Management Killed the Radio Star

In a cleverly-titled post, elated? points to a good CMG/CBC lockout primer from rabble.ca.

Open Letter From a Locked-Out CBC Radio Employee

Just read Caitlin’s Open Letter From a Locked-Out CBC Radio Employee:

The CBC is only as good as its programming, and therefore only as good as the people who create that programming. Having zero security and always worrying about where we will work next week means we can’t fully concentrate on our jobs. We can’t be as creative and fully engaged with our work as we’d like to because we are always wondering if we should be looking somewhere else for a real job.

Locked-out CBC workers back on air… via campus radio!

Wouldn’t it be great if CBC radio newsroom staff continued to do their jobs? If we continued to file reports, conduct interviews, and produce news items? What if we kept doing newscasts, same as always? We could use our own personal minidisc recorders, computers, and editing equipment. We could air the news on CJAM (Windsor’s campus/community radio station). Listeners would hear the same kinds of local stories they’re used to, from the voices they’re used to. We’d be sending the message, “We care about local stories. We want to work. But we can’t.”

Would this be more effective job action than picketing outside an empty building?

This was all a pie-in-the-sky conversation I had with a colleague on the picket line today. That is, until I received a call from Chris Cecile at CJAM, asking if we’d be interested in doing the very same thing we’d just been discussing. I talked to some CBC Windsor reporters, and they’re keen.

Turns out the very same thing is happening in Calgary:

For immediate release

**Calgary the first city to get CBC-calibre journalism back on air

Locked out CBC staff to broadcast live programming from CJSW**

Calgary, AB. (August 19, 2005) – Calgary CBC fans rejoice! CBC-calibre journalism returns to the airwaves Monday August 22 when a dozen locked-out CBC Calgary journalists, producers and technicians begin live weekly radio broadcasts of their own news and current affairs program. The program will be produced and broadcast from the studios of CJSW, the University of Calgary’s Students’ Association radio station.

The new weekly program will air Mondays from 11:00 a.m. – Noon, beginning August 22 on CJSW, 90.9 on the FM dial and will feature CBC journalists including Kathleen Petty of CBC Newsworld, Doug Dirks of CBC Television, and Judy Aldous, Jennifer Keene and Jim Brown of CBC Radio. The CJSW signal is heard throughout Calgary and surrounding municipalities.

The broadcast will air one week after 5,500 CBC journalists, producers and technicians across Canada were locked out by CBC management in response to ongoing contract negotiations with the Canadian Media Guild. It will be the first radio programming in Canada by CBC staff since the lockout began.

“We hope to bring CBC-level journalism back to faithful CBC Calgary listeners,” said Fred Youngs, Executive Producer of CBC Newsworld in Calgary, and a member of the Canadian Media Guild. “Quality news coverage is something they have been missing since the lockout began, and we will tell, from a Canadian perspective, stories that matter to Canadians. One of the stories we hope to cover is our own: what is happening at the CBC and why.”

The lockout unlocks the ideal CBC

Russell from the Globe and Mail thinks that Radio Two sounds better during the lockout:

“No announcers. No letters being read about people’s pets or retirements. No giggling ‘personalities.’ No folk-jazz, folk-pop or folk-classical. It’s uninterrupted heaven — and exactly what Radio Two should be.”

(A Globe INSIDER Edition subscription is required to access this story. You can sign up for a free trial, or try your luck at BugMeNot.)

Dan pickets for a second day

Today was my second day on the picket line, and my first full 8 hour shift. I don’t think I’ve ever drank more water. Or worn more SPF 45 sunscreen. I arrived at 9:00 AM, and smiled when a colleague piped up, “I saw Dan Misener’s blog last night.”

The morning passed quickly. I got a chance to walk and talk with some people I hadn’t seen in a while, including the not-back-from-vacation-but-here-for-support Tony Doucette. Also chatted about Flickr and del.icio.us with Sue Braiden. For the most part, conversations were still CBC and lockout-related. But hey, when you’re walking around the CBC building with your CBC co-workers during a CBC lockout, it’s hard to focus on much else.

Other local unions dropped by with treats (iced cappuccino!), including CAW Local 195 and the Ontario English Catholic Teachers Association. Thanks!

I consider myself lucky. I’m young, and I’m portable, and I can live cheap. Most of what I own here fits in a couple of large Rubbermaid totes. I don’t have a spouse, kids, car payments, or a mortgage. Our strike pay is pretty good, and if the lockout continues, I’ll be able to eke out a humble existence. I’m not so worried about myself or those close to retirement — we’ll be OK. It’s my colleagues and friends with spouses, kids, cars, and mortgages that I’m worried about. My fingers are crossed.