paulcrosstoronto’s Podcast

Cross Talk: Season Six, Episode Six

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 The term audience is already so old and outdated as a concept.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.

Cross Talk: Season Six, Episode Five

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

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/

 

 

 

 

 

Cross Talk Season Six, Episode Three

On the podcast career accelerator at Hot Docs. From November 12, 2021. The Hot Docs documentary festival in Toronto is offering young independent podcast makers an opportunity to learn from experts.  Their initiative seems like something that would appeal to many of the students I teach in the three academic programs I'm involved in; so I connected with the festival to find out more.  For education purposes.  Makes fair dealing use of a bit of audio from The Kids Table comedy troupe, found on YouTube.  Original interview with Stephanie McArthur of Hot Docs conducted by me.  Here is the link for applying to the two initiatives she discusses: https://www.hotdocscinema.ca/c/podcast-accelerator?ep=1&utm_source=ExternalOutreach&utm_medium=PodcastOrgs&utm_campaign=PodcastFestival&utm_id=utm_id&utm_content=CareerAccelerator

https://www.hotdocscinema.ca/c/opening-act

 

 

Cross Talk: Season Six, EpisodeTwo

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.

Cross Talk: Season Six, Episode One

On resisting the ongoing abuse of the War of the Worlds broadcast. From October 27, 2021 - just ahead of World Audio Drama day October 30th.  This is the fifth episode in my ongoing defence of War of the Worlds as brilliant fiction on radio; so powerful it gave the aggrieved print media of 1938 more fuel for its outrage about a newer, faster medium.  For educational purposes. The previous episodes exploring my concerns regarding the ongoing mistreatment and miseducation about the broadcast are here:

2020: https://paulcrosstoronto.podbean.com/e/cross-talk-season-5-episode-1/

2019:  https://paulcrosstoronto.podbean.com/e/cross-talk-season-3-episode-5/

2018:  https://paulcrosstoronto.podbean.com/e/cross-talk-season-1-episode-8/

2018:  https://paulcrosstoronto.podbean.com/e/cross-talk-season-1-episode-7/

 

Cross Talk Season 5 Extra: You Won‘t Hear this on the News - Episode 12

From September 30, 2021.  On the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. There is a role for everyone to play.  Here are some thoughts, based on points I raised in a letter to my member of parliament, in the days following the Every Child Matters march in July.

Cross Talk Season 5 Extra: You Won‘t Hear this on the News - Episode 11: 9/11

From September 10, 2021.  On the eve of the 20th anniversary of the events of September 11th, 2001. Broadcasting, podcasting, newspapers and online sites are full of features, analysis, documentaries and special reports about 9/11 including the memories of people who reported the events.  Some of that is by or about people who were on tv that day.  But for millions of people, the story started on the radio on their way to work.  I was on my way to work on the radio...hearing the people already there at work on the radio starting to tell the story from the moment it started.  Some radio reporters got a call: get over the border...now...before it is closed; get to New York and start sending back news. Some of my recollections of that day, and how the story was covered on the radio.  You won't hear this on the news.

You Won't Hear this on the News - Episode10/Cross Talk Season5 Extra

On Emancipation Day.  Suppose it's the first time Canada officially commemorates Emancipation Day as a national holiday.  That would be on the news that day, would it not? I think news coverage was severely lacking.  Not a word in some major newspapers that weekend.  Almost nothing on broadcast news or newsroom social media.  Why not?  Do we just not want to know what it's really about?  From August 5th 2021, having waited a few days after August 1st to see whether follow-up coverage came.  Unscripted.

You Won't Hear this on the News - Episode 9/Cross Talk Season Five Extra

From July 1, 2021: The Every Child Matters March through downtown Toronto. This time: walk with thousands from the Toronto Council Fire building  at Parliament and Dundas Streets to Nathan Phillips Square at Toronto City Hall.  Days after unmarked graves are discovered, containing the bodies of more Indigenous children who died at places Canada calls "residential schools", thousands of people join in marching and demanding action.  News coverage I have seen does not reflect the feeling of the event.  In 15 minutes here, join the march from the starting point to the beginning of ceremonies. Stereo, edited but no processing. Recorded on H2Zoom handheld recorder.