July 25, 2006
Kamloops Daily News


As a fan of CBC, it pains me to be critical of our public
broadcaster but from past experience I have found that's the
only way Kamloops will get the programs it deserves.

CBC's justification for the loss of transmitted television
signals in Kamloops leaves out some important details. The
CBC's Chief of Staff, Francine Letourneau, excuses the
decision to drop the service in a letter which appeared in
the Daily News.

Letourneau's letter is in response to Pam Astbury who
organized a group called Save Our CBC Kamloops in hopes of
restoring service. For the sake of disclosure, I am part of
that group.

Letourneau correctly explains that Kamloops lost transmitted
CBC television because the local station CFJC decided not to
carry CBC programs any more. But her reason for not
providing alternate transmitters is unacceptable. She says
the transmitter would be too expensive to build "given the
small, and shrinking, number of people who receive signals
exclusively over the air."

Apparently lack of money or small audiences on the airwaves
were no problem when Kelowna lost their CBC television
signal. The CBC will build transmitters by next year so
that Kelownians will continue to have full programming.
Canada's broadcast regulator, the Canadian Radio-television
and Telecommunications Commission, ruled that CBC was
obligated to continue service.

Not only that, the CBC must also build transmitters to
provide full television network to signals in communities
much smaller than Kamloops. Soon, the residents of
Braeloch, Penticton, Vernon, Oliver, Salmon Arm, Enderby and
Celista will receive full CBC programming. Why is Kamloops
not worthy of CBC service that even the smallest towns in
B.C. receive?

Letourneau also engages in the slippery logic when she
argues that less is more. "For the majority of residents
of Kamloops," she contends, "they will actually receive more
CBC programming than they ever had before."

While it is true that Kamloops' cable subscribers will now
receive the full CBC network, that's little consolation to
the thousands of Kamloopsians who get nothing. Her argument
is simply a diversion: the full CBC network could have been
on cable regardless what CFJC carried.

Why should Kamloopsians pay twice for CBC, once through
taxes and another through cable subscription?

Even the CRTC is less than pleased with CBC's decision. In
their ruling they reminded the CBC of it's obligations under
the Broadcasting Act to ensure that its programming "be made
available throughout Canada by the most appropriate and
efficient means and as resources become available for the
purpose." They also warn the CBC that: "At the time of the
CBC's next licence renewals, the Commission will review with
the CBC its plans and the projected costs for extending its
full service throughout Canada."

The CBC has a history neglecting Kamloops. In the 1980s,
the local radio transmitter would quit for days. I found
out that CBC didn't even know that the station had failed
because they had no remote alarm system. Only after
receiving a complaint would they send a technician from
Kelowna to repair it.

Another example is CBC Radio 2. Before 2001, Kamloops
didn't have the radio service that even small centres like
Lillooet had. Kamloopsians had to lobby the CBC to get what
most Canadians took for granted.

Some critics complain that they don't watch CBC and don't
want to pay for it. There is no free television. If you
don't pay through taxes, you pay through the purchase of
goods advertised on television.

There is another price to pay for the loss of publicly
controlled broadcasters: the loss of unbiased information
required in a democracy.

Americans paid this price. During the bombing of
Afghanistan and Iraq, broadcast media became the mouthpiece
of government. Americans received a steady diet of what can
only be described as propaganda. Only a few lucky Americans
were able to listen to CBC to find out what was really going
on.

The disinformation spread by U.S. broadcasters still
lingers. Even now, one in five Americans still think that
Saddam Hussein helped plan the attacks of September 11, that
several of those attackers were Iraqis, and that Iraq had
weapons of mass destruction.

The loss of CBC television to approximately four thousand
Kamloopsians is significant. CBC should restore service,
not just because Canadians depend on an unbiased source of
news, but because the CBC must live up to its obligations.


David Charbonneau is the owner of Trio Technical.
He can be reached at dcharbonneau13@shaw.ca

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