Category Archives: Legal and Admin

Summary of comments on CBC.ca regarding Stursberg’s departure

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Here are a few comments from the CBC.ca story:

Stursberg has presided over the dumbing down of the CBC, a policy for which he should be held responsible.
JackMcFadyen

A good opportunity for Harper to bring someone in that will ensure truly “fair and balanced” news coverage instead of being a Liberal Party propaganda force.
Logi Biob

Is this the guy who gave us Little Mosque On The Prairie? May he never work again.
I_See_The_Matrix

I think the last line confirms…. the information “Hub” was a failure and was universally hated by all of the services. Radio and Television may be more modern these days, but they are still fundamentally different mediums and information simply cannot be spread between them equally. Add the Internet to the mix and they all need to work to their strengths.
chrisale

I am surprised it took six years for CBC management to realize this guy was about the worst thing that has happened to the English services in recent memory. I remember the last six English TV vice-presidents and this appointment was the most stunning shock to anyone who cares about public television.
LannyMorry

I would guess that Richard Stursberg is fully aware of the huge budget cuts being planned for the CBC.
BCworkinman

He shouldn’t be ALLOWED to leave until he cleans up the mess he made. THe man never understood public broadcasting; hence your tax dollars are paying for Canadian cultural gems like Jeopardy, Wheel of Fortune, and reruns of the Ghost Whisperer. He never understood that public broadcasting shouldn’t have its success calculated by market share; rather by the quality of programs with which it reflects the nation, and the regions of Canada, to themselves.
smudgebuck

Stursberg is leaving because his job is done: there is nothing left to be gutted that the new owners won’t be able to do themselves, such as reducing further classical music to a daily 3 hours max. Just listen to the new grid soon enough
AntonioSan

Stursberg was brought in to amalgamate & consolidate, in the best possible fashion, the CBC’s English Language TV, Radio & Online services into a fiscally viable media services delivery system… And at that, he’s pretty much succeeded. Yes… It’s different. No… It doesn’t please everybody…. But so what??… Even back forty-odd years ago, people complained that the CBC was too-rigid & elitist in it’s programing… And those were the days of TV programs like Juliette. Front Page Challenge, the Tommy Hunter Show, Wayne & Schuster, and Reach For The Top…  Things Change… Like Them … Or Leave Them For Somebody Else To Appreciate Them… ;-)
RU Outa Ur Mind

$100 says he joins Al Jazeera, following other CBC ‘luminaries’ such as Avi Lewis.
TJOttawa

The CBC changed totally when this man took the helm. The fellow before him (Rabinovich) tried to break it and this man changed it into a more “American” type. Changed forever. Nothing stays the same.
ollie12

Richard, you can’t please everyone. Thank you for your contribution to the CBC and best wishes for future endeavors.
Maritimer

Is it too much to hope for that Ghomeshi will be next?
The Dude on Pender

Maybe the issue is that a national broadcaster like CBC was a good idea fifty years ago but in today’s world of instant communications, it can’t appeal to much more than a niche market. Perhaps that’s why Richard Stursburg left.
AButters

Stursburg was pandering to the Conservatives everything-has-to-be-marketable carpet-bagging ideology. The Harper supporters are the ones on here decrying the CBC as a “waste of taxpayers” money, an argument which got old when the Cons started shoveling money off the back of a truck to their private, corporate pals instead of using it to support our Canadian institutions like the CBC, health care, and our social safety net.
Emmy P Citizen

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Richard Stursberg leaves CBC; effective immediately

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Richard Stursberg, head of CBC’s English services, is leaving after six years in the position.

CBC president Hubert T. Lacroix announced his departure Friday in a statement to employees. Lacroix gave no reason for Stursberg’s departure, which is effective Friday.

“When Richard was appointed executive vice-president of CBC Television six years ago, he brought with him a revolution that shook the foundation of the organization and eventually of the whole of our English services,” Lacroix said in his statement.

“He challenged every premise, attacked conventional wisdom, and uprooted whole parts of the internal culture. Six years later, the institution is better off than it was. I want to acknowledge his success in turning CBC Television around and thank him for his contribution.”

Kirstine Stewart, currently general manager of CBC Television, is to take his job as executive vice-president of English services on an interim basis.

(original text from CBC.ca)

CBC/Radio-Canada releases plan for the transition to over-the-air digital television

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With Canada’s switch from analogue to digital over-the-air television just over a year away, CBC/Radio-Canada today released the details of its plan for the transition to the Canadian public.

The transition to digital television is an industry wide issue requiring a concerted effort by all players – broadcasters, the CRTC, and government – to ensure that Canadians are properly informed of the changes coming and how to deal with them.

For its part, CBC/Radio-Canada will be installing digital transmitters in all of the markets in which it produces original television programming, for a total of 27 transmitters. Fifteen of the 27 transmitters will be operational by August 2011, with the remaining twelve to be operational by or before August 2012. The locations of these transmitters are now available on CBC/Radio-Canada’s website.

The Corporation will continue to offer analogue service beyond the August 31, 2011 shut-off date established by government in all markets not identified by the CRTC as mandatory for digital transmission. It has also filed a request to the CRTC to allow a temporary extension of analogue service in those markets not slated for transition until after the August 2011 deadline under the Corporation’s plan.

“We believe that our plan is appropriate given our financial challenges, given our mandate, and given industry trends,” said Steven Guiton, Vice President and Chief Regulatory Officer. “When all is said and done, our estimate is that less than 1 per cent of Canadians will need to turn to a cable or satellite provider in order to continue receiving our signal.”

The Broadcasting Act mandates that CBC/Radio-Canada’s services “be made available throughout Canada by the most appropriate and efficient means, as resources become available for the purpose.” Today, Canadians receive CBC/Radio-Canada’s television services through a variety of platforms including over-the-air, cable, satellite and the Internet. The plan to transition to over-the-air digital television in key markets will support the modernization of CBC/Radio-Canada’s multi-platform delivery system and enable the Corporation to continue providing Canadians with high-quality content through the most appropriate and efficient means available.

CBC/Radio-Canada’s digital TV transition plan is available at:

www.cbc.radio-canada.ca/newsreleases/pdf/dtv_plan.pdf

Tony Parsons to anchor CBC Vancouver local news

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Veteran B.C. news anchor Tony Parsons is returning to the Vancouver airwaves as host of the CBC’s supper-hour newscast, the corporation announced on Monday afternoon.

Parsons will co-host the CBC local newscasts with Gloria Macarenko. He replaces former co-anchor Ian Hanomansing, who left last week to take up a position as a replacement anchor and reporter with CBC News: The National.

Parsons recently retired from the top anchor spot at Global TV in Vancouver and became host of the 10 p.m. PT local newscast on CHEK television, an independent station in Victoria.

He remains one of the most recognizable faces in B.C. news, Johnny Michel, the managing director for CBC’s B.C. region, said in a statement.

“Tony Parsons has been synonymous with local news in Vancouver for 35 years and we’re thrilled to welcome him to the CBC News Vancouver team,” said Michel.

Under the new agreement, Parsons will host the newscast for CBC in Vancouver from 5 p.m. to 6:30 p.m., then appear at 10 p.m. on CHEK’s late-night Vancouver Island newscast.

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