CBC staff may be locked out of work, but that hasn’t stopped employees from coming to Kingston to do what they do best.
More than 100 network employees are expected to visit the University today for a radio broadcast and rally.
“We have a very high level of and listenership in Kingston,” said CBC Radio reporter and event organizer Dave Seglins. “We want faculty and students to come out and meet some of Canada’s great journalists.” He said the event is meant to give the community a chance to discuss the value of public broadcasting in Canada, rather than to focus on the lockout and negotiations.
“Most of the events so far [in other cities] have been about the negotiations and the lockout,” Seglins said. “We don’t want to do that. We want to have a discussion about public broadcasting and its value in our society.” Familiar CBC personalities including Mary Lou Finlay, host of As It Happens, will attend a 11:30 a.m. meet-and-greet in the JDUC.
CFRC will also broadcast a live-in-studio discussion between CBC staff, critics of public broadcasting and phone-in listeners that will be played outside the JDUC from noon to 1 p.m.
Shelagh Rogers, host of Sounds Like Canada, will the debate by phone.
“CFRC has offered us an hour of airtime, so we will be holding a radio session as an opportunity to put our critics on the air,” Seglins said. “We want the citizens of Kingston to call in and tell us how they feel about the CBC.”
In fact, CFRC has a long-standing relationship with the CBC.
In the late 1940s, CFRC was a CBC station, run by Queen’s grad Lorne Greene, who was later nicknamed “The Voice of Canada.”
Currently, CFRC makes Queen’s experts available to the CBC via their digital studio link.
Recent public inquiry into the value of a public radio station from news columnists and politicians pushed organizers to solicit the open discussion, Seglins said.
“We are inviting of the Conservative Party, including Peter McKay and Heritage critic Bev Oda, who has openly questioned the need for public radio, to come on the air,” Seglins said.
“Not everyone wants to put our critics on the air, but those of us participating think that it is important for people to speak their minds.”
CBC President Robert Rabinovitch declined an invitation to participate in the broadcast.
CBC Spokesperson Jason MacDonald said he hoped the dispute would soon be remedied.
“Our employees’ actions reflect that they love what they do, and that is why we want to get this dispute solved, so that they can do it for the CBC again.”
A march from the JDUC to Confederation Basin, across from City Hall, will follow the broadcast. The day’s events will end with a rally featuring a performance by singer Sarah Harmer.
“We have buses coming in from Toronto and Ottawa, and the Labour Council of Kingston is also mobilized,” local CBC Radio reporter JC Kenny told the Journal. “I expect that the number of guild attending will be well over one hundred.” Kenny, who works for CBC Ottawa in the Kingston area, said she hopes the event will raise awareness about the effects of the lockout.
“I’ll be on the street and people will tell me that they really miss their morning news,” she said. Nothing can fill that gap—we are the only constant broadcast link to things all over the country. For the news and current affairs appetite throughout the day, there is nothing else.”
Kenny said all across Canada, locked-out staffers are organizing bus tours and picketing CBC offices.
“Because we don’t have many CBC people in Kingston, I have been going to Ottawa and doing picket duty during the week,” Kenny said.
Seglins added that in other cities, employees are also hosting regular campus radio broadcasts to express concerns about the ongoing lockout.
Seglins said organizers chose Kingston for their broadcast and rally for several reasons.
“I’m a Queen’s grad who worked at CFRC, and a lot of CBC staffers have roots at this University,” he said.
Kenny added that Kingston has been a longtime er of CBC Radio.
“We have for a long time had a good share of the radio market in Kingston,” she said. “The CBC really is the only place to go for current events on the Kingston radio.” Both the meet-and-greet and rally events are open to the public.
“We want, as broadcast journalists, to thank the people of Kingston for their years of ,” Seglins said. “A whole number of high-profile personalities will participate, and it would be great if friends and ers came out.”
The CFRC broadcast will also air online at cbcunplugged.com.
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