 | |
| Type | Broadcastradio network Television system |
|---|---|
| Country | |
| Headquarters | Yellowknife, Northwest Territories |
Broadcast area | Northwest Territories,Nunavut,Yukon;Eeyou Istchee andNunavik ofNord-du-Québec |
| Owner | Canadian Broadcasting Corporation |
Key people | Mervin Brass, senior managing director[1] |
Launch date | November 10, 1958; 66 years ago (1958-11-10) (radio) May 14, 1967; 57 years ago (1967-05-14) (television) |
Former names | CBC Northern Service |
Official website | CBC North |
CBC North (Inuktitut:ᓰᐲᓰ ᐅᑭᐅᖅᑕᖅᑐᒥ,romanized: SiiPiiSii Ukiuqtaqtumi,lit. 'CBC Northwest';Cree:ᓰᐲᓰ ᒌᐌᑎᓅᑖᐦᒡ,romanized: SiiPiiSii Chiiwetinuutaahch;French:ICI Grand Nord) is theCanadian Broadcasting Corporation's radio and television service for theNorthwest Territories,Nunavut, andYukon ofNorthern Canada as well asEeyou Istchee andNunavik in theNord-du-Québec region ofQuebec.
The genesis of CBC North began in 1923 when theRoyal Canadian Corps of Signals established aradiotelegraph system linkingDawson City andMayo in Yukon withAlaska,British Columbia, andAlberta.[2] Other settlements in Northern Canada were soon connected, forming theNorthwest Territories & Yukon (NWT&Y) Radio System.
While the original purpose of the NWT&Y Radio System was to provide a means of communication among military personnel and commercial interests in far-flung corners of remote Northern Canada, the system came to be used for the transmission of general information and entertainment to the civilian population as well.[3][4] Over the subsequent three decades, this ancillary role of the NWT&Y Radio System led to the development oflow-powerAMcommunity radio stations at sites where NWT&Y radiotelegraph stations were located.[3]
Most of these radio stations were operated on a volunteer basis by members of theCanadian Armed Forces as well as civilians residing in the communities the stations served.[5] In addition to local programming, the stations often aired recordings provided by the United StatesArmed Forces Radio Service—owing to theUS military presence in several Arctic settlements at the time—and also a limited amount of CBC programming relayed via the NWT&Y Radio System.
In late 1952, the Armed Forces Radio Service ceased deliveries of programming to several of the radio stations. Efforts were then made to expand the reach of CBC programming in Northern Canada by utilizing the resources of the CBC's Troop Broadcast Service, which was originally developed to distribute recordings of CBC radio programming to Canadian military units stationed overseas.[6]
The domestic distribution of CBC radio recordings began in January 1953 withCFGB in Goose Bay,Labrador (nowHappy Valley-Goose Bay,Newfoundland and Labrador) receiving an initial shipment of 53discs that would then be sent toCHFC inChurchill, Manitoba; and then toCFWH inWhitehorse, Yukon.[6] The program was immediately popular and quickly expanded to include CFYT[a] in Dawson City, Yukon; CHFN inFort Nelson, British Columbia; andCHAK inAklavik, Northwest Territories.[6]
Having to be shipped fromMontreal, where they were recorded, the discs proved to be too fragile, so were replaced bytapes in April 1953, along with a promise that stations would receive six hours of CBC programming each day.[6][7]
By 1958, theDepartment of National Defence desired to reduce its role in maintaining broadcasting infrastructure in Northern Canada.[2] Meanwhile, as an outgrowth of the 1957Report of the Royal Commission on Broadcasting (also known as the Fowler Commission),[8] the CBC proposed operating a "northern service" of up to twelve radio stations, in part by converting existing stations operated by volunteers into stations staffed by CBC employees.[9] One of the primary reasons cited for the necessity of such a service was that radio listeners in the North could often more readily hear broadcasts fromRadio Moscow and theVoice of America than from Canadian sources.[3][10][11]
The CBC's proposal was presented to theParliament of Canada and approved in June 1958.[10] On November 10, 1958, the Northern Service came into being when the CBC formally took over the operations of CFWH in Whitehorse and made it a part of theTrans-Canada Network.[12]
Over the next two years, the CBC would take over the operations of seven other stations, listed below in chronological order:[13]
Of the eight inaugural stations, studio facilities were retained only in Churchill, Goose Bay, Inuvik, Whitehorse, and Yellowknife. The Dawson City, Fort Smith, and Hay River stations were converted into unattendedrelay transmitters.[17][18] Similar relays were built during 1959 at Fort Nelson in British Columbia andWatson Lake in Yukon.[19] As the service took its present form, numerous additional relay transmitters would be added throughout its service area.
In conjunction with the CBC taking over the stations, delivery of programming slowly began to be transitioned away from tape recordings and toward direct links to the CBC network via an expandingCanadian National Telegraph (CNT) system,[17][19] which, in 1959—under the authority of theDepartment of Transport—had become the successor of the NWT&Y Radio System.[2] Additionally,shortwave broadcasting started to be used in 1960 when the CBC'sshortwave transmitter complex inSackville, New Brunswick, began airing programming specifically intended for Northern Canada.[20]
The CBC constructedCFFB in Frobisher Bay, Northwest Territories (nowIqaluit, Nunavut), and began operations on February 5, 1961, adding it to the Northern Service. The new station had local programming inInuktitut,English andFrench, as well as news and other programs from the CBC network.[21]
Television became a component of the Northern Service in 1967 when the CBC introduced theFrontier Coverage Package, a service in which the CBC Delay Centre inCalgary would record ontovideotape four hours daily ofCBC Television programming and send the recordings to remote communities in Northern Canada for playback over local television facilities.[22][23] The programming did not arrive at all facilities simultaneously, but was instead sent to one facility, which, after playback, would send it to another, and so on, until all facilities had gotten a chance to air it. This process meant that programming could be up to a month old by the time it aired.[24] On May 14, 1967,CFYK-TV in Yellowknife became the first television station to partake in this service.[25]
With the advent of theAnik series of satellites in 1973, the CBC began transmitting its television programming on satellite. For Northern Canada, this meant the ability to view the full CBC Television schedule live with the rest of Canada for the first time.[26] The Frontier Coverage Package was discontinued, and all remote northern communities with a population of 500 or more were offered a live television relay transmitter as part of the CBC'sAccelerated Coverage Plan of 1974.[22] The governments of the Northwest Territories and Yukon would later supplement this plan by installing additional relay transmitters in communities of less than 500 people.[27]
Radio was affected by the transition to satellite broadcasting as well, since a feed ofCBC Radio originating inToronto was carried via satellite for reception at local CBC production centres. By 1976, CFFB was utilizing this feed not only to obtain live CBC Radio programming, but also to distribute a separate satellite feed to eleven relay transmitters inInuit Nunangat that combined the output from Toronto with CFFB's own local programming in Inuktitut and English.[28]
For the first fifteen years of CBC North, most of the service's radio stations with studios produced very little of their own programming. Instead, regional programming targeting the North was largely produced in southern Canada, particularly Montreal.[10] This gradually began to change in the 1970s following theNorthern Broadcasting Plan of 1974, which outlined goals for the CBC to establish and grow local radio programming in Northern Canada, including programming inIndigenous languages.[2][29] This goal was further reiterated with theGovernment of Canada'sNorthern Broadcasting Policy of 1983.[30]
To facilitate increased local radio productions, a radio production centre was opened atCBQR inRankin Inlet in 1979 to serve theKeewatin Region of the Northwest Territories (now mostly theKivalliq Region of Nunavut).[31] A similar centre was opened inKuujjuaq, Quebec, in 1985 to serve Nunavik.[10] By 1988, the CBC's production centres in the North were collectively producing 220 hours of regional radio programming per week, of which 100 hours were in seven Indigenous languages.[32]
On television, the first CBC production centre inside the CBC North service area opened at CFYK-TV in Yellowknife in 1979, producingOur Ways, a monthly news magazine.[33] An additional television production unit was established in Whitehorse in 1986,[34] and in Iqaluit in 1987 when production of the weekly programTaqravut moved there.[35]
The 1980s also saw the creation of new Indigenous-led broadcasting organizations in Northern Canada, some of which were permitted to use CBC North to broadcast their programming.[10] For example, until the launch ofTelevision Northern Canada in 1992, theInuit Broadcasting Corporation aired programming during allocated time slots within the CBC North television schedule.[36] On radio, programming from theJames Bay Cree Communications Society andTaqramiut Nipingat aired on local CBC North relay transmitters andCKCX until the 2000s, when both organizations launched their own independent radio networks.[37][38][39]
In 1992, after being located inOttawa since the establishment of CBC North, the service's regional head office was moved to Yellowknife.[40]
CKCX and its associated shortwave broadcasting facilities were shut down on December 1, 2012, following a significant budget cut toRadio Canada International,[41] the operator of the facilities. To compensate for the loss of CBC North radio coverage this caused in northern Quebec,FM relay transmitters were installed in five communities of Nunavik, including the production centre of Kuujjuaq.[42][43]
By 2018, CBC North was broadcasting 211 hours per week of regional programming, including 125 hours per week in eight Indigenous languages.[44]
As part of theCBC Radio One network, CBC North radio stations carry national programming in English along with regional and local programming in English, French, and the following eight Indigenous languages:Chipewyan,Cree (East Cree),North and South Slavey,Gwich'in, Inuktitut,Inuvialuktun, andTlicho.[44] The shows include news, weather, and entertainment, providing service to the many Indigenous people of Northern Canada whose first language is not English.
In the Nunavik region of Northern Quebec, CBC North is heard on asingle-frequency network of low-power FM transmitters whose main station is CFFB-FM-5 in Kuujjuaq.[45] This network was established in 2012 to partially replace coverage lost whenTaqramiut Nipingat converted its network of CBC North relay transmitters into an independent network and when shortwave broadcasts through CKCX ended.[46]
These stations broadcast the same regional and local programing heard on CFFB in Nunavut, with the exception of theSunday Request Show. Additionally, on weekday mornings, they broadcast a portion ofDaybreak Montreal, produced in English atCBME-FM in Montreal,[47] as well as a portion ofQuebec AM, produced in English atCBVE-FM inQuebec City.[48]
| City of license | Identifier | Frequency | Power | RECNet |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Inukjuak | CFFB-FM-6 | 103.5 | 50watts | Query |
| Kuujjuarapik | CFFB-FM-4 | 103.5 | 50 watts | Query |
| Puvirnituq | CFFB-FM-8 | 103.5 | 50 watts | Query |
| Salluit | CFFB-FM-7 | 103.5 | 50 watts | Query |
In Eeyou Istchee, CBMP-FM inChisasibi and its rebroadcasters primarily follow the schedule of CBVE-FM in Quebec City, but substitute three hours of programming in English each weekday for programming in East Cree. This consists ofWinschgaoug ("get up") in the morning and afternoon andEyou Dipajimoon ("Cree stories") at midday.[49][50] Both programs are produced by the CBC North Cree unit in Montreal.[51] Before 2020, these programs aired in this region onCBFG-FM, anIci Radio-Canada Première station that also aired the now-cancelled regional French programsSoirée boréale andBoréal hebdo.
| City of license | Identifier | Frequency | Power | RECNet |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mistissini | CBVS-FM | 101.5 FM | 77watts | Query |
| Wemindji | CBMW-FM | 105.1 FM | 105 watts | Query |
| Waskaganish | CBMQ-FM | 105.1 FM | 112 watts | Query |
| Waswanipi | CBVW-FM | 105.1 FM | 106 watts | Query |
In the Northwest Territories, there are two main stations: CFYK-FM in Yellowknife, serving the southeast, and CHAK in Inuvik, serving the northwest.
Programming produced in English at CFYK-FM includes the weekday morning showThe Trailbreaker and the weekday afternoon showTrail's End,[52][53] both of which air throughout the Northwest Territories. Indigenous language productions on weekdays includeTide Godi ("great lake news") in Tlicho,[54]Dehcho Dene in South Slavey,[55] andDenesuline Yatia in Chipewyan.[56] On Saturday afternoons, CFYK-FM producesDene Yati, a summary of the week's news in multiple Indigenous languages.[57]
CHAK produces the English language midday programNorthwind on weekdays, airing throughout the Northwest Territories.[58] Indingeous language productions on weekdays includeNantaii ("country road") in Gwich'in,[59]Legot'sedeh ("locality and land") in North Slavey,[60] andTusaavik ("listening place") in Inuvialuktun.[61] On Sunday afternoons, CHAK produces the Gwich'in language call-in showVoice of the Gwich'in,[62] broadcasting it in both the Northwest Territories and Yukon.
The Nunavut service with its main station CFFB in Iqaluit is the only local or regional CBC Radio service which covers threetime zones (Eastern,Central, andMountain). On weekdays, CFFB producesQulliq ("oil lamp") in the morning andNipivut ("our voices") at midday.[63][64] Both programs are bilingual, containing English and Inuktitut elements. Meanwhile, CBQR-FM in Rankin Inlet contributes the English and Inuktitut programTusaajaksat ("things heard about") on weekday afternoons.[65]
Programming solely in Inuktitut includesTausunni ("smell of humans"),[66] produced in Iqaluit on weekday afternoons, andTuttavik ("place of encounter"),[67] produced at CFFB-FM-5 in Kuujjuaq, Quebec (Nunavik), also on weekday afternoons. Unlike other stations within the CBC Radio One network, CFFB broadcasts regional programming on weekday evenings. This consists of theIndigenous storytelling programsUllumi Tusaqsauqaujut ("heard today") andSinnaksautit ("bedtimes").[68][69]
On weekends, CFFB produces a regional morning program and a music request show, theSunday Request Show.[70][71]
On weekdays, CFWH-FM in Whitehorse produces the morning showYukon Morning,[72] the midday showMidday Café,[73] and the afternoon showAirplay.[74] On weekends, it produces the morning showThe Weekender,[75] which also airs in the Northwest Territories. All four programs are in English.
Between 5:00 to 6:00PM on Saturday afternoons, CBC Radio One airs alocal arts programming block. CFWH-FM broadcastsRencontres, a production in French made by volunteers at theAssociation franco-yukonnaise in Whitehorse.[76] This program is broadcast through CFWH-FM for the benefit ofFranco-Yukonnais outside of Whitehorse, as no other Yukon community is served by an Ici Radio-Canada Première relay transmitter or a local francophone community radio station. Whitehorse itself is served by CFWY-FM, owned by the Association franco-yukonnaise as a relay ofCBUF-FM inVancouver.[77]
Until the 1970s, the CBC Northern Service featured a mailbag program entitledThe Northern Messenger. Letters were sent to CBC studios and read on air to listeners in far-flung settlements.The Northern Messenger functioned as a way to provide residents in remote locations with a means to communicate with friends and family in the south, especially during the winter months, as normal mail delivery was infrequent or non-existent and long-distance telephone networks had not yet reached the region.[78][79]
The originalNorthern Messenger was produced byKDKA inPittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and broadcast from 1923 to 1940 on its "Far Northern Service" shortwave radio simulcaster, 8XS (later known as W8XK and WPIT). Its intended audiences wereRoyal Canadian Mounted Police officers and other southerners stationed in theCanadian Arctic, to keep them in touch with events in the outside world. KDKA was owned and operated byWestinghouse Electric Corporation and the suggestion forNorthern Messenger came from Canadian Westinghouse. The show was broadcast weekly from November to May, when normal mail delivery was unavailable.[80]
On the suggestion of a commander of a British naval expedition based inNain, Labrador, who wished for his men to receive messages from family and friends,[81] theCanadian Radio Broadcasting Commission (CRBC) began its own version of the service in 1932 under the nameCanadian Northern Messenger. Like its American cousin, it consisted of personal messages from friends and family around the world to RCMP officers, missionaries, trappers, doctors, nurses, and scientists as well asCree andInuit,[82][83] and also ran from November to May. It was initially produced byCRCT in Toronto and carried on the CRBC's network ofmediumwave and shortwave stations, includingCRCX (Bowmanville, Ontario), CJRO/CJRX (Winnipeg), and VE9DN (Drummondville, Quebec).[80] When the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation was formed as the successor to the CRBC, the program was continued by CBC Radio into the 1970s.[84][80] During its first year,Canadian Northern Messenger relayed 1,754 messages, and would handle six times that many by its fourth year.[85]
Beginning in the 1940s,Northern Messenger would be recorded and broadcast to the Yukon and Northwest Territories on Saturday nights over the NWT&Y Radio System as well as western CBC radio stationsCBW Winnipeg,CBXEdmonton, andCBK inSaskatchewan.[79] A rebroadcast would then be done eight days later over CBC's powerful Sackville Relay Station aimed at Labrador, northern Quebec, and the eastern Arctic.[80][82]
Production of the program took place in Winnipeg in the 1950s and early 1960s, then from Montreal beginning in 1965,[86] a move that also coincided with expanding the program into one that aired on shortwave every weekday throughout the entire year.[81]
The CBC North television production centre and soleterrestrial television transmitter is atCFYK-DT (formerly CFYK-TV) in Yellowknife, with local news bureaus located in Iqaluit and Whitehorse.[1]
Until July 31, 2012,CFFB-TV in Iqaluit,CFWH-TV in Whitehorse, andCHAK-TV in Inuvik operated in association with CFYK-TV. However, following a budget cut that went into effect on that date, the CBC shut down those three stations as well asmore than 600 analog television relay transmitters throughout the whole of Canada.[87] In the North, only CFYK-DT and any transmitters owned by local governments or community organizations remained in operation thereafter.[88] Most viewers in the Arctic did not lose access to CBC programming because of the extremely high penetration of cable and satellite.[89]
CFYK-DT broadcasts two half-hourregional newscasts on weekdays,CBC Northbeat (which is primarily presented in English, but also contains stories presented in Indigenous languages with English subtitles), and the Inuktitut-languageIgalaaq (ᐃᒐᓛᖅ, "window").[90] Both programs replaced the previous weekly news magazinesFocus North andAqsarniit in 1995.[91]Igalaaq was anchored byRassi Nashalik until her retirement in 2014.Northbeat was the only local newscast in English not merged intoCanada Now from 2000 to 2006.
In Cree, acurrent affairs program known asMaamuitaau (ᒫᒯᐄᑖᐤ, "let's get together", starting in 1982) airs on Sundays.[92][93] This program and the regional newscasts were also broadcast on theAboriginal Peoples Television Network before the creation ofAPTN National News.[94]
Upon launch on satellite in 1973, there were two separate CBC North television feeds.CBHT inHalifax, and laterCBNT inSt. John's, provided an "eastern" feed on anAtlantic Time Zone schedule, whileCBUT in Vancouver provided a "western" feed on aPacific Time Zone schedule.[95] These feeds also served as the master national network signals for CBC Television. Viewers in North America withC bandreceive-only satellite systems used to be able to receive the two unencrypted analogNTSC feeds until the early 2000s,[96][97] when the CBC consolidatedmaster control operations to Toronto and Montreal and transitioned toencrypteddigital satellite transmissions.[98][99] The western feed would then be discontinued altogether following the 2012 shutdown of all CBC-owned transmitters in the North except for CFYK-DT.[100] The remaining feed for Yellowknife left C band satellite in 2018, by which time the CBC had connected its production centres to afiber optic network and, after 45 years, stopped leasing satellite space fromTelesat, the owner and operator of the Anik satellites.[101]
The CBC Northern Service was a significant source of musical recordings of Inuit and First Nations artists in the 1970s and 1980s. After beginning Inuktitut- and Cree-language broadcasting in northern Quebec, the service saw the need for more musical content. However, initial recordings were done oncassettes, which were of little use to many of the broadcasting stations. The Northern Service began producing vinyl45 RPM records in 1973. The first session produced singles byCharlie Panigoniak and Mark Etak. A 1975 session recorded singles bySugluk, fromSalluit, Quebec. In the late 1970s, the Northern Service's recording budget was increased, and artists were now flown in for professional recording sessions at the CBC's Montreal offices. Over 120 recordings were made in this period by artists includingMorley Loon, William Tagoona,Willie Thrasher, andAlanis Obomsawin. In the mid-1980s, production was moved to Ottawa. The final sessions recorded by the service were in 1986.[102][103]
Some of these recordings were remastered by Kevin "Sipreano" Howes for the 2014 compilation albumNative North America, Vol. 1.[104]
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