Screen panel in Studio 53
Formed by an act of parliament, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation has had a presence in Vancouver since its establishment in 1936. Adjacent to the Vancouver Central Library and next to the former downtown Canada Post office, CBC’s Regional Broadcast Centre in Vancouver is conveniently located in the heart of the city.
The publicly funded institution is a Crown corporation and is legally required to provide broadcasting services in both English and French. Its news floor is organized in a radial fashion and divided by program and language. The open-floor layout of the integrated newsroom helps share ideas and prevent duplication of efforts.
At the heart of the news floor is the assignment desk that monitors information coming in from tip hotlines, the government, and social media. Producers then decide which events to cover and who to send to cover the stories. Not far from the assignment desk lies the live hit station that handles all live television broadcasts. It is used to report breaking news stories or handle live interviews with guests.
CBC’s French name is Societé Radio-Canada
Among the many studios located along the perimeter of the building, my two favorite studios were studio 10 and studio 54. Studio 10 is for English current affairs radio. Operating two shifts a day, studio 10 interviews special guests and delivers breaking news between its navy blue soundproof walls. Radio hosts often need to come up with intelligent questions to as guests during an interview, so behind every host is a team of researchers who feed the host information on the subject at hand prior to the interview.
Studio 53, in front of the former Canada Post building
Studio 54 is the home to the Vancouver edition of The National, it has been a regular part of Canadian television programming since the 1950’s bringing regular news to households all across the country. There are two other crews located in Toronto and Ottawa, but being several time zones away makes Vancouver the only location to broadcast stories when its eastern cousins go to bed. This ensures adequate news coverage for all six time zones in Canada.
Some of its studio’s equipment could even run on remote control as far as Charlottetown, PEI. So if one crew is sick, the lights and stage equipment in Vancouver could be controlled by qualified personnel in Charlottetown and vice versa. This is what it takes to being the news to your television screen at home all day, every day. The next time you tune in to CBC Radio or turn on the television, give a little thought to the hard work behind the cameras.
