of 5:30 a.m., he found it especially difficult to adjust.
“All I know was that body was getting a very loud wake-up call of its own, and the call said: ‘Fifteen years is more than anybody’s held this job. A guy’s got just so much stamina. You have been there and done that, and it’s time to do something new,'” said the host.
“If we go back to my student radio days hosting something called The Suppertime Show in university, I’ve been doing daily radio now for 45 of my 65 years. Forty-five years of me doing the talking and you doing the listening. Well, it’s that part of the conversation where it’s time to say, well, enough about me.”
“We’re sad to see Andy give up the morning show microphone, and we’re sure that’s a view shared by his loyal audience,” stated Denise Donlon, executive director of CBC Radio.
“We celebrate his legacy and honour the immense contribution he has made to CBC, to the broadcasting industry and to this city and community during his esteemed career.”
Managers at the Toronto station say they’ll announce a new host for the show later this month.
Susan Marjetti, managing director of CBC Toronto, expressed her sadness at the veteran announcer’s departure, noting that the workers at Metro Morning are like an “extended family.”
“He will continue to be part of that family and certainly part of this station’s rich history,” said Marjetti.
Born in Baltimore, Barrie can trace the beginnings of his broadcast career to age nine, when he was assigned to wake up campers every morning over the public address system at summer camp. After university, he snagged radio jobs in various cities as an announcer and reporter before getting his own program with Metromedia Radio in Washington.
In 1969, Barrie made a decision that set his life’s path, leaving the United States during the Vietnam War and coming to Canada.
Jumped to CBC in 1995
He landed in Montreal and was hired by CJAD radio. In 1977, he moved to Toronto to take on a new job at CFRB, where his commentaries garnered him an ACTRA Award. The Andy Barrie Show was the highest-rated program in its time slot for many years.
Barrie made the leap to public broadcasting in 1995. His presence boosted ratings on the CBC show and Metro Morning now attracts more than a quarter of a million listeners every day.
Barrie’s personal life hit the headlines twice, when he divulged his Parkinson’s and when his wife of 39 years passed away in 2009.
Barrie indicated he might turn up at the CBC once in a while.
“As far as CBC is concerned, the adoption papers were signed long ago. I’m family. So I’ll be here at the Broadcasting Centre trying to do less talking and more listening, sticking my nose into all kinds of interesting projects, and turning my ears to Metro Morning from the comfort of home.
“Again, this is for me, good news. This is my idea,” Barrie said to his listeners. “This is not the end, this is just the beginning.”
The show ended with a rendition of the 1939 Vera Lynn song We’ll Meet Again, with the host joined by his co-workers.

Canadian networks plan joint Haiti fundraiser
Canada’s television networks are collaborating on a television special this Friday to raise money for earthquake relief in Haiti.
Canada for Haiti, a one-hour program examining Canada’s close relationship with Haiti, will be broadcast on CBC, CTV and Global at 7 p.m. ET.
The program will be shown just before the Hope for Haiti Now telethon being hosted by George Clooney and featuring many of Hollywood’s biggest stars.
CBC, CTV, Global Television, MTV, MuchMusic and the National Geographic Channel all plan to simulcast Hope for Haiti Now in Canada.
The Canada for Haiti special will give Canadians a chance to donate to a group of Canadian organizations doing work in Haiti. The groups featured include:
-Canadian Red Cross Society.
-Care Canada.
-Free the Children.
-Oxfam Canada.
-Oxfam Quebec.
-Plan Canada.
-Save the Children Canada.
-UNICEF Canada.
-World Vision Canada.
The program will be hosted by CBC’s George Stroumboulopoulos of The Hour, Global’s Cheryl Hickey of ET Canadaand CTV’s Ben Mulroney of etalk.
In the Hope for Haiti Now telethon, Clooney is working with Haitian-American hip-hop star Wyclef Jean in New York City and CNN broadcaster Anderson Cooper in Haiti to focus on the aftermath of the earthquake that hit the Caribbean nation a week ago.
The telethon will feature musical performances by Bono, Sting, Justin Timberlake, Christina Aguilera, Alicia Keys and others in an effort to galvanize charitable giving for the Haitian relief effort.

How the Beatles rocked the Kremlin
Hmmm … Beatles or Brezhnev? … Beatles or Brezhnev? … which seems more fun?
Apparently, Back in the USSR had a real impact back in the USSR.
At least, that’s the theory in the documentary How the Beatles Rocked the Kremlin. It airs tonight across Canada on CBC News Network (formerly CBC Newsworld).
How the Beatles Rocked the Kremlin, which is a BBC project, was directed by British documentary filmmaker Leslie Woodhead. If you’re a Beatles fan, you’ll be interested to know that Woodhead filmed the Beatles at the Cavern back in August 1962, producing lasting images that you probably have seen a million times.
Anyway, in How the Beatles Rocked the Kremlin, Woodhead investigates the impact the Beatles and their music had on the former Soviet Union, from the 1960s through to the fall of the communist regime.
In interviews with many Russian Beatles fans, a picture is painted that suggests the Beatles, slowly but surely, helped to erode blind faith in the Soviet state. The Fab Four was a window to Western culture, whispering a promise that something exciting and worthwhile existed beyond the Iron Curtain.
In the early ’60s it actually was kind of cool to be a Soviet — relatively speaking — with the worldwide fame of first-man-in-space Yuri Gagarin and political leader Nikita Khrushchev’s entertaining rants against the West. But in 1964 Khrushchev was replaced by the “much more boring” Leonid Brezhnev and the first seeds of a Soviet generation gap were planted.
Beatles music was banned in the Soviet Union in the ’60s, so it was passed around as contraband. Bootleg discs were made from old X-rays. Of course, the danger and secrecy made Soviet youths even more thirsty for the sound.
Making a long story short, by the early 1980s the gulf between the so-called Soviet “Beatles generation” and Soviet leadership was too wide to be bridged. It is the opinion of some that despite the Cold War posturing between the West and the Soviets, what really doomed communism within the Soviet Union was that young adults raised on the Beatles just didn’t believe in the system any more.
As one Russian Beatles fan puts it, “After the Beatles, communism was like a fence with holes. We breathed through those holes.”
Comedy Lifers: If you missed our interview with co-star Stacey Farber over the weekend, don’t forget the new CBC comedy 18 to Life debuts tonight. It stars Farber (Degrassi: The Next Generation) and Michael Seater (Life with Derek) as teenagers who decide to get married, not because of a cliche pregnancy, but for love. Nonetheless, their parents are mortified.
Ray of light: It’s not too late to subscribe to the Canadian pay service Super Channel if you want to catch the Canadian debut tonight of the new Ray Romano series Men of a Certain Age. It’s a “dramedy” that premiered to widespread acclaim last month on TNT in the United States.
Monday clicking: The anniversary special Discovery: 15 Years of Awesome airs, fittingly, on the Discovery Channel tonight … The Bachelor is back for its 14th season on ABC and Citytv … Global has the pilot episode of the supernatural comedy Drop Dead Diva, which originates on Lifetime in the United States … Glutton for Punishment begins its fourth and final season on the Food Network … Also on the Food Network, chef Lynn Crawford’s new series Pitchin’ In makes its debut … Finally, the new series Greatest Tank Battles rolls out on History Television.

Final choices revealed in Canadian Song Quest
CBC Radio 2 has revealed the Canadian locations that are to be immortalized in song and the singers who are to write about them in its Great Canadian Song Quest.
Canadians voted for their favourite places online, choosing the final 13 locations that were revealed Monday.
Among the wonders to be immortalized are the Tuktoyaktuk Pingos, small cone-shaped hills caused by permafrost in the Northwest Territories; Singing Sand Beach, a P.E.I. beach whose sands squeak as you walk along them; and Alberta’s Badlands, a carved prairie landscape where dinosaur bones have been found.
There are also two great wilderness parks on the list ó Algonquin in Ontario and Gros Morne in Newfoundland.
Canadians also helped choose the 13 singer-songwriters who will write songs about these places over the next four weeks, winnowing it down from a list of 65 Canadian artists.
The places and the singers who will write about them are:
Tofino, B.C, by alt-country singer, Oh Susanna.
Hoodoos/Badlands of Alberta, by alt-country singer Jay Sparrow.
Good Time Charlie’s at The Plains, Sask., by acoustic group The Deep Dark Woods.
Waskada, Man., by singer-songwriter Chantal Kreviazuk.
Algonquin Park, Ont., by rock-hip hop artist Hawksley Workman.
The Black Sheep Inn, Quebec, by singer-songwriter Martha Wainwright.
Hopewell Rocks of New Brunswick, by jazz-folk artist David Myles.
Singing Sand Beach, P.E.I., by singer-songwriter Catherine MacLellan.
The Cabot Trail, N.S., by rocker Joel Plaskett.
Gros Morne National Park, N.L., by alt-rockers Hey Rosetta!
Tuktoyaktuk Pingos, N.W.T., by blues-roots singer Dana Sipos.
Dawson City, Yukon., by singer-songwriter Kim Barlow.
The Road to Nowhere, Nunavut, by rocker Lucie Idlout.
On Nov. 23, all 13 new original songs will be revealed on Radio 2 Morning and Drive on CBC Radio 2.

CBC-TV launches 90-minute supper hour news
CBC-TV’s supper hour newscasts expand to 90 minutes on Monday, part of the public broadcaster’s efforts to increase local coverage.
The extended newscasts will feature new hosts in Saskatchewan, New Brunswick, Montreal, Halifax, Calgary and Toronto.
The news will run from 5 p.m. to 6.30 p.m., with stories updated throughout the 90 minutes.
“This is designed so that busy people at that time of day can join whenever they can and they’ll still get a big dose of the top news stories of the day at 5 and 5:30 and 6,” said Liz Hughes, CBC’s director of news for the centres, said in an interview.
“It has been close to two decades since this much local news was offered by the CBC on television.”
The 90-minute program is essentially three half-hour newscasts that include a mix of international, national and local stories, with an emphasis on breaking local news.
“For the brand overall, CBC News, part of what we’re trying to push in our relationship with Canadians is that we’re there for them locally, especially on television, to the same extent that we are on radio,” said Jennifer McGuire, general manager and editor in chief of CBC News.
“It’s a huge priority for people.”
The new format, she said, is “consistent to how people are more and more using news ó they graze. Most people don’t start at the beginning and go to the end.”
CBC is launching this critical part of its news renewal process in a year when resources are tight and $7 million has been cut from the English-language news service.
The new thrust to local news has meant changing the way resources are used, McGuire said.
The changes varied market to market, with some cities getting more resources for live local coverage and some extending the range of their coverage. It’s also meant juggling existing resources.
“We’re fully integrating news gathering resources. Instead of having a radio newsroom and a television newsroom and an online newsroom in terms of news gathering. It is an integrated assignment process that looks at Ö how to tell the story across platforms and that will extend our reach,” McGuire said.
A restructured syndication service will have reporters who can do local versions of national stories ó shorter than items they might create for The National, and with a focus on the local angle if there is one.
“What you’ll see from the inside is an investment in a syndicated service supporting local news with much more tailored content, content more in line with the values of local news,” she said.
“If I’m telling the big parliamentary story of the day and sending it to Vancouver, it’s not the pan-Canada version, it’s the Vancouver version.”
An important part of the change is what CBC is calling integration ó in which local radio reporters might do hits for TV and television reporters might contribute to radio.
This is a growing trend in the way reporting is done, Hughes said, and new technologies are making it easier.
“It doesn’t take much for reporters who are already crafting a story for radio to sit in front of a camera and give Newsworld the benefit of their expertise on a story. The efficiencies of integration in that way are enormous,” Hughes said.
While CBC has more changes coming in October, the launch of the 90-minute supper hour newscasts is a big step in its news renewal process.
New hosts include:
Toronto: Aaron Saltzman joining Diana Swain.
Montreal: Jennifer Hall and Andrew Chang.
Calgary: Nirmala Naidoo.
Halifax: Amy Smith joining Tom Murphy.
New Brunswick: Terry Seguin and Genevieve Tomney.
Saskatchewan: Kaveri Bittira joining Costa Maragos.

Kids in the Hall reunite for series
MONTREAL — Quirky Canuck comedy troupe the Kids in the Hall are back together shooting a comic murder-mystery series in Ontario.
Five members of the gender-bending comedy outfit, whose eponymous sketch comedy show ran on CBS and HBO in the first half of the 1990s, star in “Death Comes to Town.”
The eight-part series was conceived by Bruce McCulloch and co-written by McCulloch and fellow Kids Dave Foley, Kevin McDonald, Mark McKinney and Scott Thompson.
McCulloch is exec producer; Susan Cavan produces for Accent Entertainment.
Directed by Kelly Makin, who helmed the original “Kids in the Hall” series and movie, “Brain Candy,” the series is about what happens in a small town when all its most distinguished citizens are murdered. A suspect is arrested, there’s a trial and many dark secrets are revealed along the way.
It is filming in the small northern city of North Bay and is set to air on Canuck pubcaster CBC in January.
“We have thought about reuniting on television for years but we’ve all had a lot of personal projects and weren’t sure about how we wanted to come back together,” said McCulloch.

CBC denies The National is moving
CBC’s senior programming brass has a secret plan to move the public broadcaster’s flagship nightly news program The National from 10 p.m. to 11 p.m. to make room for more prime-time entertainment programming, an industry watchdog group says. The plan was strenuously denied yesterday by Kirstine Layfield, the executive director of English network programming.
Ian Morrison, a spokesperson for the Friends of Canadian Broadcasting lobby group, told the Star the new prime-time shows may not be Canadian and that The National may be reduced by 30 minutes.
The shorter news program would save the cash-strapped broadcaster several million dollars in costs traditionally attached to the nightly newscast, usually hosted by Peter Mansbridge.
Layfield, through a spokesman, called the Friends alert “absolutely false” and “a baseless rumour.” She demanded it be removed from the watchdog’s website, friends.ca. She added that CBC’s fall schedule, yet to be made public, will contain more Canadian content, not less.
Morrison remains unconvinced. “Very reliable, trustworthy sources at the highest levels in the CBC tell us The National move will definitely be happening sometime in the fall, maybe as early as September,” he said. “The CBC board of directors hasn’t been told of the plan.”
What might happen to The Hour with George Stroumbolopoulos, which at present follows The National at 11 p.m., is open to conjecture, Morrison added.
“It doesn’t make economic sense to swap the two shows, since The Hour, even in an earlier slot, is unlikely to draw an audience larger than 175,000, while The National currently has 800,000 viewers.”

CBC plans 90-minute TV newscasts for 5 p.m.
CBC News will begin running 90-minute, early-evening TV newscasts in every region of Canada, beginning at the end of August.
The public broadcaster plans the change, taking effect Monday, Aug. 31, as part of its news renewal ó which includes refocusing on local news.
“It’s really quite thrilling to be able to expand our local news coverage to better serve Canadians in an economic environment where the inclination could be to retreat,” Jennifer McGuire, general manager and editor-in-chief of CBC News, said Wednesday in a release.
The supper-hour broadcasts will vary by region, but include the top national and international stories, followed by local and regional coverage.
They will start at 5 p.m. local time and news, especially local news, will be updated each half hour throughout the broadcast.
Sources said CBC is juggling resources internally to create the extended newscasts at a time when the English-language service must make up an $85-million budget shortfall.
CBC Television has rejigged its schedule around the supper hour newscasts.
The popular British soap opera Coronation Street will begin airing at 6:30 p.m. in each market, a half hour earlier than now.
CBC spokesman Chris Ball said the change of time means the show will suffer fewer pre-emptions for other events.
Wheel of Fortune has been scheduled for 7 p.m. and Jeopardy for 7:30 p.m. Ghost Whisperer will be broadcast at 4 p.m., replacing The Simpsons and Wheel of Fortune.