February 12, 2022
On trust in radio on World Radio Day. From February 11, 2022. UNESCO -- the United Nations Educational Scientific Cultural Organization -- designates February 13th as World Radio Day. Each year's recognition has a new theme; this year's is trust. Let's consider that, in light of the three sub-themes of the day. Commentary.
This show also airs on 96-9 CKHC-FM Radio Humber from Humber College in Toronto. On World Radio Day, it airs at 12 noon Eastern; 4pm and 7pm.
February 4, 2022
On how to frame the events on Parliament Hill. From February 4, 2022. As a protest by a group calling itself Freedom Convoy continues in Ottawa, perhaps some more attention should be given in the news to the people who seem to be looked up to by the protestors. What started out being billed as a truckers' protest against a federal mandate about being vaccinated against covid-19 in order to cross the Canadian border seems to have become a general rage against all covid restrictions. Of course most of those are the jurisdiction of provincial governments, not the federal government. But some fringe political figures insist protestors won't budge unless the federal government gives in to their demands to end all covid restrictions. Makes fair dealing use of audio Tweeted by Ontario MPP Randy Hillier; news conference audio broadcast over CTV; public domain audio from the House of Commons.
January 28, 2022
On radio station branding – and what’s in a name. From January 27, 2022. Another information radio station in Toronto has rebranded - changed its name and its on-air imaging that signifies how it wants to be perceived. It's probably not wise to have "News" in the name of your radio station if your on-air product is mainly "talk". For educational purposes. Makes fair dealing use of aircheck audio from CFMJ Toronto, now re-branded as 640 Toronto.
For more on the difference between news and talk: Season 3, Episode One: https://paulcrosstoronto.podbean.com/e/cross-talk-season-3-episode-1/
For reference to the late 2021 re-branding of 680News Toronto and some thoughts on the future of news: Season Six, Episode Two. https://paulcrosstoronto.podbean.com/e/cross-talk-season-six-episodetwo/
January 13, 2022
On covering the insurrection. From January 12, 2022. On January 7th -- one day after the anniversary of the assault on the U-S capital -- I check in with a radio and tv reporter who was there, reporting the events as they were happening. Reggie Cecchini is a Washington correspondent for Global News, and is heard on Global News and Corus-branded radio stations across Canada as well as on tv news. Students note: he's a graduate of the Broadcasting - Radio program at Humber College. Our full interview discussion is part of course content in RBD 154 in Winter 2022. For educational purposes. Makes fair dealing use of audio from a live-hit stand-up tv report on Global News Toronto from January 6, 2021.
December 20, 2021
On transmedia and multiplatform storytelling in the age of the pandemics. From December 17, 2021. In the time of the pandemic, users are using more of our creative content to meet their wants and needs. As I was producing this episode, we were on the verge of a new round of restrictions on activity because of a wave of another variant of the virus. There will be more engagement in the content we make available. In this episode, I consider the concept of uses and gratifications. The term audience is already so old and outdated as a concept. It's all about the user experience now, being everywhere the user might find you, and considering how the user who becomes a fan may wish to engage further. For educational purposes. Makes fair dealing use of bits of audio from The Tonight Show with Stephen Colbert on CBS-TV.
December 9, 2021
How local radio reacts – the murder of John Lennon. From December 8, 2021. FM rock radio in New York City breaks the news to listeners...on December 8th, 1980. For educational purposes. Makes fair dealing use of bits of audio from The Ed Sullivan Show on CBS, 1964 and radio aircheck and archive audio from WPLJ -FM New York, ABC Radio News New York and WNEW-FM New York. The WPLJ aircheck recording can be found on YouTube, posted by TVR Productions. They say the radio audio was recorded on an 8-track tape. Oh, the recording 8-track. Gives me another idea. I hope to find access to some of the remarkable on-air recordings from CHUMFM Toronto and from CFNY-FM for a future episode, too.
![Cross Talk: Season six, Episode Four]()
November 26, 2021
On preserving Canada's radio and tv history. From November 25, 2021. Radio history is part of our history. But there's no publicly-funded, organized institutional repository or archive of significant audio or other records from Canada's radio history. By contrast, the United States has a Radio Preservation Task Force at the Library of Congress. In Canada, a charitable foundation -- the Canadian Communications Foundation -- started with a grant from broadcasters as a "Centennial Project" in 1967 appears to have run its course, and is likely to archive its decades of writings and audio online. Meantime, another group still faces obstacles after 20 years of trying to create an online museum of Canadian radio and tv history. Hello, National Archives of Canada...your move? For educational purposes. Makes fair dealing use of audio from Canada Post; CBC archives; The Canadian Broadcast Museum Foundation; cites The Canadian Communications Foundation.
The CCF website and resources can be found at www.broadcasting-history.ca
The Canadian Broadcast Museum Foundation is at www.aireum.ca
The CBC Radio and tv archives can be found at https://www.cbc.ca/archives
The US Radio Preservation Task Force is at https://radiopreservation.org/
Photo: Showing crew with equipment labelled from CHNS Radio, Halifax and CRC (before CBC) taken from Nova Scotia Archives https://archives.novascotia.ca/
November 9, 2021
On the Future of News - Part One. From November 4, 2021. On various occasions this season I will explore aspects of The Future of News from perspectives of news production, distribution, audience -- including uses and gratification, user experience, and user feedback and response. I will connect these episodes with research I am conducting. In part one here, I scratch the surface on some recent changes at three AM radio stations in Toronto that have news and news-talk formats. The news-talk stations focus on talk; the amount of local news they generate and broadcast uniquely to their listeners has been drastically reduced by corporate moves that leave them sounding much like promotional arms for the corporate news products; and much less-equipped to generate local news on their own. For educational purposes. Makes fair dealing use of top-of-the-hour station identification and news sounders from AM640 Global Newsradio Toronto, CityNews680, and Newstalk 1010.
