Radio Canada International
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Radio_Canada_International.png
Radio Canada International logo
Radio Canada International (RCI) is the international broadcasting service of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC).
As with many other countries, it originally began on shortwave radio, later expanding to satellite. Programs can also be heard or downloaded over the Internet.
RCI produces much of its own programming, especially for languages other than English and French (which are often from the CBC domestic service).
Budget cuts by the Canadian Parliament have forced it to downsize, but it still remains the pre-eminent neutral international broadcaster of North America, not facing the perceived U.S. bias of the Voice of America.
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History: The Early Years (1942-1967)
The idea for creating an international radio voice for Canada was first proposed as far back as the 1930s. Several studies commissioned by the CBC Board of Governors had come to the conclusion that Canada needed a radio service to broadcast a Canadian point of view to the world.
By the early 1940s, this need was also recognized by a series of Parliamentary Broadcasting Committees. Finally, in 1942, Prime Minister King announced that Canada would begin a shortwave radio service that would keep members of the Canadian Armed Forces in touch with news and entertainment from home. The CBC International Service became a reality with the signing of an Order-in-Council on September 18, 1942.
By the end of 1944, both the production facilities and the transmitting plant were ready for test broadcasts. These tests, which began on December 25, 1944, were broadcast to Canadian troops in Europe in both English and French. In early 1945, it was announced that the CBC International Service was ready and would go on the air for real on February 25.
By 1946, the CBC International Service had expanded to include regular transmissions in Czech and Dutch. Beginning in July, special once-a-week programs were broadcast to Scandinavia in Swedish and Danish and later in Norwegian, as well.
In November 1946, daily broadcasts started to the Caribbean in English. There were also Sunday night programs broadcast to Cuba, Colombia, Peru and Ecuador in Spanish and to Brazil in Portuguese.
Daily Spanish and Portuguese transmissions began on July 6, 1947. At around the same time as the expansion into the Caribbean and Latin America, the CBC International Service became involved with the newly formed United Nations. United Nations broadcasts through the CBC International Service continued until November 29, 1952, when they were transferred to larger shortwave facilities run by the Voice of America.
Throughout its early years, the CBC International Service had concentrated on broadcasting to Western Europe in the aftermath of World War II. By the early 1950's several international shortwave stations began to beam programs into the Soviet bloc countries in an effort to let those people know what was really happening around them. Russian CBC International Service transmissions were jammed during the 1950s and into the mid 1960s.
On March 4, 1961, the Danish, Dutch, Italian, Norwegian, and Swedish services were all discontinued. In addition, the German service was reoriented from its previous emphasis on West Germany to focus on East Germany. New English and French programs directed to Africa were added giving the International Service direct coverage to every continent except Asia (which was covered indirectly by the English South Pacific service).
History: 1967 - Present
The CBC International Service played a major role in covering Canada's Centennial celebrations in 1967. Ceremonies from coast to coast were carried over shortwave to the world on July 1, 1967 as Canada marked its 100th birthday.
In July of 1970, the service was renamed Radio Canada International.
The change took place because it was felt that RCI should have its own identity, separate from the CBC domestic network, even though RCI had just been fully integrated into the CBC system.
On November 7, 1971, RCI inaugurated its new 250 kW transmitters which were five times more powerful than the existing units. This significantly improved RCI's signal quality in Europe and Africa.
Canada became the first major Western power to recognize the People's Republic of China in 1971. Before beginning its Chinese service, RCI produced a 40-week series called Everyday English which was broadcast in 1988 and early 1989 over local stations in Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou. With an estimated audience of almost 20 million, the course was a huge success.
Just 10 months after beginning the Chinese broadcasts, RCI started a series of Arabic broadcasts to the Middle East. This coincided with the United Nations effort in the Persian Gulf to support the American Desert Shield operation, of which Canada was a participant.
In early 1991, facing further budget deficits, the Government ordered an across-the-board budget cut. Every ministry and Crown corporation, including the CBC, was required to participate. After evaluating its budget, the CBC decided it could no longer pay for Radio Canada International without extra funding from Ottawa.
To save the service, RCI Program Director Allan Familiant announced a major restructuring that took effect on March 25, 1991.
Six of the 13 languages - Czech, German, Hungarian, Japanese, Polish, and Portuguese - were discontinued. And while the English and French services survived, all RCI-produced programming, except for news broadcasts, was eliminated and replaced with CBC Domestic network programs.
Studios
The main studios for RCI have been in Montréal since RCI was created in 1943-44.
RCI as a corporate entitiy (seperate from its broadcasting operations) has also been based in Montreal since its inception in the 1940s.
RCI could move its English and French services to CBC Ottawa in future.
By keeping all external language services located in Montreal, the costs of transistion could be eased. This move to Ottawa would allow RCI to operate from the national capital region much like BBC World Service, VOA, Voice of Russia and Radio France International.
Buget
Figures are in units of millions, Canadian Dollars (CAD).
- 2001:
- 2002:
- 2003:
- 2004:
Compared to the US's Voice of America (VOA), Radio Canada barely has a buget. VOA runs on about 100m USD / year since 2000.
Transmission Network
RCI is the owner and operator of the Sackville transmission site. RCI's only transmitter site is located on the Tantramar Marshes several kilometres east of the town of Sackville, New Brunswick. RCI leases or barters its spare transmission capasity with other international broadcasters.
Sackville is the only high power Shortwave Relay Station in Canada. The CBC-SRC network runs 3 x 1 kw relays of domestic radio. These domestic radio transmitters are not high power by modern definition. Sackville's northern hemisphere transmission targeting capabilities are very similar to the transmission capablities of Wertachtal Relay Station, in Bavaria.
Sackville has a site layout similar to the Wertachtal Shortwave Relay Station, with a few substantial differences. Wertachtal has 3 arms of HRS type antennas that are spaced at ~120 degrees. This configuration allows for near 360 degree coverage of the world. Wertachtal exclusivly contains HRS type transmission antennas, whereas Sackville does not. The following site configuration information supports this comparason...
RCI Sackville Relay Station
This site configuration data is known to be accurate for 2004-2005.
Transmitters (configuration not verified)
- 4 x 250 kw SW (Tompson)
- 2 x 100 kw SW (?)
It is assumed that only on SW transmitter has been outfitted to transmit DRM.
Antennas (Type, Bearing) (configuration not verified)
- HR 4/4/1.0 (60 degrees)
- HR 4/2/1.0 (105 degrees)
- HR 4/4/1.0 (163 degrees)
- HR 4/4/1.0 (176 degrees)
- HR 4/4/1.0 (189 degrees)
- HR 2/4/1.0 (227 degrees)
- HR 2/4/1.0 (240 degrees)
- HR 4/4/1.0 (240 degrees)
- HR 4/4/1.0 (272 degrees)
- HR 2/1/0.5 (277 degrees)
Future changes for the RCI network
There have been formal proposals made to extend RCI's SW transmission network in Canada, so as to allow RCI to better cover regions of the world where people are still dependent on SW for news and information:
- Central America & South America (including Patagonia)
- Pacific Islands, Oceania
- Australia & NZ
- Indonesia, Papua New Guinea
- Southeast Asia
Proposed Relay Stations:
- http://cbc.am/rci-bc.htm (Australasia, Americas)
- http://cbc.am/rci-sask.htm (Americas)
The proposed relay station's capabilities can best be described with the following images:
Rci-bc-ANZ_PNG-dbu.png
RCI BC Relay Station
Rci-bc-MEX-dbu.png
RCI BC Relay Station
Interval Signal
RCI's interval signal is the first four notes of O Canada played on a piano, followed by "Radio Canada International" pronounced in English, and then French.
External links
- RCI's official website (http://www.rcinet.ca/)
- RCI History (http://archives.cbc.ca/IDD-1-69-1598/life_society/rci/)
- RCI History (French) (http://archives.radio-canada.ca/IDD-0-10-1562/vie_societe/rci/)