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It's not exactly new - it was made in 1999 - but it's a look back at a very different time in CBC Radio history in Toronto, before the station became a more dominant player in the ratings. Included in the behind-the-scenes documentary are some legendary names from the past, including Ken Haslam, Alan McFee, Max Ferguson, Peter Gzowski and the Royal Canadian Air Farce troupe.
It takes place before the Corp. moved to its new HQ downtown and it's hard to believe the old facility they once had to work out of on Jarvis St.
It's not actually from the CBC. Instead it was a National Film Board of Canada effort, which may explain why it's free to watch online. It's about 50 minutes long and even if you're not into the CBC (as I'm not) it's still fascinating to see the old reel-to-reel tape equipment and the ancient word processors they used back then, as well as the sometimes chaotic way everything came together in those pre-Internet and early computer days.
You can watch it here.
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RadioActive wrote:
It's not exactly new - it was made in 1999
I enjoyed this watch, thanks for the heads-up. NFB streams a fair amount of its holdings for free.
Just a correction that this documentary was from 1991, not 1999 as stated. By 1992 they were showing off and touring the new Toronto facility - . Fun to see those archival clips as well.
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Interesting movie. A funny part was at the 8 minute mark when Peter Gzowski is coming into work in the morning and parking his car. You can hear a CFRB jingle on his car radio. He gets out of the car and says to the camera, "don't tell anyone I actually had CFRB on ithe radio when I drove in."
Lots of shots of great McCurdy and Ward-Beck audio boards in the old makeshift studios. The radio building was a dump but it had lots of character.
In 1976 during the Montreal Olympics, I was a second year broadcast student and was hired as an audio technician at CBC on Jarvis for the summer. Had the pleasure of working maybe six weeks in studio Q, the national news studio that you see in the film.
Studio Q could be a very hectic and pressure cooker of a job with live newscasts going to different time zones all day, recording of feeds from various CBC stations and affiliates across the country every hour. Also we would record BBC, CBS and NBC radio news every half hour and feeds from Radio Canada International. All actualities and reports in studio Q were on reel to reel tape, never on cartridge.
That memorable summer I was also fortunate to work for about two weeks in the As It Happens Studio. Barbara Frum and the crew of As It Happens were some of the hardest working people in radio I had ever seen. They were in every morning around 8:30 and most including Barbara were still there at 8:00 in the evening every day.
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Even though I'm not the CBC's biggest booster, I watched the whole thing and thoroughly enjoyed it, especially seeing some of the big names from the past who are no longer with us. But believe it or not, the thing that really got my attention was the fact the people were smoking while on air, especially Peter Gzowski.
I was never a smoker, but I can tell you before those regs. prohibiting smoking in federally licenced workplaces came into effect, nearly everyone I needed to see at CFTR were heavy puffers. I remember coming out of news meetings that lasted up to an hour gasping for breath, with the air a sickly blueish colour.
It was one law that distressed a lot of smoking addicts, but boy, was I happy when it came in - although I honestly never really thought anyone would obey it. Even though it really wasn't the focus of that documentary at all, watching that made it all come back! You might say it was a breath of fresh air...