RCI down sizing

[VK7ZL]

The following information came from the Shortwave group.

RCI News
April 4, 2012

Spending cuts announced last week in Canada's latest federal budget have reached Radio Canada International. Speaking to employees at RCI's headquarters in Montreal on Wednesday, RCI director Helene Parent declared that two out of three RCI employees---about 40 people---will lose their jobs by the end of July. RCI's Russian and Portugueuse sections will be closed along with the English and French-language newsrooms. All shortwave broadcasts will cease as well. RCI will continue to exist solely on the Internet in five languages---English, French, Arabic, Spanish and Mandarin.

http://www.rcinet.ca/english/news/15_56_27_2012-04-04-rci-slashed/

Following this decision, CBC/Radio-Canada will be closing its shortwave transmission site in Sackville, New Brunswick.


Bob  VK7ZL

[W7TFO]

Ham AM needs to legalize playing music again.  It will soon be the only hi-fi AM on the bands!

73DG

[K4RT]

I started listening to shortwave in the mid 1970s, which was the entryway to ham radio for me. RCI's integrity and high production values made it one of my favorites on the shortwave bands for many years. I especially enjoyed the talents of RCI broadcasters Ian McFarland, Gerard Rejskind, and Diane Mathis in the late 70s/early 80s.

73,
Brad K4RT

[WA3VJB]

"As It Happens" and "The World at Six" were two news programs from Radio Canada that influenced me toward a career in broadcast journalism.  As an SWL, in 1969, I became a member (#8789) of the Radio Canada Shortwave Club. And 30 years ago this summer I visited RCI in Montreal and was put on the air in a recorded segment about SWLs who go on to a career like mine. Interviewed by Ian McFarland, chairman of the SW Club, quite a rush for me.  Never got to the transmitter site at Sackville, but I'm surprised it cannot be sustained by revenue from peddling air time to all the outside re-broadcasts.

About 40 years ago I borrowed a friend's open-reel recorder to snag a series RCI broadcast on the weekends.  I see Ian is selling now a CD of that set. It might be time to buy and reminisce ...

http://mt-shortwave.blogspot.com/2006/09/ian-mcfarlands-sw-idents-interval.html

And, who else remembers the CBC Northern Service?  9625 and 11720KHz. First and only time I've ever heard the news in Eskimo (Inuit), by a native named Elijah Menarik (L).



Update 08 Apr 2012

While rooting around for old correspondence with them, I found a description of their technical plant.

Update #2, 15 Apr 2012

Adding my SWL certificate!

[Sam KS2AM]

Jeez I thought it was good news until I realized RCI meant Radio Canada and not that manufacturer of "amateur" radios.   


my early 70's RCI QSL

[KM1H]

I drive by the Sackville site just about every year, what a location for a lowband DX antenna farm.

Carl

[Opcom]

Ham AM needs to legalize playing music again.  It will soon be the only hi-fi AM on the bands!

73DG

and give us a few of those 6-8MHz frequencies..

[k4kyv]

Looks like Radio Canada has curtailed their on-line streaming of domestic service as well.  I used to listen to CJBC, Toronto (Première chaîne) on my internet "radio".   Lately I don't get a  connection.  I visited the Première chaîne website and they no longer have a "Listen" icon on the page, and a search on the streaming service I use, Reciva.com, gives "zero" results.

[Sam KS2AM]

Looks like Radio Canada has curtailed their on-line streaming of domestic service as well.  I used to listen to CJBC, Toronto (Première chaîne) on my internet "radio".   Lately I don't get a  connection.  I visited the Première chaîne website and they no longer have a "Listen" icon on the page, and a search on the streaming service I use, Reciva.com, gives "zero" results.

Try this RCI link Don. It has RCI, Radio One and Première Chaîne streams on it.

http://www.rcinet.ca/radio/index.php?language=en&type=&media=radio&id=rci

[k4kyv]

I wonder if CJBC has gone dark.  Haven't tried to pick them up on the AM band through the QRN, but I can get Première Chaîne on my internet radio via CBF-FM, and can get it on the RCI site on the computer. I know Canada has phased out a lot of their AM stations, moved them to FM or simply closed them down.

Interestingly, there is a latency of almost 20 seconds on the CBF stream, compared to the RCI stream.

[KA0HCP]

Times slip past...

Yeah, I've listened to the RCI news in Inuet.  I still listen to As It Happens, my local PBS radio station carries it around 11 pm. 

[flintstone mop]

I guess the bean counters in any government are watching their bottom line.
It's a shame that there are no pioneers out there keeping radio alive, even if any profit is never realized. Allan Weiner, somehow keeps a lot of transmitters alive in Maine. I'm sure that he draws from any profit from the Bcast stations he owns to pay the electric bills.
With no rating system in place for short wave stations, no one really knows how many, if any, are listening.

[The Slab Bacon]

<snip> "Allan Weiner, somehow keeps a lot of transmitters alive in Maine. I'm sure that he draws from any profit from the Bcast stations he owns to pay the electric bills." <snip>

Hmmmmmm................. look who his engineer is! ! !    

As far as Hi-Fi SW goes, I used to really enjoy WRNO They had a STRAPPING signal into here and used to play some kick-ass music too boot! You just had to remember what frequency they were on at what time of day.

Another good one was KUSW out of Salt Lake City. Between all of the religious stuff, they used to play some really good vintage rock music for a few hours during the evening.

But the one that got me good one night was of all things, Radio Moscow. Being the big blues fan that I am, one night I was tuning around and found a station playing one vintage blues cut after another. (A straight hour of Muddy Waters got my attention enough to sit there and listen.) Keeping in mind that I was enjoying the music I didn't take notice of the muddy audio or the all so familiar 50Hz hum, I was determined to sit there and listen until they IDed. (there had been no voice announcers whatsoever for several hours) When they finally IDed as Radio Moscow, I felt like I'd been had! ! ! ! ! ! Also keeping in mind that this was back in the "cold war" days.

[VE3AJM]

Its unfortunate that RCI is going off the shortwave bands. I had enjoyed listening to them over many years especially from back in my SWL/DX days for when Glen Hauser would give his reports or Larry Magne would review another SW receiver.

That being said, RCI budget is part of CBCs overall budget. In this country, the tax payers of Canada subsidise the CBC to the tune of over one BILLION dollars. Budget cuts are a reality.The CBC does serve as very important service to Canadians especially in the remote areas of our country where there are no other sources of conventional media available. However, the CBC continues to block, and take legal avenues to prevent freedom of information requests from Canadians with regard to how they spend their money that taxpayers flip the bill for. And taxpayers are also paying for these legal expenses. They seem to think that thay are untouchable, and don't have to be transparent and open with regard to how they spend our money.

The CBC leans very heavily toward the left wing of the political spectrum/bias especially in the larger urban areas, which flies in the face of their claim to represent most Canadians, which they do not.

Many Canadians are frustrated that we are paying for a service that doesn't represent the majority of the population. They are finally having to live in the real world, where we all have to tighten our belts. I would prefer that they cut deeper into parts of CBC other than RCI. CJBC is still operating at 860kc with its 50kw signal.

Al VE3AJM

[Tom WA3KLR]

Al,

It's good to "hear" you on this forum.

I too, used to listen A LOT to RCI and the shortwave programs of Glen Hauser and Larry Magne, Ian McFarland's Shortwave Listener's Digest; days gone forever.  

I have a coffee cup souvenir I picked up at the local Shortwave Listener's Convention in Kulpsville PA, February 1991.
 
It reads :
"SHORTWAVE LISTENER'S DIGEST
Radio Canada International
since June 5, 1977
(signed) 73 & 88
(signed) Ian McFarland"

A fond trinket which sits on my fireplace mantel.

[WA3VJB]

Cool Mug, Tom.

When I visited their "new" studio complex in Montreal, I got a triangular-shaped ceramic travel mug, unfortunately lost or dropped/broken.

Today I did find some old QSL cards, typed by someone in their listener services section and mailed with a postage machine. Notice the January QSL date on reception of the Northern Service is probably correct, 1971, but they had not yet changed the year on the postage meter, 1970.

There was something magic about getting cards like this in the mailbox.  As an aside, my parents were convinced the U.S. was probably watching our place when I got stuff from Radio Havana Cuba, Radio Moscow, Radio Berlin International, Radio Prague.

Instead of postage meters, most of the Eastern Bloc countries used colorful, oversize intaglio-type stamps that were fascinating all on their own.

Looking through them this afternoon, many of the countries no longer exist.

[WA3VJB]

A film maker is documenting the Sackville, New Brunswick site before they possibly tear down the towers.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/story/2012/04/07/nb-towers-film.html

[Bill, KD0HG]

We are the last of the SW B-casters.

Cherish the moment.

Bill

[W3LSN]

Sorry to see it going away. Many years ago I remember picking up RCI broadcasts on, of all things, my turntable preamp.  I lived in New Jersey at the time.

73, Jim
WA2AJM/3

[Sam KS2AM]

We are the last of the SW B-casters.

Cherish the moment.

Bill

I think that there might still be one or two on the air:

http://www1.m2.mediacat.ne.jp/binews/bia11.txt