''Spark'' is a Canadian radio

talk show A talk show (or chat show in British English) is a television programming or radio programming genre structured around the act of spontaneous conversation.Bernard M. Timberg, Robert J. Erler'' (2010Television Talk: A History of the TV Talk Show ...

about "technology and culture." Hosted by

Nora Young Nora Young is a Canadian broadcaster and writer. She was the first host of CBC Radio's ''Definitely Not the Opera'', from 1994 to 2002. Since 2007, she has been the host of ''Spark'' on CBC Radio One. Norah Young was born and raised in Toronto. ...

, the program made its

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 ...

début on September 5, 2007. The show is also broadcast on Sirius Satellite Radio 159 and, since January 9, 2010, on

Vermont Public Radio Vermont Public Co. is the public broadcaster serving the U.S. state of Vermont. Its headquarters, newsroom, and radio studios are located in Colchester, with television studios in Winooski. It operates two statewide radio services aligned with ...

's network of stations in the United States. It is also broadcast in Australia on the

Australian Broadcasting Corporation The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) is the national broadcaster of Australia. It is principally funded by direct grants from the Australian Government and is administered by a government-appointed board. The ABC is a publicly-own ...

Radio National Radio National, known on-air as RN, is an Australia-wide public service broadcasting radio network run by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). From 1947 until 1985, the network was known as ABC Radio 2. History 1937: Predecessors an ...

network. ''Spark'' is produced in

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

by Young and a team that currently consists of Michelle Parise, Adam Killick, and Kent Hoffman. The program is made collaboratively with its audience. Nora Young often encourages listeners to become "Spark Contributors" by participating in the active conversations on the Spark Blog, notifying the Spark Team of interesting ideas to investigate, or even recording interviews and letting Spark use them on the show. The show often plays phone messages left by Spark listeners and features comments left on the Spark Blog. Its episodes made use of

Creative Commons Creative Commons (CC) is an American non-profit organization and international network devoted to educational access and expanding the range of creative works available for others to build upon legally and to share. The organization has release ...

music until October 2010, when CBC management realized that Spark was available on some platforms considered to be commercial, violating use restrictions of most of the music available under the

Creative Commons license A Creative Commons (CC) license is one of several public copyright licenses that enable the free distribution of an otherwise copyrighted "work".A "work" is any creative material made by a person. A painting, a graphic, a book, a song/lyrics ...

s. This prompted Spark to limit its use to the

APM Music Associated Production Music, LLC (commonly known as APM Music) is an American production music company headquartered in Hollywood, California, initially as a joint venture between Zomba/Jive Production Music and EMI Production Music. APM Music' ...

library. Spark sometimes comments on proposed legislation that affects widely used technology. An example was the

Copyright Modernization Act ''An Act to amend the Copyright Act'' (the ''Act''), also known as ''Bill C-11'' or the ''Copyright Modernization Act'', was introduced in the House of Commons of Canada on September 29, 2011 by Industry Minister Christian Paradis. It was virtua ...

and the bills leading up to it.

Producers

In addition to Nora Young, current producers include Michelle Parise, Adam Killick, and Kent Hoffman. Past producers include Dan Misener, Elizabeth Bowie and Carma Jolly.

Multiple podcasts

The on-air version is available as a weekly podcast, augmented with two additional audio feeds: Spark Plus (which features "bonus audio" such as full interviews), and "Bandwidth with Anshuman Iddamsetty", a weekly technology column by one of Spark's producers. Spark Lite, a low-bandwidth podcast of the on-air version powered by

blip.tv Blip (formerly blip.tv) was an American media platform for web series content and also offered a dashboard for producers of original web series to distribute and monetize their productions. The company was founded on May 5, 2005, and it was locate ...

, was available from November 2008 to October 2011; it ended due to changes in blip.tv policy.

References

External links

Official website
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Spark (Radio Show) CBC Radio One programs Audio podcasts Canadian talk radio programs 2007 radio programme debuts