CBC Radio is the English-language
radio
Radio is the technology of signaling and communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 30 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmit ...
operations of the
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (french: Société Radio-Canada), branded as CBC/Radio-Canada, is a Canadian public broadcaster for both radio and television. It is a federal Crown corporation that receives funding from the government. ...
. The CBC operates a number of radio networks serving different audiences and programming niches, all of which (regardless of language) are outlined below.
English
CBC Radio operates three
English language
English is a West Germanic language of the Indo-European language family, with its earliest forms spoken by the inhabitants of early medieval England. It is named after the Angles, one of the ancient Germanic peoples that migrated to the is ...
networks.
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CBC Radio One
CBC Radio One is the English-language news and information radio network of the publicly owned Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. It is commercial-free and offers local and national programming. It is available on AM and FM to 98 percent of Ca ...
- Primarily news and information, Radio One broadcasts to most communities across Canada. Until 1997, it was known as "CBC Radio".
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CBC Music - Broadcasts an adult music format with a variety of genres, with the classical genre generally restricted to midday hours. From 2007 to 2018, it was known as "CBC Radio 2".
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CBC Radio 3
CBC Radio 3 is a Canadian digital radio station operated by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, which plays a relatively freeform mix of indie rock, indie pop, alternative hip hop, folk, country and electronic music.
The service, which la ...
- Broadcasts a youth-oriented
indie rock
Indie rock is a Music subgenre, subgenre of rock music that originated in the United States, United Kingdom and New Zealand from the 1970s to the 1980s. Originally used to describe independent record labels, the term became associated with the mu ...
format on
Internet radio
Online radio (also web radio, net radio, streaming radio, e-radio, IP radio, Internet radio) is a digital audio service transmitted via the Internet. Broadcasting on the Internet is usually referred to as webcasting since it is not transmitted ...
and
Sirius XM Radio
Sirius XM Holdings Inc. is an American broadcasting company headquartered in Midtown Manhattan, New York City that provides satellite radio and online radio services operating in the United States. It was formed by the 2008 merger of Sirius Sat ...
. Some content from Radio 3 was also broadcast as weekend programming on Radio Two until March 2007.
The inconsistency of branding between the word "One" and the numerals "2" and "3" was a deliberate design choice on CBC's part and is not an error, though from 1997 to 2007, CBC Music was known as "CBC Radio Two".
From 1944 to 1962 CBC's English service operated two radio networks, the main
Trans-Canada Network
The Trans-Canada Network was the name assigned to the main English-language radio network of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation to distinguish it from the CBC's second network, the Dominion Network. Today, it is known as CBC Radio One. The Tra ...
and the
Dominion Network. In 1962 the Dominion Network was disbanded and the Trans-Canada Network became known as CBC Radio and in 1997, CBC Radio One. In some cases CBC announcers will still say "CBC Radio" in reference to programs that air only on Radio One.
CBC Music originated in 1960 as the CBC FM network. It was rebranded as CBC Stereo in 1975, and then CBC Radio Two in 1997 before becoming CBC Music in 2018.
In August 2009, CBC Radio launched a
mobile app
A mobile application or app is a computer program or software application designed to run on a mobile device such as a phone, tablet, or watch. Mobile applications often stand in contrast to desktop applications which are designed to run on d ...
, initially for
iOS
iOS (formerly iPhone OS) is a mobile operating system created and developed by Apple Inc. exclusively for its hardware. It is the operating system that powers many of the company's mobile devices, including the iPhone; the term also include ...
, featuring streams of the three services, and other web-exclusive stations. In February 2012, CBC launched a new, similar streaming platform and app known as CBC Music.
["CBC launches free digital music service"]
''Ottawa Citizen
The ''Ottawa Citizen'' is an English-language daily newspaper owned by Postmedia Network in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
History
Established as ''The Bytown Packet'' in 1845 by William Harris (journalist), William Harris, it was renamed the '' ...
'', February 13, 2012. In October 2019, CBC Music was succeeded by CBC Listen, a new platform that encompasses CBC Radio and CBC Music content, as well as CBC-produced
podcast
A podcast is a program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. For example, an episodic series of digital audio or video files that a user can download to a personal device to listen to at a time of their choosing ...
s.
French
The CBC (better known in French as ''la Société Radio-Canada'', or colloquially simply ''Radio-Canada'') also operates two
French language
French ( or ) is a Romance language of the Indo-European family. It descended from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire, as did all Romance languages. French evolved from Gallo-Romance, the Latin spoken in Gaul, and more specifically in Nor ...
radio networks, each of which has a similar programming focus to one of the corporation's English-language radio networks. A third service was discontinued in 2013.
Structurally, the French-language radio operations are managed as part of the CBC's overall French-language services division, and therefore have limited ties to the English-language radio networks, which are structured similarly (i.e., there is no overall "CBC Radio" division responsible for both English and French radio).
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Ici Radio-Canada Première
Ici Radio-Canada Première (formerly Première Chaîne) is a Canadian French language, French-language radio network, the news and information service of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (known as Société Radio-Canada in French), the Public ...
- News and information.
*
Ici Musique
Ici Musique (stylized as ICI Musique) is the French-language music radio service of Canada's national public broadcaster, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (''Société Radio-Canada''). It is the French equivalent of the English CBC Music, al ...
- Music, arts and culture.
*
Bande à part - Youth-oriented programming on Internet and Sirius, although some content continues to air as weekend programming on Espace musique, the predecessor of Ici Musique. Discontinued in 2013.
CBC North
In the
Northwest Territories
The Northwest Territories (abbreviated ''NT'' or ''NWT''; french: Territoires du Nord-Ouest, formerly ''North-Western Territory'' and ''North-West Territories'' and namely shortened as ''Northwest Territory'') is a federal territory of Canada. ...
,
Yukon
Yukon (; ; formerly called Yukon Territory and also referred to as the Yukon) is the smallest and westernmost of Canada's three territories. It also is the second-least populated province or territory in Canada, with a population of 43,964 as ...
,
Nunavut
Nunavut ( , ; iu, ᓄᓇᕗᑦ , ; ) is the largest and northernmost Provinces and territories of Canada#Territories, territory of Canada. It was separated officially from the Northwest Territories on April 1, 1999, via the ''Nunavut Act'' ...
, and
northern Quebec Northern Quebec (french: le nord du Québec) is a geographic term denoting the northerly, more remote and less populated parts of the Canadian province of Quebec.Alexandre Robaey"Charity group works with Indigenous communities to feed Northern Queb ...
,
CBC North
CBC North ( iu, ᓰᐲᓰ ᐅᑭᐅᖅᑕᖅᑐᒥ, lit=CBC Northwest, translit=, SiiPiiSii Ukiuqtaqtumi; cr, ᓰᐲᓰ ᒌᐌᑎᓅᑖᐦᒡ, label=cr, SiiPiiSii Chiiwetinuutaahch; french: Radio-Canada Nord) is the Canadian Broadcasting Corpora ...
airs a modified Radio One schedule to accommodate programming in Native languages and Radio Nord Quebec, which airs a combined Radio One / Première schedule via FM mixed in with programming in native languages.
Podcasts
CBC Radio has 14 original podcasts. Two of the podcasts,
Someone Knows Something
''Someone Knows Something'' (or ''SKS'' for short) is a podcast by Canadian award-winning filmmaker and writer David Ridgen, first released in March 2016. The series is hosted, written and produced by Ridgen and mixed by Cesil Fernandes. The ser ...
and Missing & Murdered, are ranked among the top shows on the iTunes and Stitcher charts. In addition, select podcasts are often now broadcast on its terrestrial radio network as supplement material, typically during the summer programming months of July and August to fill time such as on ''
The Current'' when regular programming is reduced during the summer period.
Someone Knows Something
"Someone Knows Something," hosted by filmmaker
David Ridgen
David Ridgen is an independent Canadian filmmaker born in Stratford, Ontario. He has worked for CBC Television, MSNBC, NPR, TVOntario and others. He is currently the writer, producer and host of CBC Radio’s true-crime podcast series, '' Some ...
, first aired in 2016. The show, which investigates cold cases in Canada and the United States, finished its fourth season in March 2018. In season three, Ridgen worked with a Mississippi man, Thomas Moore, to solve the 1964 kidnapping and murder of Moore's brother, Charles, and his friend, Henry Dee. As a result of information uncovered by the podcast, James Ford Seale, a former member of the KKK, was convicted of the killings in 2007 and received three life sentences for his crimes against Moore and Dee. Season four returned to Canada as Ridgen sought answers in the 1996 unsolved murder case of Wayne Greavette, an Ontario man killed by a bomb that was disguised as a Christmas gift and sent to his home. Season four ended in March 2018 and had the fewest episodes of the series.
Missing & Murdered
Investigative journalist
Connie Walker hosts "Missing & Murdered," a podcast which looks into deaths and disappearances of indigenous women in Canada. The show's first season, "Missing & Murdered: Who Killed Alberta Williams," covered the unsolved homicide of Alberta Williams who went missing from Prince Rupert, British Columbia, after a night out with friends. Her body was discovered days later along Highway 16, which has since become known as "
the Highway of Tears." Following the show, the
Royal Canadian Mounted Police
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP; french: Gendarmerie royale du Canada; french: GRC, label=none), commonly known in English as the Mounties (and colloquially in French as ) is the federal police, federal and national police service of ...
announced the case was once again active. The second season, released in March 2018, helped a family find out what happened to their teenage sister, Cleo Semaganis Nicotine, after she was sent to the United States from Saskatchewan during the "
Sixties Scoop
The Sixties Scoop was a period in which a series of policies were enacted in Canada that enabled child welfare authorities to take, or "scoop up," Indigenous children from their families and communities for placement in foster homes, from which ...
." The stories featured on this podcast are part of a broader effort by Walker, who is
Cree
The Cree ( cr, néhinaw, script=Latn, , etc.; french: link=no, Cri) are a Indigenous peoples of the Americas, North American Indigenous people. They live primarily in Canada, where they form one of the country's largest First Nations in Canada ...
, and CBC News to raise awareness about the more than 250 unsolved disappearances and homicides of indigenous women and girls across Canada. In 2017, the RCMP announced an initiative to stop violence against indigenous women and girls, citing studies done in 2014 that found they are among the most likely populations to be victims of violent crime.
Other services
The CBC operates
Radio Canada International
Radio Canada International (RCI) is the international broadcasting service of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC). Prior to 1970, RCI was known as the CBC International Service. The broadcasting service was also previously referred to as ...
(RCI), an online service. RCI ended its
shortwave radio
Shortwave radio is radio transmission using shortwave (SW) radio frequencies. There is no official definition of the band, but the range always includes all of the high frequency band (HF), which extends from 3 to 30 MHz (100 to 10 me ...
broadcast in June 2012.
In some remote Canadian tourist areas, such as national or provincial parks, the CBC also operates a series of transmitters which broadcast weather alerts from
Environment Canada's
Weatheradio Canada
Weatheradio Canada (french: Radiométéo Canada) is a Canadian weather radio network owned and operated by Environment and Climate Change Canada's Meteorological Service of Canada division that is an official partner of the U.S. National Weathe ...
service.
The CBC formerly operated ''Galaxie'', a
digital television radio
Digital-television radio, DTV radio, or DTR describes the audio channels that are provided with a digital television service. These channels are delivered by cable television, direct-broadcast satellite or digital terrestrial television. In terms o ...
service which provides 45 channels of music programming to
digital cable
Digital cable is the distribution of cable television using digital data and video compression. The technology was first developed by General Instrument. By 2000, most cable companies offered digital features, eventually replacing their previou ...
subscribers in both English and French. This service is now operated by
Stingray Digital
Stingray Group Inc. (formerly Stingray Digital and Stingray Digital Group) is a publicly traded Media of Canada, Canadian media and entertainment company based in Montreal, Quebec, with offices in the United States, Belgium, the United Kingdom, t ...
, who since relaunched the service as ''
Stingray Music
Stingray Music is a Canada-based international multi-platform audio service that broadcasts continuous Streaming media, streaming music and other forms of audio on multiple channel feeds. The service is owned by Stingray Digital.
While a song i ...
''. CBC also celebrates the generation of leaders, builders and change-makers of Canada under the age of 40 through the CBC Future 40 People Choice Award.
CBC Radio in the news
In 2012, CBC Radio lost some of its funding as a result of large cuts in Canadian government spending. This has resulted in a reduction of the number of concerts being recorded, the closing of recording studios and the laying off of technicians,
["Industry News: CBC budget cuts mean fewer live recordings", Words and Music, Fall 2012] as well as the introduction of four minutes per hour of
advertising
Advertising is the practice and techniques employed to bring attention to a product or service. Advertising aims to put a product or service in the spotlight in hopes of drawing it attention from consumers. It is typically used to promote a ...
on Radio 2 and Espace musique. Advertisements discontinued by September 1, 2016.
CTRC broadcast decision that put an end to commercial advertisement on CBC Radio 2 and ICI Musique. Decision 2016-353.
/ref>
See also
*List of CBC radio AM transmitters in Canada This article is a list of full-power and low-power CBC Radio AM-only transmitters in Canada for the CBC Radio One and Première Chaîne networks which are still in operation on AM radio frequencies as of 2018. There are a total of about 100 or mor ...
*List of defunct CBC radio transmitters in Canada
This is a list of former radio transmitters across Canada that were used by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Most of the former transmitters operated on the AM dial as low-power relay transmitters (LPRT's), which were added to vast remote ...
References
Further reading
* Nolan, Michael. ''Foundations: Alant Plaunt and the Early Days of C.B.C. Radio''. Toronto, Ont.: C.B.C. Enterprises, 1986.
External links
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
CBC.ca - Listen to CBC Radio
- Live streams
- cbc.ca
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