2006

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July 19, 2006 Kamloops Daily News
CBC treating Kamloops like a backwater. Hugh Jordan finds the CBC response to Pam Astbury unacceptable. View article

And Now, No Word From Our Sponsors, by Kate Taylor.

Since CBC Radio dropped commercial advertising in the 1970s, there have always been those who say CBC-TV should follow suit. But until recently they were dismissed either as starry-eyed idealists or as right-wing ideologues looking to hand ad revenue to commercial broadcasters.  As for those who say the ad-free BBC is the best broadcaster in the world, well, Britons pay for it through a licence fee on their tellies.  Try telling Canadians there's a new tax on TVs. No, an ad-free CBC Television has been considered a non-starter for 30 years.

View article as it appears on the Friends of Canadian Broadcasting website
 

CBC fans push case for CRTC review.  The CRTC has delayed CBC's license renewal for a year while it reviews over-the-air TV. View Article page 1  page 2

View article as it appears on the Friends of Canadian Broadcasting website

Fred Mattocks, Executive Director CBC English Television Production and Resources, responds to Hugh Jordan's letter to the Kamloops Daily News on July 19, 2006 (above).  CBC will not restore broadcast TV in Kamloops because "it is not efficient to expend significant resources to service a very small and shrinking proportion of the TV audience in the area." View article

CBC Executive Rules out Over-the-air Broadcasts, by Mike Youds.  "There is a review of the entire Canadian broadcasting system," Mattocks noted, "One of the questions is whether public broadcasters should provide over-the-air transmission at all." View article

CBC decision makes little sense for Kamloops. Hugh Jordan says it's wrong to depend on data from the Board of Broadcast Measurement to justify the CBC's decision to cut broadcast service to Kamloops.  Conservatively, at least 30 per cent of Kamloopsians watch broadcast TV not the 5 per cent claimed by the CBC.  View Article  

Saying that this Conservative government has a cool relationship with the national network would be putting it lightly. The Reform/Canadian Alliance contingent of the party has been outright hostile to the CBC.  And a new local group called Save Our CBC Kamloops is fighting the shutdown, claiming that it's unfair to force residents in the B.C. town to pay for the service twice--through their taxes as well as having to subscribe to a pay-television provider.

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Petition urges CBC's return.  "We are focusing our energy principally on getting 15,000 signatures," said Pam Astbury, president of the lobby group.

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The Canadian Media Guild Communications Coordinator Karen Wirsig told us that they support our campaign to restore over-the-air broadcast of CBC television. In their recent newsletter they advocate using cable subscription money to help pay for broadcasting.

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CBC petitioners build campus support.  Thompson Rivers University faculty association support campaign to restore CBC over-the-air television broadcasting.

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 City Council Wants to Save Our CBC.  City council unanimously passes motion to send letter to Bev Oda, minister responsible for the CBC, requesting that the CBC restore over-the-air broadcasting of CBC television to Kamloops.

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Kamloops a test case for CBC, union argues.  The Canadian Media Guild which represents media workers, plans to take Kamloops' loss of over-the-air TV to the CRTC on December 1.  Guild representative, Karen Wirsig, says that Kamloops may be the first of many smaller centers to loose broadcast CBC TV.

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In an interview on radio, Karen Wirsig of the The Canadian Media Guild talks about her plans to present the loss of CBC over-the-air to the CRTC.  She says that broadcast TV should be part of our national infrastructure and that it's unfair to expect Canadians who live and work in rural areas to pay twice for CBC signals.

Listen to interview in mp3 format, 8min 20 sec, 1.4 Mb

Lise Lareau and Karen Wirsig from the Canadian Media Guild and Barbara Byers from the Canadian Labour Congress tell the CRTC that the loss of over-the-air TV is not a future possibility, it is a current reality in Kamloops.  They present an impact statement of the effect that loss is having on Kamloopsians (see appendix).

Read presentation with comments and index

Arthur Lewis presents a case for making multiplexed digital TV channels available to all as a basic package with Kamloops being a test site.

Read a transcript of Lewis' presentation

Arthur Lewis, executive director for the Ottawa based Our Public Airwaves told the CRTC hearing in Gatineau, Quebec that Kamloops should be used as a site to test new Digital TV technology.  One transmitter could broadcast over-the-air digital signals that bundle a number of public channels to Kamloopsians  for a nominal fee.

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Pam Astbury of Save Our CBC Kamloops says that Kamloops could become the test site for new digital technology that allows transmission of a number of channels from one transmission tower.  That would allow for public networks like the CBC to be bundled together in one signal.

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Hugh Jordan of Save Our CBC Kamloops says we could have digital TV signals that bundle a number of channels on one signal.  Either a digital TV or an old analog TV could receive the channels through a box that sits on top of the TV much the way satellite reception works.

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The federal Conservatives are pushing their vision of the Telecom world of less regulation and letting market forces control our airwaves.  The CRTC is urging caution as the Tories recently overturned decisions.  Think about consumers and new competition, the regulators urge.

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