Radio Canada International, onde corte addio. Ma l'Australia accende il DRM

Avevo pubblicato la notizia dei tagli decisi dal governo conservatore canadese solo pochi giorni fa ma le ripercussioni sul bersaglio di queste riduzioni di bilancio - la Canada Broadcasting Corporation - sono state incredibilmente repentine. La CBC dovrà rinunciare a oltre 110 milioni di dollari in tre anni (anche di più considerando altre pressioni antispesa) e una delle prime vittime dichiarate è proprio Radio Canada International, finora una delle poche emittenti internazionali apparsa immune dall'inesorabile marcia verso il definitivo oblio della radio a onde corte per l'estero. Nel giro di una settimana è già stato annunciato che RCI spegnerà definitivamente i trasmettitori, chiuderà le redazioni in lingue russa e brasiliana e addirittura cesserà di produrre notiziari propri. Già a partire da giugno. Un comunicato di Courrier Mondial, il radiogiornale francofono, gentilmente giratomi da Chris Diemoz, parla di una drastica riduzione dell'organico: 40 dismissioni su un totale di 60 persone in forza alla redazione internazionale previste per l'estate. RCI continuerà a diffondere programmi in inglese, francese, spagnolo, arabo e cinese, ma solo via Internet. "Giornata durissima per noi della CBC," ha dichiarato il CEO Hubert Lacroix. E commentando la notizia, che arriva insieme a una analoga stretta su un'altra istituzione culturale, il National Film Board, la giovane regista Tara Johns, intervistata dalla Montreal Gazette, ha dichiarato: «The CBC has been the thing that connects us and talks to us, and it’s being eroded. It feels like there’s a wide swath of homogenization that’s happening and this will only contribute to it. The feeling isn’t good. (These institutions do) feel particularly targeted in this budget.» Un'ondata di omogeneizzazione, quella che attraversa tutti i più importanti broadcaster pubblici del mondo, che va a colpire le capacità produttive interne e porta alla totale o comunque alla significativa scomparsa della comunicazione verso l'estero. Nel caso del Canada è un rospo più difficile da ingoiare perché la nazione nordamericana promuove da sempre l'immigrazione e i programmi radiotelevisivi possono essere uno strumento efficace per questo tipo di politiche.

Le ragioni delle casse statali sempre più impoverite, tuttavia, sono ancora più forti. Subito dopo il sostanziale addio annunciato da Radio Netherland (che l'11 maggio prossimo celebrerà con una intera giornata di trasmissioni rievocative la cessazione delle trasmissioni per l'estero in olandese e ha già chiuso il blog di approfondimento in lingua inglese Media Network), il ridimensionamento drastico delle trasmissioni di Deutsche Welle, quelle della BBC World Service e dell'operatore infrastrutturale Babcock (che chiuderà la frequenza di 1296 kHz di Orfordness con cui copriva una discreta area dell'Europa centrale), adesso anche il Canada spegne le onde corte e lo fa in modo inatteso ma perfettamente in linea coi tempi. Dei big ancora in funzione rimane forse la potenza regionale di Radio Australia, che dal primo aprile tra l'altro ha avviato una programmazione in modulazione numerica DRM dall'impianto di Shepparton (40 kW annunciati). Due le frequenze più favorevoli per l'Europa: 5940 kHz tra le 15 e le 17 UTC e 9475 kHz tra le 17 e le 19 (trasmissioni in modo DRM "C" su 10 kHz di banda in 16QAM level 1 a un rate di 11 kilobit/sec)

CBC for iPad, più di 100 mila brani CBC3 gratis

Poche settimane fa l'emittente pubblica canadese CBC ha rilasciato la sua applicazione per iPad (e iPhone) e secondo il sito di CBC3, il canale musicale disponibile solo su Internet, lo strumento "ridefinisce il modo di erogare il servizio radiofonico ai canadesi". Oltre ai canali via etere, tramite l'applicazione sono disponibili gli oltre quattromila podcast generati dai programmi seriali della CBC. Ma è soprattutto l'aspetto musicale legato alle produzioni di CBC3 a essere in primo piano. I contenuti del canale Web, focalizzato sulla produzione musicale canadese, vengono trasferiti completamente sul tablet Apple, con estese funzioni di interazione e condivisione sui social network. Sullo schermo dell'iPad vengono visualizzati le 23 mila pagine personali di artisti e gruppi e qualcosa come 105 mila tra brani e playlist, tutti gratuiti. Non male in effetti come ridefinizione.

Get the New CBC iPad App, Change Your Life

Posted by John Paolozzi on Nov 04, 2010

I've just been playing with CBC's new iPad App, and if you'll permit me to toot our own horn, it feels like one of those moments where we've just built something that could radically change how CBC delivers our service to Canadians.

Into this itty-bitty little box we've packed CBC Radio One, 2 & 3, AND CBC.ca – all of it. Listen to any of CBC One or 2's streams for your area, or for any area you just happen to think is pretty cool. Grab any of CBC's 4,000+ podcast episodes to listen to while cruising through the vastness that is CBC.ca. And access all of CBC3, including the blog, 23,000+ artist pages, AND all of the 105,000+ tracks and playlists, which are now available for you to listen to wherever you might be.

Canada, il regolatore pensa alla deregulation dell'AM

Konrad von Finckenstein, chairman del regolatore canadese, la Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission, interviene davanti al Comitato di presidenza di Canadian Heritage per introdurre il progetto di consultazione, a partire dal prossimo anno, sulle misure più adatte a preservare il pluralismo e il localismo nell'attuale contesto della "integrazione verticale" mediatica. Cioè la tendenza non solo della concentrazione della proprietà di media diversi in aree geografiche diverse ma anche della graduale sovrapporsi di tre ruoli un tempo ben separati: quello della produzione dei contenuti, della creazione di palinsesti (il ruolo dell'editore) e della distribuzione di palinsesti e contenuti.

E' un discorso interessante perché von Finckesteing affronta il tema della radiofonia AM/FM e pone - credo per la prima volta in Nord America - la questione della deregulation delle onde medie, un medium che sta perdendo cospicue quote di mercato e per il quale il capo della CRTC accenna a una ipotesi di "esenzione" dai vincoli di proprietà e forse di licenza, implicitamente per incoraggiare in quest'ambito l'aggregazione di risorse e la possibilità di creare comunque una massa critica commerciale.

L'intero discorso è stato pubblicato sul sito della CRTC.

Diversity of voices

Let me now turn to the second subject: How can we ensure a diversity of voices in a changing media landscape?

In January 2008, following a wave of consolidation among broadcasters, we announced a policy to maintain a diversity of voices within the private element of the broadcasting system. This policy sets limits on the ownership of media outlets:

In a large market, an entity may control a maximum of two AM and two FM radio stations in the same language. In smaller markets, an entity may control as many as three radio stations operating in the same language, with a maximum of two stations in either frequency band.

For conventional television stations, the limit is one station per language in a given market.

We will not permit an entity to control all three main sources of local news serving the same market: a radio station, a television station and a newspaper. At most, an entity would only be able to control two out of the three.

We will generally not allow a single entity to have effective control of all TV distribution in a market.

Finally, the policy provides a limit to the share of the national audience that a single broadcasting entity may control as a result of a transaction. Any transaction that would result in an entity controlling more than 45% of the national audience will not be approved. Transactions that would result in an entity controlling between 35% and 45% of the national audience will be carefully scrutinized. They will only be allowed if the Commission is convinced that they do not diminish the diversity of voices. And transactions that would result in an entity controlling less than 35% of the national audience will be approved expeditiously if there are no other concerns.

Ownership consolidation is a fact of life, for both economic and technological reasons. Our media companies must be able to compete in the digital environment, where content can come from anywhere.

But in spite of all the consolidation, Canadians still enjoy a rich variety of broadcast programming from public, private and community sources. Our 2008 policy, which was built on previous policies to maintain diversity, has worked well. When we applied it to the Shaw/Canwest transaction that we approved last month, for example, we found that the consolidated company would lay claim to a national audience share of less than 35%.

But we cannot stand still. The rules for common ownership of radio stations are defined in terms of both FM and AM. But as you know, AM is losing market share, and it has been a long time since we had a single application for a new AM licence. The question arises: Should we still be regulating the AM market? Is there a case to be made for letting it go by way of exemption?

Radio Lavabo

Intercettata da Andrea B. nella blogosfera la emblematica vicenda dell'artista canadese Amanda Christie e dei suoi interessi nei confronti dei lavandini utilizzati come ricevitori radio. Tutto parte da Sackville, località canadese sede degli impianti in onde corte di Radio Canada. Gli abitanti della cittadina del New Brunswick segnalano da sempre lo strano fenomeno delle voci in tutte le lingue che fuoriescono dai lavandini delle cucine e da altri oggetti e accessori metallici nelle loro abitazioni. Sono i tubi in rame dei vecchi edifici che agiscono da antenna e dai vari contatti che fungono da diodo raddrizzatore. Le vibrazioni dell'audio che modula il segnale RF subirebbero poi una amplificazione, come nell'altoparlante di un grammofono.

Amanda pubblica sul suo blog un filmato della sua ultima installazione a Sackville, davanti agli uffici di Radio Canada, dove la performer situazionista, armata di saldatore, predispone un impianto idraulico e prova persino a calcolarne la lunghezza ottimale in base alla frequenza da ricevere. Purtroppo il tentativo non riesce e non hanno successo neppure le altre installazioni situate a breve distanza dalle antenne. Ma Amanda non sembra essersi data per vinta. Da vedere anche la sua performance Transmissions, "per radio a onde corte, proiettori 16 mm e sogni" da poco presentata all'Halifax Independent Filmmakers Festival.

Canada: chiude definitivamente l'avventura DAB

In seguito alla comunicazione da parte della CBC della imminente chiusura degli impianti DAB Eureka 147 in funzione in Canada da oltre dieci anni, il regolatore locale CTRC ha revocato le licenze concesse nel 1998 in banda L. E' l'atto notorio della morte della radio digitale DAB in Canada. Forse la decisione preclude a una svolta verso l'adozione del sistema HD Radio varato dal grande cugino nordamericano?

Broadcasting Decision CRTC 2010-381

Ottawa, 15 June 2010

Canadian Broadcasting Corporation

Montréal, Quebec

Application 2010-0868-1, received 19 May 2010

CBME-DR-1, CBM-DR-1, CBF-DR-1 and CBFX-DR-1 Montréal – Revocation of licence

1. The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation has advised the Commission that it will cease operation of its digital radio transmitters CBME-DR-1, CBM-DR-1, CBF-DR-1 and CBFX-DR-1 Montréal.

2. In Operation of new transitional digital radio undertakings in Montréal, Decision CRTC 98-498, 19 November 1998, the Commission authorized the addition of the aforementioned transmitters.

3. Given the licensee’s request and pursuant to sections 9(1)(e) and 24(2) of the Broadcasting Act, the Commission revokes the broadcasting licence issued to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation for CBME-DR-1, CBM-DR-1, CBF-DR-1 and CBFX-DR-1 Montréal, Quebec.

Chiude la radio di Marconi, la più vecchia del Canada

Ormai prossime a un irreversibile tramonto, oggi le stazioni a onde medie canadesi abbandonano a frotte la storica gamma di frequenze. Eppure non è una semplice stazione di musica leggera in onde medie ma un vero pezzo di storia della radio quello che ha chiuso i battenti il 29 gennaio a Montreal insieme a Info690, la consorella informativa anche lei appartenente al gruppo Corus Entertainment. Attraverso i suoi diversi passaggi di proprietà e sigle identificative AM940 CINW era la prima stazione radiofonica commerciale del Canada, aperta nel 1919 con la sigla XWA, Experimental Wireless Apparatus, dalla Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company of Canada, sussidiaria della Marconi britannica, che aveva acquisito i brevetti dell'inventore della radiofonia Reginald Fessenden. Un anno dopo, nel 1920, la stazione acquisirà il nuovo "call", CFCF. Il DXer scozzese Paul Crankshow ha immortalato il momento del definitivo sign-off alla mezzanotte UTC di sabato, quando alle 00.02 CINW spegne il nastro registrato che nelle ore precedenti aveva annunciato la chiusura.

Il gruppo Corus nel comunicato stampa spiega, attraverso il vicepresidente Mario Cecchini (è sua la voce che potete ascoltare nel nastro), che le due stazioni, su 690 e 940 kHz hanno accumulato troppe perdite finanziarie. Per Info690 il danno è "limitato" a un gruppo di giornalisti e a un tecnico che non riavranno il loro lavoro, il resto passerà tutto su FM. Per i Greatest Hits di CINW non c'è stato niente da fare, le perdite sono troppo consistenti per tenere in piedi una radio vecchia di 91 anni. Anche se il gruppo Facebook che raccoglie le firme per la riapertura delle due stazioni vanta già oltre trecento iscritti è difficile pensare che qualcuno si faccia carico delle licenze rimesse al regolatore canadese anche se c'è chi ipotizza (leggete il blog di Steve Faguy, collaboratore del quotidiano Gazette citato più in basso, mentre cliccando sull'immagine di apertura arrivate a una pagina di Radio Canada con il servizio del telegiornale) una possibilità del genere.

Fin des opérations à Info690 AM Montréal et au AM940 Montreal's Greatest Hits

MONTRÉAL, le 29 janv. /CNW Telbec/ - Corus Entertainment a annoncé aujourd'hui qu'elle mettra fin aux opérations de ces stations AM Info690 Montréal et AM940 Montreal's Greatest Hits, le 29 janvier, à 19 h.
Indépendamment du dévouement et de la qualité du travail réalisé par les employés, les stations Info690 et AM940 connaissent des pertes financières importantes. Dans le contexte économique actuel, et malgré le fait que Corus Québec et ses employés aient investi temps et énergie pour relancer ces antennes, il est clair que les stations Info690 et AM940 ne sont pas viables.
Cette décision affectera dix postes dont huit liés aux activités d'Info690 : trois postes de journaliste, deux postes de reporter à la circulation et trois postes aux opérations. Au AM940 Montreal's Greatest Hits, un poste d'animation et un poste de technicien seront touchés.
Il est important de souligner que la salle des nouvelles d'Info690 Montréal, connue sous le nom de Corus Nouvelles, poursuivra ses activités au sein du 98,5 FM Montréal. Comme d'habitude, Corus Nouvelles continuera d'alimenter, en contenu nouvelle, l'ensemble du réseau Corus Québec et ses clients. La majorité des postes de journaliste, cinq des huit postes et trois des cinq postes de reporter à la circulation, seront maintenus.
"Nous avons investi beaucoup dans le développement de formats et de contenus pour relancer, à tous les niveaux, ces deux antennes. Mais après des années d'efforts, nous constatons que les résultats ne sont pas au rendez-vous. Nous tenons à remercier les employés qui sont touchés par cette décision pour leur excellent travail. Nous remercions également les annonceurs et les auditeurs d'Info690 Montréal et du AM940 Montreal's Greatest Hits pour leur fidélité", de déclarer Mario Cecchini, vice-président Corus Québec.
Les licences d'exploitation de ces deux stations AM seront retournées au CRTC. Rappelons que Corus Québec emploie 466 personnes au Québec.

À propos de Corus Québec

Partie intégrante de Corus Entertainment inc., Corus Québec est le plus important radiodiffuseur privé de contenu et d'information au Québec. Il rejoint au-delà de 4,5 millions d'auditeurs par semaine et exploite les stations 96,9 CKOI Montréal, 102,1 CKOI Québec, 104,5 CKOI Estrie, 98,5 FM Montréal, CKAC Sports Montréal, 92,5 The Q Montréal, 103,9 CIME FM Laurentides ainsi que le réseau Souvenirs Garantis avec les stations 102,9 FM Québec, 107,7 FM Estrie, 98,3 FM Saguenay, 104,7 FM Outaouais et 106,9 FM Mauricie. Les sites Web représentés par Corus Québec joignent chaque mois plus de 525 000 internautes francophones et 3 millions d'internautes anglophones au Canada, selon comScore Media Metrix.

***

Corus pulls plug on radio stations

AM940, the first broadcaster in Canada, and AM Info690 weren't making money

BY MIKE KING, JASON MAGDER CONTRIBUTED TO THIS REPORT, THE GAZETTE JANUARY 30, 2010


Canada's first radio station fell silent last night, as Canadian media and entertainment empire Corus Entertainment Inc. pulled the plug on two Montreal AM radio stations.
AM Info690 Montréal and AM940 Montreal's Greatest Hits went off the air at 7 p.m. - both deemed unprofitable, particularly in the current economic climate. AM940 is a direct descendent of Canada's first radio station, CFCF, originally at the 600 dial on the AM band. In 1919, the Canadian Marconi Co. launched XWA (Experimental Wireless Apparatus) in Montreal and it became the first commercial broadcast radio station in Canada. The name was switched to CFCF in November 1920.
The stations were pulled off at 7:02 p.m., cutting off a recording that had been running since all programming stopped about 10 a.m. The recordings, which were made by the general managers of the respective stations, thanked listeners, and advertisers, and explained it was a difficult decision to close the stations. "We put tremendous effort into trying to find the right format and content to grow our audience base and operate profitably, but after years of effort, it is clear these AM stations are not viable," Mario Cecchini, vice-president of subsidiary Corus Québec, said in a prepared statement. "We would like to thank the employees affected by this decision for their hard work," he added. "We would also like to acknowledge the support of listeners and advertising clients of Info690 Montréal and AM940 Montreal's Greatest Hits."
Brian Kenemy, a former vice-president of Corus Québec's English radio holdings, said in an interview that he thinks Corus "did its best to hang on as long as they could looking for affordable formats." But with most money directed toward FM programming, Kenemy suggested that the public company found it too difficult to continue supporting the struggling stations.
Bourget MNA Maka Kotto, Parti Québécois culture and communications critic, argued the closing of Info690 "is not good news, because it sounds the death knell of another Francophone newsroom in Montreal and further undermines the media in Quebec."
The decision to cease operations affects eight jobs at Info690 - three journalists, two traffic reporters and three operations positions - but five of those positions are to be retained. The Info690 Montréal newsroom, known as CorusNouvelles, will continue its activities as part of 98.5 FM Montréal. Cecchini said CorusNouvelles will continue to invest in providing news content to the entire Corus Québec network of a dozen stations that reaches 4.5 million listeners weekly.
Two jobs, an on-air host and a technician, are affected at AM940 - which switched from all news to all music in 2008. The operating licences for the closed stations will be returned to the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission.

Canada: CBC (pubblica) in crisi, governo sotto accusa

I tempi sono durissimi e ci saranno 800 posti di lavoro in meno, pari a circa il 10% della forza lavoro attuale. Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, l'ente radiotelevisivo pubblico canadese, annuncia la propria strategia anticrisi, prevedendo tagli sul budget 2009-2010 pari a 171 milioni di dollari canadesi. Oltre ai posti di lavoro saranno tagliati i programmi, specialmente i notiziari a copertura locale, quelli che richiedono un gran numero di giornalisti e corrispondenti.
CBC è un po' una anomalia nell'America del Nord, unica grande istituzione (radiotelevisiva) pubblica in un continente dove anche il poco pubblico viene spesso gestito come cosa privata. Ma la crisi incalza e anche il ricco Canada dovrà risparmiare. I partiti dell'opposizione però insorgono, dicono che i tagli decisi dal governo non sono giustificati, che metteranno a rischio l'informazione locale e soprattutto il sacro principio del bilinguismo. Tra l'altro, dicono ancora gli oppositori al governo di Mr. Stephen Harper, la CBC non ha mai chiesto soldi ma flessibilità, la possibilità di compensare le perdite con gli introiti pubblicitari.
Siamo alle solite. Di nuovo la non facile problematica della definizione di pubblico servizio e dei modelli più opportuni per il suo sostentamento. Forse è anche vero che l'idea di un bene, un servizio posseduto e controllato da tutti è tramontata. O meglio che è tramontata l'idea che la collettività eserciti il suo controllo attraverso il meccanismo della rappresentanza parlamentare. Oggi il controllo, la decisione, è affidata al mercato. Che però ultimamente si è rivelato un pessimo mediatore di interessi, premiando pochi furbetti e mettendo in crisi milioni di persone. Un mercato che oltretutto è costretto a pensare in termini più quantitativi che qualitativi. E si vede. Mi chiedo davvero se sia solo un caso, se i guai di natura finanziaria che angustiamo molti enti radiotelevisivi pubblici sono legati alla presenza, al potere, di tanti governi neoconservatori. Una volta i governi conservatori e progressisti (non erano molti, in verità) erano uniti nella tutela di queste grandi emittenti. Lo erano perché le strumentalizzavano a scopi elettorali. Oggi i governi hanno paura delle varie CBC perché tendono a essere indipendenti e a dire la verità. Verità spesso troppo scomode sul piano elettorale. I tempi cambiano del resto.

CBC/Radio-Canada outlines 2009-2010 business plan; announces layoffs

March 25, 2009 - CBC/Radio-Canada’s Senior Executive Team outlined its 2009-2010 business plan for employees today. The strategic blueprint for managing the Corporation through the current financial crisis was approved by the Board of Directors on March 17.
As anticipated, the plan includes major cuts to services, programs and people, measures necessary to bridge a financial shortfall that the Corporation estimates will reach $171 million in 2009-2010. Most notably, the plan calls for a reduction of up to 800 positions (full time equivalents).
The downsizing process will commence right away, with layoffs beginning in the summer months and finishing by the end of September 2009. Between now and then, management will continue working closely with the unions to find creative ways of reducing the number of job cuts required to meet budgetary targets. The first step in that process is the immediate implementation of a targeted Voluntary Retirement Incentive Program, which has been submitted to Government for approval.
“People are the foundation of our success,” said Hubert T. Lacroix, President and CEO. “We’ve done and will continue to do everything we can to minimize the impact of the situation on our staff. But in a company where 60 per cent of the overall budget goes to salaries, it’s simply impossible to bridge a gap of this magnitude without having a major impact on people.”
“These were difficult and painful decisions to make – all the more so given that, in so many ways, this is a golden time for public broadcasting in Canada,” continued Lacroix. “Our audience numbers are at historic highs. We’re producing some of the most compelling content we’ve ever made. We’re leading the way amongst broadcasters online. We’ve entered a new era of cooperation with our unions. We run one of the most efficient public broadcasting organizations in the world. But all that is being threatened now by factors that are out of our control.”
The Corporation developed its plan based on a scenario that was submitted to Government in February 2009 which assumes a $158 million shortfall and $13 million in strategic investments for the coming year. That scenario is based on the Government authorizing the Corporation to raise $125 million through sale of some of its assets. The shortfall can be attributed to a convergence of factors: declining ad revenues, increasing costs related to programming, a base salary funding shortfall, and aging infrastructure. The situation is at risk of being magnified by the continued deterioration of any one of those factors or by hurdles encountered during the asset sale process.
Above and beyond staff reduction, several measures are being put in place to bridge the gap. Those include:

• scaling back of regional radio and television programming;
• decrease in current affairs, drama, music, and special event programming;
• reductions in news;
• repeat presentations throughout the schedule to make up for reduced content production;
• reduction of marketing budgets;
• streamlining of production methods;
• 10-20 per cent cut in executive compensation;
• cutting of discretionary spending (travel, hospitality, etc.);
• slowing of recruitment.

Lacroix explained that while the scope of services is being compromised today, the plan was developed to allow the Corporation to keep the core elements of its strategic plan and preserve its ability to serve Canadians: “The choices we’ve made are anchored in a clear vision of what we want and need to become as a 21st century public broadcaster. My job is to keep the CBC/Radio-Canada whole, and to try not to renege on or back away from any whole elements of our mandate. While it’s impossible to let go of as many people as we are without sacrificing services, it’s critical that we stay focussed on becoming a content company, on being a leader in reaching Canadians on new platforms and on being deeply rooted in the regions.”
With that in mind, the plan protects the Corporation’s focus in several key areas:

• the non-commercial nature of radio will be preserved;
• television will continue to consist of 80 per cent or more Canadian content during prime time;
• every effort has been made to protect our regional footprint;
• all major market morning and drive-home radio shows will remain on the air;
• we will maintain our strategic investment in new media and new platforms;
• funding for employee training programs will remain in place.

Ted Rogers, magnate canadese: una fortuna dalla radio

Le sue ricchezze di quarto uomo più affluente del Canada sono legate alla telefonia cellulare e alla tv via cavo, ma le radici affondano nei primordi dell'industria della radio. E l'esempio che cercò di seguire da giovane imprenditore fu quello del padre, Edward "Ted" Rogers Sr., il radioamatore che tra i primi aveva collegato in antenna i suoi colleghi d'oltre Atlantico, che aveva acquistato e perfezionato il brevetto di un tubo elettronico alimentabile a corrente alternata per costruire i primi apparecchi capaci di funzionare con l'elettricità di casa, senza le ingombranti e inquinanti batterie che un tempo erano indispensabili per far funzionare i ricevitori dei primordi. La radio è stata l'inizio della fortuna di due famiglie Rogers, prima quella del padre, quindi quella del figlio.
Per colpa di un maledetto aneurisma l'inventore della batteryless radio non arrivò ai quarant'anni, lasciando a Ted Junior, scomparso oggi a Toronto, anche lui per un guaio cardiovascolare, l'eredità ingombrante di un genio della tecnologia e dell'industria, difficile da imitare. Ted Jr - che non studiò ingegneria ma legge - ci riuscì, a modo suo, sfiorando più volte fallimenti clamorosi. E senza centrare un obiettivo sentimental-affaristico importante: riuscire a riacquistare la stazione radio creata dal padre prima di morire, radio CFRB, Canada's First Rogers Batteryless, una di quelle che si possono ascoltare anche qui in Europa, in onde medie, sulla non facile frequenza di 1010 kHz; lo stesso spazio occupato dalla mitica stazione newyorkese WINS anche lei, come CFRB (con somma gioia dei DXer che devono stare ben attenti a non confonderle), una "all news, all the time".
Con la scomparsa di Ted padre, CFRB dovette essere venduta. Una trentina d'anni dopo, il figlio rileva un'altra stazione in modulazione di frequenza, CHFI. Sarà la prima pietra di un impero mediatico che spazia dalla radiofonia alla tv digitale via cavo e comprende anche quotidiani e una squadra di baseball.
Oggi Rogers Communications capitalizza 16 miliardi di dollari americani e ha un fatturato annuo di 10 miliardi di dollari canadesi.

Ted Rogers dies at 75

GORDON PITTS

Globe and Mail Update

December 2, 2008 at 9:30 AM EST

Ted Rogers spent his life defying expectations. He feared he would die by the time he was 38, the age when his father was felled by a ruptured aneurysm, leaving a six-year-old son with the pristine image of a heroic dad.

Driven by this memory, young Ted managed to live almost twice as long as his father, surviving a lengthy catalogue of physical ailments. He died on Tuesday at the age of 75 at his home in Toronto. He suffered from congestive heart failure.
A sickly kid, he was always picked last for sports teams at upper-crust Upper Canada College, but he made himself into a decent boxer. As an adult, he bought a major league baseball team, the Toronto Blue Jays, while conceding he was “the village idiot” on baseball matters.
But his greatest expectation-smashing act was escaping bankruptcy, as his flagship Rogers Communications Inc. survived a parade of near-death experiences, buried under the debt amassed by its risk-embracing owner.

The life of Ted Rogers

A look back at the career of one of Canada's most wealthy business figures

“Mr. Rogers' successor as chief executive officer will be addressed by the Rogers Communications board of directors, which intends to form a special committee to lead a search considering internal and external candidates. In the meantime, Alan Horn, chairman of Rogers Communications, will continue to serve as acting chief executive officer and lead the company's office of the president,” the company said in a statement.
In the end, Mr. Rogers was master of the communications universe in Canada, the owner of the dominant cable TV system, of radio and television stations, of magazine publishing, residential telephone services and the largest wireless network. He was the rare communications titan to solve the convergence conundrum, combining media content and transmission in a single corporate entity.
“He was not a strong person, and he had a pretty vulnerable physique, but as long as there was a deal in the air that he could sniff, he would make it,” says Robin Korthals, a former president of the Toronto Dominion Bank, who negotiated the bank's first loan 40 years ago in what would become a mutually beneficial relationship with Mr. Rogers.
He was this country's version of Steve Jobs, a technology entrepreneur who was down but never out, who unabashedly loved gadgetry, who had a huge, resilient ego, who made life hell for his executives but could evoke great loyalty – and who triumphed over naysayers to become the second wealthiest Canadian with a personal net worth estimated at more than $7-billion.
He built his riches on crushingly hard work and a clever understanding of the Byzantine web of government regulation surrounding broadcasting, cable TV and the phone business. Though he started in radio, his near-monopoly in cable television in Canada's richest urban market was the base of his fortune. But he was controversial, and many of his cable customers never forgave Mr. Rogers after being forced to take cable channels they didn't want. The marketing phrase 'negative option billing' became a new Canadian curse.
But the big disappointment of his life was he never purchased Toronto radio station CFRB, started by his father. The Rogers family lost control of it after the father's early death, but young Ted vowed to his mother that one day he would get it back. Right near the end, he was agitating with CFRB's current owner, Astral Media Inc., to buy the station.
Descended from Quaker roots in the United States, Edward Samuel Rogers was born in Toronto on May 27, 1933. His father, also Edward or Ted, was celebrated for his invention of a radio than ran without batteries. In the early days of radio, a set needed a battery the same way a car does now. Ted Rogers Sr. solved that problem by making tubes do the work so the radio could be simply plugged into the wall. The elder Rogers became Canada's largest manufacturer of radios and the last two letters in CFRB stood for “Rogers Batteryless,” the brand name of his invention.
Young Ted Rogers was a gangly child with reddish hair who was born almost blind in his right eye. When his father died in 1939, his mother Velma could not carry on, and there was an uncle who was anxious to rid himself of the industrial assets.
After the sale of the radio factory and CFRB, the estate added up to $384,000, enough for a comfortable life, but it marked the end of his father's technological legacy. Instead, Ted Rogers carried a lifelong torch, collecting old Roger's Majestic radios and driving to rebuild what had been lost.
Mr. Rogers also married well, to a woman who loyally supported him through his near-death experiences. In 1957, he was visiting a school pal in the Bahamas where he went to a party and met Loretta Ann Robinson, the 18-year-old daughter of a British MP, who later became Lord Martonmere and governor of Bermuda.
They married on Sept, 25, 1963 – and Loretta immediately persuaded her father to advance $450,000 from her inheritance to fund Ted's first venture into radio.
Although he was trained in law, it played second fiddle to completing his father's unfinished business. After a lacklustre law-school stint, he sought an articling position with the Toronto law firm of Tory's, where he begged John A. Tory, son of the founder, to take him on. John and his twin brother Jim liked the bumptious, slightly younger man, and hired him despite his poor grades.
“Ted Rogers probably would not have been on our list to interview, but we did hire him,” John A. Tory recalled in an interview with Caroline Van Hasselt, author of a recent biography High Wire Act, Ted Rogers and the Empire that Debt Built. “Whether we would have kept him is a different story. He wasn't around very much.”
Because of Mr. Rogers's absences, Jim Tory, who supervised him, initially refused to sign the document confirming his full-time articling attendance. He relented when his brother pointed out that Mr. Rogers had pledged he would never actually practice law.
Mr. Rogers also promised to get down on his knees and shine Jim Tory's shoes “at any time in any place for the rest of his life,” the book relates. For years afterward, he did just that when he would meet Jim Tory at public events.
Ted Rogers was lucky with his Tory connections – with the Tory party which he supported (his hero was former prime minister John Diefenbaker), and the Tory family, who became lifelong advisers. John A. Tory was consigliere to the wealthy Thomson family, but he was a trusted counsellor to Mr. Rogers, too. And John A.'s son, John H. Tory, became a key RCI executive before pursuing an elected political career.
To some extent, Mr. Rogers followed the business model of patriarch Roy Thomson, the media entrepreneur who believed in using debt leverage to finance growth. But while the Thomsons would deploy free cash flow to pay down existing debt before launching another spending spree, Mr. Rogers gleefully lurched from one leveraged deal to another.
“Maybe he found that exciting,” says John A. Tory, who insists Mr. Rogers was always confident of his ability to salvage the situation, even as his stock price plummeted. He was somewhat protected by the nature of his businesses, such as cable and broadcasting, which were regulated and subscription-based, thus providing steady cash flows. What's more, the heavy capital spending and debt payments allowed Rogers Communications to avoid paying tax year after year.
At Tory's, he actually spent most of his articling time researching how to acquire communications assets. At 26, while dabbling in a new private TV station for Toronto (CFTO), he used an inheritance — about $100,000 — to buy Toronto's first FM station, CHFI.
FM radio was new then, the station had only been on the air since 1957, and FM receivers were expensive. Ted Rogers had some FM radios designed, with CHFI-FM etched into them, and sold them at the Canadian National Exhibition in Toronto, the same place his father launched his Rogers Batteryless Radio in 1925.
Mr. Rogers plunged into the media industry, managing the radio station and opening an AM version of CHFI in 1962. That station stayed in the Rogers stable and in 1990, radio 680 went to an all-news format, with its `traffic and weather together on the ones' or every 10 minutes.

(continua sul The Globe and Mail di Toronto)

Il falso Sarko radiofonico imbarazza la Palin

Hanno subito sbancato YouTube i sei minuti di conversazione telefonica tra la candidata alla vicepresidenza USA Sarah Palin e una coppia di comici radiofonici di Montreal che hanno chiamato gli uffici della governatrice dell'Alaska spacciandosi per Nicholas Sarkozy e il suo staff. Sébastien Trudel e Marc-Antoine Audette, i "Giustizieri Mascherati" non sono nuovi a queste imprese. Anche Bill Gates, Paul McCartney e Mick Jagger sono annoverati tra le vittime degli scherzi. Forse la Palin avrebbe dovuto sospettare qualcosa quando il presunto Sarko le ha rivelato di seguire con attenzione la campagna presidenziale con l'aiuto del suo consigliere speciale Johnny Halliday e che la moglie Carla aveva appena composto una canzone su Joe the Plumber, l'idraulico che fa da personaggio-tormentone nei comizi della controversa candidata. Oltre all'articolo del Journal de Montréal potete leggere (e ascoltare lo scherzo) quanto pubblicato sul sito di CKOI, la stazione FM da dove i Giustizieri trasmettono le loro burle.

Nel frattempo i giornali americani danno la notizia del coinvolgimento nella campagna per l'elezione del successore di Bush di una star come Barbara "Babs" Streisand, che ha voluto dare il suo contributo nelle ultime ore del duello intervenendo in diverse stazioni radio negli Stati dove Barack Obama è ancora in bilico. Babs ha risposto alle domande degli ascoltatori di cinque stazioni in Missouri, Indiana, Nevada, Pennsylvania, Ohio. E adesso, vinca il migliore.

JUSTICIERS MASQUÉS
«Complètement fou»
Philippe Renault et Louis Mathieu Gagné

Le Journal de Montréal
03-11-2008

Le tour de force qu'ont réalisé les Justiciers masqués en piégeant Sarah Palin au téléphone reçoit une attention internationale inouïe, en commençant bien sûr par nos voisins américains. Les deux humoristes se sont d'ailleurs envolés pour New York hier après-midi afin de participer à des émissions sur la populaire chaîne de télévision CBS.
Joint hier après-midi alors qu'il se trouvait à l'aéroport Pierre-Elliott-Trudeau en compagnie de son acolyte de toujours Sébastien Trudel, Marc- Antoine Audette n'en revenait pas.
«C'est complètement fou. Ce que nous vivons, c'est comme Céline, mais avec l'argent en moins !», lance celui qui a personnifié le président français Nicolas Sarkozy lors du coup de téléphone dont a été victime samedi la candidate républicaine à la vice-présidence.
«On a reçu des centaines de courriels et 95 % d'entre eux sont positifs. Les gens disent wow, ça prouve que Sarah Palin n'a pas les compétences requises. Sur notre site hier, 500 personnes à la seconde se connectaient. Nous sommes comme dans une twiligh zone !», lâche Sébastien Trudel.
La vidéo de l'entretien était d'ailleurs la plus vue hier sur YouTube. À 19h, elle avait été visionnée plus de 1 000 000 fois.

De l'Australie à l'Afrique

Jamais le duo qui sévit sur les ondes de CKOI depuis 10 ans n'aurait osé imaginer recevoir une telle attention.
«À NBC, ils ont passé intégralement le coup de téléphone. Il y a même quelqu'un du Parti républicain qui disait que c'était le der nier clou dans le cercueil», poursuit-il avec amusement, faisant référence au découragement des troupes républicaines.
«Le clan Palin a réagi et le candidat à la vice-présidence de Barack Obama en a parlé en conférence de presse», mentionne fièrement Sébastien Trudel.
Les médias américains ont fait grand état hier du coup fumant des «Masked Avengers». Des plus populaires comme FOX et le USA Today aux plus sérieux tels que CNN et le Washington Post, tous ont souligné leur exploit.
Le duo est d'ailleurs attendu ce matin au très populaire Early Show. Suivra ensuite le Inside Edition, toujours sur CBS.
L'histoire a eu des échos aux quatre coins du monde, allant de la Chine à la France en passant par l'Australie, la Russie et le Royaume-Uni. Même la Thaïlande, l'Afrique du Sud et Israël n'y ont pas échappé !
La totalité de l'entretien est accessible au www.justiciers.tv.

Il Cherokee della radio cerca un posto in Parlamento

Che bella storia di radici aggrovigliate quella di Thomas King, "radio personality" canadese che ha deciso di farsi eleggere in Parlamento per il New Democratic Party. La racconta il New York Times di ieri per la penna Ian Austen, un cronista dal cognome estremamente impegnativo. Thomas King è uno scrittore americano che vive in Canada da quasi 30 anni. In realtà Tom è il figlio di un indiano Cherokee dell'Oklahoma e di una figlia di genitori greci di "upstate" New York, come dire la radice dell'Europa che emigra e si fonde con la radice dell'America del Nord. Avviato a una carriera universitaria e letteraria, viene convinto a trasferirsi in Canada nel 1980, per insegnare "native studies". Deve rimanerci un anno e invece non si muove più, il Canada "gli cresce intorno". Nel 1995 la CBC lo convince a serializzare per la radio i suoi romanzi e nasce la Dead Dog Café Comedy Hour, che a dispetto del nome dura solamente un quarto d'ora ma che per l'efficacia della sua ironia e dei suoi personaggi (King al microfono interpreta se stesso e per quanto in punta di fioretto il programma non lesinava sulle stoccate al potere) diventa rapidamente un programma culto. Durerà solo cinque anni ma questo basta per trasformare King in una icona. E martedì vedremo se questa icona riuscirà a sedersi sui banchi parlamentari della sua ennesima nazione adottiva.

Austen osserva che è come se l'autore americano Garrison Keillor abbandonasse la sua trasmissione Prairie Home Companion per sbarcare a Capitol Hill. O, nel nostro caso, se Fiorello si presentasse a Montecitorio. A volte mi chiedo se non sarebbe proprio il caso di farci rappresentare da personaggi così lontani dai letali stereotipi della nostra arrogante e inamovibile casta.

A Radio Serialist’s Next Episode: Running for Canada’s Parliament

By IAN AUSTEN Published: October 10, 2008

"I really thought with 'Dead Dog' that I was helping to save the world in some small way." Thomas King.

AS a writer, Thomas King has twice been nominated for Canada’s main literary prize, the Governor General’s Literary Awards, and his work as an academic has brought him acclaim and honors. But Mr. King’s popularity comes mainly from his performances as Tom King, an often frustrated, somewhat assimilated Canadian Indian who is the straight man in “The Dead Dog Cafe Comedy Hour,” a popular and long-running series of 15-minute radio programs he created and wrote.
Now Mr. King, 65, has set aside the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s microphones to make his first foray into electoral politics. His decision to run for a seat in the House of Commons in a campaign that ends Tuesday is, in an American context, about as predictable as Garrison Keillor abandoning Lake Wobegon for a shot at Congress.
But as he stretched out his tall, fit frame in the living room of his still incomplete, environmentally friendly house, Mr. King said it was finally time to leave “night shift politics” for a more conventional political platform.
“One of the things that I most regret is that I had to give up ‘Dead Dog’ in order to run for office,” Mr. King said. “I really thought with ‘Dead Dog’ that I was helping to save the world in some small way. But you’re never sure how much good you’re doing.
“I always tell my Liberal friends they need to vote for me because I’m a lot less dangerous in Ottawa with a partial muzzle than I am free on the Canadian airwaves with absolutely no restraints.”
Whether Mr. King, who is a professor of English at the University of Guelph, will succeed in persuading Liberals and members of other parties to elect him under the banner of the left-leaning, labor-backed New Democratic Party is unclear.
Although most Canadian politicians have to endure a campaign of only 38 days, Mr. King has been seeking votes for almost a year after the sitting member of Parliament for Guelph, a Liberal, retired. Last month, the much-delayed special election to replace her was swept into the national vote. Adding to the mix, Guelph has attracted an array of 10 candidates, including representatives of the Marijuana Party and the Animal Alliance Environment Voters Party of Canada.
But whatever the outcome, Mr. King’s move has highlighted some surprising facts about Canada’s most celebrated academic-cum-humorist since Stephen Leacock was known internationally during the first half of the 20th century. Not least of which is that Mr. King was born, reared and educated in the United States.
Mr. King’s father, a Cherokee from Oklahoma, met his mother, whose parents were from Greece and upstate New York, at a U.S.O. party in California during World War II. When Mr. King was 3, his father abandoned the family. Mr. King’s mother, a hair stylist at the time, ran a makeshift salon, where a windowless room at the back served as home.
DURING the 1960s and ’70s, Mr. King bounced among several colleges (he flunked out of one after devoting his attention to card games), a two-month stint in the United States Navy (a knee injury led to a premature, honorable discharge) and a variety of jobs from blackjack dealer to bank teller. He also became active in college Indian groups that were, he said, “on the fringes” of the American Indian Movement.
Leroy Little Bear, a fellow student at the University of Utah, where Mr. King earned a doctorate in English and American studies, lured Mr. King to Canada in 1980 to teach native studies at the University of Lethbridge in Alberta, a relatively remote and definitely cold campus.
His plan was to stay just a year. But Canada, even Lethbridge, grew on Mr. King, who developed ties with the Blood Indian tribe, of which Mr. Little Bear was a member.
“I watched Canada closely and came to know that this is a much better place than the U.S.,” Mr. King said. “While natives weren’t doing all that well in Canada, the history of the country had not put as much pressure on the tribes as it had in the U.S. It was like coming up out of deep water and taking a deep breath.”
The move to Canada also made Mr. King a writer. He first began writing short stories to impress Helen Hoy, another new faculty member at Lethbridge. Ms. Hoy remains Mr. King’s partner, and the first stories, tales of a pair of Indians, became his first book.
In 1995, Kathleen Flaherty, a CBC producer in Edmonton, Alberta, who had turned some of Mr. King’s fiction into radio drama, called him, she said, to ask, “What would you do if you could do anything you wanted?”
The answer was a radio serial like those he preferred to television as a child, with sound effects and a limited number of characters. But it would be one that combined sketch comedy with a highly political, and Indian-focused, bent.
The Dead Dog Cafe was a venue in Mr. King’s “Green Grass, Running Water,” his most popular novel. In addition to Tom, the program featured just two other characters: Gracie Heavy Hand, the level-headed proprietor of the coffee shop, and Jasper Friendly Bear, the ostensible host of the radio show and a source of endless, usually harebrained, schemes.
Floyd Favel and Edna Rain, the two Indian actors who played the other roles, delivered their lines in the laconic style that is the hallmark of many Native Canadians’ speech. While the delivery was low-key, the scripts adopted the free association that marked the wildest of the Marx Brothers’ films.
“HUMOR is best when you’ve got the person who is listening one or two steps behind and they’re hustling to stay up with you,” Mr. King said. “And in that hustle it’s as if they almost have to snap their heads around to see what just hit them.”
Drollness and quietness are, for Mr. King, essential elements of Native humor. “But it also can be a cutting humor sometimes,” he said. “The most serious stuff many times we’ll handle with humor, just to cut the sorrow out of it. At the same time, it raises the sorrow. It’s a funny business, humor.”
To Mr. King’s astonishment, the government-owned CBC never censored “The Dead Dog Cafe,” even when it made what he called “scurrilous” jokes about politicians and political parties. The program could be just as cutting about Native Canadians. Ms. Flaherty said the biggest source of listener complaints was an online variation of a regular item in the program: a wheel spun to generate “authentic Indian names” for listeners. (Ms. Flaherty’s is Cassandra Tranquil Mouth.) “We were criticized mostly by American Indians who came across it on the Internet without context and thought it was racist,” Ms. Flaherty said. Some Canadian listeners, she added, attacked the show for being “racist towards white people.”
Mr. King said he has found electoral politics to be much more narrow than satirical politics. “I hadn’t expected that,” he said. “But when you’re in formal politics, there are a series of events that occur at a given time and you have to deal with those and only those.” Mr. King said he had no regrets about his latest change in direction, given the history of many of his Native associates. “Most of the people that I knew 30 years ago are dead or in jail,” he said. “I’m one of the few that just sort of made it through all that, and it was just pure dumb luck.”

Canada, CBC e Quattro per i contenuti mobili

Mediacaster parla della nuova joint venture tra CBC/Radio-Canada e il provider di servizi mobili Quattro Wireless per l'ulteriore sviluppo di una offerta accessibile dai telefonini cellulari. Al momento CBC ha già una trentina di canali tra radio, televisione, Internet e WAP/SMS.

New Profit Opportunity Through Mobile Platform

CBC/Radio-Canada has struck up a business partnership with mobile content provider Quattro Wireless, to provide Canadians with real-time access to news, sports, and entertainment content through mobile phones.
Quattro's network and ad sales service will also allow CBC/Radio-Canada to create a new source of revenue, combining content analytics with ad supported content delivery on the go, the companies describe.
"Consumers today increasingly look to the mobile Web to find the latest news and information. Quattro is working with CBC/Radio-Canada to ensure that their readers have a positive mobile browsing experience where they can find all the relevant content they want on a well designed, ad-supported site," said Lars Albright, vice president of Business Development for Quattro Wireless. "Partnering with CBC/Radio-Canada provides for a natural synergy as Quattro's platform and Ad Network supports their business model, as well as delivers analytics about the interactive and browsing behaviors of its audience."
"Working with Quattro has enabled CBC/Radio-Canada to seamlessly offer our audiences the ability to use their existing phones to get the information they desire, while allowing us to stay-connected to our audiences even when they don't have access to us on radio, television, or online," said Bob Kerr, director, Business Development for CBC/Radio-Canada. "We look forward to the continued relationship with Quattro and how we can monetize our presence with their powerful platform."
The new CBC/Radio-Canada mobile sites represent a way for advertisers to reach a local and targeted audience on a mobile device. In addition to CBC/Radio-Canada, Quattro powers and sells mobile advertising for other top news sites such as CBS News, Cox Newspapers, The Street.com and Boston.com.
CBC/Radio-Canada is Canada's national public broadcaster, with 29 services offered on Radio, Television, the Internet, satellite radio, digital audio, as well as record and music distribution service and wireless WAP and SMS messaging services.
Through this array of activities, CBC/Radio-Canada brings diverse regional and cultural perspectives into the daily lives of Canadians in English, French and eight Aboriginal languages, in nine languages on its international Radio service, Radio Canada International, and in eight languages on its Web-based Radio service RCI viva, a service for recent and aspiring immigrants to Canada.
Quattro Wireless provides category leading Publishers and premium branded advertisers with a turnkey solution to extend their internet offering to the mobile web. Publishers leverage Quattro's proprietary mobilization technology and interactive feature set to launch dynamic, ad supported mobile web versions of their wired web sites. Advertisers partner with Quattro to design, develop and serve targeted and interactive campaigns to the highly engaged Quattro Network audience. Quattro Wireless was founded in 2006 by proven mobile pioneers and is headquartered in Waltham, Mass.

Vancouver, la Babele delle "hotline radio"

Un bell'articolo del Vancouver Sun sulle cosiddette hotline radio su una delle città più etnicamente variegate del Canada. Per hotline radio si intende ovviamente una talk station che apre continuamente le proprie linee telefoniche agli ascoltatori. E quando ci sono di mezzo comunità e lingue così diverse, la partecipazione è assicurata. Tra gli intervistati c'è il conduttore di uno show in lingua cantonese della stazione Fairchild Radio 1470, una delle due della West Coast ascoltata (anche se tentativamente) in Italia.

Hotline radio provides avenue for involvement

As diverse as Vancouver itself, talk radio gives listeners a chance to speak their views on a wide variety of topics and issues. No other media forum offers the same opportunity

John Mackie
Vancouver Sun

Saturday, April 05, 2008


Hotline radio in Vancouver is as diverse as the city. Traditional hotliners dominate the airwaves at CKNW, but there are also hotliners serving the Chinese and Indo-Canadian communities, in their own languages. The foundation of most every hotline radio show is picking up on the news of the day and running with it. But the diverse voices in local hotline also pick topics that specifically cater to their own communities.
Harjinder Thind is a popular hotliner and news director at Red-FM, an Indo-Canadian station at 93.1 FM. "Most of my topics are based on current affairs, what's happening locally, provincially and federally and how it's going to impact our community, South Asian people," he says. "[But] sometimes I choose topics which are very entertaining [or] belong to the cultural part of our Indian history, or history from Punjab. I choose those topics once in a while -- people get bored, they start complaining the [news] stuff you're feeding us is too heavy."
That said, Thind isn't afraid to be provocative. "I have pissed off many politicians in our community, I guess," he notes. "One of our elected politicians never knew how to sing O Canada. I asked him on the air, 'Sing O Canada for me.' He said 'I don't know it.' I said, 'How come you're an elected official and you don't know O Canada?' He was pissed off."
Who was it?
"I don't want to tell you, he'd be after my ass," he laughs.
Wallace Chan is a hotliner at AM 1470, Fairchild Radio. "We talk about the B.C. tax cuts, that one was quite popular," says Chan, who broadcasts in Cantonese. "We talk about Fei-Fei Day, a Hong Kong celebrity who passed away recently, and whether we should have a Fei-Fei Day to recognize her. We talk about the income disparity between men and women. We talk about TransLink getting the revenue from property tax. As you can see, there are a large variety of [topics]." The hot-button issue in the Chinese community at the moment is whether Canada should boycott the Beijing Olympics. "Some people are quite emotional," Chan says. "I would say the majority of listeners do not support the idea of boycotting the Bejing Olympics. There are a number of reasons. Some think the government in China has done nothing wrong to restore the order in Tibet. But I would say one or two people have supported the idea of partially boycotting, for example not attending the opening ceremony." Like Thind, Chan looks for "controversial topics, discussable topics" that will light up the phone lines. But he doesn't want his show to turn nasty, like those of some American radio hotliners. "One of the most important things we keep reminding our listeners is not to conduct any personal attacks," he says. "Also we don't want people to finger-point [at] other listeners' ideas, [we want them] to focus on what they think instead of criticizing other people."
CKNW's Christy Clark loves the way people can express themselves through hotline radio. "I think it helps people clarify what they're thinking about," she says. "I think that's one of the things that people find appealing about open-line radio. And also that you get to be a part of it, in a way you don't get to be a part of any other media. Whoever you are, wherever you are, you can make your views public, and feel like you're having an impact on other people's opinion, because other people are listening, and forming their own opinions based on what they hear. "You can be one of those 10 or 20 people who are influencing public debate. I don't think there's any other forum where citizens get a hearing the way they do in talk radio." When you get the right topic, it can take off into a life all its own. This recently happened when Clark decided to do a series on bullying. "The bullying stuff I knew was of interest to people, because I hear so many people talking about it," she says. "That was a good example of something that has affected almost everybody, everybody's got a story about it. [But the response] floored me, honestly. I knew bullying was something people are concerned about, but I didn't really know that it had personally affected so many people. And I underestimated how resonant the memories of being bullied were for people.
"What really surprised me were the calls [from people like] the little old lady who is 80 years old and said, 'The only thing I remember about my childhood was the time when I was eight years old and these kids shoved my head in a snow bank and held my head under so long I felt like I was going to suffocate.'
"The memories of being bullied are so resonant for people. So that surprised me, how affecting the experience is. And if it's your children, people feel it almost as keenly. Especially if it's a regular event, which is what it is, unfortunately, for many kids."
Thind's topics are often very Indo-Canadian specific, and pointed. "We have done a show on how some of our people are abusing the system and as a result, the whole community is tarnished," he says. "I have done [a show on] courtesy on the road. All these people have been driving in India and they don't really respect other drivers here, and how we can improve that. ... If a guy with a turban doesn't give way or butts in or something, they will tarnish the whole community, that guys with turbans are bad drivers, so you should be careful." His big issue at present is the lack of Indo-Canadian representation in the upper echelons of the Surrey RCMP. "The population of Surrey is almost 40 per cent Punjabi-speaking, and we don't even have a single police officer at the senior or inspector level that happens to speak Punjabi," he states. "I talked to [RCMP superintendent Gordon] McRae, then I talked to the solicitor-general, then I spoke to the attorney-general on air on this issue.
"I told them, 'If this was a 40-per-cent French-speaking area, guess who [would] be the police chief? The police chief [would] be a French-speaking person.' And here 40 per cent of the population, which owns 51 per cent of the properties in Surrey, we don't have a single inspector-level Punjabi-speaking officer.
"They agree, all of them agree. McRae, the solicitor-general, and the attorney-general agreed with me, 'You have a point.' But nobody has done anything."
Radio hosts taking up political campaigns like this have a long history in B.C. -- most notably Rafe Mair and his many causes (Meech Lake, farmed salmon, etc.). But all three hosts say you've got to balance the serious stuff with something a little lighter. "We try and mix the newsy stuff with things that are interesting, so sometimes we end up with some quirky kind of segments," Clark says. "And lots of times we just do things we're interested in, or hear other people talking about. We'll spend time talking to our friends and relatives and co-workers or whatever. 'What got your book club going last week, what was your big topic?'
"Maybe that topic was 'What do you do when your spouse snores really heavily and keeps you awake at night?' Some people say they don't do anything, they just stay in bed and suffer through it, because they consider that the sign of a devoted spouse.
"We actually did this one. Somebody phoned up and said, 'I came to the conclusion I was going to smother my husband dead in the middle of the night. So instead [of killing him] we got twin beds, and I got a ski pole.' When he starts to snore in the middle of the night, she picks up the ski pole and gives him a good poke with it.
"And that's how she solved her problems."

Canada, alla radio il partito detta la linea

La stampa canadese denuncia le tecniche propagandistiche utilizzate dal Partito conservatore del premier Stephen Harper per creare consenso tra i propri elettori e possibilmente conquistarne di nuovi. Cosa che, presumo, fanno tutti i partiti politici. La tecnica coinvolge Internet e le stazioni radio in un modo che i giornali sembrano trovare scorretto. Andando sul sito Web del partito è possibile trovare un link al servizio MyCampaign, "il tuo ufficio elettorale virtuale". Una delle sezioni Call Talk Radio, contiene una sorta di kit per i partecipanti ai "phone in" delle stazioni che commentano la politica. L'iscritto virtuale al partito inserisce il suo codice postale e vede apparire l'elenco delle talk radio della sua con una serie di tematiche. Per ogni tematica vengono elencati dichiarazioni, cifre e argomentazioni da utilizzare quando si telefona alla stazione. Lo scopo, dice MyCampaign (ho provato a cliccare sul servizio ma in questo momento la home page di MyCampaign porta solo a pagine 404, forse hanno momentaneamente staccato in seguito alle polemiche sui giornali), è di formare una piccola squadra di "militanti informati", capaci di intervenire al telefono e replicare agli avversari politici. In effetti lo strillo in Web page chiede: Siete stanchi del coinvolgimento dei liberali nei media e dello specifico interesse del partito democratico (NDP) nel far passare attraverso la radio e altri mezzi i loro messaggi? Schieratevi in prima persona, telefonate alle stazioni e replicate con i fatti! La partecipazione ai talk show sarebbe insomma non spontanea e pilotata. Sembra che il conduttore di uno di una tribuna politica in una tv locale, insospettato da un ascoltatore che telefonando si era visibilmente impappinato gli abbia chiesto: "scusi, ma lei sta leggendo degli appunti?" Alcuni esponenti del partito democratico hanno protestato nei confronti di quella che viene definita una manipolazione che può minare il senso stesso della democrazia.

Devo dire che a parte un certo disagio nei confronti di una affermazione come "lo specifico interesse nel far passare attraverso i media i loro messaggi" (che significa "specifico interesse"? Certo che un partito ha tutto l'interesse nel far passare i suoi messaggi attraverso la stampa e la radiotelevisione!), non penso che il "kit del partecipante ai phone in" possa essere equiparato a una forma di manipolazione. Molti anni fa, quando non c'era Internet, nelle sezioni di qualsiasi partito gli iscritti venivano istruiti proprio per poter sostenere i dibattiti con gli avversari, non c'è niente di male nell'essere pronti a ribattere sulle proprie idee politiche. Certo, il rischio è che il dibattito si riduca a un semplice scambio di slogan preconfezionati e questo non è mai un bene quando si discute di politica, l'arte di arrivare a compromessi e, quando si deve, modificare le proprie idee. Mi sembra di capire però che la situazione in Canada non è la stessa che negli USA, dove le talk radio sono quasi tutte schierate radicalmente a destra (tanto da contestare perfino i candidati repubblicani). Se il partito di Harper sente il bisogno di esortare i suoi sostenitori a farsi sentire alla radio, forse è perché sente di essere sottorappresentato.

Callers to radio phone-in shows scripted by Conservative headquarters

OTTAWA — Next time you're listening to your favourite radio phone-in show, those pro-Conservative opinions you hear from callers might not be as spontaneous as they sound.
Some of those apparently ad-libbed musings are actually being choreographed at the Conservative Party of Canada's national headquarters. The governing party has produced talking points for grassroots supporters on a variety of issues, feeding them lines on everything from climate change to child care.
For Conservative supporters, the process is as simple as 1-2-3. Surf the party website. Type in your postal code. Click on a topic you'd like to discuss on the radio.
And the website spits out the times, phone numbers, and names of local talk shows to call - along with a handy list of good things to say about the Conservatives and bad things to say about their opponents. The website includes similar advice for letter-writers to newspapers. The system has been in place for months but an Ottawa-area talk show host first raised it with listeners Tuesday after learning about it.
"We want people to phone in and express their own opinions. We don't want people phoning in and reading from a script," said Mark Sutcliffe, who hosts CFRA's The Chatroom.
"(But) I don't think we get a ton of calls like that." The Conservatives describe the practice as state-of-the-art politicking. A party spokesman said the practice offers enhanced transparency, and is used elsewhere in the world.
"This is part of campaigning in the Internet age. Party activists are increasingly becoming virtual volunteers," Conservative spokesman Ryan Sparrow said. "And just as rank-and-file investors want the same data as market professionals, grassroots activists want the same info and (talking points) as party strategists and spinners."
The Conservative talking points on taxation, for instance, list details on the GST cut, the child tax credit, and tax cuts to seniors.
The same talking points contrast Conservative achievements with the Liberal sponsorship scandal, gun-registry boondoggle, and failure to cut the GST. They also suggest the Bloc Quebecois could never achieve real tax relief because it's perpetually in opposition and describe the NDP as tax-hikers.
All parties produce speaking notes for elected MPs, staff members, and lobbyists or activists who serve on their behalf as unsalaried, unofficial spokespeople.
Liberal and NDP websites also include phone numbers for radio shows or tips for getting on the air.
But the Tories appear to take it one step further: their site offers speaking points for members of the general public to pass off as their own musings to fellow radio listeners.
The headline on the Tory web page with the call-in instructions says: "Tired of hearing the vested interests of the Liberals and the special interests of the NDP get their messages out via the media? Call in to a show yourself and fight back with the facts!"
A Liberal party spokesman says it's a new extreme for a government that has already placed an unprecedented gag order on its elected members, political staff, and civil servants. In one famous incident during the last election campaign a Conservative MP was stuffed into a restaurant kitchen by a Stephen Harper staffer when approached by the media.
That strict discipline has survived their two years in government: requests to speak publicly are routinely vetted by the Prime Minister's Office, scores of MPs will recite identical sound bites on any given topic, and the government often allows only one person to make public utterances on a given issue.
"This undermines our democracy," said Liberal party spokesman Daniel Lauzon. "It's not up for someone in Ottawa to tell someone in Blind River what they should think. . . All we tell our supporters is, 'Speak your mind. Get out there and talk.'
"Never do we dictate messaging."
The Conservatives do pay more attention to talk radio than some of their rivals, seeing it as a more useful barometer of public opinion than other media. Upon taking office, a Harper strategist famously told prime ministerial staff he didn't need to see daily clippings from the major national newspaper - he wanted talk-show transcripts.
But the attention to detail in messaging has occasionally raised eyebrows. On a recent CPAC television call-in panel, host Dale Goldhawk interrupted at one point when a caller appeared to be stumbling over a list of written notes. "Are you reading from something?" the frustrated host interjected.
The radio-host who reported the practice to his listeners Tuesday noted that even if callers phone in with a script, they still need to be able to engage in live conversation. As Sutcliffe says, they're not speaking to an answering machine but a radio host whose job it is to ask probing questions.
Still, the system for distributing government talking points through the general public does strike him as somewhat strange - and certainly more elaborate than what other parties do. "What I think is unusual about this Conservative website is just how systematic it is," he said. "The process for the Conservative one is a little more automated: punch out your topic and your postal code, and we'll spit out a script for you to follow."

Canada, eutanasia delle onde medie

Curiosa corrispondenza di Rein-Hoeren dal Canada, dove la radio digitale terrestre non sfonda sul DAB in banda L, IBOC non esiste e le stazioni in onde medie stanno rapidamente scomparendo per il maggiore valore pubblicitario dell'FM.

Das große Radio-Sterben in Kanada
Niels Gründel

Während in Europa über die Digitalisierung des Radios gestritten (und von einigen Ländern auch vollzogen) wird, ist man in Kanada noch längst nicht so weit. In dem riesigen Flächenstaat hat gerade das große Sterben der Radiostationen auf Mittelwelle eingesetzt.

Kanada, das zweitgrößte Land der Erde, hat wenig mehr als 30 Millionen Einwohner. Der Großteil der Bevölkerung konzentriert sich auf die wenigen städtischen Zentren: Vancouver, Calgary und Edmonton im Westen sowie Montréal, Québec, Ottawa und Toronto im Osten. Politisch ist Kanada eine Föderation von zehn Provinzen und drei Territorien, um die ethnische, sprachliche und kulturelle Vielfalt zu gewährleisten. Landessprachen sind überall Englisch und Französisch, wenngleich Französisch in der Hauptsache nur in den Provinzen Québec und Neubraunschweig gesprochen wird. Da Kanada ein klassisches Einwandererland ist, früher kamen die größten Gruppen aus Europa, heute eher aus Fernost. Die Größe des Landes und das Mosaik der Bevölkerungsgruppen spiegelt sich auch in der kanadischen Radiolandschaft wie kaum einem anderen Land der Erde wieder.

Ich bin auf UKW, zeigt mir Euer Geld?


Wer die Großstädte und die ländlichen Regionen bereist, merkt schnell, dass das analoge Radio dominierend ist. Und zwar ganz anders als der verwöhnte Europäer vermutet. Denn was hier zu Lande undenkbar geworden ist, stellt in Kanada die Regel dar: Sowohl UKW als auch die Verbreitung über Mittelwelle werden fast gleichermaßen genutzt. In den Großstädten sind die Frequenzen knapp, aber die Radiohörer wollen in ihrer Muttersprache Informationen erhalten und das kann – etwa im Schmelztiegel Toronto - zu Ausstrahlungen in Italienisch, Kantonesisch oder Portugiesisch führen. Auf dem Land dagegen führen die geringen Sendeleistungen und die großen Distanzen zwischen den Städten dazu, dass die Mittelwelle eine wesentlicher Versorgungspfeiler geblieben ist. Gleichwohl haben auch viele kleine Städte eine lokale Radiostation. Sogar der stets gut besuchte Banff-Nationalpark nördlich der Olympia-Stadt Calgary hat einen nicht-kommerziellen Radiosender mit stets aktuellen Informationen für seine Besucher gleich auf zwei Frequenzen in Englisch und Französisch.
Aus der Not heraus ist aber vor allem die Mittelwelle gefragt, wenn die Reisenden schon in einiger Entfernung der nächsten größeren Ansiedlung begrüßt und unterhalten werden sollen.


Das große Sterben


Bisher wenigstens. Denn in Kanada hat inzwischen das große Sterben von Stationen auf Mittelwelle eingesetzt. Waren es vor zehn Jahren noch knapp 300 Stationen, die über Mittelwelle zu hören waren, so hat sich die Zahl inzwischen etwa halbiert. Genau 178 kommerzielle Stationen hat man zu Beginn des Jahres 2007 gezählt 1. Kingston, Ontario, hat den jüngsten Verlust zu beklagen.
Die meisten Radiosender schwenken um auf eine UKW-Frequenz. Und obschon diese lediglich in den größeren Städten zu hören sind, hat sich deren Anzahl sprunghaft vergrößert. Der Gründe sind banal: Die jüngeren hören keine Mittelwelle-Stationen mehr und so wundert es kaum, dass eine Mittelwellen-Station im Schnitt lediglich 118.000 CAN Gewinn einbringt, während es die UKW-Station auf sagenhafte 659.000 CAN bringt.


73 DAB-Stationen im L-Band


Gleichwohl spielt auch Digitalradio DAB eine Rolle, wenngleich noch immer eine untergeordnete. Offiziell wird der Start der Einführung auf den 1. November 1999 datiert und anders als bei uns nennt sich das neue Radio „Digital Radio Broadcasting“, kurz DRB. Gegenwärtig existieren 73 lizensierte DAB-Stationen in Kanada, davon fünfzehn in der Regierungshauptstadt Ottawa, 25 im Schmelztiegel Toronto, 15 in Vancouver, der „Perle am Pazifik“, zwölf in der weltweit zweitgrößten französischsprachigen Stadt Montréal und sechs in der Grenzstadt Windsor, unmittelbar bei Detroit im US-Bundesstaat Michigan. Überall sind jeweils vier öffentlich-rechtliche Stationen zu empfangen, die Übrigen sind Privatstationen, einige davon waren zuvor lediglich auf Mittelwelle zu empfangen. Insgesamt erreichen die DAB-Stationen in ihrer Gesamtheit trotz geringer Flächenabdeckung rund elf Millionen Einwohner und damit bereits ein Drittel der Gesamtbevölkerung. Dabei setzt man in Kanada ausschließlich auf die Verbreitung im L-Band.
Weitere sieben DAB-Sender arbeiten im Testbetrieb in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Nicht alle lizensierten Sender sind auf Sendung, insbesondere die ersten DAB-exklusiven Stationen in Toronto haben ihren Start bislang immer wieder verschoben.

Task-Force als Mangelverwalter


Sowohl die öffentlich-rechtlichen als auch die Privatstationen hatten sich schon 1992 in der „Digital Radio Research Inc.”, kurz DRRI, zusammengeschlossen, um DAB in Kanada erfolgreich einzuführen. Sogar eine „Task Force” für das Digital Radio wurde gegründet, die dem Industrieminister regelmäßig Bericht erstatten muss und für die weitere Einführung zuständig ist.
Bewusst stellten sich die etablierten Sender vor über zehn Jahren nicht auf den Standpunkt der US-Sender, die ihr profitablen Markt im FM-Band gegen jeden Konkurrenten abschotten wollten.
Doch die DAB-Einführung ist ins Stocken geraten. Ein großes Problem ist - wie in Deutschland nicht anders - dass die Empfänger im Einzelhandel kaum erhältlich sind. Auch im Internet gibt es nur wenige Anbieter, sodass eine Reihe von Kanadiern den beschwerlichen Weg in Kauf nimmt, ihre Geräte sogar aus Großbritannien zu bestellen. Die Auswahl ist dort erheblich größer, doch Radios mit L-Band-Empfang haben Seltenheitswert.
Ein anderes Problem war HD-Radio, das jedoch nur auf wenig Gegenliebe gestoßen ist; sehr viel beliebter ist dagegen die Verbreitung über die Satelliten-Systeme aus den USA: Sirius und XM-Radio.

Mehr Informationen:
Radio Silence
(http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20080206.RAMFM06//TPStory/Business)

Überraschung: Kanada ohne HD-Radio?
(http://www.rein-hoeren.de/inhalt/572.shtml)

XM-Radio: Teure Aufholjagd in Kanada
(http://www.rein-hoeren.de/inhalt/466.shtml)

Scelta digitale per Corea e Canada

Le prospettive per la tecnologia HD Radio/IBOC si fanno più rosee. Altre due nazioni, una di assoluta avanguardia sul versante delle tecnologie e dei servizi digitali, l'altra singificativa perché finora ufficialmente impegnata sul fronte del DAB/Eureka 147, stanno prendendo seriamente in considerazione la radio digitale ibrida inventata da Ibiquity. Parliamo di Corea del Sud e di Canada, che si stanno dando da fare in sede regolamentare per facilitare il più possibile l'adozione di uno standard proprietario (e questo non è mai bello per l'industria dei terminali, a meno di non adottare approcci stile VHS) che ha un vantaggio fondamentale: la retrocompatibilità con la sterminata base di ricevitori già in funzione grazie alla possibilità di combinare segnali analogici e digitali. In Corea uno degli argomenti utilizzati è di natura gestionale. Le frequenze analogiche non sono in grado di garantire spazio sufficiente per i newcomers, dice il locale ministro delle comunicazioni (è un po' pesante ma forse vale la pena scaricare questa presentazione del ministero coreano sul digital broadcasting nella nazione asiatica, dove proprio lo scorso ottobre si è tenuto il forum mondiale del DAB/Eureka 147). Lo spazio, secondo i coreani si troverà con il digitale anche se non è ancora chiaro se si tratterà di un sistema all'europea, DAB/DMB o all'americana. O entrambi.

In Canada è in corso un ampio processo di revisione delle politiche di regolamentazione della radio e l'Authority canadese, la CRTC ha bandito una consultazione pubblica i cui risultati si possono leggere sul sito Web ufficiale. Qui le chance di adozione per IBOC sembrano molto consistenti. Inutile nascondersi che la proposta di Ibiquity può suonare molto allettante alle orecchie di chi ha il problema della ripartizione di frequenze e servizi. Va però detto che se facciamo fare tutto ai responsabili marketing, tutte le tecnologie diventano miracolose. Sulle onde medie la sperimentazione di IBOC negli USA sta dimostrando che la capacità di mescolare a piacere modulazioni analogiche e digitali non è poi così scontata. Gli effetti negativi sull'ascolto delle stazioni non-IBOC adiacenti possono essere molto antipatici in condizioni propagative notturne. E fino a quando i ricevitori digitali saranno così minoritari, il rischio è quello di dare la stura agli svantaggi del digitale senza coglierne i vantaggi. Bisogna però dire che cominciano a esserci i primi timidi segni di una piccola rampa produttiva per i ricevitori, mentre il campo avversario del DAB deve affrontare la non facile problematica del passaggio ai nuovi codec.
Sullo sfondo di tutti questi discorsi aleggiano infine i discorsi sulle politiche di switch-off delle trasmissioni analogiche. Che possono non piacere, ma intanto emergono sempre più frequentemente.

Canada Rules to Allow HD Radio

Dec 27, 2006 9:50 AM
(RadioMagazine)

Ottawa - Dec 15, 2006 - The Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), the independent, public authority that regulates and supervises broadcasting and telecommunications in Canada, has revised its policy for digital radio broadcasting to consider the HD Radio in-band on-channel (IBOC) system. In its Public Notice CRTC 2006-160, the Commission commented that it would be prepared to authorize services using IBOC technology for the AM or FM bands if the Canadian Department of Industry authorizes services using the technology under the Radiocommunication Act. The commission added that "an expedited process would be adopted for stations that propose to transmit a digital simulcast of their analog service."
Robert Struble, president and CEO of Ibiquity Digital said, "The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) began HD Radio testing in September 2006, focusing on transmissions from Toronto and Peterborough, Ontario. Full results have not yet been published by the CBC, but early feedback has been very positive. There are plans to begin testing on MW-AM operations in early 2007."
The ruling also considers other forms of digital radio, including DRM, DMB and DVB-H. The decision to consider HD Radio specifically was based on the advanced stage of the HD Radio rollout compared to other technologies in the United States. Canada has authorized Eureka-147 as a digital radio standard, but the rollout of that technology has not progressed very rapidly and is not seeing wide acceptance.

Korea seeks to adopt digital radio broadcast system

Analogue system has too few frequencies, says Ministry of Information and Communication official

Saturday, December 23, 2006
By Hwang Si-young (Asiamedia)

The Ministry of Information and Communication is set to launch a committee to accelerate the application of digital technologies to the nation's radio broadcast system. "Under the current analogue system, newcomers can hardly find available frequency resources. Frequencies have almost been used up, and that's one of the reasons why we are trying to digitalize the whole radio broadcast system," Lee Jung-gu, head of the ministry' broadcasting-satellite division, told The Korea Herald. There are currently 51 radio broadcasters in Korea, including region-based ones. "There are a number of problems left to be examined before converting to digital, including whether to choose Europe's Digital Audio Broadcasting and the United States' In-Band On-Channel as the technology standard." Adopting IBOC will not require the hassle of changing radio sets across the nation to new ones. However, except in its competitive edge, the U.S. technology can not be viewed as a better match than its European counterpart that shares similar technical qualities with Korea's de facto mobile TV platform called digital multimedia broadcasting, Lee said. The digital radio broadcast system is expected to provide CD-level high-quality stereo sound and data services. The new system will also help create fresh market demand and develop related industries. Electronics makers, for instance, will be able to launch digital radio devices into the domestic market.
The committee will consist of three working groups, each discussing technological requirements, legal frameworks and industrial demand. About 18 experts from the industry, academics and research institutes will work for the committee. The committee will focus on the future technology standard, particularly regarding transmission frequency band, sales of capable terminals, re-division of broadcasting areas, legal issues, as well as the most appropriate timing to digitalize the national radio broadcast system. There had been several working groups within the ministry that discussed various related issues ranging from market demand to system specifications, utilization of the existing frequency resources, broadcasting areas, and radio broadcasters' legal status. But it was difficult to narrow down all of the diverse opinions into one, the ministry said.
The new committee will start working in January next year.