If you ever have the opportunity to hear Dr. Peter Lin speak it is well worth the time. I have heard him twice at my doctor's annual Heart Health Seminar in Cambridge ON.  Peter makes complex health issues easy to understand.  He is funny in person, plain spoken and very informative. Whenever I see or hear him on TV or radio I always make a point to really listen to what he has to say. He speaks and teaches all over North American but he is based and lives in the Toronto area. 

He is very positive and  reassuring about our health care system and the research going on here and elsewhere. He has been approachable when I have heard him speak and he seems to enjoy meeting the public and answering questions.  His humour and his 'no question is stupid" attitude really helps those who are worried or somewhat shy asking questions about health issues. We are lucky to have a guy like him and it is great that he appears from time to time on TV and radio.

When I the weekend morning show host on CFRB, for 15 years, Dr. Lin was on my Sunday show many times. Really a very smart guy with a great sense of humor.

The latest showbiz effects were on view Wednesday when popular morning shows, including "Kelly & Ryan," "Good Morning America" and "The View" all aired their shows without an audience. 

Meanwhile, a host of British radio and TV stations - including the BBC - have started restricting who they'll allow into their buildings. I wonder if stations here will implement similar restrictions as this grows in Canada. 

But my favourite story of the day, and likely the week, has to be this one - and it has nothing to do with broadcasting.

But it's so great, I thought I'd include it here because we can all use a laugh in the middle of the now-officially-a-pandemic. (And by the way, did you know that the word "panic" is contained at the beginning and the end of "pandemic?")

The yarn I love is about this 13-year-old kid from Leeds, England who got kicked out of school for selling squirts of hand sanitizer to fellow students for about a buck a shot. He used the money to buy a package of Doritos. And when his stepfather found out, he was furious - at the school administration, not his son, calling the boy a "'f***ing legend." What a great story. 

Boy, 13, is sent home from school for selling squirts of hand sanitizer to fellow pupils  

NAB has officially cancelled their annual convention and equipment trade show scheduled for April in Las Vegas...

 

We can now add the March Madness NCAA Basketball and Frozen Four NCAA Hockey tournaments added to the list of events to be played without fans in attendance. Not a big deal here unless one is entered in a bracket pool. HUGE south of the border.

The NBA season is now shut down apparently. Trump came out and announced a ban for travel from Europe for 30 days. He seemed very nervous but at least he did not call the virus a democratic party hoax as he did two weeks ago nor did he say that the US will not be impacted as he did last week. or that it will go away when it gets warmer. Tell that to Tom Hanks in Austrailia. 

He said many things that were not in sync with reality. He also said last week that the people on the cruise ship off California should not come ashore because we do not want them to impact our numbers. The reality seems to be setting in now thankfully.

Last edited by Fitz (March 11, 2020 10:02 pm)

Tom Hanks and his wife have also tested positive for the virus as I alluded to above.

RadioActive wrote:

what the hell are they going to have to talk about two or three weeks (or worse months) from now?

The same way sports radio made money during a strike or a lock out maybe...(?)
 

CTV weatherman Tom Brown was doing a live hit on Wednesday's 6 PM show with the Raptors' Norm Powell, who was sponsoring a fundraiser called "BasketBowl," a bowling event. Lots of kids were there, too. I didn't see the 11 PM show, but he could have been back in studio with all the on air people and crew after coming back from the remote. I believe he interviewed Powell as part of the broadcast, which means close contact.

What happens to all of the folks at Channel 9 Court and what will CTV do now? It will be interesting to see who shows up for future newscasts in the next two weeks and what precautions they may take to protect the rest of their staff.

I suppose it would be easier to keep a radio station going than a TV outlet if a majority of its employees were forced into isolation because a single staffer came down with COVID-19.

John Moore addressed that very possibility on CFRB Thursday when he noted that not only did Bell Media have an emergency HQ to deal with something like that, but they had a back-up room in place as well. Although the question remains if there are too few people to staff it, it doesn't really matter how many rooms there are.

I was actually thinking about this on Thursday when I coincidentally saw these two stories.

CBS News shuts down office after two employees get coronavirus   

BBC could be forced to SHUT down radio or TV stations over coronavirus

Worst case scenarios, I suppose, and probably unlikely. But whoever thought the entire NBA season could be put on hold because of a bug?

Still, some believe the virus can not only be the bane of a radio station's existence but also a boon if it's handled right. 

"Live and local.

"That's been the official broadcast radio mantra for years now, even though many companies and even more stations have gravitated away from its core principles.  Voicetracking, syndication, and other cost-savers have created more generic-sounding radio stations. 

"That doesn't mean they haven't been successful, of course.  But when it comes to covering the local impact of COVID-19 in a meaningful way, many stations don't have a plan in place, nor the infrastructure to do much about it.

"Simply put, if you don't have the horses, you're not going to run a competitive race."

How Radio Can Best Deal With A Global Pandemic: Live And Local, Of Course

So, the NBA, NLL and MLS have all "suspended" operations. The NHL has "paused" operations. The AHL is expected to follow the NHL. MLB has a conference call today at 2pm. The OHL, WHL and QMJHL have a conference call scheduled for 3pm today. I suspect play in those leagues will end today as well.

The Council on Foreign Relations has canceled a roundtable called “Doing Business Under Coronavirus” scheduled for Friday in New York due to the spread of the infection itself.

From Bloomberg

This reminds me in some ways of the endless debate over weather warnings on TV and radio.

If they overhype the looming blizzard, they're accused of exploiting a coming storm for "weather porn," especially if it doesn't happen as forecast. 

If they underplay the coming blizzard and it's worse than predicted, they get accused of not informing the public enough. 

We used to talk about this a lot in our newsroom, but there was never a "just right" answer. In the end, it's a no-win situation, I guess. Although I can tell you that in my experience, when you lead with a major worthy local weather story, it often winds up being one of the highest rated newscasts of the year.

Maybe it will be the same with COVID-19. How much is so much that people get tired of it? One thing can be said - Thursday was a whirlwind, with so much breaking news that it was overwhelming. Perhaps it will die down (you should pardon the expression) as this unfortunately becomes more the norm.

And I wonder if they'll add "social distancing" to the next edition of the dictionary?

https://news.ontario.ca/opo/en/2020/03/title.html?fbclid=IwAR2OIa-FReIZ642SG_YBhgR8D3chnvfvoXKHtt46RL_yx4OXpdMzIpFMQGU

SO WHAT'S NEXT? Shut down every social gathering? Shut down every workplace? Shut down the economy? Everyone stay home for the next month?