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The CBC Pensioners National Association (CBCPNA)

Newsletter for Alberta, Saskatchewan and the NWT

August 2013

NOTICE OF ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING FOR

THE ALBERTA, SASKATCHEWAN, NORTHWEST TERRITORIES REGION OF THE CBC PENSIONERS NATIONAL ASSOCIATION on Wednesday, September 25th 2013

9:30 Coffee 10:00 Your regional CBCPNA AGM at CBC Edmonton, 123 Edmonton City Centre 10062 102nd Avenue 11:00 CBC Tour Noon – CBC Annual Awards Luncheon in the Winter Lake room at the Sutton Place Hotel Edmonton, 10235 101st Street. Long service employees of CBC / Radio-Canada and recent retiring employees are honoured. The 20 Year Association is also honouring the retirees from the past year with a gift. The cost of the lunch is $26.00 or $28.00 which includes your 2013/14 20 Year Association Membership. Immediately following the lunch and presentations, the 20 Year Association will be holding their AGM. Our CBCPNA Region will subsidize members who attend our AGM by paying for their parking in the Bell Tower Parkade for all of the above events and another $10 if you choose to attend the luncheon. It helps us to know the numbers for the AGM and lunch. If you are planning on attending the AGM and/or Lunch please contact Jim MacVicar at 780-987-5933 or e-mail pna.absknt@gmail.com to confirm by Wednesday September 18th. Parking is on the north side of 103rd Avenue. Take 101st Street (from the north or south) and turn west on 103rd Avenue. There is a very quick veer right to the underground parkade labelled with a big red

“Bell Tower Parkade Entrance” Once parked follow the signs to the Sutton Place lobby and take the pedway to the mall. Turn left and go down the escalator to the CBC on street level. Tell Security you are there for the CBCPNA meeting. You will a receive parking pass at the AGM to cover your parking until 16:00

REMEMBER THIS IS YOUR ASSOCIATION – SHOW YOUR SUPPORT BY ATTENDING

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CBC Edmonton 20 Year Association – Spring Time BBQ The CBC Edmonton 20 Year Association celebrated spring and held it’s Spring Time BBQ Friday May 31st at the U of A Faculty Club on the University Campus in Edmonton.

About 20 retirees attended enjoying each other’s company along with BBQ steak, Chicken or Salmon. Wine was provided courtesy of the 20 Year Association executive, Royle Harris and Bob Forrow.

CBC Edmonton 20 Year Association - June 1990

Back Row L-R Larry Arcand, Gilbert Alaire, Bill ???, Shafiq Rajwani, Brian Robb, Larry Langley, Tom Fisk, Lawrence Rozak, Len Ewert. Middle Row L-R Bill Laing, Armand Baril Walter Chyzek, Bob Ulmer, Al Candy, Jack Emack, Bob Conway, Bill Jeffrey, Dave Smiley, Garnet Anthony Front Row L-R Fred Jones, Eric Inch, Jim Anderson, Don Tomiuk, Joan Simmons, Barb Crowhurst, Helen Rasmussen, Colin McClean, Bill London. My thanks to CBCPNA member Eric Inch for supplying this picture

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2013 Regina Staff Appreciation Awards In Regina on June 13th 2013 the bilingual Staff Appreciation Awards was held at Casino Regina for the

second time. The evening consisted of a cocktail, meal, presentation of pins and plaques. A power point

presentation with pictures of honourees from 5 to 35 Years was shown as people walked to their respective

managers to receive their pin/plaque. The Emcee said a few words about each honouree’s career. Casino

employees taught a few basic card games to everyone at the end of presentations and meal.

L/R 35 Year Honouree, CBCPNA Member Tom Fink / Regional Manager Media Operations and Technology,

Jon Anderson

Front Row L-R - Marie-Eve Bussieres, Diane Rajotte, Bev Fairburn, Michelle Fournier, Bonnie Austring-

Winter Back Row L-R - Marianne Lipsius, Marcel Bolen, John Agnew, Jon Anderson, Maud Beaulieu

Over 40 CBC employees were honoured, including: 5 Years - Jordan Bell, Donna-Lynn Hender, Bonnie Allen, Diane Rajotte, Adam Hunter, Jenna Leith, Trent Peppler, Nichole Huck, and Craig Lederhouse 10 Years - Chris Lane, Geoffrey Leo, Robert Rankin, John Agnew, Mike Zartler, Kelley Jo Burke, Coreen Larson, and Merelda Potter 15 Years - Dean Sauer, Sandra Batson, Sharon Gerein, Chris Haynes, Sheila Cameron, and David Horth 20 Years - Denis Théoret, Paul Dederick, Dean Gutheil, Luc Lemoine, Ted Deller, and John Weidlick

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25 Years - Sean Prpick, Glenn Reid, and Ken Bilash 30 Years - Costa Maragos, Lutz Walsh, Neil Cochrane, Brad Leclair, Bonnie Austring-Winter, and Brian Dean 35 Years - Tom Fink, Karen Kornelsen, Rob MacKenzie, Murray Schmidt, and Kenn Sunley A separate event was held at the Park Town Plaza Hotel in Saskatoon. That was also featured cocktails, meal, and presentations. My thanks to John Agnew, Jon Anderson, and Maud Beaulieu for their help in preparing this story and Dan Moynihan - CBCPNA member for supplying the pictures

Memories of CHAB Moose Jaw CHAB was a private TV and Radio station in Moose Jaw until Saturday September 13th 1969 when CBC bought it and it became CBKRT-CBKMT. A number of present day CBC employees and retirees worked for CHAB prior to September 1969 and were then hired by CBC the next day. “As part of the 'sign-on' crew that put Moffat-owned CHAB-TV on the air in 1959, I had the opportunity to work with many others who went on to achieve great successes in CBC & CTV broadcasting ..... Ron Smith, Ken McCreath, Craig Oliver, Larry Branter, Don Yip, Ian Sward, Gary Goudie, and Grant Pasuik, to name a few. Our 'gang' regularly enjoyed 'after sign-off' bashes at 'Branter's place' while consuming great quantities of brew, solving world problems, or being entertained by the wonderful artistry of Lenny Breau on his guitars. Lenny played in his father's traveling western band which had a weekly show on our station. Lenny went on to play with the Guess Who and Randy Bachman, the Winnipeg Symphony, and later became respected in the music world as one of the finest jazz guitarists of his time. Great pastimes included 'bugging' Ron Smith, through the radio control room window, as he tried not to laugh at us while deejaying his late night radio show. Remembrance of our first attempt to cover a parade live with 2 cameras, pulled out the front door onto Main street, was a 'comedy' in itself as no one knew what they were doing ... But we got it done ! As 'techs', we did everything ... camera, audio, video engineering, switching, studio directing. When switching, you loaded movie projectors yourself with syndicated shows or movies ... no microwave existed to 'take-in' programs. I remember once, as a switcher, having loaded reel #4, instead of #3 of a movie, to follow #2 ... running about 20 minutes of it before realizing my error... then calmly changing over to reel 3 during a break in the story ... and no one knew the difference, I hoped. Folks must have been confused by the rapid change in plot, but no complaints were ever heard. 'TV was magic' in those days!” Submitted by Dave Smiley, CBCPNA Member “I worked at CHAB from 1959 to 1960 as the night time disc jockey. That was my job Monday thru Friday. On Sunday I got to sign on the station at 0600 and it was on one of those Sunday’s that I ran into an interesting misfortune involving a foreign language, a half hour German language religious show that ran at 0730. The Sunday in question started off just like any other Sunday shift I’d worked at CHAB…Play some music, read some news, tell the time and do the weather, and put the half hour religious show on the reel-to-reel tape machine for playback at the appropriate time. 0730 arrived and I hit the play button and left the control room to get the 0800 news ready. The newsroom was in the basement, one floor below the control room, so I turned up a monitor just to make sure the religious tape was playing. It was….I could hear it in the background….even though I didn’t understand a word that was being said.

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At 0800 I read the news and continued on with my shift. It wasn’t until the next day that the S…. hit the fan. The boss called me into his office to explain why he was getting a bunch of complaints about the German religious program from Sunday. The people listening couldn’t understand a word that was said for the 30 minute length of the program. I told him it sounded fine to me, silently thinking it must be the Devil’s work. When it comes to sermons and other religious messages, the cadence is similar…the choirs sound about the same and the organ music is……….organ music, what can I say. Did we go off the air, he asked? Nope. Did the tape break, he wondered? Nope. Then what happened? Don’t know I said. It was then we decided to take a look at the tape. We put it on the machine and hit play. The guttural noises sounded much like they had the day before. Then we both scratched our heads. Finally we decided to fast forward the tape to the end of the reel. We took it off the take-up spool and set it up to play again. Eureka! There were still the guttural noises…..the organ music….the choir. But somehow they sounded better. Then we realized what had happened. Whoever recorded the program had let the tape run out and onto the take-up reel. That person took the tape, put it in a box, wrapped it up and mailed it off, never realizing it had not been re-wound. No wonder the program sounded weird to anyone who spoke German…….it was running backward for half an hour. “ Submitted by Ken McCreath, CBCPNA Southern Alberta Chapter President

L-R Garry Goudie / Ron Smith - 1960s L-R Gary Proudlove / Unknown – 1960s

Ron Smith (far left) & Holly Lawler “Ziggy” Krish, Courtesy Moose Jaw Times Herald Ken Newans, & unknown September 6th 1969 (the order of appearance is uncertain)

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Courtesy Moose Jaw Times Herald

September 6th 1969 “The Sign Off of CHAB-CHRE and the Sign On of CBC-TV In July 1969 the staff of CHAB-RE Moose Jaw/Regina, were informed that the CRTC had approved the sale of the TV station we worked for, to CBC. At the time we did not know what a difference this would make in the operation and running of the TV Station. It sure didn’t take us long to find out. Mike Chipley and I were scheduled for the night shift on September 12, 1969 and would be signing off CHAB-RE forever. (Continued Pg. 7)

Sept. 13 Switch

Regina Going to CTV - Moose Jaw television viewers will be

seeing the same programs after Sept. 13 but on different

channels. The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and

Randall Moffat Broadcasting Ltd. Tuesday announced the

completion of sale of the Moffat television outlets to the CBC.

Today, CKCK-TV of Regina an affiliate of CBC for twelve

years, announced a switch to the privately-owned CTV

network almost simultaneously with the changeover of

CHRE and CHAB to CBC outlets from CTV stations. No

information was released on purchase price of the two

Moffat outlets to the CBC. Sale was approved by the

Canadian Radio-Television Commission over the attempts of

a Regina group of businessmen to continue the Moffat

outlets as private CTV stations. The purchase gives the CBC

its first station in the province. The new stations will be tied

in to all CBC English language programming Sept. 13. The

CBC operation will be handled at Moose Jaw from the start.

But the corporation expects to have a studio facility in

Regina within a year. The CBC has indicated it wants to

make Regina studios the site of the province’s major CBC

operations. George Davidson, CBC president, said of the

purchase: “One of the CBC’s long standing objectives has

been to provide complete national network television and

radio service in each province, preferably in the capital city.

We are pleased to be able to provide the full English

network television service to the people of a large area of

southern Saskatchewan”. CKCK-TV officials said when sale

of the two Moose Jaw based outlets became imminent that it

would seek other affiliations when the sale was approved.

SEPT 12 CHANGE - CKCK-TV General Manager Jim

Struthers said the physical changeover to the CTV should

take place Sept 18 and efforts will be made to expand

coverage. Only the station’s network programming will

change with the CBC shows being replaced with CTV shows.

All staff will remain the same at the CKCK operation. A

number of the “favorites” from last season will continue to

be seen on CKCK-TV, he added. More details about the

change in programming will be made available to

households during the week before changeover. The

station’s program day will be extended and will start at 8

a.m. Sep. 22. Moose Jaw viewers will get two local newscasts

from the CBC – at noon and at 6 p.m.

Courtesy Moose Jaw Times Herald September 3rd 1969

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Mike Chipley – September 1969 Ron Petrescue – September 1969 Working as a Technician for Moffat Broadcasting, a CTV affiliate, was a very busy job. When you worked in Master Control most of the programs on-air had local commercial cut-ins throughout the show. This would keep the two technicians busy for the entire evening shift. One of us would be the switcher and one would do audio. We were also responsible for the loading of all the commercials on VTR tape, slides and 16 mm film. We worked alone on the evening shifts with no assigned directors or supervisors. When Mike and I signed off CHAB-RE that evening, the CBC Management Staff and Engineers were in the building ready to take over. The next morning, September 13, 1969, Mike and I had the honor to sign on CBC-TV (CBKRT-CBKMT). We walked into Master Control and were greeted by a group of CBC Managers and Engineers. Also in the control room was Bill Ryan, a CBC Director along with a CBC Production Assistant. Mike and I had about one hour to get ready to sign on. We loaded up a VTR tape, with O Canada on it and some CBC slides with a voice over audio cartridge. When the time came for sign on, all the Management and Engineers stood behind us, while the Director said “Roll VTR” and “Take VTR”. O Canada played on-air and then we were directed to put up a CBC slide and play an audio cartridge to welcome the viewers to CBC TV. We then cut to a one hour Network Program with no local commercial, just an ID at the end. It was the easiest but most stressful sign-on I’ve ever had to do. Mike and I looked at each other after we signed on, and just smiled. “ Welcome to the CBC!”” Submitted by Ron Petrescue, CBC Retiree For more Information on CHAB’s history go to the Canadian Communications Foundation Website http://www.broadcasting-history.ca/ Select: General Directory / Television Stations / Station Listings and Histories / Saskatchewan / CBKT-DT (CBC TV Network) – History My Thanks to: Brenda Carroll - CBC Still Photo Collection Gary Crippen Ken McCreath Garry Okerstrom Moose Jaw Times Herald Ron Petrescue Ron Smith Bill Ryan Lutz Walsh for their help in preparing this story.

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CBC Moose Jaw 1969

Next Edition of The Transmitter “CBC Moose Jaw / Saskatchewan after the CBC purchase in 1969” up to October 1983. In the fall of 1983 CBKMT closed its doors for good when the CBC in Southern Saskatchewan consolidated in the new Broadcast Centre on Broad Street in Regina.

Travel and Your Provincial Health Plan As Canadians we are lucky to live in a nation where health care is available to all residents; however, when you travel outside your home province you can't always take that coverage with you. Depending on your province of residence, there are important facts you should know about how and when you are covered when you are travelling, whether for business or pleasure. See the following websites and phone numbers for information on your province of residence: Alberta Health http://www.health.alberta.ca/documents/AHCIP-brochure-AHC0012.pdf http://www.health.alberta.ca/AHCIP/coverage-in-Canada.html Toll-free in Alberta, dial 310-0000 then 780-427-1432 Saskatchewan Health http://www.health.gov.sk.ca/out-of-province http://www.health.gov.sk.ca/health-coverage-booklet No Charge (in Saskatchewan) 811 or 306-787-3475 or 800-667-7523 NWT Department of Health and Social Services http://www.hss.gov.nt.ca/sites/default/files/travelling_outside_the_nwt.pdf 800-661-0830 or 867-777-7400 Purchasing a travel insurance policy is a simple way to eliminate the worry about your potential medical costs while abroad. Through our partnership with Johnson Inc., CBCPNA members have exclusive access to home, auto and travel insurance plans designed for retirees and very competitively priced. Click here to reach the Medoc Travel Insurance (Johnson Inc) website: http://www.johnson.ca/cbc-src or phone 800-563-0677

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Get Togethers The second Tuesday of every month is the Pensioner's and 25 Year Associations monthly breakfast at Rosie's, 99 Street and Argyll in Edmonton at 8:30. The Southern Alberta Chapter meets every couple months for lunch at the CBC in Calgary. The last meeting was May 29th in the CBC Cafeteria. The next one will follow the regional AGM by a week or two, the date TBA. Ken McCreath will be in touch when the location and date is known.

Special Assistance Fund We all know that extraordinary health-related expenses can be a concern for anyone. This fact has led the Consultative Committee on Staff Benefits (CCSB) to create a Special Assistance Fund (SAF), to help CBC employees and pensioners, and their dependents, with such expenses, when traditional or other benefits do not fully meet the need. Confidential medical information is only known to the members of the SAF Committee. For more information log on to http://www.cbcpensionersnationalassociation.ca/ or contact the CBC Pensioners National Association at 1-877-361-9242

Employee Assistance Program (EAP)

99% of users surveyed last year would recommend EAP to a colleague! Can you find a better endorsement! We’re here to help: 1-866-838-2025 En 1-866-839-7897 Fr

Editor’s Note I hope you are enjoying the Transmitter. I’d appreciate your feedback and your contributions for stories. Jim MacVicar / Phone or Text: 780-231-5933 Email: pna.absknt@gmail.com

Obituaries This is the information that we have to date. We're sorry if we have missed anyone. They are abbreviated for the newsletter. If you would like more info for any of these colleagues please contact me, email pna.absknt@gmail.com or call 780-231-5933 and I will share what extra information I have. Marilyn (Haines) Barker CBC Vancouver Assistant Film Editor passed away on January 4, 2013 Carole McCrossen CBC Montreal TV Script Assistant/CBC Vancouver Engineering Dept. Secretary passed away on April 25, 2013 Jack Hundley CBC Vancouver TV Publicist passed away on May 6, 2013

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Paul Baker Husband of Actress/Performer/Singer Holly Larocqueack Hundley passed away on May 12, 2013 Bill MacKenzie CBC Ottawa Maintenance Technician passed away on May 20, 2013 Irene Brown CBC Montreal Employee passed away on May 22, 2013 Russ Moses Pioneer Aboriginal Broadcaster (CBC Radios Indian Magazine) passed May 22, 2013 Ronald Joynt CBC National Director of Radio Sales passed away on May 26, 2013 Bill Buck Actor/Voice Talent and Former "Dr. Bundolo" Cast Member passed away on June 1, 2013 Bill McKibbin CBC Edmonton Graphic Artist on June 1, 2013 Aylmer Wright CBC Toronto Lighting Director passed away on June 3, 2013 Manny Pittson CBC Halifax TV Producer passed away on June 8, 2013 Robin Taylor Executive Producer "The Fifth Estate"/Head of Current Affairs Programming passed away on June 12, 2013 Ian Ritchie CBC Ontario Retiree passed away on June 14, 2013 Alisa Satchel CBC Toronto Film Researcher passed away on June 17, 2013 Penny Kennedy Wife of John H. Kennedy (CBC Head of Television Drama/Head of TV Arts, Music and Science/B.C. Regional Director) passed away on June 21, 2013. Eric Lawson CBC Toronto Stagehand passed away on June 25, 2013 Ivan Munn CBC Maritimes Reporter/Manager, Radio Newsroom passed away on July 1, 2013. Leo Hebert CBC Montreal, Winnipeg, and Calgary Technician, Producer, and Manager passed away on July 19, 2013 George Beazley CBC Edmonton Human Resources Manager passed away on July 20, 2013 Andy Little CBMT Montreal Reporter/Assignment Editor/Lineup Editor/Producer passed away on July 20, 2013 Jimmy Rayner Husband of CBC Vancouver Film Editor Fran Rayner passed away on July 25, 2013 Larry McNaughton CBC Vancouver Finance Clerk Larry passed away on July 30, 2013 Robert Blake Sims, father of CTV (CFRN) Edmonton News Anchor Daphne Kuehn away on August 6, 2013