Radio Canada International

Encyclopedia : R : RA : RAD : Radio Canada International

Radio Canada International (RCI) is the international broadcasting service of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC).

Contents

1 History

1.1 The Early Years (1942 – 1953)
1.2 Early Cold War Broadcasting (1950 – 1967)
1.3 The Cold War Era (1967 – 1991)
1.4 The Internet Era (1991 – present)

2 History of RCI's Foreign Language Services
3 Station

3.1 Interval Signal
3.2 How RCI's programming reaches listeners
3.3 Studios
3.4 Budget
3.5 Hours of Programming Produced (per week)

4 Transmission Network
5 RCI Sackville Relay Station

5.1 Technology
5.2 Site Configuration

6 External links

History

The Early Years (1942 – 1953)

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 Mackenzie King announced that Canada would begin a short-wave 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.

Early Cold War Broadcasting (1950 – 1967)

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 1950s several international short-wave stations began to beam programs into the Soviet bloc countries in an effort to let those people know what was really happening around them.

RCI's Russian language transmissions were jammed during the 1950s and into the mid 1960s stopping about 1967.
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.

The Cold War Era (1967 – 1991)

The CBC International Service played a major role in covering Canada's Centennial celebrations in 1967. Ceremonies from coast to coast were carried over short-wave to the world on July 1, 1967 as Canada marked its 100th birthday.

In July 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.

The Internet Era (1991 – present)

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 own 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.

Since then some RCI-produced programs in English and French have been restored, but the situation continues to be uncertain.

History of RCI's Foreign Language Services

History of RCI Language Broadcasting Services
>

Language	Start Date	Stop Date	Restart Date
Arabic	2000	-	-
Chinese-Mandarin	1988	-	-
Czech	1946 (see Slovak)	25 March 1991	-
Danish	1946	4 March 1961	-
Dutch	1946	4 March 1961	-
English	25 December 1944Test transmissions started in 1944, formal broadcasting started on 25 February 1945.	-	-
Finnish	December 1950	29 January 1955	-
French	25 December 1944	-	-
French-Creole	1989	2001	-
German	1946	25 March 1991	-
Hungarian	January 1951	25 March 1991	-
Japanese	1988	25 March 1991	-
Italian	January 1949	4 March 1961	-
Norwegian	1947	4 March 1961	-
Polish	January 1951	25 March 1991	-
Portuguese-Brasil	6 July 1947	25 March 1991	2004
RussianThe RCI Russian Service experienced jamming until 1967.	January 1951	-	-
Slovak	January 1951	25 March 1991	-
Spanish	6 July 1947	-	-
Swedish	1946	4 March 1961	-
Ukrainian	September 1952	-	-

[source]

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. Prior to the late 1980's, there were two interval signals used. One was the aforementioned piano signal and the other was the same four notes of O Canada played on an autoharp. This second signal, which was also known as a "slewing signal", was used whenever RCI's transmitter beams had to be reversed (say from broadcasting to Europe to the western United States) quickly. The slewing signal was dropped when computer control was added to RCI's transmitter plant in the mid-to-late 80's.

How RCI's programming reaches listeners

RCI began its broadcasts on shortwave, later expanding to satellite delivery to the European region in the 1990s. RCI is also a partner in the World Radio Network, and is available on Sirius Satellite Radio Canada.

As with most international broadcasters in the developed world RCI's 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.

Studios

The main studios for RCI have been in Montréal since RCI was created in 1943-44.

RCI as a corporate entity (separate 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 the future.

By keeping all external language services located in Montreal, the costs of transition 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.

Budget

Figures are in units of millions, Canadian Dollars (CAD).

2003: 14.2 Million
2004: 14.4 Million

RCI's Gross Cost per Canadian resident (per year) is: 0.38 CAD (2003, 2004).

Canada for all practical purposes does not fund Radio Canada International, considering the nation's geopolitical stature.

The Voice Of America has had an average yearly budget of 100,000,000 USD since 2000.
Radio France International's budget for 2004 is 127.2 m Euros (some 154.7 Million USD).

Hours of Programming Produced (per week)

Note: there are 168 hours in a week (24 hours × 7 days).

RCI's Programming Production (historical)

1950s: 85 (WWII recovery phase for broadcaster)
1960s: 80 (Language services to Western Europe cut, Russian & Ukrainian launched)
1970s: 98 (Cold War detente)
1980s: 134 (late Cold War)

In the 1990s RCI's programming output peaked

1990: 195
1996: 175

For a comparasion of RCI to other broadcasters see

Output of RCI compared to other broadcasters (1950-1996). Please convert to a Wiki 'Category table' if possible, adding 2006 in the final column.

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 capacity with other international broadcasters.

Sackville is the only high power Shortwave Relay Station in Canada. The CBC-SRC network runs 3 × 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 capabilities of Wertachtal Relay Station, in Bavaria.

Sackville is also used by Radio Japan, China Radio International, BBC World Service, Voice of Vietnam, Radio Sweden, and Radio Korea as part of a transmitter time exchange agreement.

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 exclusively contains HRS type transmission antennas, whereas Sackville does not. The following site configuration information supports this comparison...

RCI Sackville Relay Station

The site at Sackville was originally built in 1938 for CBC local broadcasting. In 1943, two RCA shortwave transmitters were installed. In 1970, all CBC operations moved to Moncton, NB — this move was necessary so as to allow new Collins transmitters to be installed. In the mid 1980s, the RCA transmitters were replaced by the three, more modern, Harris transmitters.

Technology

The whole facility is controlled by computer automation which is centralized in the main control room. Frequencies, antennas, and input feeds are switched all according to internationally agreed upon schedules which are renegotiated twice per year with other countries. The RCI Sackville facility is an impressive mixture of diverse technologies. There are currently 9 transmitters in operation. The newest ASEA BROWN BOVERI (ABB) transmitters use a "pulse-step" type modulation (PSM) completely implemented in solid state and are each 250 kW output. These transmitters incorporate Dynamic Carrier Control (DCC) which causes the carrier level to be automatically reduced when there are lower levels or no audio. During periods of silence (no audio), the carrier power is reduced by 50%, so the 250 kW transmitter is putting out a carrier of 125 kW during audio pauses. This saves otherwise wasted empty carrier power.

Site Configuration

This site configuration data is known to be accurate for 2004-2005.

Transmitters (configuration not fully verified)

3 × 250 kW SW (1993–1995, ABB: SK 53 C3-2)
3 × 100 kW SW (1983, Harris: SW-100A)
3 × (Unknown power) (Unknown models)
A new SW transmitter has been acquired that is DRM capable.

It known that at least one SW transmitter has been outfitted to transmit DRM at this time.

Antennas (Type, Bearing) (configuration not fully 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)

To better understand the ITU HR antenna notation, see the HRS type antennas guide.

External links

From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.