FTLComm, Regina, June 30, 1998
By Timothy W. Shire, Pictures by Matthew Shire
(CBC Portraits borrowed from CBC Web sites.)
The best kept secret in information and understanding ourselves. It is almost like
a club or a secret society the closet listeners who keep themselves up to date by
turning their radios on and listen to five-forty. Old timers all refer to the station
as “Watrous” and no one uses the call sign “CBK”. But, to the many of us, no day
is complete without our fix from the radio station that has defined and refined what
we consider our reality.
Though commercial radio stations have a solid following of listeners, there is a
breed apart who have learned to love commercial free broadcasting. The CBC’s
“Radio 1” has long been the first choice for a large number of people ever since
the days of the second world war. With a mix of programming from national and local
sources the spectrum of material is wide and varied.
The station did originate in Watrous where its massive antenna situated over salt
beds and the very low number on the dial, made it the most powerful and widely received
signal on the continent. In the fifties, the station shifted into Regina into a pretty
crowded studio, but that did not prevent it from filling the province with music,
news, sports and weather and much much more. As a child of the baby boom era in that
pre-television time, it was CBC radio that brought us Alan Mills and Just Mary. Though
those two were my favourites this writer savoured the confusing but learned messages
from James M. Minniffe and Chris Higgenbotham.
The strength
of the signal is astonishing in its coverage, little wonder that aviators for half
a century have found navigating the prairies a pretty simple task, if their ADF (automatic
direction finder) is working and tuned to 540. Knowing what direction it is to and
from Watrous will take you confidently from Winnipeg to Edmonton.
But pilots are not the only people to rely upon the CBC. With the development of
tractor cabs and the compounded ownership of land, farmers in the solitude of their
workplace, for what seems like endless hours learned to appreciate and savour the
heady stuff on the CBC. A large number have discovered
that the programming on 540 can make time go much faster and expand one’s thinking
at the same time. From sampling the many listeners who phone in to report things
on air, a significant number, are also solo workers, who direct their massive trucks
across Saskatchewan’s highways every day.
If you are not a CBC fanatic you must wonder what are these people listening to?
The
CBC is centred here in Saskatchewan from 6:00
AM until 9:00 each morning with a story filled and routine
morning show, hosted bySheila
Coles
.
The noon hour show has a strong agricultural content and is hosted by Lindy Thorsen.
Rosalie Waloski from Saskatoon is a major contributor each weekday with agricultural
content. From 1:00 PM until 2:00 Monday to Friday its a phone in talk show. The afternoon
rolling home show is hosted by Colin Grewer who keeps a close eye on the Saskatchewan
arts scene. Saturday and Sunday have less local content, but the morning shows from
6:00 AM until 9:00 are outstanding programmes hosted by Barry Burgess. If there is
a news story or a social issue anywhere in the province, you will hear about it in
depth with insightful interviews and thorough research on the CBC.
The national programming has a range of cultural and intellectual levels that can
accommodate everyone. If you want to sample some try out Saturday. It seems the CBC
has put the some of its most interesting folks on air on Saturday. At 9:00AM the
quick 
and
curious Jason Moscovitz delves into national politics with a program called “the
House.”
At 10:00 the often off the wall Author Black
takes his listeners on a light but rueful search for the different. 12:00 Saturday
is the time for Quirks and Quarks
and superior science show then the afternoon is spent with Definitely
Not the Opera, a wistful look at entertainment. After the news at 6:30 its time
for an original radio play, a detective series is keeping our attention right now.
Saturday night is filled with the golden era of rock and roll as Winnipeg’s Danny
Finklemann waxes eloquently about his pet peeves and spins “Finklemann’s 45s”.
But I have saved the best tile
last. There are two radio events that almost bracket what the CBC is, has been and
we hope always will be. At 8:55 AM every week day morning Sheila talks to CBC’s man
in LaRonge Tom Roberts. Tom is a Cree survivor of the residential school era and
besides being humorous and wise he provides Saskatchewan listeners with a snip of
what is going on in the Northern half of the province. The second gem is 9:00 PM
every week day night. The program is called Ideas
but in truth it is a finely crafted radio 
lecture series on topics that span the whole range of human
experience. Hosted by Lister Sinclair and supported by a group of researchers and
real experts this program offers the listener more then frills and froth, it has
substance and a chance for anyone with a radio to expand their knowledge and understanding,
painless blissful education.
CBC Regina makes its home now in this really superior Saskatchewan broadcast centre
on Broad Street compete with radio, television and French language broadcast facilities.