The Southern Ontario/WNY Radio-TV Forum / The PM will address the Nation, But

**Posted by Aytononline** February 1, 2025 8:15 pm

I've always found it interesting that the CBC always interrupt normal programing for any political event or election except for NHL Hockey.

Tonight will be no different. Our Prime Minister will address the Nation tonight. This is a big deal but the Leafs are playing tonight, so this will play on all CBC platforms except CBC local tv stations. The more things change, the more they remain the same.
Go Leafs Go!

**Posted by RadioActive** February 1, 2025 9:22 pm

Good for CFRB. While all the other guys (680 excepted) were into their usual auto-pilot weekend shows, 1010 picked up the CTV News Channel feed for the P.M.'s announcement, anchored by Vassy Kapelos. They could have just let the old reruns continue and no one would have said anything.

But the fact they went for it on a lazy weekend at night was a nice surprise.

Over on AM 640, it was some canned show they run every week.

Even CBC Radio 1 was in regular programming.

This story is a big, big deal that could have devastating and long term consequences for everyone in this country. It deserved breaking coverage, even on a Saturday night. For those away from their TVs, CFRB provided it.

**Posted by BowmanvilleBob** February 1, 2025 9:30 pm

Huh? As far as I can tell, the PM hasn't made any announcement yet. It's now expected to come closer to the upcoming top of the hour (9:00 pm eastern). How do you know the other stations won't be picking it up from their respective TV feeds RA?

**Posted by RadioActive** February 1, 2025 9:34 pm

I don't, but when he was supposed to speak an hour earlier (and the other stations had no way of knowing he wouldn't do it on time) they were still into canned programming with no one teeing it up so it would make sense to the audience. So my guess is there's no one there to flip the switch.

RB's CTV Channel coverage with Vassy has been very interesting, with some great guests (including former 1010 stalwart Evan Solomon) and it certainly sets the scene for the announcement.

As to whether they will join in progress, I guess we'll find out. It would not surprise me to see CBC Radio 1 take it and 680 is almost a certainty, but 640? I'll believe it when I hear it.

**Posted by paterson1** February 1, 2025 10:08 pm

CBC News Network, CTV News Channel and CP24 are all available on line with live coverage so whether CBC and CTV have the PM live is not as critical. All night CBC, CTV and CP24 news channels have been in the top 5 on my Fibe trending. CBC NN has even been battling the Leaf game for the number one spot. Besides if Justin keeps delaying the news conference, the Leaf game could be over anyway.

Sad, but some Ottawa fans were booing the US anthem tonight at the Sens and Minnesota game.

**Posted by haydenmatthews14** February 1, 2025 10:11 pm

It's 9:10 so far nothing yet from the PM.

**Posted by RadioActive** February 1, 2025 10:15 pm

BowmanvilleBob wrote:
Huh? As far as I can tell, the PM hasn't made any announcement yet. It's now expected to come closer to the upcoming top of the hour (9:00 pm eastern). How do you know the other stations won't be picking it up from their respective TV feeds RA?

As I suspected, only 680 and 1010 had the speech. 640 was in regular programming and CBC Radio 1 stayed with its First Nations music program. That's a bit of a surprise. If there's one source that should have taken it, you'd think CBC Radio would have been it.

No surprise that none of the big three American all news neworks - CNN, MSNBC and Fox - took the speech.

**Posted by cash** February 1, 2025 10:33 pm

Just a note: If you want the Americans to get the message maybe have the first part of this news conference in ........English..

**Posted by RadioActive** February 1, 2025 11:14 pm

cash wrote:
Just a note: If you want the Americans to get the message maybe have the first part of this news conference in ........English..

Yes, I noted that, too. Whoever was doing the translation on CTV was hard to hear, because they kept the P.M.'s mic up, too. The mix was a mess, and it went on in French way too long.

**Posted by cash** February 1, 2025 11:16 pm

RadioActive wrote:
cash wrote:
Just a note: If you want the Americans to get the message maybe have the first part of this news conference in ........English..

Yes, I noted that, too. Whoever was doing the translation on CTV was hard to hear, because they kept the P.M.'s mic up, too. The mix was a mess, and it went on in French way too long.

This was not the time to have French questions first. So fucking pc right to the end.

**Posted by paterson1** February 2, 2025 2:05 pm

I am not really surprised that none of the US newsnets covered the PM's speech last night. He was originally supposed to come out at 6:30, and at that time CNN said that they would cover it live. The PM didn't get out until after 9:30.

Internationally BBC covered the speech and questions live. Around the world BBC is likely more popular and reputable than FOX, CNN or MSNBC. The BBC had a translator at the ready so no issue for switching languages back and forth. The translator CTV uses is weak and volume level as mentioned too low.

The US networks were all over the story this morning. The Ontario/partner ads were still on CNN today and have been playing on various 6:30 evening newscasts in the US for a while now as well.

**Posted by newsguy1** February 2, 2025 2:32 pm

I listened to the speech too and noticed the prominence given to French.
I do not think this was just a PC move.
I believe it was deliberate.
I think the Liberals wanted Quebecers to feel front and centre.
The idea would be to push for as many votes as possible in Quebec in the upcoming election.

Last edited by newsguy1 (February 2, 2025 2:33 pm)

**Posted by paterson1** February 2, 2025 2:46 pm

Actually, Trudeau's speech was mostly English. It was the first six or seven questions from the press after the speech that were in French. I thought they would alternate English and French reporters but the first questions were all in French.

**Posted by cash** February 2, 2025 10:52 pm

Just sent a email to Senator Rand Paul from Kentucky telling him what he can do with his bourbon.

**Posted by Shorty Wave** February 3, 2025 8:51 am

cash wrote:
Just sent a email to Senator Rand Paul from Kentucky telling him what he can do with his bourbon.

Hey cash, did you get a response?

**Posted by cash** February 3, 2025 10:52 am

Shorty Wave wrote:
cash wrote:
Just sent a email to Senator Rand Paul from Kentucky telling him what he can do with his bourbon.

Hey cash, did you get a response?

Just a pro forma acknowledgement at this point.

Last edited by cash (February 3, 2025 10:53 am)

**Posted by Johnny B** February 3, 2025 11:29 am

I thought Trudeau's speech was excellent...it hit the right tones and played on Canadian patriotism and sovereignty, our close ties with the USA and how we have stood by them in times of need, and the fact Trump started this and we cannot simply lay down to the orange buffoon and his MAGA cult morons...if you're a Canadian and still support Trump for this attack on our economy that could upend the lives of tens of thousands of Canadians, then fuck off and move your ass to South Carolina you traitor.

**Posted by Forward Power** February 3, 2025 11:47 am

Johnny B wrote:
if you're a Canadian and still support Trump for this attack on our economy that could upend the lives of tens of thousands of Canadians, then fuck off and move your ass to South Carolina you traitor.

Hear hear!

To keep this on the topic of radio & TV, as well as streaming etc., what are the chances that American TV channels/networks will be removed from cable/sat/IPTV lineups in response to the U.S. government's actions? I don't see CTV, Global etc. pulling American shows (can't lose that valuable simsub!) and not sure if service providers will pull American channels or if the CRTC will remove them from the list of non-Canadian services authorized for distribution.

**Posted by TomTV** February 3, 2025 12:04 pm

Just saw Troy Reeb, the co-CEO of Corus, on this morning talking about getting businesses to move their ad dollars back to Canadian media outlets instead of paying for ads on American-owned social media platforms (obviously giving CAN dollars to the super-rich American tech bros like Elon Musk (Twitter) and Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook/Instagram) is now going to be touted as being unpatriotic.)

And while I rarely ever approve of anything that Ontario's premier, Doug "let's build more roads and ignore the healthcare crisis!" Ford, does, he finally listened to Ontarians telling him to cancel that $100 million contract with Elon Musk's Starlink. Good for him. Musk is the easiest one to target in the Trump administration, and the best one to target given how he's more the vice-president than the real VP is.

Last edited by TomTV (February 3, 2025 12:04 pm)

**Posted by RadioActive** February 3, 2025 12:15 pm

Forward Power wrote:
To keep this on the topic of radio & TV, as well as streaming etc., what are the chances that American TV channels/networks will be removed from cable/sat/IPTV lineups in response to the U.S. government's actions? I don't see CTV, Global etc. pulling American shows (can't lose that valuable simsub!) and not sure if service providers will pull American channels or if the CRTC will remove them from the list of non-Canadian services authorized for distribution.

For better or worse, American programming is almost the sole reason for these networks to exist and there's virtually no way they can get rid of U.S. content. What else would they have to fill primetime? Especially with no time to make a change. They could hardly be expected to dump all their schedules and have anything left to put on by Tuesday.

Perhaps somewhat ironically, only the CBC could pull it off, because their schedule already is near 100% Canuck. And the ratings indicate Canadians don't really watch it.

It would be an interesting symbolic move but ultimately impossible if they wanted to stay in business.

**Posted by paterson1** February 3, 2025 3:31 pm

Well American simsub entertainment programming is also becoming less important. We don't see the ratings anymore but last that we did see, a lot of the US prime time schedules weren't really drawing many viewers either. It is not unheard of for many of these "hit" shows to only draw 300,000-350,000 viewers this side of the border. Dreadful numbers for expensive US simsubed programming.

Now there are still popular imported shows that do well. However they are becoming fewer and fewer and like the US, sports seems to be the only consistent draw for OTA television with decent live numbers.

We are seeing less simsub weekly over the past few years and this likely will continue. US programming will always be a big part of prime time on Canadian TV, but not always in tandem with what is being shown on ABC, CBS, FOX and NBC. I think you will see more movies and more material from streamers showing up on the Canadian networks, and some that would never appear on the US big four networks.

I have a feeling that CBC prime time may be doing somewhat better of late. For what it's worth, CBC prime time programming has been showing up a lot more on the Bell Fibe trending feature than even six months ago. CBC News Network was in the top 5 over most of this past weekend. That has never happened before, and they historically have shown up much more than CTV News Channel.

**Posted by cash** February 3, 2025 8:31 pm

American broadcasters can't pronounce the word premier.

**Posted by newsguy1** February 3, 2025 8:59 pm

Yes and they just can't grasp what a pree-MEER is.
The other day I heard an American pundit talking about Canadian Cabinet minister Melanie Joly... calling her Melany Jolly.like the jolly Roger.

and not to mention that they cannot pronounce Poilievre.
Most say something like POH-leever.
Imagine if Trump ended up taking over Canada and making us the 51st state.
Where would he even begin to understand Quebec?

**Posted by mic'em** February 4, 2025 7:51 am

Musk's response to the loss of the 100 million dollar deal, ' Oh well '. If I lose a fiver I am emotionally wounded.

**Posted by Shorty Wave** February 4, 2025 10:22 am

mic'em wrote:
Musk's response to the loss of the 100 million dollar deal, ' Oh well '. If I lose a fiver I am emotionally wounded.

A drop in the bucket for him, and if I lose a loonie, argggh!

**Posted by bbqguy1962** February 4, 2025 10:24 am

mic'em wrote:
Musk's response to the loss of the 100 million dollar deal, ' Oh well '. If I lose a fiver I am emotionally wounded.

I have no idea if he owns all of Starlink but if he doesn't there probably some pissed off investors.

I wonder if the MAGA folks realize that when Trump falls out of love with Musk the US Gov will need to completely replace every computer system they've given him access to. "But her emails"

**Posted by mace** February 4, 2025 11:15 am

paterson1 wrote:
Well American simsub entertainment programming is also becoming less important. We don't see the ratings anymore but last that we did see, a lot of the US prime time schedules weren't really drawing many viewers either. It is not unheard of for many of these "hit" shows to only draw 300,000-350,000 viewers this side of the border. Dreadful numbers for expensive US simsubed programming.

Now there are still popular imported shows that do well. However they are becoming fewer and fewer and like the US, sports seems to be the only consistent draw for OTA television with decent live numbers.

We are seeing less simsub weekly over the past few years and this likely will continue. US programming will always be a big part of prime time on Canadian TV, but not always in tandem with what is being shown on ABC, CBS, FOX and NBC. I think you will see more movies and more material from streamers showing up on the Canadian networks, and some that would never appear on the US big four networks.

I have a feeling that CBC prime time may be doing somewhat better of late. For what it's worth, CBC prime time programming has been showing up a lot more on the Bell Fibe trending feature than even six months ago. CBC News Network was in the top 5 over most of this past weekend. That has never happened before, and they historically have shown up much more than CTV News Channel.

Perhaps. However, the NCIS's, FBI's, Chicago One's all continue to be simsubbed.

**Posted by paterson1** February 4, 2025 11:35 am

The popular shows will always be simsubed. It is just that there aren't as many of them. And with the shows that don't draw the ratings, there seems to be more flexibility when it is broadcast here and not always with the US network. Canadian networks have at times a more varied schedule since they can cherry pick various US shows from different networks, and seem to be opting for more movies than before. Some of them recent films and from streamers. I have noticed that CTV2 has also been rerunning The Sopranos late night weekends and uncut. This is innovative since no other OTA station right now is doing anything like this.

**Posted by mace** February 4, 2025 12:37 pm

paterson1 wrote:
The popular shows will always be simsubed. It is just that there aren't as many of them. And with the shows that don't draw the ratings, there seems to be more flexibility when it is broadcast here and not always with the US network. Canadian networks have at times a more varied schedule since they can cherry pick various US shows from different networks, and seem to be opting for more movies than before. Some of them recent films and from streamers. I have noticed that CTV2 has also been rerunning The Sopranos late night weekends and uncut. This is innovative since no other OTA station right now is doing anything like this.

After its HBO run, CTV ran The Sopranos uncut on Sundays at 10pm. Only complaints came from viewers who recorded the show for one hour not knowing most episodes were 70-80 minutes in length.