TABLE OF CONTENTS

PREFACE ..............................................................................................................9RCI’S DIRECTORS..............................................................................................15Chapter I: FUNDING MODELS......................................................................... 17

Reference Documents.......................................................................................43A Summary of the 1996 Strategy for RCI................................................. 451996 Survey: Questionnaire .................................................................... 521996 Summary Tables with 2006 Updates................................................57

Chapter II: BROADCASTING IN FOREIGN LANGUAGES............................77Chapter III: RELATIONS WITH COMMUNIST MEDIA.................................89

Central & Eastern Europe................................................................................89China...............................................................................................................98Cuba.................................................................................................................102

Chapter IV: PARTNERSHIPS & ALLIANCES............................................... 111Technical Coordination Meetings.................................................................111

High Frequency Coordination Conference..............................................111Digital Radio Mondiale .......................................................................... 112

International Broadcasting Group..................................................................114CIBAR........................................................................................................ ...124Radio Canada International’s Bilateral Partneships...........................................127

Chapter V: RCI’S CONTRIBUTION TO INTERNATIONALBROADCASTING DEBATES...........................................................................135

Valley Forge Conferences..............................................................................135Challenges for International Broadcasting....................................................142

Chapter VI: PROGRAMMING: THE HEART OF RADIO............................ 151RCI Program Policies ................................................................................. 152Comparative Evaluation................................................................................ 156Analysis of Russian Broadcasts....................................................................162Analysis of Ukrainian Broadcasts .............................................................. 175Analysis of Programming in Canada’s Two National Languages .............. 186Reference Documents ................................................................................. 201

Corporate Policy.......................................................................................203Program Policy....................................................................................... 2051986 Comparative Evaluation: Questionnaire ...................................... 207April 22, 1986 Summaries of Broadcasts...................................................2092002 Comparison Evaluation: Summaries ............................................ 2432002 Comparison Evaluation: Theme Broadcasts ................................ 2512004 Mandates and Objectives ............................................................. 263

CONCLUSION ................................................................................................ 265WORKS & DOCUMENTS CITED ................................................................. 269INDEX OF PEOPLE AND STATIONS ........................................................... 287PHOTOGRAPHS.......................................................................................................i

9

Preface

The first decade of this century marks the end of the golden age ofinternational radio. Born in the 1930s, the medium grew up very fast and all overthe place in WW2; it flourished throughout the Cold War, matured in the period ofpost-communist transition to democracy, generously rushing to assist its localcompetitors, and declined, as a result of its evolving mission and of the digitalrevolution. The fascinating potential of new technologies brought upon us theage of interactive media: wherever it takes hold, it is merciless to traditional radio.Once given the power to influence and shape the face of the media, the public willnot relinquish it. Radio, especially of the public service variety, remains in thehighly risky re-definition mode trying to defend its shrinking turf and to secure itsrightful place in the new reality. The purpose of this book is to situate thesexagenarian (1945-2005) Radio Canada International, a component of the publicservice Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, within the international broadcastingcommunity, present its foreign language broadcasts, compare its programming tothat of the other international stations, and, in conclusion, speculate on its pathinto the age of interactivity.

Reading a book about a subject you know very well is fraught with risks.You are more than likely to find fault with it and if you become upset enough, youmay wish to share your disappointment with others or show off your expertise bywriting a review. Temptation to go beyond a critique presents an even greater risk,as you may end up tackling the topic yourself. This is precisely what happened tome, even though I put up a good fight, initially determined to remain an observer.When the first monograph on RCI came out in 1996 (1) , as excited as my colleagueswere to read Arthur Siegel’s book, they all agreed that it was not yet RCI’s definitehistory. The publication was followed closely by another monograph in 1997 (2),this time written by an impartial “outsider” from a Southern US university, withan excellent grasp of Canadian reality. Very solid on research conducted by theauthor in Montreal, Ottawa and Victoria, the study proposed to establish why andhow Canada was using radio broadcasting as a means to communicate nationalidentity to the world (3). Both Siegel and Hall concentrated on RCI’s creation andthe following four decades, with most of the attention given to the first twentyyears and no more than a cursory glance spared for the later periods. Neitherauthor elaborated on RCI’s role as a member of the international broadcastingcommunity, both treated programming matters casually and in isolation, and saidlittle about the foreign languages dimension. These were consciously imposedboundaries on the part of Hall (4); Siegel’s intentions in limiting the scope of hiswork were less explicit.

10 PrefaceAnd yet, the first thought of writing a book on RCI, born from instinct

rather than an intellectual challenge, came to me well before reading Siegel’s andHall’s monographs. It happened during the one period of my adventure withbroadcasting that I would rather forget: between March 22, 1991, the date of thefarewell shows of RCI’s Czech, English, French, German, Hungarian, Japanese,Polish, Portuguese, and Slovak sections and July 15, the official last day ofemployment of the laid-off staff. Dispirited colleagues, most of them friends fromthe same Central & Eastern European Service, were wandering up and down RCI’semptying hallways, turning out cabinets and supposedly archiving various tapesand files relating to several decades of Canadian broadcasting in their languages.It was eminently clear to on-lookers that some of this important task was notbeing done properly. Compassion and survivor’s guilt combined with the officiallysanctioned laisser-faire attitude prevented those who remained from saying much.But my research genes were ticking loud and I was sorely tempted to comb thewastebaskets for documents lost forever to future historians. Finally I asked to seethe boxes and the accompanying lists of documents before they were sent toarchives. Predictably I ended up doing some of the work myself but at least Icould sleep better. Another powerful motive in undertaking the task of writing abook on RCI was the desire to present an eyewitness account of a quarter of acentury personal involvement in this amazing organization, nicknamed by AlanL. Heil (former director of the Voice of America and a proven friend of RCI) thelittle network that could. Even the best archived and preserved documents rarelydo justice to facts and events as they are remembered by participants. Thus, whatfinally drove me to producing this book was the need to articulate and put onpaper a past reality which would otherwise be eventually erased from memory.

In the course of my career at RCI, I wrote, naturally enough, many papers,presentations, articles (5), and training courses dealing with various aspects ofinternational broadcasting but primarily related to RCI. I also edited five volumesof Challenges for International Broadcasting proceedings (6) with Howard Aster,a political scientist from McMaster University and publisher at Mosaic Press. Ieven played a marginal role in the publishing of Siegel’s monograph (see below)and wrote a short preface to the book. In 1996, my MBA dissertation’s (7) subjectwas a strategic audit of RCI. When the preparations for RCI’s 60th anniversarybegan in early 2004, the lure to put the RCI picture straight became too strong andhere I am trying to fill what I consider to be gaps left by the previous authors andto pay my own dues to this unique organization and its people.

Writing a book, an ostensibly stationary and predictable activity, carriesits own significant risks. Some of these have to do with deadlines and are wellillustrated by the case of Arthur Siegel who before turning scholar at Toronto’sYork University spent eighteen years at RCI (1958-1976) as newsroom editor andscript writer. His book on RCI had been commissioned by the CBC in May 1986for delivery of the manuscript by November 1, 1987 and publication in June 1988(8).

11 Preface

The contract stipulated that if by June 30, 1988, a publishing agreement with apublisher…has not been signed…any and all rights… including copyright, shallautomatically be transferred to the CBC. (9) The deadline passed and the completionof the manuscript was postponed until November 30, 1989 (10). Again nothinghappened and over four years later another natural deadline came along in theform of RCI’s 50th anniversary. In October 1994 Siegel assured RCI that the workwas ready for the printers and couldn’t fail to come out in time for the February1995 celebrations. The anniversary came and went without the book beingpublished. In March 1995, a totally frustrated Allan Familiant, RCI’s ProgramDirector, enlisted the help of the CBC Law Department. The lawyers demandedimmediate delivery of the completed manuscript in terse legal terms (11). On April3 Siegel was on the phone with the Law Department promising to send a copy byregistered mail on April 14 (12). The manuscript came and so eventually did theelectronic copy (13) of the text. Unfortunately, the work although well written,enjoyable and illuminating on many points was anything but “ready for theprinters”.

Soon, another deadline began to breathe down Siegel’s neck: the thirdinternational conference in the Challenges series was to be held in May 1996 inSt. John’s, Newfoundland; the intention was to include the book in the registrationkit distributed to all participants. Mosaic Press (14) agreed to have a look at themanuscript and later decided to put the publication on a fast track (15). By the endof March, important elements were still missing in the manuscript, such as anintroduction, acknowledgements, bibliography and sources. Familiant was gettingfrantic and asked me to send an ultimatum to Siegel: deliver by April 3 or MosaicPress would publish the text as is, with an editorial note from RCI. Good will,printing technology and Canada Post combined to achieve a minor miracle: boxesof books were delivered by Mosaic Press to St. John’s the day before the conferencestarted. To the delight of the participants, Siegel’s RCI: History and Developmentfound its way into the huge conference canvas bags printed with colourful puffins(Fratercula Arctica), placed next to a pair of three-fingered, hand knitted localhunting gloves intended as a memento. As far as I know, James L. Hall managedto have his monograph published without such hurdles, although a quarter of acentury passed between the presentation of the research as his doctoral dissertationin 1972 and the publication of an updated version (16) in 1997.

Siegel’s book is a bit short on acknowledgements and sources,undoubtedly due to the precipitated final stage of publication; I’m glad to be ableto provide here a brief postscript to fill this gap. The original commission was foran institutional history; the basic outline was proposed to the managementcommittee by the Manager of Development & Promotion in August 1985 (17) for afunding decision scheduled for mid-September and for a later discussion withSiegel. At that time, Charles Delafield, RCI’s longest serving director (18), hadalready started on an account of his own intended as a source for the planned

12 Prefacebook. CBC’s Allyson Taylor was working on supportive research and GeorgeTombes on additional RCI oriented interviews within the CBC Oral History Project.I was able to find in the archives only chapters I, II, III, and V of Delafield’smanuscript (19), altogether 87 pages. Although incomplete, the text is an invaluableeyewitness account written in a curiously detached impersonal manner; nobodyreading the text would ever guess that the author was himself an important part ofthe tale.

In addition to the two monographs on RCI, several articles and chapterspublished over the years in various books deserve to be highlighted and brieflydiscussed.

James Wood in his 2000 two-volume History of InternationalBroadcasting (20), dealing with transmission platforms, signal delivery andtechnological issues in the history of international radio, devoted to RCI a chaptercovering a longer period of its existence than the two monographs but becauseof the book’s prevailing technical focus, it is valuable only in that area. Histreatment of the development of the industry collaboration in frequency co-ordination and air-time exchange is the most thorough one to date.

Published in 1997 Michael Nelson’s War of the Black Heavens (21)

includes a chapter on RCI’s broadcasting during the Cold War. It is a fascinatingand thoroughly researched book but information about RCI is based mainly onWard’s & Koshits’ Valley Forge paper (see below), as well as on Siegel’s andHall’s at the time still unpublished work.

The Valley Forge paper (22) dealing with RCI’s broadcasting to Central& Eastern Europe was commissioned by the organization itself as a two-part(The Past and The Present) presentation for the September 1984 FreedomsFoundation conference on Broadcasting over the Iron Curtain at Valley Forge,Pennsylvania. Frank Ward, a former RCI journalist wrote about the past, HelenKoshits, who was then the manager of Eastern Europe Target Area and supervisorof the Russian section, wrote about the present (23).

Bernard Bumpus and Barbara Skelt, BBC World Service wellestablished audience researchers, published in 1984 a condensed historicalsummary / repertory (24) of international radio. RCI is included in the bookletbut the information provided contains only quite trivial details of hours of outputand broadcast languages.

Donald R. Browne, one of the top experts in America on media andmedia history, wrote an excellent book on international radio entitledInternational Radio Broadcasting: The Limits of the Limitless Medium (25). Hisbrief mentions(26) of RCI are very well informed and insightful. He later

13 Preface

participated in the 1984 and 1989 Valley Forge conferences and in practicallyall editions of RCI’s Challenges for International Broadcasting.

Before 1990(27), RCI attracted little attention of the Canadian academicworld. I was only able to find three unpublished master’s dissertations; Jean-LucienCaron’s(28) at the Université de Montréal, Bernard J. Hibbitts’(29) at DalhousieUniversity, and John E. Hamilton’s (30) at the University of Windsor, which concludethe RCI bibliography. All three are not without interest but not particularly usefulfor the purpose of this study(31).

I would like to think that I could achieve in my book the same detachmenttowards RCI as Charles Delafield and yet this is not really my intention. Anyforced depersonalization of my view of the subject would certainly distort whateverimage the facts would project. As a historian I obviously aim at producing anobjective and accurate account, but I will neither hide the fact nor apologize forbeing an insider. I’ll strive to keep my perspective unclouded by partisan prejudiceand use the twin advantages of personal experience of the organization and easyaccess to institutional archives to achieve better informed, more insightful andsympathetic conclusions.

After acknowledging the merit of those who wrote about RCI in the past, Iwould like to thank my friends and colleagues from inside and outside of RCIwho helped me with my research, untiringly discussed many unclear issues, andshared with me their honest opinion about the results of my labours. I feel that Imust name some of them here, starting with RCI’s current management team,Ginette Bourely, Sylvie Robitaille, Caroline St-Jacques, France Leclerc, RogerTetrault, Jean Larin, Jacques Bouliane, Gerald Théoret, and Michelle Sestre. Myformer RCI boss and mentor Milan Vitek most graciously let me have his personalarchives and patiently answered all of my questions. Former program directorAllan Familiant helped me understand RCI’s relations with Asian broadcastersand told me some excellent if unprintable stories. Hélène Robillard-Frayne, NicoleBeaulac and Graham Mytton corrected mistakes in my version of CIBAR’s history;Radio Nederland’s Bert Steinkamp and Lodewijk Bouwens, along with colleaguesfrom Radio Sweden, Radio Japan, and Swiss Radio International assisted me withthe largely unknown past of the International Broadcasting Group. Alan Heil, aformer director of Voice of America and an unfailing ally of RCI, kindly weededout some errors about his organization. Anthony Rendell, another generous RCIsupporter and a former BBC WS Chairman of the Triennium, read the draft andoffered a number of keen comments. Marek Sliwinski, a friend from my years atGeneva University, gave liberally of his time, wisdom, and home made brandy todiscuss with me the nature of history and the vagaries of scholarship.

Montreal, July 2007.

14 PrefaceEndnotes1 Arthur Siegel. Radio Canada International: History and Development. Oakville, Ont.: Mosaic Press,1996.2 James L. Hall. Radio Canada International: Voice of a Middle Power. (MSU Canadian Series, 7).East Lansing: Michigan State University Press, 1997.3 Hall (ix).4 (xi).5 The three most recent ones dealt with RCI’s reporting on the Iraq war in The Channel 6.2. April-May 2003; with its significant current repositioning in The Channel 7.1, January 2004 (10), and withRCI’s 60th anniversary in Commonwealth Broadcaster July-September 2005.6 Volumes II-VI, 1993-2001.7 At Concordia University’s John Molson School of Business.8 The May 7, 1986 Agreement between the CBC, Canadian Media Content Consultants and A. Siegel(3). CMCC’s President was Siegel’s wife Mireille Gutter.9 The same Agreement, clause 8 (4); that is why the copyright to Siegel’s book belongs to RCI.10 Andrew Simon’s April 20, 1989 letter to M. Gutter.11 Leslie Saunders, Associate Legal Counsel’s March 13, 1995 letter to A. Siegel12 L. Saunders’ April 3, 1995 letter to A. Siegel.13 L. Saunders’ May 8, 1995 letter to A. Siegel.14 A. Familiant’s February 9, 1996 letter to E. Cody-Rice, Senior Legal Counsel at the CBC LawDepartment.15 H. Aster’s March 31, 1996 letter to A. Siegel and E. Olechowska.16 See Hall (xi).17 Keith Randall’s August 1985 Internal Memo to Members of the RCI Management Committee.18 From 1953 to 1973.19 Charles Delafield. A History of CBC International Broadcasting. 1985.20 James Wood. History of International Broadcasting. Vol. 2. (IIE History of Technology Series,23). London: The Institution of Electrical Engineers, 2000.21 Michael Nelson. War of the Black Heavens: The Battles of Western Broadcasting in the Cold War.London: Brassey’s, 1997.22 Frank Ward and Helen Koshits. “Radio Canada International and Broadcasting over the Iron Curtain”in Western Broadcasting over the Iron Curtain. Ed. by K. R. M. Short. London: Croom Helm, 1986(27-56).23 I was asked to update H. Koshits’ text for the two-year period between the presentation at ValleyForge and the publication of the conference proceedings by Professor Short.24 Bernard Bumpus and Barbara Skelt. Seventy Years of International Broadcasting. Communicationand Society, 14. Paris: UNESCO, 1984. Canada: p. 67, 90-91.25 Donald R. Browne. International Radio Broadcasting: The Limits of the Limitless Medium. NewYork: Praeger, 1982.26 See Browne (56, 215-216).27 The date of the first Challenges conference in Hamilton, Ont. organized jointly with McMasterUniversity. From 1990 to 2000, a number of Canadian scholars participated in the biennial event.28 Jean Lucien Caron. Radio Canada International Montréal: Université de Montréal, 1973.29 Bernard J. Hibbitts. An Analysis of the Canadian International Broadcasting Service as anInstrument of Canadian Foreign Policy, 1945-1979. Halifax: Dalhousie University, 1980.30 John E. Hamilton. We Know They’re Out There Somewhere: Evaluating the Audience ResearchMethods of International Radio Broadcasters : A Case Study of Radio Canada International. Master’sdiss., University of Windsor, Ont., 1987.31 And neither is Jaroslaw Jedrzejczak’s tribute to RCI’s Polish Section based mainly on interviewswith former employees. See Tu mowi Kanada in Z dziejow polskiej radiofonii, 2. Rocznik 2005/2006(89-100).

15

RCI’s Directors

1. Peter Aylen, General Supervisor, 1943 – February 1947; former CBC;after leaving the International Service, took a post at the UN (1).

2. Arthur Phelps, General Supervisor, 1947; former professor of Englishliterature at the University of Manitoba (2).

3. Ira Dilworth, General Supervisor, October 1947-1951; former EnglishLiterature professor at the University of British Columbia and CBCregional director in Vancouver; he left the International Service for CBCRadio in Toronto.

4. Jean Désy, Director General, January 1, 1952-1953, on a 18-monthsecondment from External Affairs; between 1954 and 1957, Désy servedas Canadian ambassador in Paris where he died in 1960 (3).

5. Charles Delafield, 1953-1973, Deputy to Aylen, Phelps, Dilworth andDésy. The first (and only until Jean Larin in 2001) RCI director promotedfrom within.

6. Alan Brown, Director, 1973-1979 – member of RCI Task Force.7. Betty Zimmerman, Director, 1979-1989; previously served on the

McBride Commission replacing Marshall McLuhan, former Chair of RCITask Force, former Director of CBC International Relations.

8. Andrew Simon, Executive Director, 1989-1991; had a long anddistinguished CBC career – took early retirement following the 1990-91budget cuts.

9. Allan Familiant, Acting Director, 1991; RCI’s longest serving ProgramDirector 1980–1997; took early retirement in 1997.

10. Terry Hargreaves, Executive Director, 1991-1997; previously an advisorto the CBC President and CBC representative negotiating RCI futurewith the External Affairs.

11. Robert E. O’Reilly, Executive Director, 1997- June 2001; combined RCI’sdirectorship with that of CBC’s International Relations.

12. Denis Doucet, General Manager, June- November 2001; formerly GeneralManager, Resources and Operations, Radio-Canada.

13. Jean Larin, Director, November 2001-; Executive Director 2004-;previously Radio-Canada’s foreign correspondent, lawyer, developmenttrainer; started at RCI in 1998 as Head of Newsroom, later supervisedNews and Daily Broadcasts in English & French, 2004-5: for almost ayear combined RCI’s directorship with that of the Canadian Institute forTraining in Public Broadcasting.

16 RCI’s Directors

Endnotes1 Documents on Canadian External Relations. Vol. 19 -290. Document A-2533.Nov. 12, 1953. Online:http://www.dfait-maeci.gc.ca/hist/dcer/details-en.asp?intRefid=1921 . Retrieved July 25, 2006.2 Skilling (84,94); Hall (30)3 Profile of a Diplomat: Jean Désy Diplomat par excellence. Online : http://www.dfait-maeci.gc.ca/canada-magazine/issue08/8t8-en.asp. Retrieved June 5, 2006.

17

Chapter I: Funding Models

At the dawn of the 1990s, dramatic political changes brought on by thecollapse of communism in Central and Eastern Europe, resulted in a painful andoften unsteady transition to market economy. Not only Radio Free Europe / RadioLiberty but all western stations broadcasting behind the Iron Curtain shared withtheir listeners the swirling political and social upheaval in the region. Thephenomenon rapidly engulfed all satellite states and moved on to dismantle theSoviet Union itself. The speed and irrevocability with which the communist systemdisintegrated were generally perceived as unanticipated: it took everybody bysurprise; or did it?

Experts had known for more than a decade that sooner or later the dismalperformance of the communist economy would reach a point beyond return, andcollapse. The consensus tilted towards later rather than sooner: the system, havingendured against all theoretical odds for so long seemed immovable. Yet, somepeople in the broadcasting community were accurately predicting its downfall andadvocating programming changes geared to the forthcoming post-communist reality.At the 1984 Valley Forge Conference, Broadcasting beyond the Iron Curtain,participants received with sceptical smiles and comments Frank Shakespeare’s (1)

appeal for shifting the emphasis of international radio from the elites to the masses,as the masses already knew the communist system was rotten and needed inspiringmodels for change.

Once the pragmatic approach of assistance to post-communist media replacedthe initial euphoria of reporting on the dramatic events and transformations,international radio embarked on a parallel exercise of soul searching. “Did we doour job so well that we broadcast ourselves out of business, or is there still a rolefor us to play?” was the question of the day. It more closely affected RFE/RL, thesurrogate domestic media in the region, but to a certain degree, it concerned alsoall the other international stations broadcasting to the same audiences. There wasno shortage of praise lavished on international radio by new (2) - and old - (3) politicalleaders. Wide ranging appreciation and testimonials made the stations feel good;Vaclav Havel offered even to house RFE/RL in Prague’s former communistParliament building and allowed the station to use the best Czechoslovak shortwavefrequency out of a transmitter in Slovakia. Yet, when all was said and done, thequestion remained, “What next?”

The Canadian government made the call for RCI in 1991 and only Russianand Ukrainian broadcasts were provided for in the reduced 91-92 budget. Theother stations had up to a decade more or even longer to regroup. RFE/RL closeddown its operations in Munich, moved to Prague and opened offices in the former

18 Funding ModelsSoviet Union. BBC World Service negotiated (4) budget increases with theCommonwealth and Foreign Office and launched a TV channel in English; beganbroadcasting in Ukrainian in 1992; opened a number of bureaus in Eastern Europe,and moved some of the London staff there. Most of the Central & Eastern Europeanlanguages survived until March 2006 (5), when eight services (Bulgarian, Croatian,Czech, Greek, Hungarian, Polish, Slovak, and Slovene) along with two non-European (Kazakh and Thai), were scheduled to disappear to provide funding foran Arabic TV channel (6) conceived in response to Al-Jazeera’s growing successand its forthcoming, new English channel (7).

Voice of America added German broadcasts between 1991 and 1993 buthad been reducing dramatically its Central European output, until 2004 when itbecame available only through the monthly New Europe Review (8). VOA continuedbroadcasting in Russian and Ukrainian, as well as in Bosnian, Croatian, Macedonian,and Serbian.

Deutsche Welle, the larger of the two West German internationalbroadcasters, was spared financial headaches for almost a decade, as a result of theGerman re-unification euphoria of the early 90s. In 1990, DW absorbed RadioBerlin International, the external broadcasting service of Eastern Germany; launchedDW-TV in 1992 and added Albanian (9). In 1993, DW took over the internationalmandate of Deutschlandfunk, the other West German international stationbroadcasting to Europe, and started operating Deutschlandfunk’s eleven foreignlanguage services. Once Berlin became again the capital of the country, DW wassupposed to move to nearby Bonn. Because of serious damage inflicted on DWfuture headquarters in Bonn by the flooding Rhine River, the move was completedonly in 2003. An ill-starred attempt to create a Ukrainian (10) service, eventuallylaunched in 2000 (11), illustrates well the kind of uneasy relationship DW startedexperiencing with its federal stakeholders since the late 90s. Finally, also in 2000,DW discontinued broadcasting in Czech, Hungarian, Japanese, Slovak, Slovenianand Spanish. Radio France Internationale on the other hand took a different approachand put emphasis (and money) on broadcasting in French, shifting its priorities toAsia and the Middle East, in the process, starving its Central and Eastern Europeanlanguages into relative insignificance.

In 1995-1996, several years after the end of the Soviet empire and duringdifficult times for Radio Canada International, this author studied(12) the state ofinternational broadcasting trying to compare how individual members of the industrycoped with challenges of democratization in the region. The intent was to explorewhether RCI could find inspiration in strategies used by others. Now, a decadelater, with fears for RCI’s survival a thing of the past, it seemed intriguing to updatethe survey and to examine further evolution of the industry.

19Funding Models

Looking back to the early 90s, one cannot help but wonder at the enormityof the challenges facing international radio at the time:

· communication and consultation between western broadcasters and theirfunding agencies became uneasy due to changing perceptions of mutualgoals;

· governments in their quest for balanced budgets were becoming seriouslyinclined to reduce rather than increase the allocations for internationalbroadcasting who served foreign audiences enjoying little recognition andlimited voter support at home;

· changing information and entertainment needs of listeners caused arevolution in programming style and content;

· local public media liberated from party control started providing anincreasingly attractive alternative to international broadcasting;

· new commercial media mushroomed and changed the communicationlandscape;

· television requiring much higher funds than radio became part ofinternational broadcasting;

· technological developments such as satellites and new generations ofreceivers lead to improved reception, enhanced even further by the digitaladvances; new technologies required more investments and spending.

There were, at the time, significant differences in the way external servicesaround the world were financed(13), but the two primary funding models reliedrespectively, on licence fee and government appropriations. Radio and TV licencefees, the traditional source of funding for domestic public broadcasting in Europeand a remnant of the state broadcasting monopoly, are now unknown in America(14)

where the public is familiar only with cable subscriber fees more akin in nature touser fees. Licence fees are rarely used to pay for external broadcasting(15) but ifthey are, they provide the most secure and stable funding. However, the situationseems to have evolved during the last five years or so; some countries, namelyJapan, where licence fees pay for the operations of the public broadcaster, NipponHoso Kyokai(16), have been experiencing a loss of licence fee revenue due toincreasing payment avoidance. During the first six months of 2005, over a millionNHK subscribers refused to pay the monthly fee(17). The lack of any enforcementmechanism makes licence fee payment avoidance possible.

In times of shrinking public money, of competing priorities and fiscalresponsibility, government appropriations, the most frequent funding model, maychange at a moment’s notice, as many international stations learned to their regret.Through the long years of the Cold War, Western governments came to considerexternal broadcasting as a more or less efficient weapon to fight communism. Oncethis struggle seemed over, a powerful foreign policy motivation to continuebroadcasting was diminished, if not removed. Promotion of national culture and

20 Funding Modelsinterests, the original raison d’être of international radio, was conveniently forgotten,although still present in all charters and missions.

Unquestionably, all governments, even those still desiring control over themedia, would enthusiastically welcome international broadcasting which could payfor itself, fully or in part. With that in mind, a successful attempt at advertisingsupport in international broadcasting was made during the 1970s and 80s. On theinitiative of the French government, in the Middle East, the Caribbean, sub-SaharanAfrica and North Africa, stations such as Radio Monte-Carlo/ Moyen Orient werecreated(18). The concept was working successfully with the continuing support ofthe French authorities, as the stations’ philosophies matched the goals of Frenchforeign policy(19). Mediumwave was the transmission platform of choice for theseareas and its reception quality made the stations attractive to advertisers. However,what works regionally cannot be easily translated into a global success. As a rule,international radio has a global, not regional character, which makes advertisingless focused and less effective.

The only current successful example of self-financing is BBC World(20) . Atthe time I did my survey, the newly launched BBC World Service Television wasexpected to develop a subscription and advertising based commercial model, andbecome self-financed within two years; it achieved this goal with a resoundingsuccess. The sales operations now employ more than fifty staff, working out of tenoffices located around the world. As part of the BBC World Service global newsdivision, BBC World uses the talent of more than 250 BBC News correspondents,58 bureaus and a 24-hour digitalized newsroom. It does not appear feasible for anorganization without comparable background, brand, and resources to pull off thiskind of commercial success; the BBC World model remains truly unique.

This author’s original investigation and analysis were based on a qualitativestudy designed to provide specific 1990-1996 data (21) on international broadcasting.The survey compiled information on the stations’ mandates, financing, incomegeneration, structure, changes in their financial situation during the previous fiveyears, the budget for promotion inside their country; targets of their promotionalactivities, promotion mix, and evaluation of the effectiveness of promotion. It wasneither necessary nor practical to include in the survey all the 126 internationalbroadcasters active at the time. A good number of these stations operated in politicaland economic environments widely divergent from the Canadian reality; theirstrategies although presenting an obvious academic interest, were of little practicalvalue for RCI. The author selected eighteen(22) publicly funded stations for thepurpose of the survey, all of them comparable to RCI from the point of view oftheir political systems and prevailing operating practices.

The top managers of the selected organizations were approached personallyand all expressed willingness and interest in being included in the study; most

21Funding Models

delegated the task of completing the questionnaire to assistants, public relationsofficers or people involved in policy matters. As the questions covered manydifferent areas of operation and policy over a six-year horizon, the task of findingthe requested information was undeniably time-consuming. In a number of cases,repeated follow-ups and reminders were necessary to obtain answers; among themost frequently cited reasons for the delays was the lack of time but what reallyseemed to be causing problems, understandably, was the reluctance to disclosesensitive and/or confidential data.

Finally, only nine out of 19 (including RCI) originally selected respondentscompleted the questionnaire; a response rate of nearly 50%. A review of the datacollected (see the Summary Tables) in the areas of financing, income generation,marketing, and promotion, indicates the following:

Financing· 3 surveyed stations out of 9 were funded fully or partly from licence fees.These stations had stable funding levels, with very small, probably only inflationaryincreases.· For 8 out of 9 respondents, government (or its various departments), or theparliament (23) were acting as funding agencies.· 3 surveyed stations out of 9 were funded through their parent domesticbroadcaster.· 7 out of 9 received an annual budget.· 2 stations out of 9 negotiated triennial funding. This was not synonymouswith regular increases but allowed for easier planning and redeployment of fundswithin the triennium.· In all cases, a fair amount of negotiation with the funding agency or withthe domestic broadcaster went on before the funding process was completed. As arule, the bigger the station, the more formal and structured was the negotiationprocess.· Personal contacts with the government and political influence of topexecutives were in all cases of great importance, rated even more helpful innegotiations then the use of lobbyists and availability of audience figures.

Income Generation· None of the surveyed stations was either self-financing or generated revenuessignificant for its operations.· 4 surveyed stations out of 9 did not generate any income and had no suchplans.· 3 stations out of 9 generated small levels of income through transmittertime sale.· 2 out of 9 generated income through sale of programming, programmingexpertise and products, with the help of merchandising and marketing departments.· None of the stations received significant amounts from private contributions

22 Funding Modelsor non-profit foundations.· None of the stations received financial support from corporate business.· 5 out of 9 occasionally obtained additional funding for special projectsmainly from government agencies.· 1 out of 9 operated a self-financing TV service.

Marketing· 7 surveyed stations out of 9 had a marketing department.· 3 out of 9 evaluated regularly and formally their marketing efforts.· 4 out of 9 targeted specific segments in their marketing efforts.

Promotion· All stations published broadcast schedules, occasional leaflets etc.· 8 stations out of 9 issued additional regular publications, mostly annual.· All stations would launch very occasional promotional campaigns oractivities in their own countries· One station launched regular promotional campaigns abroad.

RCI’s Comparative Profile

RCI’s mandate of increasing international awareness of Canada, its realitiesand values was on the whole very similar to the mandates of all the other surveyedstations. One of the stations had no mandate separate from its domestic parentbroadcaster. Four emphasized much more strongly than RCI the mission to broadcastto their own citizens abroad. Canadians abroad, including troops, were at the timeof the survey (24), an important but secondary audience for RCI.

Broadcasting to Canadian peacekeepers was not specifically part of RCI’sofficial mandate. It was a service provided by RCI within its secondary mandate ofbroadcasting to Canadians abroad and paid for by a separate grant from theDepartment of National Defence (25). None of the surveyed stations provided asimilar service. RCI has not produced programming for Canadian Forces Networksince 1998, when the contract with the DND lapsed.

RCI’s programming was and is directed to foreign audiences even though itcan be heard in Canada itself. The Broadcasting Act of 1991 does not precludedistribution of RCI programming within Canada. One of the surveyed stations wasexplicitly forbidden to broadcast to audiences in its own country. The survey didnot bring to light any research studies on domestic audiences for internationalbroadcasters although eight surveyed stations out of nine were very interested inobtaining such data.

The vital statistics of any international radio station include the number ofbroadcast languages, weekly output, staffing and budget levels. Combined in a

23Funding Models

ratio, these figures would reflect the basic facts of an organization. By calculatingan average ratio for all surveyed stations, we would obtain a standard of sorts forthe industry, as it was in 1996, which could give us a measure for comparisonbetween individual organizations.

In 1996, RCI was broadcasting in 6 languages in addition to English andFrench, Canada’s official languages, for 232 hours a week, with a staff of 117 anda budget of $16 million. The ratio of the number of languages to weekly output, tonumber of staff, to budget (in millions) of 8:232:117:16 is quite unique among thenine surveyed stations. The average ratio for all stations (RCI excluded) isapproximately 22:636:823:189. If we recalculate RCI’s figures according to thisaverage ratio, we obtain the following result: for broadcasting in 8 languages for230 hours a week, RCI would need (according to the industry standard reflected inthe ratio) 298 employees and a budget of $ 68.323 million, i.e. 181 more employeesand a budget increased by $ 52 million.

Among the components of the ratio, one that seems potentially unreliable isthe second expression: hours of broadcast a week. The principle of counting thehours is naturally the same at all stations. What is not evident is the percentage oforiginal programming versus repeats. From the point of view of production only,without the cost of transmission and technical handling, 200 hours of originalprogramming could be equal in cost to 600 hours, if 400 hours are repeats. Allbroadcasters repeat their programming in a variety of ways, more or less creatively.It is often quite difficult to establish the actual number of hours of originalprogramming. On the other hand, the ways to “re-cycle” programming are notinfinite and their use is similar across the industry. As the prevailing tendency is toover rather than understate the hours of broadcast, the figures given are undoubtedlycomparable.

Another component potentially reducing the validity of the averages is thebudget. Even though the stations selected for the survey operate in generally similareconomic conditions, generally similar but not identical. The purchasing power isnot the same; there are quite significant differences in transmitter costs,communications tariffs, staff salaries etc. On the other hand, there are satellitetransmission charges and other costs often paid to distributors abroad. It wouldrequire the use of more complex finance tools than a simple exchange rate tocalculate the budget figures in exact equivalents of Canadian dollars. In spite ofthese two cautionary comments, the discussed ratio illuminates Radio CanadaInternational’s efficiency and value for money, as demonstrated above.

The Programming

RCI was broadcasting at the time a fairly uniform blend of news and currentaffairs in all its languages and additionally relaying the best of CBC/Radio-Canadanetwork programs in English and French. Since 1987, RCI started producing also

24 Funding ModelsEnglish lessons in radio format for foreign audiences, for broadcast by local stationsin target countries. One year before the study, a first series of French lessons wasproduced in Laotian, Cambodian and Khmer versions. Various weekly recordedprograms distributed across the world called Canada à la carte, Canadian Panoramaand others in several languages, have been regularly run by hundreds of foreignlocal stations. In the years 1986-1997, RCI was producing one-hour long monthlyselections of Canadian popular music, recorded in stereo under the name of Pick ofthe Pops, regularly played with full credits by over three hundred partner stationsabroad. All surveyed organizations broadcast news and current affairs, six out ofnine produced language courses for foreign audiences and eight out of nine produceda variety of recorded music and spoken word programs for distribution to localstations abroad.

The Funding Situation

Until 1968, RCI operated within the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation asa unit independently funded through the Department of External Affairs. In 1968,its budget and assets were merged with the overall CBC funding and assets. Fromthat time on, RCI budget came entirely under the control of the CBC. The arm’slength relationship between RCI and the government was even further relaxed.Priorities for broadcast languages communicated periodically (very rarely), andestablished according to the current goals of Canadian foreign policy, became thelast remaining link with the government. The linguistic priorities, in any case, carriedthe power of recommendation only, which was to be followed within the existingfinancial means.

In 1991, faced with severe budget cuts the CBC decided that it can no longerafford to finance RCI. After a public outcry in support of the service (26), thegovernment provided a separate five-year funding (27) for RCI from Treasury Boardvia the External Affairs. The new smaller budget, calculated as an irreducibleminimum for an international service, eliminated seven out of the fourteen languagesand half of the staff.

At the 1992 Challenges conference in Quebec City, Anthony Rendell, theBBC WS Chairman Triennium Planning, responsible for the outstandinglysuccessful negotiations between the BBC WS and the Commonwealth and ForeignOffice, generously offered his expertise to the new director Terry Hargreaves insecuring funding for RCI. Even though Rendell’s credentials and good will towardsRCI were beyond dispute (28), Hargreaves took his time deciding the matter andeventually, dismissing his managers’ advice, declined Rendell’s offer (29). It is nowpointless to speculate what would have happened with RCI’s budget at the end ofthe five-year funding, had Hargreaves accepted to work with Rendell on creating aCanadian version of the proven BBC WS financing model. An opportunity waslost, to say the least.

25Funding Models

The March 1995 federal budget, cutting deeply into the CBC allocation,triggered another crisis. The CBC President Anthony Manera was assured by thegovernment on his nomination, that there would be no additional cuts to thecorporation budget. When the government imposed on the CBC the obligation toprovide financing for RCI, starting April 1, 1995, i.e. made a de facto additionalcut of $16 million, Manera resigned. The liberal government running out of theirown presidential candidates for the CBC willing to face an almost impossiblechallenge, appointed Perrin Beatty, a former conservative minister ofcommunications responsible for previous major cuts to the public broadcaster.Beatty negotiated with the government an agreement which allowed the CBC topay only half of RCI’s $16 million budget; the other half was to be provided by theDepartment of Foreign Affairs(30). On December 12, 1995, the CBC Board ofDirectors having still not received neither the government cheque for half of RCI’s1995-96 budget, nor any commitment for the following year, announced that itwould be unable to pay for RCI at all after March 31, 1996(31). All RCI personnelreceived lay-off notices on December 13. This gave rise to another campaign tosave RCI. The campaign was led by the Coalition to Restore Full Funding to RCI(32)

formed among the employees after the massive budget cuts of 1991 and since thenworking towards a restoration of full pre-1991 funding. The coalition’s successesincluded bringing the issue before the Standing Committee on Communicationsand Culture in 1991, and as a result of three years of untiring efforts, convincingthe Standing Senate Committee on Transportation and Communications(33) to openan inquiry into the mandate and funding of RCI in 1994.

In April 1992, the Committee on Communications and Culture recommendedthat “in recognition of international objectives in trade and culture, the Governmentof Canada review the mandate of Radio Canada International (RCI) with a view toclarifying and strengthening its future role in projecting Canada’s image and intereststhrough international broadcasting” and “that funding for RCI remain theresponsibility of the Department of External Affairs, with the Canadian BroadcastingCorporation providing programming, production and delivery”(34).

In June 1994, the Senate Committee recommended(35) a broadening of RCI’smandate and full restoration of pre-1991 funding. Keith Spicer, the President ofthe CRTC, appearing at the hearings recommended a tripling(36) of RCI’s budget.The five recommendations(37) of the committee were historically among the mostfavourable for RCI.

In November 1994, a special House and Senate mixed committee reviewingCanadian foreign policy advocated expansion of RCI’s activities. In February 1995,André Ouellet, the Foreign Affairs Minister, reacting to the review, highlighted thecrucial role of RCI in promoting peace and understanding between nations(38).Because Ouellet delayed too long putting his money where his mouth was, thecoalition had to resume its work in earnest. Thousands of letters from listeners,

26 Funding Modelsother broadcasters, Canadian companies working abroad, and from the generalpublic were sent to the Prime Minister and to the members of the cabinet(39). Anumber of copies of such letters were also sent to RCI, and were deposited forconsultation at the Documentation Centre there. Ouellet, in fact, had no intentionof funding RCI; he reached an agreement with the Finance Minister, the TreasuryBoard, and Michel Dupuis, the Minister of Canadian Heritage, to transfer RCIwithout a budget under the responsibility of the Department of Canadian Heritage(40).

After a cabinet reshuffle in January of 1996, the new Canadian HeritageMinister, Sheila Copps, in consultation with Lloyd Axworthy, the new ForeignMinister, announced their joint intention to restore funding to RCI as theirdepartments’ priority(41). Copps said that since she became minister, no other issuehad provoked such reaction and outpouring of support from Canadians and fromabroad. Up until March 19 at various public occasions, Copps reiterated the politicalwill to restore RCI funding at the 1995-96 level. Still the lay-off notices to staffwere not being recalled. As the government’s cheque for the last six months of theending fiscal year had still not been received by the CBC, rumours about thecontinuing lack of funds were flying, despite the willingness of the CBC to matchnow the government funding. A press release sent jointly by Copps and Axworthyon Thursday March 21, announced a one year of mixed CBC / government funding(42)

to buy time to find other sources of money. The day after the press release, the lay-off notices to the staff were withdrawn.

This author’s survey, completed in mid April 1996, included a modeststrategic proposal based on an evaluation of the compiled data, and on the assessmentof RCI’s current predicament. Now, almost a decade later, the “Strategy for RadioCanada International”(43) seems somewhat outdated and rather naïve: a witness toan era of intense internal cohesion, imminent threats, critical moments, andheightened sense of personal accountability.

A new strategy for RCI became more urgent than ever. RCI’s director TerryHargreaves reluctantly allowed Allan Familiant to organize brain-storming sessionsinvolving the staff, but refused to participate himself (44). Twenty participants, selectedacross the organization, formed four task groups and debated one topic each, RCI’sprogramming, financing, publicity & PR, and choice of foreign languages. Theyproduced four reports(45), later integrated into a submission to the governmententitled: Radio Canada International: A Vital Link in Canada’s New Cultural andCommunications Strategy. Mission & Goals(46), to respond to the current ForeignAffairs’ communications initiative. Ironically, the RCI thinkers had no idea thatMinister Axworthy, the author of the initiative, thought rather in terms of a magicalcomputer wand(47) to transform Canadian international relations. In any case, thecoveted wand eluded the minister, and the Canadian International InformationStrategy remained only an idea.

In August of the same year, the CBC with the participation of the Department

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of Canadian Heritage hired a renowned management consulting company, KPMG(48),to conduct an operational review of RCI(49). KPMG consultants were commissionedto answer three questions: 1. Is RCI efficient? 2. What is the minimum annual costto sustain the organization? 3. Are alternative sources of financing available? Thecompany solicited RCI’s staff input(50) through a detailed questionnaire and metwith a significant response rate. It also surveyed nine international broadcastersfor comparison and background.

In its October 29th report to the Corporation, KPMG stated that RCI was anefficient operator, with relatively minor prospects for additional savings limited toareas such as occupancy and clerical support. KPMG established that the minimumfunding necessary to maintain RCI within the current mandate was roughly at thesame level as the 1996/7 budget. The study also concluded that external sources ofrevenue were not the answer to RCI’s funding problems. KPMG recommendedthat the CBC and the government either commit to funding it [RCI] appropriately,reduce its mandate significantly, or close it (51).

In case RCI would be maintained, the consultants formulated ten specificrecommendations. Among them figured:. funding independent from the CBC, which would eliminate the risk of

conflicting priorities,. creation of an informal advisory committee composed of CBC, Department

of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, Canadian Heritage, businesscommunity and Industry Canada representatives who would meet twice ayear to discuss current issues with RCI management,

. and a move of the main operation to the Maison de Radio-Canada for savingsand synergies, at the end of the present lease.

Additionally, KPMG rejected two following options for RCI:. branching off to international television as difficult to achieve for stations

with budgets below $50 million and. integration with one of CBC radio services, “the necessarily foreign focus

would be diminished, if it were not a separate entity with its own direction”(52).

Between the late October KPMG report and the December labour obligationdeadline, time flew too fast again. On December 6, Perrin Beatty announced anotherclosure: the CBC would not assume their half of RCI’s budget for the next fiscalyear. Five days later, the employees were given layoff notices but on the followingday, December 12, Sheila Copps(53) and Lloyd Axworthy saved RCI once again, byannouncing a financial package of $16 million, this time exclusively from thegovernment coffers: DFAIT contributed $6 million, Canadian Heritage another $6million, Canadian International Development Agency and Department of NationalDefence together, the remaining $4 million.

Eight months later(54) and well before the December deadline, the two

28 Funding Modelsministers had good news for RCI, an ongoing annual funding(55) of $15.52 million,starting in 1998-99, and additionally $5 million of capital-related funding annuallyfor a period of three years. A new era of longer term funding began.

There must have been however still some unresolved issues concerningRCI because on March 29, 2001, two days before the Contribution Agreementexpired, Michael Wernick, Assistant Deputy Minister of Canadian Heritage, CulturalDevelopment, advised the CBC President of an “extension of the Agreement forone year” which would “provide sufficient time to conclude ongoing discussionsbetween Canadian Heritage, RCI, CBC, DFAIT and central agency officialsconcerning RCI’s future funding needs and priorities.” On April 18, CBC CorporateCommunications sent to CBC Staff a note(56) from the President, advising that RCIwould report directly to Sylvain Lafrance, Vice-President, CBC French Radio andNew Media. Based on that decision, RCI was becoming part of the local Radio-Canada structure. The wording of the note “RCI will continue to broadcast in Arabic,Chinese, Russian, Ukrainian and Spanish, as well as to rebroadcast CBC and Radio-Canada programs abroad” led to concerns that RCI’s own English and Frenchservices would be eliminated. The process of integration of RCI into Radio-Canadawas conducted simultaneously with a major redeployment plan, initiallyimplemented in June and then readjusted in the fall. The year 2001, flippantlycalled at RCI the year of three directors(57), could be described as a period of intensetransformations, many of them in programming(58).

In the spring of 2002, two weeks before the expiry of the extended agreement,a draft document entitled Radio Canada International: Integrated Result-basedManagement and Accountability Framework and Risk-based Audit Framework(59),developed for the Corporate Review Branch of the Canadian Heritage by PrairieResearch Associates Inc., was delivered to the CBC, “For Discussion Only”. Theintegrated framework proposed a complex and labour intensive model. No wonderthe discussions stalled and by the end of March there was no conclusion in sight.Another one-year extension of the Agreement was signed on March 27, in forceuntil March 31, 2003. Canadian Heritage expressed the hope of concluding bySeptember 2002, “the process of examining the independent evaluation report ofRCI’s operations, develop[ing] RMAF for RCI and decid[ing] on longer-term stablefunding options for RCI.”(60) On April 11, 2002 another draft document, RadioCanada International Evaluation(61), was sent to Radio-Canada with an invitation(62)

to verify it for factual errors or omissions. Clearly fruit of considerable, time-consuming labour, the draft was sympathetic to RCI but methodologically flawedand riddled with factual mistakes and inaccuracies. The CBC was not impressed.

In the spring of 2003, the Treasury Board approved the integration of RCI’sbudget of $15.52 million into the CBC allocation on a permanent basis; on March19, an Order in Council gave a renewed legal basis to RCI’s operations, definingalso financial reporting obligations of the CBC(63).

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When several months later, Canadian Heritage posted on its website twodocuments, within a day of each other, an audit and an evaluation of RCI (64), itbecame clear that the new Order in Council solved a serious problem. The Audit,conducted in August and September 2002, established that the ContributionAgreements signed with the CBC since 1991 for the purpose of funding RCI, wereinconsistent on several important accounts with the 1996 and even more with the2000 Treasury Board Secretariat Policy on Transfer Payments.

How could such discrepancies occur? At the time when the 1996 policywas introduced, RCI was saved in extremis, thanks to the popular support for theservice. The one-year renewals of the agreement were being signed as a rule at thelast moment. Each time the agreement was extended, the inconsistencies were dealtwith through the mechanism of exemptions and special authorizations, instead ofthrough renegotiation and adjustment of the text to the new policy.

The auditors determined that the contribution agreements violated the policyin three areas:

1º they did not contain a “right to audit” clause. Without it, the departmentcould not examine CBC records supporting RCI expenditures. CBCprotecting its journalistic and operating independence from the governmentfor the entirety of its activities “did not respond favourably to the requestfor access to the records” (65).2º the contribution agreements did not address the issue of overpaymentsand made no “reference to how surplus funds at the end of any fiscal yearwere to be handled”. The 1996 Policy required that “recipients repayoverpayments, unexpended balances and disallowed expenses” but becausethe agreement made no reference to surplus funds, “during 2001-2002authorization was given to RCI to expend the funds carried over from theprevious year” (66).3º “the Policy recommends that payment be based on demonstrated cashflow requirements”, however the payment stream applied in the agreementconsisted of a 90% payment at the beginning of the fiscal year, with thebalance paid after the report for the previous year was completed in the fall.

In conclusion, the auditors strongly suggested that any future contributionagreements with the CBC be brought within the requirements of the Policy onTransfer Payments and advised that they were “unable to provide assurance toCanadian Heritage that information for decision-making was reliable, or that CBC’smanagement controls and risk management frameworks were effective” (67). Thefunding mechanism based on contribution agreements obviously outlived itsusefulness and had to be replaced.

Management Response (dated May 2, 2003) to the recommendations of theAudit‘s companion document, Formative Evaluation of Radio Canada International

30 Funding Models(RCI), and published at the same time as the evaluation, read as follows:

“RCI’s funding has been integrated into the CBC’s annual parliamentaryappropriation … a new Order in Council clarifies CBC accountabilityand reporting requirements. In addition to the establishment of moreappropriate accountability measures, we are confident that the newmechanism will protect the CBC’s journalistic and operatingindependence, RCI’s distinctiveness, and yet provide synergisticprogramming opportunities. The new Order requires the CBC toestablish planned objectives for RCI and to report results in meetingthose objectives in its annual report”(68).

A few weeks before the posting of the Audit and the Evaluation by HeritageCanada, the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage submitted its report OurCultural Sovereignty: The Second Century of Canadian Broadcasting (69), includinga recommendation (7.6) about RCI: “The Committee recommends that theappropriate department review the mandate of Radio Canada International, with aview to identifying the necessary resources required to strengthen its services.”

The Government Response to the Report includes the following reaction tothat recommendation: “The Government notes that it has recently reaffirmed themandate of CBC’s international service – Radio Canada International (RCI) – andclarified the CBC’s accountability for it. The funding for RCI has been integratedinto the CBC’s parliamentary appropriation, with the understanding that the servicewill remain a specified component of CBC’s activities”(70). The timing was excellentfor the government: it did what the Standing Committee recommended even beforethe recommendation was made, if not exactly, close enough to take the sting out ofany criticism. There was no funding “to strengthen” RCI but it gained the “specifiedcomponent” status within the CBC and the annual uncertainty of a contributionagreement was gone.

It took thirteen years since the first contribution agreement of 1991(71) forthe government and the CBC to reach a mutually satisfactory deal on RCI. Why?The most obvious answer is that for both, the government and the CBC, RCI was alow priority; it easily lost its turn or even got overlooked, until the funding deadlinewas looming, and then the responsible thing to do was to postpone the deadline.There were, however, other reasons.

The initial five-year financing based on contribution agreements was puttogether by the government in 1991, when the CBC refused to continue paying forRCI out of its parliamentary appropriation. The contribution agreement was thegovernment’s way of earmarking the money for RCI and ensuring that RCI did notget prioritized out of the CBC’s budget again. The 1996 Treasury Board SecretariatPolicy on Transfer Payments introduced additional controls on funds allotted through

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contribution agreements, with exemptions requiring special authorizations. Thesituation stagnated until even more stringent controls were brought in by the 2000Policy on Transfer Payments, and the audit procedures clashed with the CBCrequirements for its journalistic and operational independence from the government.The Corporation was undoubtedly concerned that once such micromanagementwould be allowed for RCI, the tendency would find its way to other areas. Thegovernment recognized the validity of the CBC’s unease and issued the March 19,2003 Order in Council which gave RCI a clear status and a measure of protectionagainst internal cuts.

The picture of the current Canadian official thinking on RCI becomes sharperwhen viewed against the historical background of six(72) earlier reports. Some haveimmediate applicability, others are of a more philosophical nature, but all wereproduced before the 1991 cuts and as such, were not included in the precedingdiscussion. It seems useful now to briefly examine what these documents say.

The first one was prepared by the Royal Commission on NationalDevelopments in the Arts, Letters, and Sciences(73) in 1951. It was called Massey-Lévesque Commission from the name of its chairman, Vincent Massey, chancellorof the University of Toronto and of its best known member, Father Georges-HenriLévesque, dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences at Laval University. In ChapterXVII, The Projection of Canada Abroad [256], the Commission stated that thecost of the International Service was “met by direct appropriations from Parliament.The money which the CBC receives from licence fees or from commercial revenueis not involved.” In the Chapter XIV, Information Abroad [366], there are tworecommendations:. “a. That the IS of the CBC be continued and expanded with a view toincreasing the knowledge and understanding of Canada abroad.” and. “b. That every effort be made to use for this purpose as often as possible theservice of Canadians eminent in various fields.”

At the request of the Treasury Board seeking financial savings, CBC andthe External Affairs produced a joint submission on CBC International Service inAugust 1960(74). It recommended reaffirming “the usefulness of Canadianinternational broadcasting as an instrument of Canadian foreign policy and as ameans of projecting Canada abroad”, reducing “the number of languagetransmissions to Western Europe and America”, “to provide longer … periods forEastern European broadcasts and … a nightly eight hours of network service byshortwave to Northern Canada”, and “to effect substantial savings in the annualoperating budget”. On the subject of English and French programming, the reportsuggested that “there should be no curtailment in direct broadcasting or transcriptionsin these languages. They are the national languages of Canada. They enjoy widecurrency abroad.” The report proposed three funding options:. direct financing by the External Affairs,

32 Funding Models. direct financing by the CBC, or. separate financing by the Treasury Board.The third option was adopted, and as the submission had all the characteristics of amanagement plan, the CBC acted immediately on the formulated recommendations.

The next report published five years later, twenty years after the launch ofthe IS, was prepared by the Fowler Committee(75). The members of the committeefound the name “International Service of the CBC” unimaginative. “A simpler andmore appealing title should be found. The one that commends itself to us is ‘RadioCanada International’ ”(76). Although officially confirmed in 1972 by the CBC Boardof Directors, it was adopted by the service in 1970(77).

The report recommended “that the CBC should continue to be responsiblefor projecting an image of Canada abroad through an improved IS, and shoulddischarge the obligations of Canada, particularly to the developing countries, inthe field of international broadcasting”(78). It is the first official mention of the ISrole in the developing world. The Fowler Committee made quite a few othersuggestions, namely that more powerful modern transmitters be installed; that withinfive years weekly broadcasts hours gradually increase from 90 to 150 bringing thebudget from $1.8 million to $5 million(79); that domestic radio and televisionnetworks publicize the existence and activities of CBC-IS, and that publicity materialbe regularly distributed to Canadian newspapers and periodicals(80).

Most importantly, the Committee also recommended a formal integrationof CBC-IS with the CBC, listing four significant benefits stemming from such amove:

“First, the well publicized CBC independence from political controlwould afford some assurance that CBC-IS is not primarily an instrumentof Government propaganda. Second, the door would be opened to arationalization of representation abroad; one specific instance ofduplication came to our notice is that CBC and CBC-IS are both membersof a French-language broadcasting organization in Europe, but thereare other more important overseas activities, such as program exchanges,distribution, and sales, where economies might be achieved byrationalization. Third, integration would afford the opportunity for amuch needed rotation of staff; the cloistered seclusion of CBC-IS fromthe main activities of the CBC has undoubtedly resulted in an undesirabledegree of inbreeding in the former. Fourth, the outlook of Canadianexternal broadcasting could be more readily broadened to cover thewhole wide sweep of Canadian interests abroad”(81).

According to the Committee, “the IS should be formally recognized as aprincipal Division of the CBC”, “its physical assets should be vested in theCorporation” and the CBC “should assume full responsibility for operating the

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shortwave broadcasting equipment at Sackville, NB”(82). At the same time, theCommittee recommended “firmly that it [IS] should continue to be financed byseparate parliamentary vote”(83) but the “financial provision for external broadcastingshould be kept in flexible relationship to changing external policy”(84). A few ofthese suggestions were reflected in the 1968 Order in Council.

The 1968 Order in Council did not provide the service with enough practicalguidance when it directed the CBC to provide “a continuing expression abroad ofCanadian identity” (85). On June 11, 1969 RCI’s director Charles Delafield wrote amemorandum to the CBC entitled The Future of CBC Shortwave Broadcasting (86),requesting answers to a series of seven questions. In response to Delafield’s concerns,the CBC created in 1972 a Task Force on RCI. It was chaired by Betty Zimmermanand composed of Alan Brown, Jean-Lucien Caron, and Brian Townsley. The TaskForce submitted its thoroughly impressive report on May 9, 1973, formulatingthirty-one recommendations(87). As the report of the Task Force, an internal documentfor the CBC use, was discussed in great detail by James Hall(88) in his book on RCI,and also to a lesser degree by Arthur Siegel(89), it is sufficient to note here that therecommendations 1, 2, 7, 10, 12, 16, 22, and 29 (see the endnote) reaffirmed thestatus quo and even now apply to RCI’s situation. Recommendations 5 and 13were never implemented; money needed for recommendation 31 had to be foundwithin RCI’s budget.

The 1982 Applebaum-Hébert Report(90) expressed concerns about RCI’seditorial independence and highlighted the urgent need to start broadcasting toAsia; these views were formulated in two specific recommendations:

“95. It is imperative that the editorial independence of Radio CanadaInternational be maintained in any new financial arrangements that mayarise from changes in the operation of the Canadian BroadcastingCorporation.”“96. Radio Canada International should extend shortwave broadcastsas soon as possible to countries in the Pacific and Asia throughtransmission facilities in Western Canada.”(91)

The 1986 Caplan-Sauvageau Task Force on Broadcasting Policy(92)

recommended that:“The cost of operating of Radio Canada International should be assumedby the Department of External Affairs, with the department deciding onthe scope of the service provided. The CBC should continue to provideall necessary human and technical resources for a fee and retain fulleditorial control over program content, without being journalisticallyanswerable to the Department or its officials. External Affairs shouldbe urged to place a high priority on consolidating and expanding RCI,according to priorities established in consultation with the CBC”.

34 Funding ModelsLooking back at all the reports produced about RCI since its creation in

1945 by various commissions, committees, task forces, audits and evaluations,what strikes the most is the contrast between the number of times RCI almost wentoff air and the absolute consensus reached on the importance of RCI’s mission, onfavourable assessment of its performance, and on the need for its activities to beadequately funded. Report after report backed and praised RCI, but somehowinstead of significantly growing, the organization barely survived.

RCI could be a case in point for teaching students about the role of theSenate in Canadian democracy: how it wields no real power but provides the citizenswith a forum for an official, duly recorded discussion and airing of concerns. The1994 Report of the Standing Senate Committee on RCI’s mandate and financing isexemplary in its in-depth knowledge of the subject and large spectrum of witnessesheard. It is written with skill and conviction and it undoubtedly provided to allinvolved the satisfaction of a job well done. The report added another well informedvoice to the public discussion on RCI, but otherwise did not make an iota ofdifference to RCI’s financial situation. The Canadian Senate can produce voluminousreports and talk until it is blue in the face, the government listens politely but mayignore the advice, if it so wishes. If you want things to move, the obvious conclusionis not to count on the Senate, but to go to the government, and go to the votingpublic whom the politicians are naturally inclined to court.

When Sheila Copps and Lloyd Axworthy bailed out RCI in March 1996,then again in December the same year, they were not motivated by the findings ofthe Senate committee, but by the overwhelming and unexpected popular supportfor the organization. Axworthy in his book Navigating a New World: Canada’sGlobal Future (93), first published in 2003, admits that he would have rather spentthe little money he had on sparkling multi-media gadgets than “cough up scarcefunds to save an enterprise some would say is based on an obsolescent technology”.However, “the campaign to rescue it [RCI] was such” that he had no choice. NeitherAxworthy, fascinated as he was with IT, nor his staff had any real understanding orinterest in international radio and failed to identify any affinities between the ForeignAffairs’ and RCI’s missions. Axworthy’s predecessor, André Ouellet, proposedRCI’s budget to the Review Committee as his department’s contribution to thegovernment’s spending cuts and when it was not accepted, passed the responsibilityfor funding RCI to Canadian Heritage (94) in 1995.

Sheila Copps, on the other hand had no doubts about the importance andvalue of RCI once she took over RCI’s file in January 1996; she did not hesitate towork together with similarly minded colleagues from the Liberal caucus to defendthe service. And yet, when she recalls the details of what happened, her exasperationshows in the choice of words: she speaks about the “RCI mess” (95) and the “RCIheadache” (96). At the same time, it was under Copps’ authority as the minister ofCanadian Heritage, that the period of continuing financial uncertainty seemed to

35Funding Models

have ended against all odds. RCI’s motto, “Never Despair”(97), suggested by itslongest serving director Charles Delafield, has remained appropriate throughoutthe sixty years of the organization’s existence. A sentiment never more justifiedthan in the fall of 2005 when an unexpected window of opportunity opened forRCI.

Sirius Canada(98), a partnership between CBC/Radio-Canada, Standard RadioInc. (Canada’s largest private-owned radio network), and Sirius Satellite Radio(U.S.), was accorded broadcast licence by Canadian Radio-television andTelecommunications Commission. The new platform brings premium subscriptionservice providing digital quality sound to car radios allowing the user to cross thecontinent listening to the same favourite station. Originally, only CBC/ Radio-Canada’s English and French services were to be included on Canadian channelsprovided by Sirius. All that changed when CBC Vice-President, Sylvain Lafrance,saw the potential RCI represented for meeting urgent information needs of newimmigrants arriving in Canada. Until now, the national public broadcaster did notspecifically target this growing public. The new technology and changingdemographics proved a powerful combination: RCI was given its own 24-hourchannel -188- on Sirius(99), as a preliminary stage before appearing on other platformsin Canada. Indeed, barely a year later, Jean Larin announced the launch of RCIviva(100), a new “multicultural, multilingual, and multimedia ”(101) service:

“Broadcasting in English, French, Arabic, Mandarin, Spanish,Portuguese, Russian, and Ukrainian, RCI viva is designed to reach outto recent and aspiring immigrants to Canada, by informing them aboutCanada’s social context, with tips on how to feel comfortable within it;delivering domestic arts and entertainment stories; assisting listenerson how to hone English- and French-language skills; and postingdiscussion boards for sharing experiences with others. These efforts,which build on RCI’s experience in informing the world about Canadasince 1945, have the goal of promoting cultural harmony in Canadiancommunities through the powerful and uniting medium of the Internet.”

In programming terms, these changes meant discontinuing targeted half-hour daily and thematic weekly broadcasts in English and French and producinginstead generic two-hour long daily programs in the official languages; going fromdaily half-hours to one-hour programs in Chinese, Spanish and Arabic; keepingdaily half-hours in Russian and two weekly half-hours in Ukrainian and Portuguese;all broadcasts available on the web, on Sirius and other satellites, and on shortwave.At the same time, the shift from news driven information programming to generalmagazine type radio initiated a year earlier became very pronounced.

The resulting structural and production evolution, replacement of teams ofannouncer-producers by presenters-interviewers under the authority of one producerper language and of permanent employees by staff on contract, met with virulent

36 Funding Modelscriticism on the part of the unions. Syndicat des communications de Radio-Canada(FNC-CSN) published a special issue of its “Petit Canard”(102) in December 2006accusing RCI of “losing its bearings” in the sense of abandoning its internationalmission and of attacking permanency and seniority, trade unionism’s sacredprinciples, universally considered by the management as archaic obstacles toinnovation. Journalists do not accept change more willingly than others and eventhough the media environment has been for some time now one of continuousevolution, breaking with the “news first and foremost” tradition of internationalradio proved quite distressful. Some bewailed the creation of RCI viva as a demiseof Canadian international broadcasting. And yet, the site is hosting a growing numberof exciting initiatives, such as Digital Diversity - Métissé serré, a competition forpodcasters (audio files or short films) on the topic of immigration, followed in theFall of 2007 by Generation DX2 aimed at high school students, not exactlytraditional users of international broadcasting. The World in My Backyard - Lemonde réuni chez nous is the title of a photo contest focusing on cultural diversityand reflecting “the fusion of cultures” and “the international presence” in thelisteners’ regions(103). On August 24, 2007, the first reality-web series J’adopte unpays (My New Country) featuring a young Brazilian couple arriving in Montrealfrom Sao Paulo, starts in French, to be followed by other couples, from NorthAfrica and from India, and in other broadcast languages. The whole project isscheduled to run for a year, each of the three series plays a 3 to 8-minute long filmonce a week, for 20 consecutive weeks. A blog designed to accompany the seriesinvites the listeners to react by posting their comments and their own footage. RCIviva sends another clear signal heralding possibly an end of the golden age ofCanadian international radio but also a new path and future of Canadianinternational broadcasting(104).

Endnotes1 A former USIA director (1969-1973), and chairman of the Board of International Broadcasting in theearly 80s, at the time of the conference; soon to become US ambassador to Portugal, later appointed tothe Vatican. See his presentation International Broadcasting and US Political Realities in Western Broad-casting over the Iron Curtain. London: Croom Helm, 1986 (57-68).2 Boris Yeltsin, Lech Walesa, Vaclav Havel, and others. See Walesa’s Foreword to M. Nelson. War ofthe Black Heavens: The Battles of Western Broadcasting in the Cold War. London: Brassey’s, 1997 (xi).3 See August 22, 1991 press conference given by Mikhail Gorbachev; on the importance of RadioLiberty and BBC WS coverage of the 1991 coup, see Nelson (193-196).4 Under Managing Director John Tusa (1986-1992), his deputy David Witherow, and his brilliant strat-egist Anthony Rendell (Controller Strategy and Corporate Affairs).5 BBC World Service Announces “biggest transformation in 70 years”. A Press Release, October 25,2005. For reactions to the closure of ten language services, see Michael Young. The question Arabs willask. “Ariel”, November 1, 2005; Michael Binyon. A price worth paying. “Ariel”, November 1, 2005;You’re going to miss us when we’ve gone. “Ariel”, November 1, 2005; Sally Hillier. World Today hit ascuts are sought to fund future strategy. “Ariel”, November 2, 2005.6 The channel scheduled for 2007 is the BBC’s second venture into Arabic TV; a short-lived (1994-6)partnership with a Saudi satellite TV company called Orbit allowed the World Service to broadcast inArabic for eighteen months, until Orbit switched it off offended by content critical towards Saudi Ara-bia. 250 well trained BBC Arabic staffers found themselves without a job and a large number of themjoined newly created Al-Jazeera making it the huge success it is. See Hugh Miles. Al-Jazeera: How

37Funding ModelsArab TV News Challenged the World. London: Abacus, 2005 (33).7 Al Jazeera English started broadcasting on November 15, 2006. See Launch Date Announced. 31 Oct.2006. Consulted online Nov. 21, 2006 at: http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/DEFF4393-CF96-45D0-91D8-13B5EEFB8247.htm; Al Jazeera English Launchs. 15 Nov. 2006. Consulted online Nov. 21,2006 at: http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/2A890D05-DD4D-4B1A-8846-E32F2CC0CA2B.htm8 See broadcast schedules at www.voanews.com and www.neweuropereview.com9 Until this addition, VOA was the only western station broadcasting in Albanian; launched in May1943, discontinued in 1945 it was resumed in 1951. See Western Broadcasting over the Iron Curtain(130).10 See Summary tables of my survey and historical data at www.dw-world.de/dw/0,1595,4132,00.html.11 Initially, on March 27, a 15-minute daily Ukrainian program was introduced, extended the next yearto a half-hour.12 An MBA thesis resulting from this research was completed in June 1996, at Concordia University inMontreal.13 See A Guide to International Broadcasters. The WBI Directory. Caversham Park, Reading: BBCMonitoring, 1992; Donald R. Browne, International Radio Broadcasting: The Limits of the LimitlessMedium. New York: Praeger, 1982 (27-29) and Electronic Media and Industrialized Nations: A Com-parative Study. Ames, Iowa: Iowa State University Press, 1999 (23-37).14 Licence fees constituted the basis of CBC funding from 1936 to 1953, before being transformed intoannual Parliamentary grants, see CBC: A Brief History and Background. Ottawa: CBC, 1972 (27). The1951 Massey- Lévesque Commission recommended continuation of licence fees with addition of somepublic money, see Royal Commission on National Development in the Arts, Letters, and Sciences. Re-port. Ottawa: King’s Printer, 1951.Ch. XVIII: Radio Broadcasting, § 60-65: The Financial Problem.Retrieved 5 July, 2004, from http://www.collectionscanada.ca/massey/h5-468-e.html. The 1965 FowlerCommittee recommended “that the financial requirement of the CBC, both capital and operating, shouldbe provided by a statutory annual grant of $25 for each television household in Canada as reported bythe Dominion Bureau of Statistics. … For the public, the cost will be the same for each televisionhousehold as that of one package of cigarettes a week to be shared out among the whole family. ”(sic!)Report of the Committee on Broadcasting. R.M. Fowler, M. Lalonde, G.G.E. Steele. Ottawa: Queen’sPrinter, 1965 (313). Since the 1990 Broadcast Act in the UK, the BBC is responsible for licence feeadministration, through TV Licensing, a BBC component that collects the fee on behalf of the BBC. Itemploys over 1,200 staff at two main contact centers based in Bristol and Darwen, seewww.tvlicensing.co.uk. Licence fee revenues will continue paying for the BBC until 2017 but there isno plan to change the separate funding by Commonwealth and Foreign Office of the World Service. SeeTara Conlan. BBC governors axed, licence fee to stay, “The Guardian”, March 2, 2005; Adam Sherwin,Dan Sabbagh. Computer tax set to replace TV licence fee, “The Times”, March 3, 2005; John Whittingdale.Time for Jowell to switch on over switch-off. “The Times” April 1, 2005; Half of the annual budget ofRadio France Internationale comes from licence fee, the other half from government appropriation. Seedetailed breakdown at www.rfi.fr/Fichiers/Documents/RA_03_ANG.pdf.15 The bulk of licence fees is always used to finance domestic networks and payers are usually unawareif a small part of the funds goes to external services. Cf. Donald R. Browne, A Variety of Financing forInternational Radio and the Future Possibilities in Challenges for International Broadcasting II, Cap-Rouge, Quebec, 1993 (99).16 Japan Broadcasting Corporation.17 Over one million NHK subscribers refuse to pay licence fee, “ABU News”, 05 August 2005.18 Under the umbrella of SOFIRAD, a semi-governmental organization, not only Radio Monte-Carlo/Moyen Orient but three other successful commercial stations came into being: Radio Caribbean Interna-tional (1972), Africa No1 (1981) and Radio Méditerranée Internationale (1982). Cf. Donald R. Browne,in Challenges II (97).19 In November 1996 Radio Monte-Carlo/ Moyen Orient became a component of the Group RFI. See atwww.rfi.fr/Fichiers/RFI/Histoire/histoire.asp and www.rmc-mo.com.20 Created in October 1991 under the name of BBC WS Television, the channel began by covering Asiaand the Middle East; in December 1992 the coverage extended to Africa; in January 1995 already underthe name of BBC World, the channel started broadcasting to Europe, India and the Middle East. Itsreach is now worldwide and its programming available in 256 million homes. Funded by advertisingand subscription revenue, it is owned and operated by BBC World Ltd. See at www.bbcworld.com.

38 Funding Models21 See the questionnaire at the end of the chapter, in Reference Documents.22 BBC World Service, Deutsche Welle, Radio Australia, Radio Austria International, Radiobras, RadioDenmark, Radio Finland, Radio France Internationale, Radio Japan, Radio Netherlands, Radio NorwayInternational, Radio Portugal International, Radio Spain International, Radio Sweden, RAI Interna-tional, Radio Vlaanderen International, Swiss Radio International, Voice of America.23 22% by Foreign Affairs, 16% by Communications, 11% by Culture, 33% by Parliament or the Cabi-net as a whole and not by a specific department.24 The CBC Corporate Policy No. 14 on Radio Canada International approved by the CBC Board ofDirectors on May 13, 1980 specifies: “RCI also broadcasts programs to the growing number of Canadi-ans abroad, in recognition of their need for more Canadian news and information, in those areas alreadyserved under the primary objective of broadcasting to foreign audiences.” The Order in Council of 2003does not mention Canadians abroad at all: “(iii) to produce and distribute programming targeted at inter-national audiences to increase awareness of Canada, its values and its social, economic and culturalactivities”. (T.B. Rec. 830432).25 RCI has been providing management services to the CFN broadcasting from several locations inEurope for Canadian troupes stationed there within the Canadian contingent for NATO, with headquar-ters in Lahr, Germany. After the withdrawal of the NATO contingent, CFN in Europe was closed and theDepartment of National Defence asked RCI to provide a 24-hour satellite radio service from Montrealto peacekeeping troupes stationed temporarily abroad.26 See Mike Boone. Canada’s shortwave service may soon be silenced by CBC budget cuts. “TheGazette”, November 27, 1990; John Davidson. AM-CBC-RCI. Canadian Press, December 6, 1990;Don’t silence Canada’s voice. “The Gazette”, November 30, 1990; Jean-V. Dufresne. La vente degarage. “Le Journal de Montréal”, le 28 novembre 1990; François Gloutnay. Abandon de RCI unedécision déplorable estime développement et paix. Telbec, 6 décembre 1990; Carol Goar. Shortwaveservice long-term survivor. “The Toronto Star”, November 17, 1992; Marie Laurier. L’avenir de RCIse joue cette semaine. “Le Devoir”, 20 novembre 1990; Marie Laurier. RCI dans les limbes. “LeDevoir”, 6 décembre 1990; Daniel Lemay. Radio-Canada International: toujours sur la corde raide.“La Presse”, 28 novembre 1990; Radio Canada International. Common Debates. November 27, 1990;Leo Rice-Barker. Effects of technology examined. “Playback”, November 26, 1990; Leo Rice-Barker.R-C cuts fuel fear. “Playback”, November 26, 1990; Colin Rickards. Canada’s voice abroad. “Satur-day Night”, December 6, 1990; Tu Thanh Ha. International broadcasts may be spared. “The Gazette”,December 6, 1990; Jack Todd. Boost from Iraq. “The Gazette”, December 11, 1990.27 A News Release of the Secretary of State for External Affairs, No. 80, March 28, 1991.28 Rendell came twice to Challenges, in 1990 and 1992. See his presentations in Challenges for Inter-national Broadcasting. Ed. Howard Aster. Oakville, Ont.: Mosaic Press, 1991 (24-27) and Challengesfor International Broadcasting. New Democracies: The Means and the Message. Ed. by F. Demers, H.Aster, E. Olechowska. Cap Rouge, Québec: Presses Inter Universitaires, 1993 (85-89). He also invitedthe author for an extended familiarization stay at several departments of the BBC WS in the fall of 1992.29 The author discussed the matter several times with Hargreaves, as well as with Rendell, after theQuebec City Challenges and in the fall of 1992, during and after her stay at the BBC WS.30 The name of the department changed from External Affairs to Foreign Affairs and InternationalTrade in 1993 (Parliament legislated the change in 1995). In 2003, following the split with InternationalTrade it became Foreign Affairs Canada. See December 7, 2004 Press Release No. 146: Minister Pettigrewintroduces the Foreign Affairs Act and http://www.dfait-maeci.gc.ca/department/history/history-11-en.asp31 See Canadian Press, Radio Canada International silenced by Mother Corp. At cost of 120 jobs, “TheVancouver Sun”, December 13, 1995; RCI fermera le 31 mars, “Le Journal de Montréal”, 13 décembre,1995; Manon Cornellier, Radio Canada International en phase terminale, “Le Soleil”, 13 décembre1995; Suzanne Colpron, La voix du Canada à l’étranger s’éteint, “La Presse”, 13 décembre 1995; Thevoice of Canada, “The Globe and Mail”, December 13, 1995; Christopher Harris, CBC’s shortwaveservice to be killed, “The Globe and Mail”, December 13, 1995; Paule des Rivières, Faute de budget,RCI va fermer le 31 mars, “Le Devoir”, 13 décembre 1995; Irwin Block, CBC cuts world service, “TheGazette”, December 13, 1995; Presse Canadienne, Radio Canada International veut mettre à pied ses120 employés, “Le Droit”, 13 décembre 1995; International radio service to die, “The Toronto Star”,December 13, 1995.32 Many RCI employees, listeners and supporters were involved in the Coalition but nobody workedwith more passion and longer than Wojtek Gwiazda, an announcer-producer for RCI’s daily programs.

39Funding ModelsAnother important figure was Maggy Akerblom, an exceptionally able lobbyist, formerly of the Germansection; almost until her retirement in 2003, Akerblom believed that the German broadcasts would berestored and in the mean time was willing to work for RCI in an off-air capacity, a significant sacrificefor an award winning broadcaster. Daniel Black, a Line-up Editor in the French Newsroom and later theTeam Leader of the dailies served as the francophone voice of the group. Among outside supporterswho worked closely with the Coalition since its creation, were Sheldon Harvey and Bill Westenhaverfrom Canadian International DX Club (www.anarc.org/cidx). Since 2001, the Coalition transformedinto to an inter-union committee under the name of RCI Action Committee and has been criticizing onits website RCI / Radio-Canada management’s re-positioning initiatives. See www.geocities.com/rciaction. RCI Action Committee presented briefs to parliamentary committees in Ottawa; most recentlyin 2003, to the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage. See Our Cultural Sovereignty: The SecondCentury of Canadian Broadcasting. Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage, Chaired by CliffordLincoln, M.P. June 11, 2003. Retrieved July 8, 2005, from www.parl.gc.ca/committee/CommitteePublication.aspx?SourceId=37522. Government response based on the 2003 Order in Coun-cil, retrieved July 8, 2005, from www.parl.gc.ca/infocomdoc/Documents/38/1/parlbus/commbus/house/GovResponse/CHPC_Rpt02_GvtRsp/GvtRsp_Part1-e.pdf33 T. Hargreaves, Senate Committee List sent February 21, 1994 to Frauke Vollert; see also Debates ofthe Senate. Official Report (Hansard) 1st Session, 35th Parliament, Vol. 135, 11, Tuesday, March 15,1994.34 Culture and Communications: The Ties that Bind. Report of the Standing Committee on Communi-cations and Culture, Ottawa: House of Commons, April 1992. Recommendation No. 16 (82-83).35 See Report of the Standing Senate Committee on Transport and Communications on the Mandateand Funding of Radio Canada International. Chairman The Hon. Donald H. Oliver, Q.C. Deputy Chair-man The Hon. M. Lorne Bonnell. Ottawa: The Senate of Canada, June 1994.36 Ibidem (20).37 Ibidem (22). In summary, the Committee advocated review and strengthening of RCI mandate in-cluding a greater role for English and French programming, a continuation of Foreign Affairs fundingand CBC providing human and technical resources, upgrading of reporting line for RCI’s director di-rectly to the minister, establishment of a broad based Advisory Council responsible for RCI’s publicityin Canada and last but not least, restoration of the seven languages dropped in 1991.38 For an analysis of the evolution of Ouellet’s view of RCI and his foreign policy objectives, see LiseBissonnette, Une bataille pour RCI, “Le Devoir”, 14 décembre 1995; Saving the voice of Canada, “TheOttawa Citizen”, December 20, 1995; Claude Beauregard, La fermeture de Radio Canada Internationalou quand le ridicule tue, “Le Devoir”, 3 janvier 1996.39 See Helen Branswell, Europeans regret RCI’s impending death, “The Gazette”, December 14, 1995.40 See Sheila Copps. Worth Fighting For. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 2004 (70).41 See Paule des Rivières, De la publicité pour RCI? “Le Devoir”, 15 février 1996; Copps still supportsradio, “The Toronto Star”, February 15, 1996; Allan Hustak, Copps says Canada needs shortwaveservice, but offers no new funds, “The Gazette”, February 15, 1996; Douglas McArthur, Radio Canadabroadcasts bring traveler closer to home, “The Globe and Mail”, February 21, 1996.42 CBC was paying half of the $16 million budget and four federal departments (Heritage, DFAIT,CIDA and Defence) the remaining $8 million.43 A summary of the proposal is included at the end of the chapter, in Reference Documents.44 See the Agenda for RCI: Réunions de planification / Planning Sessions. April 22-23, 1996.45 Pierre Ahmaranian, Jean Bériault, Ousseynou Diop, Anne-Marie Yvon. Report du Task group sur laprogrammation. Proposition en vue d’un plan d’action. Le 6 mai 1996; Ginette Bourély, Daniel Black,Jacques Bouliane, Larry Harding, Gérald Théorêt, Jean-François Bolduc. Rapport du sous-comité sur lefinancement. Le 6 mai 1996; Stéphane Fournier, Wojtek Gwiazda, Peiwei Ni, Roman Pitt. Recommen-dations of the RCI Publicity and Public Relations Sub-Committee. 6 May 1996; Maggy Akerblom,Elzbieta Olechowska, Mieke van Ulden. Foreign Language: Task Force. May 1996.46 June 1996.47 Lloyd Axworthy. Navigating a New World: Canada’s Global Future. Toronto: Vintage Canada, 2004(46).48 The name comes from the initials of four eminent accountants, Klynveld, Peat, Marwick and Goerdeler.Piet Klynveld founded Klynveld Kraayenhof & Co. in Amsterdam, in 1917; William Barclay Peat cre-ated William Barclay Peat & Co. in London, in 1870; James Marwick founded Marwick, Mitchell &

40 Funding ModelsCo. with Roger Mitchell, in New York City, in 1897; Dr. Reinhard Goerdeler was the first President ofthe International Federation of Accountants, and Chairman of Klynveld Main Goerdeler. The account-ing firms Peat Marwick International and Klynveld Main Goerdeler merged in 1987 forming KPMG.Retrieved online, July 1, 2006. See http://www.kpmg.com/About/Who/History/History.htm.49 Radio Canada International: Operational Review, October 29, 1996. Submitted by Salvatore M.Badali, Ron Hikel et al.50 The data obtained in the survey and sent to KPMG was never acknowledged by the consultants; thisauthor is uncertain whether it had any impact on their study.51 Radio Canada International: Operational Review… (3-4).52 Ibidem (83-85).53 S. Copps in her recent book (72-73) describes last minute behind the scene maneuvers involvingAline Chrétien, the Prime Minister’s wife and Mac Herb, an MP of Lebanese origin who convinced theLiberal caucus to support RCI.54 August 18, 1997.55 Government communiqué P-08/97-78 dated August 18 1997. See also S. Copps’ July 22, 1997 letterto P. Beatty advising him of the details of the annual funding.56 See April 18, 2001 Corporate Communications’ note to CBC Staff entitled Radio Canada Interna-tional. RCI Coalition, dormant until the announcement, mobilized immediately interpreting thecommuniqué as a direct threat to English and French programming and a likely prelude to closure. Itstarted drumming up public support again, this time regrouping as an inter-union committee called RCIAction Committee, under the protection of Syndicat des communications de Radio-Canada; it has beenresponding critically on its website to RCI / Radio-Canada management’s re-positioning initiatives. Seewww.geocities.com/rciaction. RCI Action Committee presented briefs to parliamentary committees inOttawa; most recently in 2003, to the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage. See Our CulturalSovereignty: The Second Century of Canadian Broadcasting. Standing Committee on Canadian Herit-age, Chaired by Clifford Lincoln, M.P. June 11, 2003. Retrieved July 15, 2005, from www.parl.gc.ca/committee/CommitteePublication.aspx?SourceId=37522. The government response based on the 2003Order in Council was published at: www.parl.gc.ca/infocomdoc/Documents/38/1/parlbus/commbus/house/GovResponse/CHPC_Rpt02_GvtRsp/GvtRsp_Part1-e.pdf57 Robert E. O’Reilly retired in May, Denis Doucet stayed until November when he left for a job withthe CBC French Television in Ottawa and Jean Larin who after a long career as Radio-Canada foreigncorrespondent, lawyer and international trainer became RCI’s newsroom head and then Editor-in-Chiefof French & English Dailies. Larin’s appointment went against the longstanding RCI tradition of im-porting English speaking directors from other components of the CBC. He became the second director,after Charles Delafield, promoted from the ranks and the third French Canadian, after Jean Désy and theephemeral Denis Doucet. See Sylvain Lafrance’s November 20, 2001 note to CBC Staff.58 See Radio Canada International: 05/2001 Redeployment Plan and this author’s article Radio CanadaInternational in “The Channel”, 6, 2. April-May 2003 (14-15).59 See March 14, 2002 Corporate Review Branch’s e-mail to the CBC, with the PRA Inc.’s draft at-tached.60 March 25, 2002 letter from the Canadian Heritage to the CBC, accompanying the amendment of theContribution Agreement.61 Prepared by Consulting and Audit Canada. Project No.: 550-0733. February 2002.62 See April 11, 2002 letter of Marc O’Sullivan, le directeur général, Politique de la radiodiffusion et del’innovation, Patrimoine canadien, to Sylvain Lafrance, Vice-Président, Radio française et nouveauxmédias, Société Radio-Canada.63 See the Order in Council (T. B. Rec. 830432) and the June 17, 2003 letter from Susan Peterson,Assistant Deputy Minister, Cultural Affairs, Canadian Heritage to Sylvain Lafrance, Vice-President ofthe French Radio, New Media and RCI, Radio-Canada.64 See Audit of Single Recipient Contribution Programs – Summary of Findings – Radio Canada Inter-national (RCI). 07.17.2003. Retrieved July 10, 2005, from www.pch.gc.ca/progs/em-cr/verif/2003_04/3_e.cfm and Formative Evaluation of Radio Canada International (RCI). July 18.2003. Retrieved July10, 2005, from www.pch.gc.ca/progs/em-cr/ eval/2003/2003-pdf/RCI_03_eval_e.pdf; See also Treas-ury Board’s Audits and Evaluations at www.tbs-sct.gc.ca/rma/database/newdeptview_e.asp?id=2165 See Audit…66 Ibidem.

41Funding Models67 Ibidem.68 See Formative Evaluation…69 Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage, Clifford Lincoln, M.P. Chair. June 11, 2003. RetrievedJuly 10, 2005, from www.parl.gc.ca/committee/CommitteePublication.aspx?SourceId=37522.70 See The Government Response to the Report of the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage atwww.parl.gc.ca/infocomdoc/Documents/38/1/parlbus/commbus/house/GovResponse/CHPC_Rpt02_GvtRsp/GvtRsp_Part1-e.pdf (5)71 See the March 28, 1991, No. 80 Press Release of the Secretary of State for External Affairs.72 1951 Massey-Lévesque Commission, 1960 External Affairs /CBC Joint Report, 1965 FowlerCommittee, 1973 CBC Task Force on Radio Canada International, 1982 Applebaum-Hébert Committeeand 1986 Caplan-Sauvageau Task Force on Broadcasting Policy.73 Royal Commission on National Development in the Arts, Letters, and Sciences. Report. Ottawa:King’s Printer, 1951. Retrieved June 1, 2005, from www.collectionscanada.ca/massey/h5-437-e.html.74 CBC International Service: A Joint Submission of the Department of External Affairs and the Cana-dian Broadcasting Corporation. Montreal: CBC, 1960. See also Ch. Delafield, A History…Ch. III (22-23); Caron (50-56); Hall (97-101); Siegel (150).75 Not to be confused with Fowler Commission of 1955-1957 (Royal Commission on Broadcasting).Report of the Committee on Broadcasting. R.M. Fowler, M. Lalonde, G.G.E. Steele. Ottawa: Queen’sPrinter, 1965.76 Report of the Committee on Broadcasting… (189).77 See RCI’s 1970 Program Schedules.78 Report of the Committee on Broadcasting…(126).79 Ibidem (186).80 Ibidem (187).81 Ibidem (187-188).82 Ibidem (188).83 Ibidem (313).84 Ibidem (189).85 P.C. 1968-525.86 See Hall (157); Report of the RCI Task Force. Alan Brown, Jean-Lucien Caron, Brian Townsley,Betty Zimmerman, Chairman. May 9, 1973 (Appendix –J-). The seven questions were: 1. Should RCIbroadcast to Canadians abroad? 2. What is the reason behind broadcasting in English and French toEurope? 3. Should RCI present “A Canadian service overheard” or a “foreign service from Canada”? 4.What are the criteria of selection for foreign languages and what should be the approach to foreignlanguage staff? 5. What will be the results of new installations in Sackville? 6. Does Canada intend tokeep external broadcasting in line with the expansion of Canadian interests? 7. What are the expecta-tions for international broadcasting ten years from now?87 The most relevant are listed here for illustration and comparison “1. That the CBC continue to havesole responsibility for RCI’s activities. 2. That there be regular consultation between the CBC, repre-sented by RCI, and the Department of External Affairs, for the purpose of determining target area andbroadcast language priorities. 5. That CBC establish an advisory council to RCI comprised of four to sixmembers of the Canadian community who have specialized knowledge of international affairs, trade orcommunications. 7. That the following be approved or revised by CBC management as the strategicobjective for Radio Canada International’s future activities: “Radio Canada International is directed bythe CBC to provide a program service designed to attract an international audience with the purpose offurther developing international awareness of Canada and Canadian identity by distributing throughshortwave and other means, programs which reflect the realities and the quality of Canadian life andculture, Canada’s national interests and policies and the spectrum of Canadian viewpoints on nationaland international affairs.”10. That there be no extension of Radio Canada International’s activities intotelevision production. 12. That there be no extension of RCI’s activities into the distribution of CBCtelevision programming to developed countries. 13. That CBC management avail itself in the process ofsetting policies, administrative structures and budget arrangements for the subsidized distribution ofCBC television programs to the emerging nations, and ensure RCI participation in the continuing plan-ning and evaluation of such distribution. 16. That the CBC request the Government, when it is contem-plating revisions of the Broadcasting Act, to consider the inclusion of an international broadcastingservice as part of the CBC’s express mandate. 22. That RCI continue to be based in Montreal, and be as

42 Funding Modelsfully integrated into the CBC and its Montreal operations as is compatible with its effectiveness as aservice. 29. That the future size of RCI continue to fall within the “small to medium” range of interna-tional broadcasters. 31. That “new resources be assigned RCI for shortwave broadcasting to new targetareas according to priorities, in particular to Japan and China, in Japanese and Chinese.” Report of theTask Force… (1.-6.).88 Hall (157-166).89 See Siegel (157-158, 168).90 Report of the Federal Cultural Policy Review Committee. Co-chaired by Louis Applebaum andJacques Hébert. Ottawa: Minister of Supply and Services, 1982.91 Ibidem (329-330).92 Report of the Task Force on Broadcasting Policy. Co-chaired by Gerald Lewis Caplan, FlorianSauvageau. Ottawa: Minister of Supply and Services, 1986 (317).93 Axworthy (46).94 S. Copps. Worth Fighting For (70).95 Ibidem (72).96 Ibidem (70).97 Ch. Delafield. History… Ch. 3 (22)98 Sirius Canada delighted with Government’s confirmation of CRTC satellite radio decision. Re-trieved October 31, 2005, from http://www.siriusradiocanada.com/SiriusNews-e.htm.99 CBC/ Radio-Canada Press Release, November 2, 2005.100 Jean Larin’s Note to Staff. CBC Corporate Communications. November 8, 2006 Consulted onlineNovember 20, 2006 at: http://intranet/comminst_en/notestaff/20061108.htm101 Les Midis de la Maison. Pour en savoir plus sur le nouveau service Internet ‘RCI viva’. Commu-nications internes de Radio-Canada. 15 janvier, 2007.102 “Le Petit canard”. Vol. 6, No. 10. Montreal: SCRC, Tuesday, December 12, 2006.103 Information posted on www.rcinet.ca. Consulted in May and July 2007.104 The author’s interview with Jean Larin on July 31, 2007 and his e-mail to the author Le projetfeuilleton réalité dated August 1, 2007.

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REFERENCEDOCUMENTS

2003 ORDER-IN-COUNCIL

SUMMARY OF THE 1996 STRATEGY FORRADIO CANADA INTERNATIONAL

1996 SURVEY: QUESTIONNAIRE

1996 SUMMARY TABLES WITH A 2005 UPDATE

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Order-in-Council 2003-1673

(T.B. Rec. 830432 – P.C. 2003-1673) Her Excellency the Governor General in Council, on therecommendation of the Minister of Canadian Heritage and the Treasury Board,pursuant to subsection 46(2) of the Broadcasting Act, hereby (a) repeals Order in Council P.C. 1968-525 of March 19, 1968; and

(b) directs the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, when providing aninternational service under subsection 46(2) of the Broadcasting Act within theconditions of licences issued to it by the Canadian Radio-television andTelecommunications Commission and subject to any applicable regulations ofthat Commission,

(i) to name that service “Radio Canada International”,

(ii) to provide that service through shortwave, as well as through other means ofdistribution, as appropriate,

(iii) to produce and distribute programming targeted at international audiencesto increase awareness of Canada, its values and its social, economic and culturalactivities,

(iv) to establish geographic target areas and languages of broadcast inconsultation with the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade,

(v) to establish objectives for that service on an annual basis, and

(vi) to report the results with respect to meeting those objectives in the annualreport required under section 71 of the Broadcasting Act.

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A Summary of the 1996 Strategy for RCI (1)

Time Frame and General CommentsThe calendar of events for RCI for the fiscal year 1996-97 seemed dismally

clear at the time of the survey. If no funding was secured for 1997-98 by lateNovember 1996, the lay-off notices would be distributed again to RCI staff at thebeginning of December, in a final replay of the 1995 scenario (2). An eight-monthhorizon was all that was reasonably available. To leave the initiative to thegovernment, for whom RCI was not a priority or to the CBC naturally intent onfulfilling its all-important domestic mandate, seemed suicidal for RCI.

Success depended on involving the staff and the coalition, who had provedtheir dedication and worth, in planning and implementation of the whole operation.RCI sponsored and scheduled for mid-May in St. John’s, Nfld., a 4th biennialmeeting of international broadcasters, academics, communication experts,technology providers, audience research people, and policy makers, calledChallenges for International Broadcasting (3). It was an ideal opportunity for thegeneration of ideas and consultations with colleagues from abroad. A plan coveringonly the following crucial eight months would not have been enough; there wasalso need for formulating a longer-term vision detailing how to convince the CBCand the government of RCI’s value for Canada.

Relationship with the CBCSeven surveyed stations out of nine had a domestic “parent” organization

with whom they were linked in a variety of ways, from financial dependence tofriendly coexistence and voluntary collaboration. On the whole, the clearer wasthe legal definition and mandate of each external broadcaster, the better and moreharmonious were its relations with the parent organization.

Throughout RCI’s 50-year existence, there was never much sympathyamong the CBC executives for the role the organization was supposed to play.RCI was viewed by the CBC as a burden or at best, an obligation occasionallyuseful (4), but essentially marginal in regard of the corporation’s mandate. Theresults of the survey suggested that RCI should try to influence the Parliament tomake an amendment in the Broadcasting Act of 1991 to include a specificdescription and mission for the organization. The survey also determined thatthere were significant benefits to having a domestic parent; among them, acorrespondent network complete with offices abroad, well established journalisticstandards and brand, training support, marketing expertise, specialized lawdepartment, and on the other end of the spectrum, a competitive pension plan. The

46 Funding Modelsoptimal scenario for RCI, according to the survey, would have been to remainwithin the CBC structure but to be funded separately. If the funding would havecontinued in the form of a Contribution Agreement, it would have to be protectedfrom across board general government reductions, like for instance the Canadiancontributions to the UN.

Program and Mandate ReviewThe study also recommended that RCI conduct periodically its own program

and mandate review, if it wanted to serve its audiences’ needs effectively within adynamic local and international competition. To remain relevant, RCI should usea targeted approach, optimally selected broadcast languages, transmissiontechnologies best suited to each audience, and should continue keeping within thealready proven high standards of financial efficiency. The program and mandatereview should ideally cover:

· A review of broadcast languages, their potential audiences, globalimportance, state of relations with Canada (historical links, economic,political, cultural), Canadian interests in the area, optimal number ofbroadcast hours necessary for making an impact.

· Information needs of the audience in each target area including the situationof media in a given region and the main players.

· A review of programming formats corresponding to the identified needs ofthe audiences.

· A review of current and forthcoming technologies and their likelyacceptance in different regions.

· A review of management and production structures and procedures withthe goal of improving financial performance.

· RCI as part of the CBC could not conduct such a crucial exercise withoutCBC’s involvement and approval; to be sought by the director. At thesame time, a mechanism should be proposed to present the results of thereview to the government, possibly as part of the annual report.

Another aspect of the CBC / RCI relationship was the use and rebroadcastof domestic programming. This area of collaboration had been traditionally oneof successful interaction. In view of changing audience needs and technologicaladvances, the selection of programs suitable for relaying abroad and of targetareas to which to beam, should be discussed in great detail, first within RCI andthen with the networks. Potentially this cooperative venture could produce benefits,in terms of better serving audiences abroad and in terms of long term relationswith the parent organization.

Building a Significant Political PresenceDuring the threat of RCI closure just preceding the survey, the government

realized that the saving from eliminating of RCI unsubstantial budget would be

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obtained only with a lot of voters’ dissatisfaction and public criticism; the decisionwas first postponed and then overturned. Developing an active and strong domesticconstituency necessary for general support and for lobbying the government wasa crucial long term method of ensuring a continued existence for stations fundedthrough government appropriations. Among the various courses of actionsuggested as strategic for developing a domestic constituency for RCI involvedsupport groups, the general public, direct lobbying, specific leadership, creationof a board of directors and sources of alternative funding. Strategicrecommendations covered several specific areas.

Communications “All groups potentially supportive of external broadcasting should be

informed of RCI’s various activities and of its ability to promote or contribute totheir goals. Such groups are easily identifiable and usually well known to externalbroadcasters: cultural communities speaking the languages in which aninternational service broadcasts, companies involved abroad, educationalinstitutions teaching or researching broadcast target areas, artists and groupsperforming, publishing, recording or selling abroad, politicians and civil servantsinvolved in international relations, foreign aid etc. RCI’s long standing links tovarious interest groups in Canada should be used. The Coalition campaign filesshould yield a ready made mailing list of supporters”(5).

The survey did not bring to light any studies of the domestic audience ofthe international stations despite the fact that in most cases such audiences doexist. It recommended conducting an audience/ awareness research study acrossCanada, as a valuable tool for the promotion of a domestic constituency for RCI.The publishers of the Goldfarb Report were scheduled to participate in this year’sChallenges for International Broadcasting in St. John’s, Nfld. and could havebeen approached about the feasibility of such a study.

The survey established that stations whose programs are barred from locallistening are the most vulnerable to government cuts. Re-broadcasting RCI’sprograms by radio stations in Canada although theoretically and legally feasiblewas never tried on a larger scale. The study recommended that interest for such aventure be most definitely be explored as it could give RCI a much neededCanadian exposure.

The survey showed that financial effectiveness reflected in the number oflisteners per hour of output, per unit of currency and per kilowatt capacity was auseful and convincing performance indicator. Proven efficiency and goodmanagement of funds, combined with attractive and credible programmingresulting in listeners’ support are the other necessary ingredients of any futurestrategy. The recommendation was that RCI ensure that such figures are publiclyknown and available.

48 Funding ModelsThe distribution of information about re-broadcasting agreements to all

potential constituencies was suggested as another strategic measure, along with astrong reinforcement of RCI’s drive to put more of its programming on domesticnetworks and local cable systems in the target countries.

The survey demonstrated that RCI programming format seemed to be verymuch in tune with what the most successful broadcasters were doing. The trickyissue here was to integrate rapidly the technological (6) changes and to continueworking within the Digital Radio Worldwide consortium, as, to various degrees,were doing all the surveyed stations.

Direct Government LobbyingThe study recommended that consultations and negotiations between RCI

and the departments of Canadian Heritage and Foreign Affairs start without delay,as both departments promised assistance in securing funding. A schedule of regularmeetings should be agreed to and set up with well defined agendas, goals and,participants, to monitor and ensure progress. The important sine qua non conditionwas here, as stated earlier, a previous CBC approval for any such contacts. If forany reason, CBC would not agree to direct lobbying by RCI as an organization,the only way, possibly just as effective, would be to leave it to RCI staff coalitionfor the restoration of pre-1991 funding levels.

RCI LeadershipThe survey highlighted another element important for the relationship

between the external and domestic broadcasters, as well as for the relations withthe government: personal connections and influence of the director. All surveyedstations agree that the single most important factor in negotiations with either thedomestic broadcaster or the government was the organizational, political andpersonal clout of the director. At the time of the survey, the Executive Director ofRCI was appointed by a CBC executive selection board chaired by the seniorvice-president responsible for RCI. Since Charles Delafield departure in 1973, ithad always been someone with a long CBC career and without experience ininternational broadcasting (7). Ways should be devised to convince the CBC of theneed for RCI to be lead by a high profile, influential personality who couldeffectively manage RCI’s relations with the government and with the CBC.

Creation of an RCI Board of DirectorsIn parallel to the suggestion of a high profile RCI director, the study

suggested the creation of a separate Board of Directors for RCI. During thecampaign to save RCI, since previous December, many potential members of sucha board spoke in defence of the service, it should not been difficult to check therecent files and start the process.

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Alternative fundingThe survey showed that none of the stations was even partly funded by

corporate contributions, advertising or non-profit foundations. However, the studyrecommended that the appeal to corporate Canada be made to demonstrate RCI’sopenness to such ideas. The government seemed to think at the time, that thismight be an avenue to explore. To present a full picture to the government, bigbusiness had to be approached for corporate sponsorship, non-profit foundationsconsulted or a new one set up; advertising feasibility studies commissioned andconducted; cultural communities and other potential constituencies involved;committed politicians at all levels offered a possibility to act but they must beasked to do so within a clear definition of RCI’s needs. To operate successfully,RCI could not depend on a one time donation, or even a series of donations, ascorporate or individual contributions proved to be the only one method of fundingeven less stable and secure than government appropriation.

The exploration of the potential for alternative funding should not be allowedto confuse the issue through excessive enthusiasm or false hopes. Clear bottomline estimates should indicate how much it would cost to raise money required tofund RCI. Other benefits could be gained in this attempt: contacts and relationscould be forged between RCI and potential donors, relations highly valuable ingeneral lobbying, independently from the fundraising results.

Longer Term Programming Changes and CooperationRCI’s programming put the station at the time of the survey at the high end

of the industry. However, although RCI had been part of the revolutionary changesin programming style during the previous seven or so years, there was more tocome. With the advent of new technologies, the tendency will be towards moreinteractive radio. The traditional divisions into news and current affairs will blurand disappear. This will trigger changes in the work set up. Electronic computerizedaccess to news agencies and other information sources will possibly eliminate theneed for traditional newsrooms. Foreign language producers will stop translatingaltogether. They will produce broadcasts in a new format of news background,analysis, opinion, with many voices and contributions from a variety of locations.Management structures will follow these changes. Employees will work in non-supervised program teams, advised, evaluated and coached by managers whoserole would have evolved considerably. Union environment would have to adaptaccordingly to allow for the changes.

The survey highlighted several trends in the industry aiming at betteranswering the changing needs of the listeners. It recommended that RCI activelyparticipate in these trends gaining a competitive advantage, as an internationalbroadcaster, and as an organization competing for scarce public funds, andspecifically, it should attempt to:

50 Funding Models· use the existing cooperation with foreign national and international radios to

create a correspondent network for all RCI services as there is a need forimmediate reaction to local events;

· add languages for Asia (8) and Africa, if the Canadian message is to reachthese areas;

· reach western European audiences through Digital Audio Broadcasting, orother digital platforms, as it could soon become the standard of developedcountries;

· intensify staff exchanges and co-productions with foreign radios to take thepulse of radio developments there and to update linguistic usage

· provide links between the CBC and our extensive network of rebroadcastpartners abroad for radio and TV program exchange.

The survey highlighted the fact that no organization can do everythingalone and that a joint redeployment would be much more effective: the tendency,common to all stations, was to find niches and redeploy funds accordingly, but asum of niches would not be enough to meet all existing needs of the audiences.The following actions were suggested as possible elements of RCI’s cooperationwith the other international broadcasters:· to extend cooperative approach to the area of programming;· to concentrate on areas of special expertise;· to identify specific information/education needs of all regions of the world

and to attempt to answer these needs in a cooperative way, throughbroadcasting and international training;

· to continue providing distinctively Canadian national and regionalperspectives to listeners and broadcasters abroad.

The structure of any successful co-operation mechanism should rely on minimaladministration and maximum flexibility.

Endnotes1 Strategy for Radio Canada International was the concluding chapter of the 1996 survey and part ofthe author’s MBA dissertation at Concordia University.2 This warning was dismissed by the Executive Director of RCI who claimed that after the publicoutcry on RCI’s behalf in December-March 1996, the government would not try to close the servicein 1997, an election year.3 The conference took place as scheduled but RCI Director reiterated to participants his view thatRCI was not threatened.4 The story of the second RCI home, the Ford Hotel, illustrates CBC’s attitude towards RCI. The oldFord Hotel was purchased by the government for RCI, in 1948, at a cost of $2.2 million and adaptedfor broadcast. The CBC, which at that time operated out of seven different locations in Montreal, wasonly too happy to occupy ten floors of the Ford building, until Maison Radio-Canada was built in1974. RCI and its assets, including the Ford building, were merged with those of the CBC in 1968. In1974, the CBC sold the Ford building for $8 million and moved with RCI into Maison Radio-Canada.Within 5 years, MRC became too crowded, RCI had to move out and pay rent in a nearby officebuilding, La Tourelle.5 Strategy for Radio Canada International (35).6 Cf. Appendix 2 & 3 to the 1996 MBA dissertation.

51Funding Models7 The last three RCI Executive Directors, counting back from 1996, were: Betty Zimmerman whoreplaced Marshall McLuhan on the UNESCO McBride Commission and headed the CBC InternationalRelations before coming to RCI; she reached retirement age at the helm of RCI; very well connectedat the CBC headquarters, she worked tirelessly to make RCI better known in Canada. RCI staffbelieved that had she still been the director in 1990, the CBC would not have thought of abolishingthe service. Andrew Simon, best known for the restructuring and downsizing of a number of ailingCBC services, as well as for his work as head of Current Affairs at the English Radio, became moreinvolved in improving program quality; he was let go by the CBC for his role in saving a muchreduced RCI in 1991. Terry A. Hargreaves, the Director at the time of the survey, was negotiating thereduced RCI funding with External Affairs, in 1991, on behalf of the CBC. A knowledgeable longtime CBC radio and TV reporter, Hargreaves spent several years before his nomination as a senioradvisor to the President; he had no experience in running a service like RCI. When on December 12,1995 CBC announced RCI’s closure, Hargreaves alienated the staff by refusing to lobby against thedecision.8 To continue broadcasting in English only to countries like India where less than 1% of the populationspeaks English does not make much sense, unless it is the elite who are the target audience. Yet, it isall a question of perspective, 1% of Indian population is still over ten million people. According toCIA Fact Book’s forecast, by July 2007 the population of India will increase to 1,129,866,154.(Consulted on line June 6, 2007: https://www.cia.gov/library publications/the-world-factbook/print/in.html.)

52 Funding Models

1996 Survey: Questionnaire

If you would like to keep any of you answers confidential, please writea C with an exclamation mark (C!) in the margin, next to you answer.The information will then be used without attribution, for analyticalpurpose only.

1. IdentificationPlease provide the following for informational use only.Name of the station:Address:Phone:FAX:

2. BackgroundPlease provide some historical information (attach a copy of the correspondingdocument or fill in the space below):Date of first broadcast:Legal basis for existence:Original funding source:

3. Mandate, Mission, Charter etc.)What is your official mandate? Please attach a copy or fill in the spacebelow.3a. Were there any changes or additions to the original mandate duringthe last five years?Yes o No o If Yes, please specify:3b. Are there any pending mandate reviews? Yes o No oIf Yes, please specify:3c. What proportion of your programming (if any) is directeddomestically at or can be heard by the citizens of your own country?3d. Do you specifically target your citizens abroad and expatriates?Yes o No oIf Yes, were any audience research studies conducted to establish thesize of this audience and what were their findings?

4. Basic Programming & Staffing FactsPlease provide the following background information:

Year Number of languagesBroadcast hrs (per week)On air staff (per h. of b.) Support staff (per h. of b.)Geographical target areas

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4a. Broadcast LanguagesPlease provide the following specific information concerning your past andpresent broadcast languagesYear Languages added Languages droppedLanguages partly reduced in air-timeLength of air-time added or cut in each language4c. The following factors may have been reasons for changes in your broadcastlanguages.Number them in order of relevance for your organization:o Budget cuts decided by the funding agencyo changes in the target audience’s needso re-allocation of funds by the organizationo response to a specific crisis abroado other (please specify):4d. What criteria were used in selecting the languages to be eliminated?

5. Core Activities and Organizational StructurePlease rank the following suggested core activities in the order of importancefor your organization:Broadcasting Activities:

NewsCurrent AffairesEntertainmentEducational programmingLanguage trainingOther (please specify)

Non-broadcasting activities:Audience researchTraining of employeesTraining of non-employees from abroadother (please specify)

5a. Please draw or attach a copy of your organization chart

6. Financial Information (radio)Please provide the following background information for analytical purposes:

Year Programming Budget Transmission & TechnicalAdmin.& gen. Promotion & MarketingTraining Audience ResearchTotal6a. Who owns the transmitters you are using for your broadcasts?6b. Please comment on the reasons for changes in the figures for each of thepositions: Programming:

54 Funding Models Transmission & Technical: Administration & General: Promotion & Marketing: Training: Audience Research:6c. Financial Information (TV)Although I am focusing on radio, information on any television activities wouldbe helpful in understanding your station’s mandate and approach to the future.

7. Funding ProceduresFor several years now, budgeting and fundraising have become increasingly criticalfor the continuing existence and development of public broadcasting. The answersto the following questions are essential for my analysis.Year Programming Budget Transmission & TechnicalAdmin. & gen. Promotion & Marketing Training Audience ResearchTotal7a. Please indicate what is your funding agency or agencies: Foreign Affairs o Parliament o other o specify

7b. Are you funded annually, biennially, triennially etc.? Indicate the length of financial cycle: Beginning: End:7c. Does the organization play a role in the budget allocation process, andspecifically: How much input the organization has in preparing budget requirements? (Ona scale from 1 to 7):7d. How much negotiation with funding agency takes place?(On a scale from 1 to 7):7e. Is there a formal negotiation process and what is it? Please describe:7 f. How receptive the negotiating agency is towards your arguments andpresentations? Please rate on a scale of 1 to 7:7h. How important or valuable are the following promotion /marketing tools formaintaining of adequate funding levels? How are they used? Please describe:Advertising:Promotion / Public Relations: Personal selling / lobbying:Other:

8. Income GenerationFor some time now, shrinking public funds have been increasing pressure oninternational broadcasters not only to reduce costs but also to become self-financing in part.8a. Is any income generated by the organization? Yes o No o

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If yes, what are the sources of self-generated income?Programming? Yes o No o transmitter time? Yes oNo oProgramming expertise? Yes o No o audience research? Yes o NooAdvertising? Yes o No oOther? Yes o No o If Yes, please specify:8b. How important these sources of income are for the organization on a scaleof 1 to 7: Programming: Transmitter time: Programming expertise: Audience research: Advertising: Other:8c. Please provide information on the total amount of generated income aspercentage of the total budget:

1990..... 1991..... 1992 ...... 1993 ...... 1994.....1995......How much control do you have over this income?Please specify on a scale 1 to 7:8d. Is the organization seeking contracts for specific projects financed bypublic agencies or authorities?Yes o No oIf yes, in what areas of competence (e.g. production of programs on specifictopics, providing training, consulting)?

9. Promotion & Marketing9a. Do you publish any publication other than a basic program schedule? Regularly: Yes o No o occasionally: Yes o No o Titles:9b. How and where are they distributed?9c. If you advertise, what percentage of your advertising is done through? Own publications: % newspapers: % magazines: % TV: % radio: % Posters, Billboards: % other (specify): % We do not advertise o9d. Who is responsible for marketing in your organization? a separate department o a designated staff officer o is it an add-on duty for a staff officer o an outside company o What is your present budget for marketing if any?9e. Where do you market (geographically)?

56 Funding Models9f. What specific markets do you target?9g. What is the objective of marketing in each of your targeted markets?9h. How is marketing evaluated? Informal procedure o Formal procedure o Evaluation procedures not yet in place o9i. Who is performing the evaluation?9j. Is there a set time for the evaluation? (E.g. during budget procedures etc.)Yes o No oIf Yes, specify:9k. How are evaluation results used for promotion and marketing decisions?(in planning, budgeting, selecting marketing tools etc.)

10. Each international broadcaster is unique. What particular aspects of youroperations did this questionnaire fail to cover that may be of interest to thisstudy?

11. Do you have any comments about this questionnaire?

57Funding Models

1996 Survey:Summary Tables with 2006 updates

58 Funding Models

BBC World Service in 1996

RELATIONTODOMESTICSERVICES

A component of British Broadcasting Corporation

MANDATE Royal Charter 1981-1996: "To provide, as public services,broadcasting services… within the Commonwealth and in othercountries and places overseas

FUNDINGMODEL

A separate Parliamentary Grant in Aid based on Trienniumsettlement, a broadcasting agreement with the Foreign & Com-monwealth Office; 10-year Capital Program. TV is self-funding.Transmission privatised.

LANGUAGES Worldwide radio 42 languages; TV's reach in 1991-1994: Asia,Middle East; in 1992 Africa, in 1995 also Europe and India

ACTIVITIES Broadcasting: radio & TV; (BBC WS Television renamed in1995 BBC World is commercially funded) October 1994-April1996: an Arabic TV service in partnership with Saudi backedOrbit TV; Language lessons; Training; Audience Research;Monitoring

STAFF 2100; 250 - of which 120 hired in 1996 by Al -Jazeera

BUDGET $280,706,916

59Funding Models

BBC WS in 2006 www.bbc.co.uk/worldservicewww.bbcworld.com www.monitor.bbc.co.uk www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/trust

R E L A T IO NT OD O M E S T ICS E R V IC E S

A c o m p o n e n t o f B r i t i s h B r o a d c a s ti n gC o r p o r a ti o n

M A N D A T E R o y a l C h a r te r 1 9 9 7 - 2 0 0 6 ; th e a c c o m p a n y i n g1 9 9 6 A g r e e m e n t b e tw e e n th e S e c r e ta r y o fS ta te fo r N a ti o n a l H e r i ta g e a n d th e B B C ,C l a u s e 9 .4 s p e c i f i e s th a t th e B B C , i na g r e e m e n t w i th th e F o r e i g n a n dC o m m o n w e a l th O ff i c e , s h a l l p u b l i s h l o n g - te r mo b j e c ti v e s w h i c h i n c l u d e th e p r o v i s i o n o fa c c u r a te , u n b i a s e d a n d i n d e p e n d e n t n e w sr e p o r ti n g a n d p r o v i d e a " b a l a n c e d B r i ti s hv i e w o f th o s e d e v e l o p m e n ts , a n d a n a c c u r a tea n d e ffe c ti v e r e p r e s e n ta ti o n o f B r i ti s h l i fe ,i n s ti tu ti o n s a n d a c h i e v e m e n ts " .

F U N D IN GM O D E L

P a r l i a m e n ta r y g r a n t- i n - a i d , a d m i n i s te r e d b y th eF o r e i g n a n d C o m m o n w e a l th O ff i c e o f th eB r i ti s h g o v e r n m e n t. T h e r e l a t i o n s h i p b e tw e e nth e B B C W S a n d th e F C O i s g o v e r n e d b y tw od o c u m e n ts , th e B r o a d c a s ti n g A g r e e m e n t a n dth e F i n a n c i a l M e m o r a n d u m . T h r e e - y e a r fu n d i n ga r r a n g e m e n ts . B B C W o r l d i s s e l f - fu n d i n g :a d v e r ti s i n g a n d s u b s c r i p t i o n r e v e n u e ; B B CM o n i to r i n g i s s e l f - fu n d i n g : s u b s c r i p ti o nr e v e n u e ; B B C W S T r u s t i s a c h a r i ta b l eo r g a n i z a ti o n .

L A N G U A G E S W o r l d w i d e r a d i o a n d T V 4 3 l a n g u a g e s ;G e r m a n d i s c o n ti n u e d i n 1 9 9 9 . M a r c h 2 0 0 6 : th en u m b e r o f l a n g u a g e s r e d u c e d to 3 3 , a f te rc l o s u r e o f B u l g a r i a n , C r o a ti a n , C z e c h , G r e e k ,H u n g a r i a n , K a z a k h , P o l i s h , S l o v a k , S l o v e n ea n d T h a i . T h e F C O , i n c l o s e c o n s u l ta t i o n w i thth e W o r l d S e r v i c e , i s i n v o l v e d i n th e p r o c e s so f m a k i n g d e c i s i o n s o n b r o a d c a s t l a n g u a g e s .

A C T IV IT IE S B r o a d c a s ti n g ( r a d i o & T V ) a n d W e b - c a s ti n g ;E n g l i s h b y R a d i o ; A u d i e n c e R e s e a r c h ,M o n i to r i n g ; B B C W S T r u s t c r e a te d i n 1 9 9 9p r o v i d e s tr a i n i n g r e l a te d to m e d i a , h e a l th ,e d u c a ti o n a n d g o o d g o v e r n a n c e i n p a r tn e r s h i p sw i th l o c a l a n d i n te r n a ti o n a l N G O s . A n A r a b i c1 2 - h o u r a d a y T V s e r v i c e to b e l a u n c h e d i n2 0 0 7 fu n d e d fr o m w i th i n W S b u d g e t th r o u g hc l o s u r e o f 1 0 l a n g u a g e r a d i o s e r v i c e s .

S TA F F 1 5 6 8

B U D G E T $ 4 8 2 ,3 9 3 ,6 8 7 + $ 5 1 ,7 2 4 ,1 7 5 = $ 5 3 3 ,0 5 0 ,2 0 7G r a n t- i n - A i d + o th e r i n c o m e

60 Funding Models

Deutsche Welle in 1996

R ELATIO NTOD OM ESTICSERVICES

Outside the struc ture of domestic publicbroadcasting

M AN DATE To inform foreign lis teners about all aspec ts oflife in G ermany and analyze G erman point ofview on local and interna tional events andissues.

FUND INGM OD EL

Federal government appropriation, Tra iningCentres funded by Federa l M inistry forEconomic C o-operation and D evelopment

LANG UA GES Worldw ide radio and TV 39 languages 1992:Albanian added 1993: D eutschlandfunk's 11languages taken over

A CTIVITIES Broadcasting Language lessons Radio TrainingCentre (since 1965) TV Training (since 1996)Audience R esearch

STAFF 1900

BUDG ET $596,945,120

61Funding Models

Deutsche Welle in 2006 www.dw-world.de

R ELATIO NTOD OM ESTICSERVICES

Outside the struc ture of domestic publicbroadcasting

M AN DATE DW has the lega l mission to convey acomprehensive p icture of life in G ermany and,additionally, to deal w ith "German and otherpositions on important issues" and in particularto prov ide a forum a imed at "promotingunderstanding and dialogue betw een culturesand peoples .""A bridge to home" for G ermansabroad. Promotion of German language2005 D eutsche Welle Gesetz .

FUND INGM OD EL

DW is funded by the federal government. D WAkademie is funded primarily by FederalM inistry for Economic C o-operation andDevelopment (B M Z)

LANG UA GES Worldw ide: radio 29 languages TV inGerman, English, Spanish and some programsin o ther languages 2000: added UkrainianDiscontinued: C zech, Hungarian, Japanese ,Slovak, Slovenian and Spanish

A CTIVITIES Broadcasting(rad io & TV), w eb-casting,Teaching German; Training: D eutsche WelleAkademie created Jan. 1 , 2004 combined theRadio and TV Training C entres into oneorganization.

STAFF 1500

B UDG ET 261,000,000 = $ 388,588,062

62 Funding Models

Radio Australia in 1996

R ELATIO NTOD OM ESTICSERVICES

A component of Australian BroadcastingCorpora tion

M AN DATE To encourage aw areness of A ustralia and ofAustral ian reality & to enable Austral iansliving or travelling outside A ustra lia to ob taininformation about the ir country. .

FUND INGM OD EL

Triennia l funding negotia ted w ith the federalgovernment by A BC

LANG UA GES Asia-Pacific 9 languages Australians abroad

A CTIVITIES Broadcasting: radio & TV Language lessonsRegional Development

STAFF 153

BUDG ET $29,148 ,900Austral ia Television: $101,884,415

63Funding Models

Radio Australia in 2004 www.abc.net.au/ra

RELATIONTODOMESTICSERVICES

A component of Canadian BroadcastingCorporation/Radio-Canada

MANDATE To increase international aw areness of Canadaand to reflect Canadian reality abroad; toprovide Canadians abroad w ith Canadian new s

FUNDINGMODEL

Annual Contribution Agreement w ith CanadianHeritage, via Treasury Board and CBC. Noindexation of staff salaries. New procedure tobe set up in 1996

LANGUAGES Worldw ide 8 languages including tw o officialForeign audiences and Canadians abroad

ACTIVITIES Broadcasting, Recording Canadian MusicLanguage lessons, Biennial conferences oninternational radio

STAFF 117

BUDGET $16,500,000

64 Funding Models

Radio Canada International in 1996

RELATIONTODOMESTICSERVICES

A component of Canadian BroadcastingCorporation/Radio-Canada

MANDATE To increase international aw areness of Canadaand to reflect Canadian reality abroad; toprovide Canadians abroad w ith Canadian new s

FUNDINGMODEL

Annual Contribution Agreement w ith CanadianHeritage, via Treasury Board and CBC. Noindexation of staff salaries. New procedure tobe set up in 1996

LANGUAGES Worldw ide 8 languages including tw o officialForeign audiences and Canadians abroad

ACTIVITIES Broadcasting, Recording Canadian MusicLanguage lessons, Biennial conferences oninternational radio

STAFF 117

BUDGET $16,500,000

65Funding Models

Radio Canada International in 2006 www.rcinet.ca

RELATIONTODOMESTICSERVICES

An integrated component of CanadianBroadcasting Corporation/Radio-Canada

MANDATE To increase international aw areness of Canadaand to reflect Canadian reality to audiencesabroads

FUNDINGMODEL

Budget integrated into the parliamentaryappropriation of CBC / Radio-Canada;indexation of staff salaries

LANGUAGES Worldw ide 9 languages including tw o officialExtended programming in English, French,Chinese, Arabic and Spanish for newimmigrants

ACTIVITIES Broadcasting and w eb-casting RCI- Plus, amultilingual channel on Sirius Canada satellite .RCI -Viva, a w eb based service for recentimmigrants

STAFF 80 + New 6 contract staff

BUDGET $15,200,000 + Increase in budget for contractstaff

66 Funding Models

NHK Radio Japan –in 1996

RELATIONTODOM ESTICSERVICES

A component of NHK

M ANDATE To promote the UN ideals of freedom andjustice; to report on Japan's polic ies andopinion; to increase aw areness of Japaneseculture and business; to provide informationand entertainment to Japanese nationalsabroad.

FUNDINGM ODEL

Negotia tion w ith NHK of the budget requestbased among others on audience researchfigures, financial justification, and comparativedata about o ther stations. NHK is funded byDepartment of Telecommunications fromlicense fees.

LANGUAGES Worldw ide in 22 languages. For Japaneseabroad

ACTIVITIES Broadcasting: radio and TV

STAFF 200

BUDGET $123,190,000 TV: $9,017,000

67Funding Models

NHK World: NHK World TV, NHK World Premium, NHKWorld Radio Japan,NHK World Internet Service in 2004 www.nhk.or.jp/english/index.html

RELATIONTODOM ESTICSERVICES

A component of NHK

M ANDATE NHK World Radio Japan broadcasts across theboard, from new s to poli tics, economics,culture, science, the arts and music.The goalsare to present the multifaceted shape of Japanand by so doing to foster mutual internationalunderstanding. A life line for Japaneseoverseas.

FUNDINGM ODEL

Based on 1950 Broadcast Law amended in1999, licence fees are paid equally by everyhousehold in Japan w ith a television set andused to finance the entire NHK organization,including all component of NHK Worlds.

LANGUAGES Worldw ide in 22 languagesFor Japanese abroad

ACTIVITIES Broadcasting: radio, TV and w eb, TeachingJapanese

STAFF not available

BUDGET $ 129,130,969 =1.7% of NHK budget (CoversRadio & TV production and transmissioncosts)

68 Funding Models

Swiss Radio International in 1996

RELATIONTODOMESTICSERVICES

A component of SBC

MANDATE To reinforce links w ith the Sw iss abroad, tocontribute to the mutual understanding amongnations and to increase Sw iss influence abroadas w ell as to promote Sw iss ideals.

FUNDINGMODEL

Negotiation w ith Communication Office of theDepartment of Transport, Communication &Energy w ith personal contacts and influencebeing the most important factors, follow ed byaudience figures and lobbying.

LANGUAGES Worldw ide 8 languages including 4 official,For foreigners in Sw itzerland, For Sw issabroad

ACTIVITIES Broadcasting Training

STAFF 134

BUDGET $53,245,446 TV: $610,114

69Funding Models

swissinfo/ Swiss Radio International in 2006

R ELATIO NTOD OM ESTICSERVICES

A component of SBC

M AN DATE To inform Sw iss abroad about events in theirhomeland and to raise aw areness ofSw itzer land in o ther countries

FUND INGM OD EL

Negotia tion w ith Communica tion Office of theDepartment of Transport, Communication &Energy w ith personal contacts and influencebeing the most important factors, follow ed byaudience figures and lobbying.

LANG UA GES For Sw iss abroad and for other countr ies 9languages: G erman, F rench, Italian, English,Arabic, Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese,Japanese

A CTIVITIES Web-casting only since O ctober 2004.Webfac tory: sites for six components o f theSw iss B roadcasting Corporation (radio andTV in three offic ial languages)

STAFF 175

B UDG ET Not availab le

70 Funding Models

Radio Nederland Wereldomroep in 1996

R ELATIO NTOD OM ESTICSERVICES

A separate entity

M AN DATE To present abroad a comprehensive image ofthe Netherlands in order to foster goodw ill forthe country and to promote peacefulinternational rela tions and co-operation,especia lly w ith young na tionsTo maintain andstrengthen ties w ith a ll present and formerDutch c itizens outside the country.

FUND INGM OD EL

Budget is negotiated annually w ith theDepartment of Culture. Lobbying, personalcontacts and influence as w ell as audiencefigures.

LANG UA GES Worldw ide 4 languages For D utch abroad andfor other interna tional audiences

A CTIVITIES Broadcasting: radio & TV, Training radio andTV

STAFF 267

BUDG ET $62,126 ,990 TV: $2 ,010 ,715

71Funding Models

Radio Nederland Wereldomroep in 2006 www.rnw.nl

RELATIONTODOM ESTICSERVICES

A separate entity

M ANDATE Media Act, 1987, section 13c: To provide andtransmit programme services intended forcountries and regions outside the terri tory ofthe Netherlands… Public broadcastingprogramme services shall provide a balancedpicture of society and of people 's currentinterests and view s perta ining to socie ty,culture, religion and belief.

FUNDINGM ODEL

Radio Netherlands Training Centre fundedseparate ly by the government

LANGUAGES 7 languages Dutch, English, French, Spanish,Portuguese, Indonesian, Papiamento

ACTIVITIES Broadcasting: radio, TV and w eb, Training

STAFF 175

BUDGET 45,704,000 Euros (see Jaarverslag 2006)

72 Funding Models

Voice of America in 1996R E L A T I O NT OD O M E S T I CS E R V I C E S

C o n g r e s s p r o v i d e s p a r t i a l f u n d i n g t o d o m e s t i cp u b l i c b r o a d c a s t e r s i n t h e U S b u t P B S a n dN P R r e l y o n v i e w e r s a n d l i s t e n e r s a n d o t h e rd o n o r s t o p r o v i d e a s u b s t a n t i a l s h a r e o f t h e i rc o s t s . G r a n t s b y t h e C o r p o r a t i o n f o r P u b l i cB r o a d c a s t i n g c o n g r e s s i o n a l l y a p p r o p r i a t e d

M A N D A T E V O A w i l l s e r v e a s a c o n s i s t e n t l y r e l i a b l e a n da u t h o r i t a t i v e s o u r c e o f n e w s . V O A n e w s w i l lb e a c c u r a t e , o b j e c t i v e , a n d c o m p r e h e n s i v e .V O A w i l l r e p r e s e n t A m e r i c a , n o t a n y s i n g l es e g m e n t o f A m e r i c a n s o c i e t y , a n d w i l lt h e r e f o r e p r e s e n t a b a l a n c e d a n dc o m p r e h e n s i v e p r o j e c t i o n o f s i g n i f i c a n tA m e r i c a n t h o u g h t a n d i n s t i t u t i o n s . V O A w i l lp r e s e n t t h e p o l i c i e s o f t h e U n i t e d S t a t e s c l e a r l ya n d e f f e c t i v e l y , a n d w i l l a l s o p r e s e n tr e s p o n s i b l e d i s c u s s i o n s a n d o p i n i o n o n t h e s ep o l i c i e s . ( P u b l i c L a w 9 4 - 3 5 0 ) - P u b l i c L a w1 0 3 - 4 1 5

F U N D I N GM O D E L

I n 1 9 9 8 U S I A w a s a b o l i s h e d a n d i t s a c t i v i t i e st a k e n o v e r b y t h e S t a t e D e p a r t m e n t . S i n c e 1 9 9 9V O A i s f u n d e d ( b y t h e U S C o n g r e s s ) t h r o u g hB B G w h i c h s u p e r v i s e s t h e I n t e r n a t i o n a lB r o a d c a s t i n g B u r e a u , R F E / R L , a n d R a d i o F r e eA s i a a s w e l l a s R a d i o F a r d a ( i n P e r s i a n )R a d i o S a w a ( s i n c e 2 0 0 2 ) a n d A l H u r r a T V ( i nA r a b i c ) a n d R a d i o - T V M a r t i . W i t h t h ee x c e p t i o n o f t h e t w o f e d e r a l a g e n c i e s , V O Aa n d R a d i o - T V M a r t i , t h e o t h e r b r o a d c a s t e r sa r e p r i v a t e n o n - p r o f i t o r g a n i z a t i o n s r e c e i v i n ga n n u a l c o n g r e s s i o n a l g r a n t s t h r o u g h t h e B B G .I B B p r o v i d e s e n g i n e e r i n g s e r v i c e s f o r a l lb r o a d c a s t e r s l i s t e d a b o v e .

L A N G U A G E S W o r l d w i d e 4 4 l a n g u a g e s , A u d i e n c e s o u t s i d e o ft h e U S . I n 2 0 0 4 s t o p p e d b r o a d c a s t i n g i n C e n t r a l& E a s t e r n E u r o p e a n l a n g u a g e s , e x c e p t R u s s i a na n d U k r a i n i a n ; l a n g u a g e s o f t h e f o r m e rY u g o s l a v i a h a v e b e e n m a i n t a i n e d . I n F e b r u a r y2 0 0 6 , t h e B B G a n n o u n c e d s i g n i f i c a n t c u t s t ot h e E n g l i s h b r o a d c a s t , d i s c o n t i n u a t i o n o f r a d i oi n s e v e r a l l a n g u a g e s . T h e p r o p o s e d c u t s w e r er e s t o r e d .

A C T I V I T I E S B r o a d c a s t i n g : r a d i o , T V a n d w e b . E n g l i s hl e s s o n s . I n 2 0 0 4 V O A l a u n c h e d a d i g i t a lm o n t h l y N e w E u r o p e R e v i e w i n 1 9 l a n g u a g e s ,a l l t h o s e d i s c o n t i n u e d i n b r o a d c a s t i n g +E n g l i s h , R u s s i a n a n d U k r a i n i a n . T V : w e e k l y o rd a i l y p r o g r a m s i n 2 5 l a n g u a g e s .

S T A F F 1 1 5 0

B U D G E T U S $ 1 6 6 , 0 0 0 , 0 0 0 - e x c l u d i n g e n g i n e e r i n gs u p p o r t ( 2 0 0 6 )

73Funding Models

Voice of America in 2006 www.voa.gov

RELATION Congress provides partial funding to domestic public broadcastersin the US but PBS and NPR rely on viewers and listeners and otherdonors to provide a substantial share of their costs. Grants by theCorporation for Public Broadcasting congressionally appropriated

MANDATE VOA will serve as a consistently reliable and authoritative sourceof news. VOA news will be accurate, objective, andcomprehensive. VOA will represent America, not any singlesegment of American society, and will therefore present a balancedand comprehensive projection of significant American thought andinstitutions. VOA will present the policies of the United Statesclearly and effectively, and will also present responsiblediscussions and opinion on these policies.(Public Law 94-350) -Public Law 103-415

FUNDINGMODEL

In 1998 USIA was abolished and its activities taken over by theState Department.Since 1999 VOA is funded (by the US Congress)through BBG which supervises the International BroadcastingBureau, RFE/RL, and Radio Free Asia as well as Radio Farda (inPersian) Radio Sawa (since 2002) and Al Hurra TV (in Arabic)and Radio-TV Marti. With the exception of the two federalagencies, VOA and Radio-TV Marti, the other broadcasters areprivate non-profit organizations receiving annual congressionalgrants through the BBG. IBB provides engineering services for allbroadcasters listed above.

LANGUA-GES

Worldwide 44 languages, Audiences outside of the US.In 2004stopped broadcasting in Central & Eastern European languages,except Russian and Ukrainian; languages of the former Yugoslaviahave been maintained.In February 2006, the BBG announcedsignificant cuts to the English broadcast, discontinuation of radio inseveral languages.The proposed cuts were restored.

ACTIVITI-ES

Broadcasting: radio, TV and web. English lessons. In 2004 VOAlaunched a digital monthly New Europe Review in 19 languages,all those discontinued in broadcasting + English, Russian andUkrainian.TV: weekly or daily programs in 25 languages.

STAFF 1150

BUDGET US$166,000,000 - excluding engineering support (2006)

74 Funding Models

In June 2006, Appropriations Committee of the US Congressrecommended $172,897,000 for VOA (2007), increasing up to$6,071,000 for Worldwide English, i.e. $1,048,000 above therequest, and restoring proposed reductions to VOA broadcasts.(House Report 109-520- Appropriation Bill, Fiscal year 2007

YLE- Radio Finland External Service in 1996

RELATIONTODOMESTICSERVICES

A component of YLE

MANDATE To promote the image of Finland and to serveFinns abroad. There is no mandate for theexternal service formulated separately from thedomestic radio.

FUNDINGMODEL

Funded from TV licence fee

LANGUAGES Worldwide, with the exception of LatinAmerica, 7 languages

ACTIVITIES Approx. 1/7 of the output broadcastdomestically on Capital FM and AMBroadcasting: radio Language lessons

STAFF 28

BUDGET $7,039,200

75Funding Models

YLE- Radio Finland External Service in 2005www.yle.fi/fbc/annual.shtml

RELATIONTODOMESTICSERVICES

In October 2005, YLE announced a merger ofYLE Radio Finland and YLE Radio Peiliunder the name of YLE Compilation Channels.YLE Radio Peili originally was created asnews and currents affairs DAB service.DABwas discontinued in Finland in September2005.

MANDATE Act of Yleisradio Oy - Ch. 3, sect. 7: "tomake, produce and broadcast Finnishprogrammes and transmit news andprogrammes between Finland and foreigncountries." Since 2002 focus is on servingexpatriate Finns in Finnish and Swedish.

FUNDINGMODEL

YLE's operations are financed from TV licencefee (no advertising). The company is 99.9%state-owned and supervised by anAdministrative Council appointed byParliament, and operates under the Act ofYleisradio Oy.

LANGUAGES In 2002 English, German and Frenchprogramming was discontinued, leaving fourbroadcast languages: Finnish, Swedish,Russian + (Urdmut, Mari, Komi),Latin (weeklyNuntii Latini broadcast on Radio Finland andYLE 1 and also published in text form)

ACTIVITIES YLE mondo: an automated re-broadcastingserviceBroadcasting: radioRe-broadcasting in Finland of otherinternational stations and of Radio Finland'sEnglish, Russian, and special Finish programs

STAFF Not available

BUDGET $8,709,945

76 Funding Models

Documents cited in the TablesGuide to the BBC 1992 (53).Hugh Miles. Al-Jazeera: How Arab TV News Challenged the World. London: Aba

cus, 2005 (33).Toby Mendel. Public Service Broadcasting, A comparative Legal Survey. Kula

Lumpur: UNESCO, Asia Pacific Institute for Broadcasting Development,2000. www.unesco.org/webworld/publications/mendel/uk.html

Text of the Agreement (12) retrieved online July 22, 2005, athttp://www.bbc.co.uk/info/policies/charter/pdf/agreement.pdf

The ABC Act 1983, b.I.ii. Review of RAE in 1996.Federal Law on Radio & TV 1991, Ch. 4.1, Art. 33.SSR License for Program Abroad, 1993, Art.2-3.Media Act 1987.VOA 1967 Charter.YLE License 1927YLE Act 1993Operational Strategy for External Broadcasting 1995.Radio Netherlands Media Network Weblog, 10 Oct. 05 in EBU Cuttings, October

12, 2005.

77

Chapter II: Broadcasting in Foreign Languages

In the course of its 60-year long existence, RCI produced programs in sometwenty languages(1), at any one time broadcasting a maximum of sixteen(2), aminimum of seven(3). The inaugural four, English, French, German, and Czechstarted on February 25, 1945; later the same year Dutch and Slovak brought thetotal to six. Four more languages were launched in 1946: three Scandinavian,namely Swedish, Norwegian, and Danish, along with Spanish(4). Portuguese andItalian programs started in 1948. During the next five years, from 1950 to 1953,the service was adding one new broadcast language a year, in the following order:Finnish, Russian, Ukrainian, and Polish; among these, Finnish survived only until1955. A year later, in response to the Soviet crackdown in Hungary, RCI launchedprograms in Hungarian(5). For the next twenty eight years, RCI did not ventureinto any new languages, with the total number diminishing by five, when Swedish,Norwegian, Danish, Dutch, and Italian were simultaneously discontinued in 1961(6).

The 1984 launch of Japanese(7) programs marked RCI’s strategic forayinto Asia, extended five years later by the introduction of Mandarin(8) in 1989, amove ahead of schedule by several months prompted by the Tiananmen Squaremassacre, and again further expanded its reach by the addition of Cantonese(9) in1993. The Gulf war triggered the creation of the Arabic section in 1990. March 22of the following year brought an end to broadcasting in all Central Europeanlanguages: Polish, Czech & Slovak, Hungarian and German. There were two morecasualties in this round of cuts, programs in Japanese and in Portuguese. Thirteenyears later, in 2004, the Portuguese(10) broadcasts to Brazil were resumed. In 2005,the year of its 60th anniversary, RCI’s foreign broadcast languages were Arabic,Mandarin and Cantonese, Spanish and Portuguese, Russian and Ukrainian(11).

RCI makes its choice of broadcast languages in consultation with theDepartment of Foreign Affairs, as specified in the successive Orders-in-Council12)

forming the basis for RCI’s existence. As RCI financing integrated with the CBCbudget is provided by Heritage Canada and not by the Foreign Affairs (13), suchconsultation of necessity resembles more a request for a blessing then for additionalfunds. Since the creation of the International Service and its initial expansion, thegovernment did not provide (14) additional money for any of the new languages;RCI had to reallocate funds and use air-time exchange on its Sackville transmittingplant to be able to start Japanese -1984, Chinese -1989, Arabic -1990, and BrazilianPortuguese -2004.

In a rapidly changing global environment, broadcasting priorities forRadio Canada International evolve; what remains constant is the need to stayrelevant by reflecting this evolution. Yet, there is no doubt that RCI, or its parentorganization the CBC, have never been free to alter at will the current linguistic

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mix, as any variations in broadcast languages may cause potentially damagingpolitical fallout. In practice, both departments, Canadian Heritage as well as ForeignAffairs need not only to be consulted but must explicitly offer their support, beforesuch decisions may be announced. Governments feel also more inclined to facea public outcry, if the expected gain is large enough, as suggested by the failedattempt to close the entire service in 1967 (15) or by the “successful” 1961 and1991 cuts of several languages in one fell swoop. There is just not enough incentivefor the government to risk an embarrassment, for the cost of a mere languagesection. This makes planning for any adjustment in the set of broadcast languagesvery tricky for RCI, unless it is an add-on financed from within.

Once the station secures the necessary approvals and support, develops acommunication strategy targeting all interested parties, including the listeners,and deals with the inevitable opposition, dropping a broadcast language is a painfulbut otherwise routine management operation. Evidently, adding a language requiresalso a considerable amount of foresight and preparation and above all fullconfidence in the wisdom of the move, for once done, will prove dicey to undo.And yet, there is so much more to be said for the professional satisfaction derivedfrom a successful creation of a language section, than from even the smoothestand most uneventful of closures. The approach to opening a language section haschanged during the sixty years of RCI’s history; the archives provide us withevidence illustrating this evolution, presented later in the chapter.

There are some historical aspects of the set of RCI’s broadcast languageswhich have never been properly clarified or questioned. How to explain, forinstance, the choice of Czech as one of the four (16) RCI’s first broadcast languages?The voice of Canada spoke naturally enough in English and French; adding Germanalso made perfect sense, as it was the language of the enemy Canadian troopswere fighting in Europe. The International Service scheduled from the outset tobroadcast in four languages; originally the intention was to include Dutch (17),partly in recognition of significant numbers of emigrants from the Netherlands,and partly as a gesture of courtesy towards Princess Juliana and her daughterswho sought refuge in Ottawa (18) during the Nazi occupation of Holland.

Two among the first employees of the International Service, one Canadianand one Czech, left Prague shortly before the war, and because of their qualificationsand knowledge contributed to the switch from Dutch (19) as the fourth broadcastlanguage to Czech. They were Harold Gordon Skilling and Walter Schmolka. Theformer was a Canadian Rhodes scholar who specialized in German-Czech relationsand who in 1938 worked briefly for the Czechoslovak Radio (20) in Prague, thelatter a young and brilliant Czech Jewish lawyer and musician who managed toescape Nazi occupation of his homeland. They convinced the External Affairsand Peter Aylen, the first General Supervisor, to forget the diplomatic niceties andmake use of their combined skills immediately. Skilling (21) headed the Central

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European Section of the International Service until September 1945, when heresumed his academic career at the University of Wisconsin. In spite of his acquiringcommunist views in Oxford, he eventually became a Canadian spokesman forCzechoslovak dissidents in 1968 and an authority on Czechoslovakia at theUniversity of Toronto. Skilling left the I.S. “frustrated by the niggardly treatmentof our service by the CBC, and the unimaginative and ill-informed attitude ofExternal Affairs personnel, and the petty interference of Peter Aylen” (22). It was infact rather fortunate for Skilling that he left when he did because he would haveliked even less one of Aylen’s successors, Jean Désy who ruthlessly “purged” (23)

the service of all suspicion of leftist bias during his passage at the InternationalService as Director General, from January 1952 to July 1953. A number of Skilling’sfriends, most notable among them Stewart Griffith, were dismissed still under IraDilworth (24), at the insistence of External Affairs (25). Skilling’s strongly pro-Sovietviews (26), although not publicly acknowledged at the time of his departure, wouldhave not remained undetected during later years, antagonizing members of Central& Eastern European sections and ruining his credibility as the manager of theservice during the Cold War.

Dr. Schmolka, in charge of broadcasting to Czechoslovakia from the firsttest programs (27) until the end of his broadcasting career, became “Area Supervisor,Eastern Europe” and was responsible for launching Russian and Ukrainian (28)

broadcasts, with Griffith appointed Supervisor of all European programs afterSkilling’s departure. But even Schmolka, with his prewar mild socialist leaningsdid not meet Désy’s rigid political standards and was demoted (29) from AreaSupervisor to head of the Czechoslovak Section, continuing in this function (30)

until his retirement in 1975.

When Schmolka was still supervising Eastern European broadcasts in1951, Ira Dilworth and his deputy Charles Delafield entrusted him with preparationsfor the opening of the Ukrainian section, once the Russian service beganbroadcasting to the Soviet Union. Now, thirty years later, from Schmolka’s tworeports to his superiors, we can reconstruct how RCI went about setting up aforeign language section in the early 50s. Dilworth took a practical and sensibleapproach and sent Schmolka to the Voice of America for guidance and help. Inany case, at the time, only Americans broadcast in Ukrainian. The BBC for manyyears maintained a firm policy of concentrating their resources on the Russianprogramming to avoid “spreading the thin butter even thinner” (31).

Dilworth would have welcomed assistance in dealing even withstraightforward management issues, but was primarily worried by the more subtlequestions, such as how the Ukrainian program content should relate to the Russian,and how the I.S. should target Ukrainian audiences in the Soviet Union. Schmolkamet in New York (32) with Mr. A. Puhan (33), Assistant Director of VOA, Mr. Frankley,Head of the Russian Section, Mr. Hrihoriev, Head of the Ukrainian Section and

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Mr. Rim, Chief Producer for Eastern European languages. He came back withsuggestions about recruitment procedures and criteria, and with a promise of helpin the evaluation of tests recorded by the candidates. Colleagues at VOA advocatedformulation of clear program policy and gave advice on a possible setup of thenew service, its program format and content and broadcast schedule. Accordingto Schmolka they also argued against re-allocating any of Russian broadcast timeto Ukrainian, because in their view Ukrainian listeners all understood Russian; anaddition of Polish, Hungarian, Serbo-Croatian, or Romanian would, they thought,make much more sense. Schmolka did not hide well his opposition to the creationof the new service: he must have seen it as an irritant in the Canadian relationswith the Soviet Union, and as a source of future political interference. He reportedwith relish the views of the VOA colleagues, bringing further arguments in supportof his own reluctance undoubtedly already known to his bosses, and to someextent shared by them.

In the report, Schmolka described the VOA policy as it was applied tothe Ukrainian broadcasts and gave a recommendation to the General Supervisorabout what the desirable program policy for the I. S. should be and what stanceneeds to be taken in case of possible pressure from the Canadian Ukrainiancommunity whose energetic lobbying was behind the government’s decision tocreate the new section. The relevant part of Schmolka’s report reads as follows:

“Their programs are definitely programs to theUSSR in the Ukrainian language and not directed to theUkraine as a separate political unit. Any differencesbetween the Ukraine and the USSR stressed in thesebroadcasts are of cultural rather than of a political nature.On the political side the general fight for freedom and thestruggle against Communism are emphasized. All nationalaspirations must be left to the people themselves who inthe end will decide, if and when the proper time comeswhether they want to become independent, join in afederation with the other peoples of the USSR, etc. Noreference is made in these broadcasts to any undergroundmovement or underground army within the Ukraine or toany fighting liberation movements abroad.

Since local Ukrainian groups are bound to expressvery active interest in these programs and will try toinfluence the program contents to comply with their ownpartisan views, of which there are many, it is recommendedto prepare a definite policy statement containing all theelements mentioned in the above paragraph and to publishthis statement in the form of a press release before, orsimultaneously with, the inauguration of the broadcasts. If

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these programs are to comply with official governmentpolicy – as they unquestionably must – and if they are tomaintain a reasonably high level and if, above all, they arenot to alienate the Russian speaking listener, all interferencein matters of policy as well as in the actual preparation ofthese programs must be avoided at all cost. In this respecta firm position must be adopted from the outset, a firmnesswhich will be rewarded later on. Groups which, in thebeginning try to influence the shaping of the programs byviolent and mostly non-constructive criticism, switch tofriendly and active cooperation once they realise that thefirst method does not work” (34).

Ira Dilworth responded to Schmolka’s report by an internal memo thankinghim for it and saying: This information will be of great value to us for the recordand for our guidance in this difficult problem (35). Both documents, the report andthe memo, show caution and certain misgivings felt by the management of theInternational Service forced to deal with a politically delicate situation. The toneof Schmolka’s report is singularly lacking in enthusiasm towards the task at hand,but the truly amazing aspect of the document is the assumption that the I. S. shouldadopt holus-bolus the VOA program policy, without a single question being askedor a single doubt expressed about its suitability for Canada.

History proved Schmolka and Dilworth wrong; in the long run (36) theirmisgivings about the Ukrainian broadcast being a source of conflicts weregroundless (37). The relationship between the Ukrainian community and RCI, eventhough enlivened by occasional tiffs and attempts at interference, developedeventually into one of mutual respect. In times of crisis, the Ukrainian communityand its many organizations (38) stood firmly behind RCI and used its considerableinfluence with the political establishment to help the organization survive. RCIfaithfully followed its mandate and reflected the vibrant life of the community toits Ukrainian listeners; when the Ukrainian independence made it possible, RCInegotiated daily - weekly starting in 2005 - carriage of the broadcast on theextensive network of the National Radio Company of Ukraine (39).

Schmolka reported also a difference of opinion between Mr. Puhan andMr. Hrihoriev on the subject of broadcasting news in Ukrainian: the formerconsidered that it would be a waste of valuable broadcast time to follow a fifteen-minute Russian newscast by a Ukrainian bulletin; the latter insisted on the wisdomof beginning the Ukrainian program with at least news headlines to pacify thesensitivity of the Ukrainian listener(40). Schmolka did not comment on this exchangebut just pointed out that any inclusion of news in Ukrainian into the programsmay necessitate additional personnel, since the writing of news requires a ratherspecialized skill (41). This curious remark indicates serious difficulties the

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International Service must have experienced in recruiting qualified staff, astranslating news is the most basic skill for a foreign language broadcaster(42) andthe suggested length of the headlines was two to three minutes only. It defiesimagination in today’s terms, how an experienced manager could suggest the needfor even one additional editor to produce, or in fact to translate three minutes ofnews daily. But of course, Schmolka’s experience with the recruitment and launchof the Russian section was very recent and he must have known exactly whatlevel of writing and broadcasting skills to expect among the candidates.

In his next report(43) on the subject of the Ukrainian section, over threemonths later, Schmolka summarized job interviews conducted with potential editors(men only) and typists (women only) in Toronto, with help of a member of theRussian section Vladimir Rajewski, who spoke Ukrainian with native fluency(44).The candidates seen by the Schmolka & Rajewski team had been short-listed onthe basis of a voice test, assessed in house and also by colleagues from VOA.From the perspective of 2005, the most striking in this report is the fact that theonly skill that was being evaluated during the interviews and through a writtentest was the command of both languages, Ukrainian and English. There is nomention in the applicants’ assessment of radio or journalistic qualifications, in alllikelihood, because such skills were non existent. Conspicuously missing fromthe profiles of candidates are also other now compulsory features, such as educationand previous work experience. The applicants were clearly not even asked howthey came to Canada and what they did during and after the war; we may safelyassume that this exemplary discretion was not prompted by any privacy laws orhuman rights considerations. The author’s guess is that Schmolka preferred, oreven had been instructed to leave politically sensitive questions to RCMP, as all I.S. employees at the time needed an RCMP clearance.

On the other hand, Schmolka did mention, whether a candidate for editorspoke with a Western or Eastern Ukrainian accent and was willing or not to acceptthe offered salary of $3,600 per annum. Curiously, in a single case, the faith (GreekCatholic) of an applicant was reported. All candidates for editors appeared tohave been not entirely proficient in English, the main criterion for the selection;the reverse was true of the typists who, presumably all born in Canada, hadinsufficient Ukrainian.

How does the creation of the Ukrainian section in the early 50s comparewith the most recent opening of a new language service in RCI, the 2004 launch(45)

of Portuguese broadcasts for Brazil?

Evidently, a great many things changed during half a century. The decisionto add Portuguese came not as an order from the government; it originated fromRCI’s director Jean Larin; the plan was subsequently approved by the CBC/Radio-Canada, the Department of Foreign Affairs and the Canadian Heritage. After

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identifying the most suitable transmission platform, an FM and AM networkcovering the whole of Brazil was accessed through a “relaying agreement” withRadio Netherlands(46). The funding came from within RCI’s budget. The newlyrepositioned mandate for RCI’s daily broadcasts was marginally adjusted to fitthe format of a weekly Portuguese transmission.

The person responsible for all decisions related to the mandate and formatof the new program as well as the recruitment of new personnel was Roger Tetrault,the Editor in Chief of Foreign Language Broadcasts. Aware of the need for carefulfinancial management and lack of money for costly relocations, he restrictedadvertising for the new positions to Montreal; ads were placed in the main Frenchand English local newspapers and on the internet. Once the applications for theadvertised positions were screened, the best potential candidates were invited tobe tested on their ability to translate news, on their knowledge of current issuesbetween Canada and Brazil and on their announcing skills. They were asked totranslate a short newscast targeted to Brazil, to present to a Brazilian audience thecase of Embraer versus Bombardier, a Brazilian – Canadian trade dispute betweenrival manufacturers of regional jets, and to record both texts in studio.

Simultaneously, as RCI did not have any experts left in that language(47),Tétrault contacted the VOA Portuguese Service to ask for assistance in gradingtests(48). VOA, as a rule the most helpful and friendly of neighbours, suggested acall to the BBC, on the valid grounds that their Portuguese broadcasts were beamedonly to Africa and not to Brazil. The BBC World Service had repeatedly helpedRCI in the past with evaluations and training in foreign languages, from Russian,to Chinese, to Arabic. Yet, in a rather surprising move, the head of the BBC WSBrazilian Section, Americo Martins, refused saying we should not be involved inyour selection process(49). Rogerio Simoes(50) who served as an intermediarybetween Tétrault and Martins, suggested getting in touch with the British Councilin Sao Paulo as a potential source for the experts RCI needed.

Luckily, providence intervened in this rather bizarre bureaucratic tangle:Sandra Basile, RCI’s former Brazilian Announcer-Producer and later head ofbroadcasts to the Americas, happened to return from Brazil for a short visit toCanada exactly at that time. She graciously assessed the tests, listened to the demosand made appropriate recommendations(51) to the selection board whose fourmembers interviewed the seven best applicants(52). The board used a standardform(53) of RCI/CBC recruitment interview designed to assess the candidates intwelve areas: education, journalistic/ radio experience, knowledge of Canadiannews, knowledge of international news, knowledge and interest for RCI, teamwork,judgement, communication, command of Canada’s official languages, workorganization, handling of stress, and motivation. The two journalists selected bythe board to work for the Brazilian broadcasts were immediately put throughintensive radio skills training and in a short time were able to produce a new

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weekly magazine “Canadà Direto”.

What is the conclusion from the comparison of the two selectionsseparated by more than fifty years of history? To put it succinctly, RCI and itsmanagers enjoy now more autonomy, more flexibility, more tolerance, moreprofessionalism all around, than half a century ago. Deep wounds caused byWW2 and its displacements have now been healed, society as a whole has evolved,technology made the métier of radio more user-friendly. Naturally, there is noscarcity of new conflicts and problems which influence international radio and itspeople just as much as the old ones did, but somehow not at the level of staffcompetence. What clearly did not change over the long years is RCI’s instinct toreach out to colleagues and partners and to refuse to work in isolation.

Endnotes1 In 21 languages, to be exact, including Greek, used only by Transcription Services (recordedprograms) and those used ad hoc: Armenian, briefly broadcast during the Russian program in 1989,after a massive earthquake in Armenia, and Creole, broadcast during political upheavals in Haiti in1992-1995, within the French program beamed to the Caribbean. See Roger Tetrault. Les langues dediffusions de RCI: Historique. Octobre 2004 (2). Siegel (7) doubles the number of broadcast languagesto forty but does not reference his allegation. This author was unable to find any confirmation of thisnumber in RCI’s archives. For the languages broadcast from 1945 to 1948, see also Hall (31).2 RCI broadcast in sixteen languages from 1953 to 1961.3 The count was at seven after the 1991 cuts; Cantonese increased it to eight in 1993, Portuguese tonine in 2004.4 The intended primary audiences for Spanish and later Portuguese broadcasts were in Latin Americaand not in Europe.5 For a brief spell during this time (in 1955-1956) between dropping Finnish and launching HungarianRCI broadcast in fourteen languages.6 A move recommended by the August 1960 joint External Affairs and the CBC 12-page report on thefuture of the International Service. A 23% budget cut ($440,000) eliminated the five languages andsome other activities, such as the repeat transmissions to the United States in English. See Delafield,Ch. III: Testing Times (22-23). Siegel (151) gives slightly different figures for the cuts (15%) but hisamount ($300,000) covers possibly strictly savings generated by the cancellation of the five languages.7 The Japanese section, later transferred to Montreal, worked originally out of Vancouver. It produceda weekly program broadcast by Radio Tanpa in Tokyo. See CBC Annual Report, 1982-1983 (28).Preparations for a possible launch of Japanese broadcasts began as early as 1971 when RCI conductedtest transmissions to Japan from Sackville and commissioned a report on the feasibility and benefitsof daily broadcasts in Japanese. See Delafield, Ch.V (13).8 Mandarin newscasts started June 20, full 30-minute format was launched October 1, the Chinesenational holiday and the anniversary of the beginning of Sino-Canadian diplomatic relations. SeeRoger Tetrault. Chine RCI : Sommaire. Octobre 2004 (2). Siegel (7) says mistakenly that the Chinesewas introduced spontaneously in response to June 4 events, when in fact the preparations for launchwere well underway and RCI was able to put the service together in barely two weeks.9 Never broadcast on shortwave, the Cantonese weekly program “Canada Facts” is still being producedfor the same partner in Guangzhou, the Pearl River Economic Station, a member of Radio Guangdonggroup. See Tetrault. Chine… (2).10 A weekly half-hour magazine relayed on 300 FM and AM partner stations of Radio Netherlands.See RCI’s communiqué of March 23, 2004.

85 Broadcasting in Foreign Languages11 A few months after the 2004 Orange revolution brought to power Viktor Yushchenko, RCI movedfrom daily traditional news and current affairs programs in Ukrainian to specialized (business andculture) half-hour magazines, broadcast by the National Radio Company of Ukraine on Saturdaysand Sundays. See Summer 2005 Program Schedule.12 The first one was issued on September 18, 1942, the second on March 19, 1968 and the mostrecent on March 21, 2003. The English text of the current Order-in-Council runs as follows: HerExcellency the Governor General in Council, on the recommendation of the Minister of CanadianHeritage and the Treasury Board, pursuant to subsection 46(2) of the Broadcasting Act, hereby(a) repeals Order in Council P.C. 1968-525 of March 19, 1968; and (b) directs the CanadianBroadcasting Corporation, when providing an international service under subsection 46(2) of theBroadcasting Act within the conditions of licenses issued to it by the Canadian Radio-television andTelecommunications Commission and subject to any applicable regulations of that Commission,(i) to name that service “Radio Canada International”, (ii) to provide that service through shortwave,as well as through other means of distribution, as appropriate,(iii) to produce and distributeprogramming targeted at international audiences to increase awareness of Canada, its values and itssocial, economic and cultural activities, (iv) to establish geographic target areas and languages ofbroadcast in consultation with the Department of Foreign Affairs and InternationalTrade,(v) to establish objectives for that service on an annual basis, and (vi) to report the results withrespect to meeting those objectives in the annual report required under section 71 of theBroadcasting Act. (T.B. Rec. 830432). In Canada, an Order in Council is a legal instrument made bythe Governor in Council on the recommendation of a Minister of the Crown and signed by the GovernorGeneral. See http://www.pco-bcp.gc.ca/oic-ddc/about.asp?lang=EN13 As is the case of BBC World Service funded by a separate Parliamentary Grant-in-Aid throughForeign and Commonwealth Office, see www.bbc.co.uk/print/pressoffice/keyfacts/stories/worldservicefacts.14 Funding for the Creole broadcast was a temporary arrangement with the Foreign Affairs whichlasted from 1992 to 1995. See O. Diop’s September 27, 1992 letter to Jack Brunet and his September19, 1994 letter to Iqbal Rahemtulla; P. Tobin’s (Office of the Minister for International Cooperationand Minister responsible for La Francophonie) March 15, 1996 letter to T. Hargreaves.15 Just after the Expo’67, on November 30, the government, at the initiative of the Treasury Boardannounced the closure of RCI, as part of austerity measures necessary after the excessive spendingfor the centennial celebrations. The attempt was unsuccessful and resulted in the 1968 integration ofthe I. S. and its assets with the CBC. See the Order-in-Council P. C. 1968-525, 19 March 1968 andHall (111-119).16 Bernard J. Hibbitts in his study An Analysis of the Canadian International Broadcasting Serviceas an Instrument of Canadian Foreign Policy 1945-1979. Halifax: Dalhousie, 1980 (11) dismissesthe incongruity saying: One assumes that target priorities were determined in a similar fashion [withthe involvement of the Department of External Affairs]: the United Kingdom, France, Germany, andCzechoslovakia were the first choices for area concentration.17 Ch. Delafield. Ch. I: Beginnings. (20),18 In appreciation of Canadian hospitality and of the role Canadian troops played in the liberation ofthe Netherlands, the future Queen, Princess Juliana donated to the City of Ottawa one hundred thousandvaluable tulip bulbs in 1945. Since then, regular, annual tulip donations continued throughout theyears but on a smaller scale. Her gift became the starting point of the world’s biggest and mostrenowned tulip show, the Canadian Tulip Festival, featuring now not hundreds of thousands but millionsof flowers every May. For the details, see http://www.koninklijkhuis.nl and http://www.tulipfestival.ca/en/FestivalHistory.19 A mid December 1944 CBC news release still listed Dutch as one of the inaugural languages –Delafield, Ch. I (20) – but in spite of the February switch to Czech, Holland did not have to wait muchmore than three months for the Canadian shortwave programming. Once the war ended, Maja vanSteensel, a Dutch resistance fighter came to Montreal as Canadian war bride and started producingdaily broadcasts on June 1, 1945. See Ch. Delafield, Ch. II: Under Way (16); Siegel (4).20 H. Gordon Skilling. The Education of a Canadian: My Life as a Scholar and Activist. Montreal:McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2000 (75).21 Ch. Delafield, Ch. I (20). Ch. II (10); Skilling (97). The part of Skilling’s memoirs dealing with hiswork for the International Service is largely based on his half a century old personal recollections

86 Broadcasting in Foreign Languagescombined with some selective wartime correspondence and consequently contains a number ofchronological inaccuracies and unsubstantiated claims. He insists for example that External Affairsand Peter Aylen were unfavorable to the idea of broadcasting in foreign languages after the war and itwas his own lobbying effort in Ottawa that ensured the continuation of German broadcasts (93-94).Thisauthor was unable to find any indication of such position in the CBC archives. Hall mentions onlythat the transition from “war time broadcasting to a total peacetime operation directed toward generalaudiences, took approximately one year”(30).22 Skilling (97).23 Siegel (124-129); Hall (63) says simply: “credit can be given to Jean Désy for maintaining strictcontrol over policy, particularly with regard to Eastern European broadcasts.”24 RCI’s General Supervisor, from 1947 to 1951.25 See Siegel (101)26 Skilling (80, 84, 86, 95, 120)27 The International Service started broadcasting in Czech on February 6, 1945, twice a week, onTuesdays and Fridays, until the official inauguration on February 25, when daily programs began.28 See his November 13, 1951 Report on Discussions with VOA on Ukrainian Broadcasts to IraDilworth, General Supervisor of the time, as well as his Results of Interviews with Ukrainian Applicantsin Toronto, dated February 25, 1952, soon after Jean Désy’s arrival, addressed to Charles Delafield,Supervisor.29 See Siegel (133).30 Siegel (133) claims that Schmolka was later “promoted [by Delafield] and was shown the respecthe deserved”. This author was unable to find in RCI’s archives any evidence of Schmolka’s furtherpromotion by Delafield, even though there is no doubt that his knowledge and facility in writingpolitical backgrounders were held in high regard by the members of the service.31 The expression was coined by Peter Fraenkel, Head of the European Service at BBC WS. Hementioned it to this author at the first Valley Forge Conference “Broadcasting Beyond the Iron Curtain”in 1984. See also his paper in Western Broadcasting over the Iron Curtain. Ed. by K. R. M. Short.London: Croom Helm, 1986 (148). The BBC started to broadcast in Ukrainian only after the break-upof the Soviet Union. See http://www.bbc.co.uk/ukrainian/index.shtml32 VOA moved from New York to Washington only in 1954; see Alan L. Heil, Jr. Voice of America:A History. New York: Columbia University Press, 2003 (58-59).33 Schmolka’s Report... (1-4) is the only source of information about his visit to VOA.34 Schmolka. Report… (1).35 I. Dilworth to Area Supervisor Eastern Europe. Internal Memo. Montreal, November 13, 1951.36 In the short run, it was not the Ukrainian community but indeed the head of the new Ukrainianservice Bohdan Panchuk who consistently fought against the policy and mandate. He was eventuallyfired and replaced by Carroll Chipman, the future supervisor of the Russian section, later the ill-fatedhead of Eastern Europe and finally of Latin America. See the detailed discussion by Siegel (134-141,159-164).37 According to 1986 interview with Yvon Beaulne, Désy’s executive assistant, quoted by Siegel(122), there were problems with the newly hired staff who for the first three months of broadcast wereending their transmission with a slogan Long live a free Ukraine! If we accept Beaulne’s claim, wewould have to assume that the Ukrainian section was left to their own devices during the crucialinitial period, with nobody around, no supervision, no post mortems, no performance appraisals; ahighly unlikely scenario. An occasional patriotic outburst could have occurred with Panchuk’s tacitapproval but certainly not as a standard sign off for the broadcast.38 The Ukrainian Canadian Congress, an umbrella organization, counts currently 28 memberorganizations. See www.ucc.ca.39 Until the daily retransmission of the Arabic broadcast by the Voice of Lebanon in 2000, it remainedthe only RCI program carried daily by a national broadcaster, the envy of VOA and BBC whosedistribution in Ukraine was much slower in reaching comparable levels. The daily rebroadcasts startedduring the 1995 October referendum in Ukraine. Viktor Nabrusko, President of the NRCU and a loyalfriend of RCI ensured that the broadcasts from Canada were never interfered with in any way, in spiteof many RCI’s on-air guests critical of or openly opposed to successive Ukrainian presidents.40 Schmolka. Report… (4).41 Ibidem.

87 Broadcasting in Foreign Languages42 For over thirty years now, news translation has been part of standard recruitment tests; it certainlyhas its specific rules but it is also one of least time consuming types of translation. Foreign languagestaff frequently overstated the complexity of the task, taking advantage of the lack of experience inthat area of many of the supervisors, one of whom told this author quite seriously that his sectionrequired twice the normal amount of time allotted for news translation because of the greater complexityof their language.43 W. Schmolka to C. R. Delafield, Supervisor, I.S. Results of Interviews with Ukrainian Applicantsin Toronto. Montreal, February 25, 1952.44 In the 60s Rajewski asked for a transfer to the Ukrainian section and remained there until hisretirement in the early 80s.45 See March 23, 2004 RCI communiqué Radio Canada International Launches New Programmingfor Brazilian Audiences.46 Relaying Agreement between Radio Nederland Wereldomroep and Radio Canada International forthe period of March 28, 2004 to March 27, 2005, automatically renewed until March 26, 2006; March29, 2004 Communiqué: New Agreement Between Radio Canada International and Radio Netherlands.47 Dropped in 1991.48 R. Tetrault’s diary under March 3, 2004.49 R. Simoes’ March 5, 2004 e-mail to R. Tétrault.50 R. Tétrault’s March 3, 2004 e-mail to Rogerio Simoes.51 S. Basile’s March 22, 2004 report to R. Tétrault.52 Fiche d’évaluation des candidats, Date du comité : Mars 2004; Participants : Roger Tétrault, GinetteBourély, Sylvie Robitaille, Sylvie Melançon.53 Annonceur-réalisateur, RCI- Section brésilienne, Affichage 23. Canevas d’entrevue and Définitiondes critères. This type of interview was first introduced at RCI in 1977, by Milan Vitek, at that timemanager of Eastern Europe Target Area; they were later perfected and adopted under his guidanceacross the organization.

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Chapter III: Relations with Communist Media

During the age of international radio, people living under communistregimes, where national and regional media were fully controlled by the state,were seen as key audiences by most western stations. Members of these closedsocieties could get access to uncensored information only through listening toshortwave. Geographically, the area was composed of the Soviet Union and itsunwilling satellites, the so-called people’s democracies, China and, in the westernhemisphere, Cuba. The remaining few smaller communist countries, such asVietnam and North Korea were targeted by the largest international broadcastersonly.

The collapse of communism in Europe and exponential development ofnew technologies, beginning almost simultaneously, changed the map of theinternational radio. Even though China and Cuba continue officially espousingtotalitarian ideologies, the censorship and total control over access to news becamehard, if not impossible to exercise. This chapter deals with how RCI developedrelations with media in these high priority target countries and regions to whom ithas been broadcasting since its inception.

Central & Eastern EuropeContacts and sporadic exchange of programming between RCI’s foreign

language sections and state media of Central and Eastern Europe (1), started in theearly 60s with the end of jamming. Although the actual use of the exchangedmaterial was minimal if not non existent, at least on the Soviet side (2), somebroadcaster-to-broadcaster contacts continued and occasionally even intensified.

The 1967 Montreal Universal and International Exhibition (3) linked toCanada’s centennial celebrations and popularly known as Expo ’67, created uniqueconditions for more authentic collaboration between Central and Eastern Europeansections of the International Service and media of their countries of origin, at thattime eager for exposure and successes abroad. Among others, the Soviet StateCommittee on Radio and Television Broadcasting invited a CBC delegationincluding Charles Delafield to Moscow, just before the Expo’s opening ceremonyin April 1967. The purpose of the visit was to discuss a draft agreement providingfor a program exchange between the I.S. on one side, and Radio Moscow andRadio Kyiv on the other; both parties signed the document and tentatively scheduleda Soviet re-visit in Ottawa, for a review and possible extension. This hopefulperiod of openness in the relations with the Soviet bloc media never brought anytangible results other than declarations of good intentions, and a number of emptydeals that looked well on paper and suited Soviet strategy of responding to thewestern policy of détente when perceived as profitable. Two years later, in March

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1969, the agreement, in practice just as meaningless as before, was indeed renewedfor another 18 months (4).

The Hungarian Section, the smallest in terms of airtime, only fifteenminutes daily until its 20th anniversary in 1976 when the broadcast doubled in sizeto thirty minutes, inaugurated a regular program exchange with the Hungarianstate radio in 1965, with a show on Niagara Falls. The exchange branched off totelevision in 1966-1971 and peaked leading up to, during, and right after Expo67. From five radio items sent in 1965, the number of shipments increased to 24in 1966, to 41 in 1967, and to 81 in 1968; it went down to 27 in 1969, maintainedon a similar level in 1970; since then it fluctuated between 13 and 20, until 1976(5).

Within the Eastern European Sections, the Czechoslovak case is especiallyinteresting as it was the only one, as far as this author was able to establish, involvingdirect contacts between the director and communist diplomats posted in Canada;it also clearly defines the limits both sides were willing to go in their new foundcollaboration.

The first contact was made a year before Expo, in early March 1966, atan exhibition of Czech drawings organized by the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts.The Czechoslovak ambassador, Miroslav Zemla, opened the exhibition and,surprisingly, agreed to give an interview to an I.S. reporter (6). When a parliamentarydelegation to Canada headed by Bohuslav Laštovicka(7), chairman of theCzechoslovak National Assembly, was being scheduled two months later, heproved slightly less accommodating. The I. S. director, having established a lineof communication with the ambassador at the previous occasion, wrote (8) askinghim to receive in Ottawa, Walter Schmolka accompanied by Milan Vitek, a reporterassigned to the coverage of the visit. In the letter, Delafield advised the ambassadorthat Vitek would be providing help already requested by the CzechoslovakTelevision and that he would “also be available, of course, to assist the membersof the Delegation in any way he can.” In response to the letter, Bilak, theCzechoslovak consul in Montreal and Novak, the press attaché from the embassy,visited Delafield on May 27, explaining that it would be embarrassing for the highlevel delegation to be accompanied by Vitek who fled Czechoslovakia in the wakeof the communist takeover in 1948, an act still considered illegal by the localauthorities. Delafield agreed to discuss the options with the ambassador, at ameeting arranged in Ottawa on June 2. When they met, it became apparent thatZemla was anxious to avoid any potential irritants during the visit of the powerfulLaštovicka. He promised that Vitek would be allowed to accompany and reporton any other future Czechoslovak visits, if in this case, another member of thesection would be assigned to cover the parliamentary delegation. Zemla also madeit clear that, if Delafield did not comply with his request, he should not expect anyfuture co-operation from the embassy. RCI’s director did not like the threat, butdecided to make a good will gesture and assigned, instead, Ota Reichman(9) who

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eventually accompanied Laštovicka and his group on their trip across Canada.The Canadian ambassador in Prague received from Delafield a detailed report (10)

about the incident.

This quite unusual involvement of the director in programmingassignments within a foreign language section, and his willingness to dealpersonally with Czechoslovak diplomats merits an explanation. The fact that WalterSchmolka was maintaining a level of contacts with the state media of his countryof origin, limited to occasional exchanges of broadcast material, as were doingthe other Central and Eastern European section heads, does not mean that he orany of his colleagues could feel comfortable discussing programming matters withcommunist officials. Delafield understood Schmolka’s dilemma perfectly; he owedhis exceptional grasp of the Czechoslovak affairs to his well informed andpolitically conversant Czech wife. In 1963, Delafield married Elizabeth Nemec;she came to Canada as the wife of the first post-war Czechoslovak ambassador toCanada, and a former minister in Beneš’ pre-war and in exile governments.František Nemec(11) defected to the West after the communist takeover inCzechoslovakia in 1948. The US ambassador to Canada at the time was LaurenceSteinhardt, whom Elizabeth Nemec befriended during his posting to Pragueimmediately after the war. Through his contacts in Canadian External Affairs,Steinhardt put Nemec in touch with Delafield, who hired him as a politicalcommentator for the Czech broadcasts. Nemec eventually became a staff member,but there is no record of his commentaries being broadcast from the 1950s on. Hedied in 1963, shortly after his wife left him. Known as Eliška Delafield, the formerMrs Nemec worked for the Immigration Department in Montreal, and was wellrespected and appreciated in the Czechoslovak community for her compassionatepersonality and dedicated efforts in helping her stranded compatriots to start anew life in Canada.

It seems indicative of the political changes which culminated in the PragueSpring, that Zemla kept his word given to Delafield at their June 2 meeting: duringthe period leading up to the Expo’67 and then throughout the whole six months ofthe exhibition, Vitek had no problems obtaining interviews from the numerousCzechoslovak personalities visiting or working at the remarkably successful andpopular Czechoslovak Pavilion. This friendly attitude continued until mid 1968.When the Soviet tanks put an end to the Prague Spring, all collaboration with thestate media stopped and did not resume until 1990.

In February 1990, at the request of RCI director Andrew Simon, a recentlycreated Canadian Task Force for Assistance to Central and Eastern Europe financeda Canadian internship(12) for a group of new post-communist media executives,including Karel Stary, a director of the Czechoslovak Radio, freshly elected bystaff. Stary was more than willing to consider the re-broadcast of RCI dailyprograms on the national frequencies(13) of the Czechoslovak Radio. With another

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representative of the organization, Svetlana Osolsobe(14), Karel Stary attended thefirst Challenges conference in Hamilton in March 1990. During a visit to Moscow,Kyiv, Warsaw, Prague, Bratislava, and Budapest in November of the same year,Andrew Simon and the head of CBC National Training & Development MichelSamson made an assessment of training needs of state broadcast organizationsthere, and at the same time concluded re-broadcast agreements for RCI. The CzechRadio(15) decided in fact to carry RCI’s daily Czech broadcasts between 1900 and2200 local time, starting January 7, 1991. Unfortunately, in December 1990, RCI’sCzechoslovak section became one of many casualties of the massive budget cuts.

In spite of the untimely end to RCI’s broadcasts in Czech and Slovak,relations between the stations continued throughout the decade of the Challengesseries and beyond. Like many other Eastern European media executives electedby staff in the wake of the collapse of communism, Karel Stary did not retain hisposition for long; he was replaced at the helm of the Czech Radio by Jiri Mejstrik,who came to Quebec City Challenges in March 1992 with his director of researchJaroslav Koštál(16). At this occasion, he met Milan Vitek, retired since 1987 afteran outstanding career in RCI management(17). Mejstrik immediately recognizedVitek’s competence and value for the reorganization of the Czech Radio and hired(18)

him as “Radio Consultant and Advisor” for a period of five months. When Vitekwent to Prague to work with Mejstrik, he quickly realized that any changes to thestate broadcaster’s unwieldy structure and inefficient operations would requireextensive training. To respond to this urgent need, Vitek designed a training programfor managers of the Czech Radio. By scheduling part of the training in Canada, hecreated an opportunity for RCI to play an important role in the process. Wellaware of RCI’s financial reality, Vitek secured approval(19) and a promise of fundingfrom Alan McLaine, the Canadian ambassador in Prague and an RCI supportersince the beginning of his distinguished diplomatic career(20).

The Czech Radio was not the only post-communist state radio whobenefited at that time from Vitek’s expertise in management and operations. Inearly September 1992, he was invited to Warsaw by Dr Stanislaw Jedrzejewski(21),at the time Vice-President of the Polish Radio, for brief consultations(22) onmanagement issues, such as hiring procedures, labour problems, job descriptions,organizational structure etc.

Back in Canada in late September 1992, Vitek presented his trainingproposal for the Czech Radio to RCI’s director Terry Hargreaves, who surprisingly,refused to participate in the project, ostensibly because of lack of money, lack ofa Slovak component in the training, and lack of a formal approval from Czech andSlovak organizations in Canada. All three reasons were clearly mere excuses,since financing was already assured, Slovakia was an independent country andwould have to be approached separately with any training proposal, and RCI as arule did not seek approval for any of its projects from cultural communities in

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Canada. Hargreaves’ objections did not prevent him from expressing interest intaking over the project himself: he offered to travel to Prague later, in the summerof 1993, negotiate and sign a contract with the Czech Radio and another one withthe Council of the Czech Radio, following which, he would enter into a separatefunding agreement with the External Affairs (23). Needless to say, the Czech Radiorequired assistance then and there, and could not wait a year or so for RCI’s directorto act; Vitek decided to seek help from CBC Radio in Toronto.

Unfortunately, before he was able to secure CBC’s participation in theproject, Alan McLaine, unexpectedly recalled from his post in Prague to Ottawa,died suddenly of a heart attack in October, 1992. The whole plan of Canadianassistance to the Czech Radio painstakingly put together by Vitek temporarilycollapsed. After Hargreaves’ refusal to co-operate and ambassador McLaine’sdeath, it became clear to Jiri Mejstrik that, at least in the short term, Canada wasnot going to help so he agreed to receive in Prague, in mid November, a DeutscheWelle advisor. When this experience proved inconclusive (24), Mejstrik requestedhelp from the BBC World Service, previously involved in training of 36 Czechand Slovak radio and television journalists in 1991-2 in London, a project financedby the Know-How Fund(25). A former BBC WS European Service Controller PeterUdell came to Prague in December 1992, and made an assessment of training anddevelopment needs. Before Peter Udell’s various excellent recommendations wereacted upon, Mejstrik resigned on May 31, 1993, disillusioned with the constantinterference and micromanagement practised by the Czech Radio Council (26).

Following Mejstrik’s departure (27), Dr Zdenek Susa, head of the Council,asked Vitek (28) to develop hiring procedures for the position of director general ofthe Czech Radio and then hired him (29) as Advisor to the Council. Thirty fivecandidates applied when the position was eventually advertised, but the searchfor a new director was suspended after the Council determined that all thirteenshort-listed applicants were unsuitable. Unsure how to deal with this unexpectedsituation, Susa and the majority of the council offered Vitek the position of actingdirector general, until an acceptable candidate could be found (30). The parliamentaryCommission for Mass Media(31) immediately protested that the council had noright to appoint an acting director but only a director general with a six-yearmandate. Vitek who did not wish for such a long commitment and wanted to sparethe embattled Czech Radio Council another useless political conflict, resigned (32).The council was able to appoint the most promising among the thirteen short-listed candidates, Vlastimil Jezek. Susa asked Vitek to act as an advisor to Jezekwho, although judged the best, was not considered ready to assume the mantle ofdirector general without a strong initial support. Vitek agreed to provide it andthe council made the appointment on June 28 (33).

The Czech Radio had a plethora of serious problems; what to do with theformer tool of communist propaganda, the separately funded Radio Praha

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International was comparatively a minor one. Nevertheless, it had to be solved. Agood place to start was to commission an independent assessment of the serviceincluding recommendations whether and how to reform it. Even though Vitek’sexperience was uniquely suited to tackle this job, he had to concentrate on theurgent issues of the national networks. The Czech Radio decided, naturally enough,to approach RCI for help. Being well aware of Hargreaves’ unwillingness to getinvolved in projects he did not initiate himself, Jezek invited the author(34), atVitek’s suggestion, to come to Prague during her vacation to study the service andrecommend a course of action. The author was thrilled to be asked, accepted theoffer, and informed Hargreaves(35) of her intention to visit the Czech Radio duringthe summer holidays to do a status report there, on her own time and dime.

The ten days the author spent in Prague in early July 1993(36), providedher with a rare insight into the reality of communist and post-communist Czechmedia. She visited all departments and was given access to all personnel and tofiles across the international service. Time did not allow her to listen toprogramming and evaluate its quality; her role was to assess the service withoutanalyzing in any depth its broadcast output.

The people the author interviewed, from programming to frequency co-ordination, were eager to speak to her and appeared sincerely hopeful that thingsmight finally begin to change for the better. There was surprisingly little cynicismdespite the disappointment with the slow pace of transformation and rapid turnoverat the helm. The author’s consultancy report(37), written in English, was translatedfor the director into Czech, but quite poorly, with all candid remarks and criticismsironed out; Vitek hardly recognized the sanitized Czech version of the text andinsisted on restoring the original meaning himself.

The urgency for action at Radio Praha stemmed directly from the terms of theagreement between the Czech Radio and the Ministry of External Affairs. All RadioPraha staff had an employment contract until December 31, 1993. By September 30,1993, the agreement had to be either extended, or its non-renewal announced.Additionally, a new director of the service – a former journalist and foreigncorrespondent for the Czech Radio – was appointed a week before the author’s arrival.He was supposed to act upon any recommendations resulting from the report.

The dozens of staff the author talked to at Radio Praha, unanimously agreedthat the main problem of the station was the lack of direction and guidance from thetop management. People from various departments blamed the previous director forsecluding himself from the rest of the organization and for making each departmentwork in isolation. There was no mechanism for the staff to meet and talk to the director,no established communication lines, no evaluation of programs. The program directorwas supposed to meet the heads of sections and services once a week, but even whensuch meetings took place, communication did not happen.

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The author’s most amazing experience at Radio Praha was a joint meetingwith its three directors, the former, the current and the program director. Despite herinsistence at talking separately to the new director and to the program director, she hadto speak to all three together. The former director was openly hostile towards theauthor, clearly resenting her role and anticipating nothing but criticism. The two otherswere much friendlier but disappointing in their inability to explain what their dutieswere and how they saw their role in the organization.

The new director, even taking into account that he had been in this job forbarely a week, was strikingly ignorant of the ways his organization operated. On theother hand, he must have closely questioned the people who were interviewed duringthe previous several days, because when asked about his vision for Radio Praha’sfuture, he came back with a series of specific ideas the author herself planted.

The program director told the author that during the previous two years he hadbeen spending all his time and efforts trying to save Radio Praha, unable to deal withprogram management and remaining ignorant of what his people were broadcastingand why. He was quite offended by persistent questions about what he thought hecould be doing, once the survival of Radio Praha was assured; he clearly had no clueas to what he was paid to do.

The former Director informed the author in a long and patronizing speech thatthere was chaos everywhere, in the Czech Radio, at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, inParliament and in the country at large; this confusion contributed to the low moraleand pessimism in Radio Praha. How could the author ask questions about managementissues, if “now nobody could tell anybody anything anymore?” According to him,people were doing what they wanted and no management was possible. Hisunderstanding of leadership as an unquestionable right to issue orders which must beobeyed, was well grounded in the communist tradition and had not evolved since.

The Toronto based Czech contemporary writer, Josef Škvorecký, said that inall Central European “people’s democracies”, there were either communists or anti-communists, but Czechoslovakia boasted of a third category, the 68-ers (38). The 68-erswere communists who tried to give Czech communism “a human face” during thePrague Spring in 1968, and who were punished for their efforts by the Soviets andtheir followers, along with the whole nation; they expected however to be rewardedfor their suffering before anybody else. The departing director of Radio Praha was oneof the 68-ers who after the fall of communism returned to the Czech Radio to reap his“due rewards”. He was outraged when, after a few inefficient years at the helm of theinternational service, the Czech Radio released him from his position.

The author’s attempts to ascertain what exactly the three directors were doingat Radio Praha proved futile. She could only guess why the former director wascoming to work at all, why the new director knew so little about the organization he

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was asked to lead, why the program director was concerned with saving Radio Prahaand not with ensuring high quality programming. Asked about plans and variousscenarios management must have developed since previous December, when theagreement between the Czech Radio and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs was concluded,they were indignant at how anybody, even an ignorant foreigner like the author, couldfail to realize what a waste of time planning was in the situation of Radio Praha’suncertain funding and survival. They seemed not to recognize the fact that it was theirjob to streamline the organization, make it more effective and cost efficient. Theywere unwilling to take the responsibility for Radio Praha and offer the Foreign Affairsa number of realistic and attractive scenarios. The old communist reflexes preventedthem from taking any initiative or risk; indifferent to the problems of their productionpeople and counting only on internal or external political influence to save them, themanagement team did not assume leadership, preferring to scheme behind closeddoors and de facto just wait for the axe to fall.

No wonder the author’s confidential report, leaked from the Czech Radiodirector’s office, ruffled quite a few feathers at Radio Praha. The plan of restructuringthe report contained was highly praised but never implemented, as post-communistinertia prevailed for a while longer, in spite of a steadily shrinking budget. However,relations between the Czech Radio and RCI have remained very cordial, due mainlyto contacts at the biennial Challenges conference. The turnover at Radio Praha’s helmcontinued until finally a former BBC World Service Czech section staffer MiroslavKrupicka (39) was appointed head of the service in 1998. When the scheduled for 2002Challenges VII conference was cancelled, yearly meetings of the Association forInternational Broadcasting as well as EBU’s international broadcasting group havebeen providing new opportunities for both stations’ representatives to meet and keepthe friendship going.

Relations with the media in the other target countries also received a powerfulboost in 1990, which proved most useful for the Russian and Ukrainian sections, theonly East European survivors of the 1991 budget cut. Simultaneously with the attemptsat co-operation with the Czechoslovak, Polish and Hungarian media, a separate initiativeaimed at Soviet and post-Soviet media was being developed by Andrew Simon, withthe active participation of Allan Familiant, RCI’s Program Director and this author’sown enthusiastic assistance.

The only representative of Ukrainian media at the Challenges conference ofMarch 1990, was Dmytro Markiv, head of English Service of Radio Kyiv, who becamea diplomat (40) shortly after the Ukrainian independence. However, immediatelyfollowing the conference, he assisted RCI in discussions with Yarema Frydrak, deputychairman of the Ukrainian State TV and Radio Committee. Cooperation began modestlywith a staff exchange in September (41) and mutual visits of top management inNovember. After Simon’s precipitated departure in April 1991, the co-operationcontinued during Familiant’s tenure as acting Executive Director. In May, a

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Memorandum of Understanding was signed between the Ukrainian State TV andRadio Committee and Radio Canada International; it provided for various staff andprogram exchanges, but most importantly, for a daily carriage of RCI’s Ukrainianservice on Prominy, a radio channel also distributed via the cable network in Ukraine.The exchanges with post-Soviet media were further and quite vigorously pursued byTerry Hargreaves, named RCI’s Executive Director in late 1991.

Unfortunately, there were problems with the delivery of programs to Kyiv, asthe signal had to be routed through the Soviet ministry of Communications in Moscow.Tests continued with unsatisfying results until 1993, when a direct satellite link toKyiv allowed for reliable daily rebroadcasts. In the mean time, Frydrak was replacedby Vasyl Yurichko and finally Viktor Nabrusko, now the president of the NationalRadio Company of Ukraine who proved to be a loyal friend of RCI throughout thewhole on-going partnership(42).

In 1992(43), at the initiative of Peter Potichnyj and Howard Aster (44), the CanadianAffairs Task Force on Central & Eastern Europe financed a two-week seminar inKyiv, called Campaign College, which included teaching Ukrainian media how tocover elections in a democracy. Professor Potichnyj obtained written approval to holdthe seminar from all eighty political parties in existence at the time. He claimed thatthis was the only such documented consensus in the history of independent Ukraine.A dozen Canadian experts on all aspects of electoral process and related activities,including the role of media and journalists, came to Kyiv to share their knowledge andknow-how with “the elite components of the Ukrainian society”. RCI was present atthe Campaign College for the whole duration of the event.

After the Prime Minister’s Jean Chrétien’s visit to Ukraine in 1999, the needfor democratic reforms in Ukraine was officially recognized at the highest level inCanada, RCI designed a series of broadcasts called “Democracy in Action” targetingspecifically Ukraine. Starting in April and leading up to the October elections, onshortwave and by the National Radio Company of Ukraine, RCI’s daily Ukrainianprogramming strongly emphasized issues connected to civic values, democraticinstitutions, transition to market economy, entrepreneurship, youth involvement inpublic life etc.(45). Since the Ukrainian independence, in spite of a very restricted budget,RCI always managed to send its Ukrainian reporters to cover important political eventsin Ukraine, such as elections, and to have this programming carried on the NationalRadio Company of Ukraine(46).

Since 1989, as a result of RCI’s initiatives in Russia and in other former Sovietrepublics, a network of about thirty stations eventually began broadcasting RCI’sEnglish courses(47) for Russian speakers and a specially developed weekly reviewcalled “Canadian Panorama”. The development of the network started in 1990 withan exchange of material and later a staff exchange with Radio 1 in Moscow, negotiatedwith its Director Alexander Akhtyrski. It was followed by a formal co-operation

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agreement based on which, Radio 1 made RCI material available to all regional stationswithin Gosteleradio. A number of delegates from these stations came in 1990 to thefirst Challenges conference in Hamilton. When the Soviet Union was dismantled andthe influence of Gosteleradio declined, RCI’s relations with Radio 1, with the regionalstations in Russia, as well as with the stations in the newly independent republics,were already well established. However, the ambitious goal of daily rebroadcast ofRCI’s Russian program across the partner network remained elusive; for many yearsthe partners continued to run English lessons and the “Canadian Panorama”, to whichwere added a very popular weekly program “Canada from Sea to Sea” hosted andproduced by Mikhail Brodsky and Andrey Loginov’s “Cultural Review”. RCI’s “Pickof the Pops” and new releases of Canadian music distributed via the Moscow embassyproved also quite popular: a number of stations were producing their own musicalshows featuring these recordings. Copyright regulation unfortunately soon preventeddistribution of Canadian CDs with the exception of those produced by the CBC.

After the 1992 Challenges in Quebec City, and once the network was fullyoperational(48), Hargreaves secured funding based on a separate contributionagreement(49) with the External Affairs for a three-part, forty-episode series this authordesigned entitled My delayem tak, or This is How We Do It (50). The program, producedin 1993-1994, covered topics related to democratic institutions(51) in Canada,environment(52) and entrepreneurship(53); it highlighted ongoing Canadian technicalassistance programs in Russia and the former Soviet Union, and focused primarily onaffecting change at the grassroots level through presenting the Canadian model ofassuming individual responsibility and proactive involvement as a citizen. All RCIRussian language partner stations ran the series in 1994, some, more than once. Inspite of the interest(54) expressed by the Ukrainian National Radio Company, the ExternalAffairs proved less than eager to fund the Ukrainian version of “My delayem tak”.

China

One of the assets that served well RCI in its international relations,especially since the 80s, was the location of the Sackville transmitting plant: agateway to the Americas for all overseas broadcasters. RCI needed only a smallpart of late afternoon and evening airtime at Sackville, and could exchange or selllots of it to partners wishing to reach North America, among them, to Asianinternational broadcasters such as Radio Japan and Radio Beijing. For partnershipswith Chinese stations, another very important, if much less tangible, RCI’s assetwas the fact of Canada’s privileged relations with the People’s Republic of Chinaand the resulting officially sanctioned willingness to build a relationship withRCI. In the best tradition of Chinese diplomacy, Radio Beijing set about obtainingits goal in a slow and roundabout way. A young McGill University student, YuanKe-Win(55), visited RCI’s operations in Montreal in 1982. He looked around, chattedwith people and finally asked Gordon McDougall(56), a journalist in the English

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newsroom, whether he would be interested in training newsroom editors at RadioBeijing. An official request reached RCI in June 1983, barely two months laterMcDougall started his assignment in China and the station’s enduring friendshipwith Radio Beijing began. When the year was up, McDougall came back full ofgreat unprintable stories and cherished memories; during the following few years,occasional contacts between the two stations continued without anything muchhappening.

RCI’s strategy for acquiring Chinese audiences, comparatively moredirect, covered two phases. Phase one took advantage of the intensifying interestin China for learning English; phase two entailed launching shortwave broadcastsin Chinese. The reasoning for the soft “cultural” content preceding traditionaljournalistic broadcasts was obviously pragmatic in nature: attract future partnerswith a product they need and would be authorized to use, create and developbrand recognition and positive attitude towards RCI among Chinese audiences,and only then, offer directly to the listeners, the product you really want to distribute.

English lessons, designed by RCI and McGill University for Chinesespeakers as half-hour radio-programs called “Canadian English”, proved attractivenot only because of their educational value but also because of a certain neutralityof the Canadian accent situated somewhere between the British and the American;they were also politically more acceptable to the Chinese stations than if they hadbeen produced either by the Americans or by the British.

On April 6, 1986 Pierre Juneau, CBC President, signed in Beijing aMemorandum of Understanding about production and transmission of RCI’sEnglish Courses. Over a year later, in July 1987, Allan Familiant negotiated aseries of contracts(57) with Beijing’s People’s Broadcasting Station, Shanghai Radio,Xian Radio, and Radio Guangdong, RCI’s first four historic partners in China. Atthis occasion, Radio Beijing, later known as China Radio International, approachedFamiliant with a proposal for a Sackville airtime rental or exchange; shortwavefrequencies from Xian transmitters were offered to relay RCI’s broadcasts.However, RCI could not make transmission deals with communist Chinese mediawithout the support and blessing of the Canadian government.

Discussions with External Affairs(58) started in October 1987, andculminated in a letter from George Rejhon, Director General, Foreign Policy andGeneral Communications Bureau to Betty Zimmerman, RCI’s director, sent onMay 26, 1988: “In response to your letter of May 6 and in concurrence with theviews expressed at our meeting of April 20, I am pleased to confirm that theDepartment of External Affairs has no objection to RCI entering into a relayagreement with Radio Beijing. Indeed, it is our view that this agreement willcontribute to the state of friendly relations that already exist between Canada andthe People’s Republic of China.” RCI could now defend itself from accusations of

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allowing the Chinese to spew communist propaganda over North America. Theargument was that RCI was simply loaning hardware and could not assumeresponsibility for what Radio Beijing did with it. Anxious not to jeopardise itsown future broadcasts relayed from Xian, RCI insisted on total editorial freedom(59)

for both sides.

In October, 1988 the four historical partners, BPBS, Shanghai Radio,Xian Radio, and Radio Guangdong began broadcasting the “Canadian English”series, promptly picked up by radio stations in Tianjin, Hubei, Jiangsu, Hebei,Changchun, Shenyang, Yunnan, Gansu, Fujian, Guizhou, Chengdu, and Dalian.The Chinese partners printed even a student guide to facilitate learning by radio.On November 24, 1988 Betty Zimmerman signed the Sackville – Xian transmitterexchange agreement with Radio Beijing (China Radio International). The twohours of air time in Sackville were used by CRI for relaying Spanish and Englishprograms(60). The exchange has gradually increased during the 90s and has reachedfive hours daily.

Seven months later, daily Chinese broadcasts were launched (61) ahead oftime in response to the Tiananmen Square massacre. The “Canadian English”series played out repeatedly until 1991 when the first “Everyday English” madeits appearance, followed in 1992 by the 2nd “Everyday English”, and in 1993 bythe 3rd. At the beginning of the same year (February 6), the Cantonese languagePearl River Economic Station, a component of Radio Guangdong, startedbroadcasting on Sunday mornings the weekly “Canada Facts” hosted by a localanchor. Familiant, who went to China that year, was invited to participate in thejury of the Shanghai International Music Festival, and concluded an informalagreement with the PRES. The agreement functioned without a glitch until a three-year long negotiation resulted in an official contract with Radio Guangdong in2003, ten years after the beginning of this very successful relationship. The year1994 marks the first two-week long internship at Radio Guangdong of an RCIChinese journalist Zhang Xiao-Ling.

As soon as Familiant’s yearly treks to China fully consolidated thepartnerships, Roger Tétrault, manager of Asia – Middle-East, began to forge hisown links. In October 1995 Tetrault negotiated and signed in Beijing a letter ofintent with another partner, China National Radio, on regular co-productionsbetween the two organizations; the following year, Familiant formalized the co-production agreement(62), since then, re-worded and signed again by RobertO’Reilly in June 2000. In 1996, an especially eventful year in RCI’s relationswith China, the exchange of staff and co-productions took place with BPBS (nowBeijing Radio), Radio Guangdong, and China National Radio; CNR co-producedwith RCI twenty programs, broadcast subsequently by both stations. RCI alsoparticipated in Radio Guangdong International Music Festival and even won thebronze medal. There was also movement on the English training front: “New

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Everyday English” designed initially in 1995 for Vietnam, Laos and Cambodiawas adapted and produced for China in 1996, with a well known Canadian Chinesecomedian DaShan (Marc Roswell) as host. Growing interest in business andespecially in doing business with the West prompted Chinese partners to run aspecialized series “Everyday Business”, which RCI originally produced forVietnam.

The following year, RCI and CNR co-produced fifteen informationprograms on Canada. The same station broadcast fifty-two programs of Canadianmusic, co-hosted by DaShan. Two of RCI’s Chinese journalists visited China duringthat year, one worked at the BPBS, another one at Radio Guangdong in Guangzhou.RCI also submitted an hour-long musical program to the International MusicFestival in Shanghai; RCI’s entry was broadcast by Radio Shanghai.

After Familiant’s departure in 1997, two attempts by the new director,Bob O’Reilly, to negotiate deals in Asia failed in spite of promising Memorandaof Understanding signed with the Taipei based Broadcasting Corporation of China-1997- and with Radio Zhejiang in Hangzhou -1999. In 1999 CNR co-producedanother 15-part series with RCI, later broadcast by both partners. The same year,Radio Guangdong and RCI made history broadcasting a first ever live to air co-production with a western partner. In 2000 Joy Sellers, RCI’s new director ofProgramming and Operations signed another co-operation agreement with Beijing’sPeople’s Broadcasting Station, one of the four historical RCI’s partners, sincerenamed Beijing Radio, and with Radio Chongqing. Co-productions with CNRcontinued in 2001, resulting in a new three-part series. At the same time,technological advances in China allowed RCI to abandon costly courier servicesand feed its reports to partners via the Internet. In May 2002, another RCI director,Jean Larin was invited to the jury of the Shanghai International Music Festival.Following up on the recently signed co-operation agreement, Radio Chongqingand RCI organized a co-production in Montreal.

The longstanding and hugely successful language training projectcontinued under Tétrault’s direction with an innovative English and French coursefor children based on Canadian Folk tales. In October 2003, Tétrault, who in2001 became the Editor in Chief of RCI’s Foreign Language Broadcasts, negotiatedthree co-operation agreements, with Radio Guangdong (Pearl River EconomicStation), Radio Chongqing, and Radio Shanghai (News station); they were followedthe same year by a co-production with Radio Shanghai in Montreal. Co-productionwith CNR completed its fifth edition in 2003 in Beijing.

The 2004 proved even busier: four stations participated in five jointprojects, Radio Shanghai, Radio Chongqing, and Beijing Radio in China, BeijingRadio and CNR in Canada (Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal). In October, CNRinvited the Vice-President of Radio-Canada, Sylvain Lafrance to speak at an

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international symposium in Beijing. RCI started using its longstanding relationshipwith the Chinese media to facilitate the involvement of CBC / Radio-Canada withprojects in China. Tétrault was instrumental in finalizing a lucrative agreementfor CBC/Radio-Canada Transmission through his top level contacts at CRI, itspresident Li Dan and Vice-President Xia Jixuan; since November 2003, in additionto the five hours of air time exchange, CRI has been renting 14 hours of transmittertime in Sackville daily(63).

In June 2005, RCI undertook a joint mission to Beijing with the CanadianInstitute for Training in Public Broadcasting(64) - a new international trainingcomponent of the CBC-, CBC English Radio, and CBC English TV to discusstraining of Beijing Radio and Central China Television (CCTV) personnel, inpreparation for the 2008 Olympic Games scheduled in Beijing. Simultaneously,Beijing Radio attempted to strike a deal for training of 90 journalists with theSchool of Journalism of the University of British Columbia, whose director, DonnaLogan, a former CBC Vice-President, asked for the Institute’s assistance with thepractical side of the training.

As it later transpired(65), Beijing Radio did not have any real interest intraining, at least not in a large scope project, but were using the forthcomingOlympics as a pretext to travel to Canada and as an opportunity to learn how tonegotiate with their Western media counterparts. The details of the story will mostprobably never be known but the exercise ended in considerable frustration forUBC, the Institute and CBC media lines involved. Surprisingly, it did not at allaffect RCI’s co-productions and exchanges with Beijing Radio, which continuedas scheduled.

Cuba

RCI relations with Latin American media started soon after the Spanishbroadcasts to the region were launched in June of 1946. English broadcasts to theCaribbean, inaugurated July 1, 1945, were already going strong; the scope ofCanadian broadcasting to Latin America was broadened in 1948 through theaddition of Portuguese to Brazil and French to the Caribbean. Additionally toshortwave broadcasts, RCI was providing to the media in the region spoken wordand musical program produced by its Transcription Service(66) created in 1947 andlater renamed Recorded Programs.

Diplomatic relations between Cuba and Canada began in 1945, just as WW2was winding down in Europe; they survived the Cuban revolution and beyondwithout interruption, in spite of the growing US - Cuban conflict and Americanpressure. When Fidel Castro came to power in 1959 (67), RCI continued to broadcastthe same generic program of news and current affairs to all Latin American

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countries without singling out Cuban listeners in any way. Canadian Prime Ministerof the time, conservative politician John Diefenbaker, personally disliked PresidentJohn Kennedy and strongly resented American pressure against trade with Cuba.Canada disapproved of the US embargo of Cuba and the 1961 unsuccessful Bayof Pigs invasion. During the Cuban missile crisis the following year, Kennedygave Canada only a few hours’ warning before the deployment of a naval blockadeof Cuba. Offended Diefenbaker questioned the credibility of the Americanaccusations against Cuba and delayed sending warships and placing Canadian AirForce within NORAD on full alert(68).

There was clearly no political will in Canada, neither in the conservativeDiefenbaker government, nor later under the liberal rule(69), to dedicate part ofRCI’s Latin American broadcasts specifically to Cuban audiences. There was noinfluential Cuban lobby in Canada to push for the creation of a Canadian RadioMarti(70). Another reason why Cuba was treated by RCI like one among manyLatin American countries was the lack of staff of Cuban origin. Without activeanti-Castro champions in RCI, events in Cuba were not ignored but reported onlyif they had a larger regional rather than local resonance.

The first official contact after the Cuban revolution between RCI and aCuban radio station took place at the Challenges II conference in 1992, in QuebecCity. Laval University had some dealings with Instituto Cubano de Radio yTelevisión and invited a Cuban communications professor Arnaldo Coro, advisorto the director of the Cuban international station (71), Radio Havana Cuba. Twoyears later, Coro was invited to Challenges III, in Vancouver; this time he wasrefused a Canadian visa for political reasons and did not attend the conference.

The same year in June, thanks to Sandra Basile’s(72) intensive efforts,RCI participated in an international cultural event in Havana called Expolingua’94, where a booth presenting various RCI productions, including Inglés ParaTodos, the Spanish version of the Everyday English course, was run by JesúsVega, a local broadcaster hired by the Canadian embassy. Nobody from RCI waspresent at the event. The exhibition was a huge success according to DavidMorrison, 2nd Secretary at the Canadian Embassy in Havana. Vega signed up morethan fifty institutions willing to use the language courses(73). Eventually, between1994 and 2002, about seventy Latin American stations repeatedly broadcast variouslanguage series, Inglés Para Todos I and II, Inglés de Negocios, Francés ParaTodos and Francés des Negocios(74). However, it is not quite clear whether RCIever managed to have the Inglés Para Todos broadcast in Cuba, at least not byInstituto Cubano de Radio y Televisión. There are some indications(75) that RadioCiudad Habana, 95.9 FM and 800 AM, played the course on Sundays at 10:40from September 3, 1995 on, with the assistance of Keith Perron, a Canadianbroadcaster and a former RCI freelancer who worked for Radio Havana Cubaduring the 90s and was later hired in Beijing by China Radio International.

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In 1996, Manolo de la Rosa Hernández(76) of the same Institute as ArnaldoCoro participated in Challenges IV in St. John’s, Nfld. along with the coupleSandra Arguello and Roberto Galasso from Universidad Nacional de Formosa,Argentina and Oscar Saavedra Dahm from Universidad de Santiago de Chile.

After Sandra Basile retired in early 1996, the new head of the service,Ginette Bourély offered Inglés Para Todos to the Instituto Cubano de Radio yTelevisión, only to have it refused, allegedly due to electricity shortage, but in factbecause of a blanket Cuban policy of not broadcasting any potentially sensitiveforeign western programming; a policy which people at International RelationsDepartment of the Institute had no authority or indeed interest to change. Attemptingto cash in on the good will created by Minister Lloyd Axworthy’s visit to Cuba inJanuary 1997, RCI offered the language lessons again. The ploy unfortunately didnot work and even the Canadian ambassador Mark Entwistle asked later for helpwas finally unable to do more than suggest that it would be “easier not to includeCuba on the distribution list for the English course, in the short term” (77). Canadàa la carta, a monthly series of reports in Spanish on various topics excludingnews and Pick of the Pops, a pop music selection with a Spanish text, were beingregularly sent to most Latin American countries including Cuba but whether Cubanstations were broadcasting them, in full, in part or at all, has never been established.

When a few months later in April 1997, Bob O’Reilly took over as RCIDirector, he suggested yet another avenue of possible cooperation, that ofinternships or training. In April 1998, Bourély went to Cuba on vacation; shemade an appointment with Manolo de la Rosa who took her on a visit to RadioHavana Cuba where she met Isidro Fardales, the editor in chief and Milagro deJesù Hernández Cuba the director of the station, to whom she made RCI’s offerof training. A long period of exchange of correspondence ensued. The OttawaChallenges conference in 1998 welcomed Mexican, Chilean and Argentinianbroadcasters (78) but while an invitation was issued to Radio Havana, no Cubanscame. Only the last conference in the Challenges series organized in 2000 inMontreal was attended also by Milagro Hernández Cuba, as it turned out a charmingwoman and a good singer whose presence was appreciated by all participants,especially those who came from Latin America. An agreement between RCI andRadio Havana Cuba on training was signed during the conference.

Ginette Bourély (79) was invited and went to Havana in April 2001 for thecelebrations marking the 40th anniversary of Radio Havana Cuba; she would havefelt a bit lonely, if James Painter, the head of Latin America at the BBC WorldService had not attended the event. They were the only representatives of westerninternational broadcasters. RHC staff made them both very welcome even thoughthe official political attitude towards Canada clearly deteriorated at that timebecause of the Summit of the Americas underway in Quebec City, to which Fidel

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Castro was not invited.

In May and June that year RCI received an RHC intern, Marianela SamperSalmonte, “a journalist of experience” 80) who apparently enjoyed very much hertraining in Montreal, worked well with the Latin American team and learned touse digital editing on Dalet, the system in use at RCI. It is difficult to determinehow much she retained of the CBC journalistic standards and practices. In 2001,Luis Lopez who happened to be the husband of RCI’s intern, Marianela SamperSalmonte, replaced Milagro Hernández Cuba as the director of the station. RCIkeeps in regular contact with Isidro Fardales, still the head of informationprogramming at RHC who receives Canadá a la carta, parts of which are allegedlybroadcast on Radio Rebelde or Radio Progreso in Havana. He comes periodicallyto Montreal invited by local NGOs and at these occasions always visits RCI.Fardales even took part in RCI Spanish broadcasts when in the summer of 2006,possible post-Castro scenarios were discussed. RCI enjoys certainly a loyalaudience in Cuba: listeners’ mail statistics show Cuba as the single major sourceof letters, providing almost twice as many as Argentina, the next best source(81).

Endnotes1 See Siegel (160). Delafield – Ch. V: Toward Change and Renewal (8-11) – describes in detail howthe end of jamming of the I. S. in 1963 signalled the readiness for exchange which in turn led todispatches of programming to Radio Moscow and CBC requests for English and French sports coveragefeaturing Canadian teams as well as reports from tours of Canadian artists.2 There are lists of received and sent material in the archives of the Russian section but little evidenceof any actual use by the Soviet media. See Six-monthly Report on Exchange of Tapes and TV Filmswith Radio-Moscow, January 1st, 1968 up to July 1st, 1968. It appears from a number of later documentsthat the exchange came to be considered an exercise in futility; both sections broadcasting to theSoviet Union were equally frustrated with the snail pace of communication or lack of response fromthe state broadcasters. The Ukrainian section advised the director in 1972 that they stopped sendingprograms to Radio Kyiv “in the absence of any response” (November 30, 1972 Internal Memo toCharles Delafield). In 1973 the Russian section confirmed that “to date, we have never once, in thepast decade, had specific confirmation of use of Russian section material on such and such a program,despite our repeated requests…We should not forever tolerate a situation in which we faithfully usetheir material, which is often enough critical of Canada in sports anyway, and report on its use indetail, whereas our politically neutral material may, for all we know, end up in the wastebasket.” Seea 1973 Carroll Chipman’s Internal Memo quoted by Delafield, Ch.V (10).3 Sixty-two countries and fifty million visitors took part in the event held from April 28 to October27, 1967. The theme of the exhibition was “Man and His World”. See the “Man and His World” siteat the Library and Archives Canada. Retrieved February 22, 2005, from http://www.collectionscanada.ca/05/0533/053302_e.html4 See Delafield, Ch. V (8-11)5 See Highlights. 15 Years of the Hungarian Section. Radio Canada International. November 12,1971 (3); Twenty Years of the Hungarian Section. Radio Canada International. October, 1976 (3).6 See Ch. Delafield’s March 11 letter to M. Zemla, where he expresses appreciation and hope forfuture co-operation. It was of course far from a regular practice for Delafield to send thank-you notesto officials interviewed by I.S.’s reporters.7 The visit was scheduled for June 12-24, 1966. Laštovicka was the Chairman of the Assembly from1964 to 1968. See http://www.terra.es/personal2/monolith/czechosl.htm . Retrieved online March11, 2005.8 See Delafield’s letter to Miroslav Zemla dated May 15, 1966.

106 Relations with Communist Media9 See Reichman’s Report to Schmolka dated June 30, 1966. Reichman mentions in his report that themembers of the delegation were upset by the quasi total lack of local coverage of the visit but becamevery friendly once he organized several reports and interviews through his CBC radio and televisioncolleagues.10 See Delafield’s June 8, 1966 report and letter to the Canadian Ambassador in Prague.11 See Borivoj Celovský. Emigranti. Senov u Ostravy: Tilia, 1998 (42,112,139,210,240,343-345).Vitek, hired in 1961 by the I. S., recalls Mrs Nemec’s kind assistance to him after his arrival inCanada as a penniless young immigrant.12 Jane Organ. Varsovie, Prague et Budapest accueillent Radio Canada International, “Circuit fermé”6/25, 1-15 juillet 1990 (1, 6).13 See A. Simon’s November 19, 1990 letter to Paul Fraser, Chairman, Task Force for Central &Eastern Europe.14 A member of the English Service of Radio Praha.15 State radios in Poland, Ukraine and two new commercial stations in Hungary agreed to carry RCIdaily in their respective languages starting in early January 1991. The Polish Radio was already re-broadcasting RCI’s reports in Polish on its Program 3 for several months and continued to do so untilthe closure of the Polish section in March 1991.16 Challenges for International Broadcasting. New Democracies: the Means and the Message. Cap-Rouge, Québec: Les Presses Inter Universitaires, 1993 (III-IV, 228).17 Appointed Manager of Eastern Europe Target Area in 1976 and Assistant Program Director in1983, Vitek retired in 1987. His many achievements include a significant improvement of the qualityof RCI’s Eastern European programming, introduction of fair and transparent recruitment proceduresand of management by objectives.18 M. V.’s Archives, the May 26, 1992 Contract with the Czech Radio.19 Ibidem, M. Vitek’s September 11, 1992 letter to Alan McLaine.20 Alan McLaine, Director General, USSR and Eastern Europe Bureau at the Canadian ExternalAffairs in the 80s. He served as ambassador to Poland and later to Czechoslovakia, his last posting.Very knowledgeable about Eastern Europe and always helpful, McLaine shared with RCI’s managementtheir vision of the station’s role in the transition to democracy of the formerly communist countries.21 After his mandate expired, Jedrzejewski became Director of the First Program of the Polish Radioand in 2005 was appointed member of the National Council for Radio and Television.22 See the schedule of meetings with various departments of the Polish Radio, September 7-10, 1992in M. Vitek’s Archives.23 Hargreaves’ reservations and his counter-proposal are reconstructed from Vitek’s notes from theirSeptember meeting in Montreal and the author’s conversation with Hargreaves following that meeting.24 In an interview with the author in Toronto, September 21, 2004, Vitek recalled a conversation hehad with Mejstrik in 1993 about DW’ s consultation.25 Mentioned in Peter Udell. Czech Radio: A Consultancy Report. February 3, 1993 (1). For KHF seethe U.K. DFID site at http://test.netgates.co.uk/nre/ecotec/descriptors/dfid.htm. Retrieved online, May22, 2005.26 See Jan Proczyk. Cesky rozhlas bez reditele, “Cesky Denik”, June 12, 1993.27 He accepted an executive position at the commercial television channel Nova.28 M. V.’s Archives, Contract with the Czech Radio Council for the period of 1.6. 1993 – 18.6.1993.29 Ibidem, Contract with the Czech Radio Council for the period of June 1 to September 30,1993.30 Ibidem, a June 16, 1993 communiqué of the Czech Radio Council; Reditel rozhlasu nejmenovan,„Cesky Denik“, June 18, 1993 (2); Rozhlas nadale bez reditele, „Telegraf“, June 18, 1993.31 In Czech original: Parlamentni Komise pro sdelovaci prostredky. The commission was composedof four MPs: Jan Kasal, V. Koronthaly, P. Kohacek, P. Seifer.32 Reditel rozhlasu mozna v pondeli in Lidove Noviny, June 25, 1993 (16). Rada musi hledat dalreditele rozhlasu, „Mlada Fronta Dnes“, June 21, 1993 (2).33 Vitek’s official contract as an Advisor to the general director of the Czech Radio was signed byJezek on July 7. Ironically, Jezek told later his advisor that he participated in the selection only inorder to write an article for his newspaper Prace on “how he did not become director of the CzechRadio”34 In 1993, having run for a decade the Central and Eastern Europe Service at RCI, this author hadthe necessary experience; she was also known in the industry as the main organizer of the biennial

107 Relations with Communist MediaChallenges series, then in its third edition. The fact that she understood Czech was of course anotherreason for her selection.35 Hargreaves did not object, on the contrary, expressed great interest in getting a copy of the report,yet, upon the author’s return never asked to see the document.36 Cesky Rozhlas offered the author a consultancy contract from July 1 to 9, 1993.37 E. Olechowska. A Confidential Report on Radio Praha for the Director General of the CzechRadio Mgr. Vlastimil Jezek. Prague, July 12, 1993. The information on Radio Praha in 1993 andprofiles of the officials are based on the report and on the author’s notes from interviews conductedduring her mission in Prague.38 M. Vitek quoted J. Škvorecký’s words from a conversation he had with the writer several years afterthe fall of communism.39 For the developments at Radio Praha under the direction of M. Krupicka, see his article RadioPrague: A Strategy for the Future in “Diffusion Online”, August 2003 and the review of history of thestation at www.radio.cz/en. Krupicka worked for the BBC WS from 1991 to the end of 1997; heapplied and successfully competed for Radio Praha’s position against many other candidates.Reputation of international broadcasting in the Czech Republic was excellent thanks to the dedicatedwork of people like Vitek from RCI and Udell from the BBC. Krupicka’s colleague from the BBCCzech Section, Jakub Puchalsky was appointed director of the Czech TV on the same day but remainedin the position for a year only. See Krupicka’s July 27, 2005 e-mail to the author.40 Posted first in Washington as Press Attaché, as ambassador to Israel and later to Norway.41 Yarema Frydrak’s Telex to Andrew Simon, 29 August, 1990.42 The agreement is still in operation, although only two weekly broadcasts are now relayed, onSaturdays and Sundays.43 See The Pragmatics of Democratic Society: Campaigns and Elections. Campaign College. TheParliament of Ukraine, November 30- December 14, 1992.44 P. Potichnyj and H. Aster taught political science at McMaster University and both collaboratedwith RCI for many years. Professor Aster was the driving force behind the Challenges series andedited all the volumes of proceedings from the conference. Professor Potichnyj was a frequent voicein RCI’s Ukrainian broadcasts.45 See this author’s September 29, 1999 letter to Marvin Vodinsky, Canadian embassy in Kyiv.46 The author presented the CBC’s relations with the Ukrainian media within a panel “Media inUkraine: A Domain of State, the Oligarchs, or the Public?” held at the Kennan Institute in Washington,on February 14, 2006.47 Canadian English was initiated by Allan Familiant; originally produced for transmissions in Chinaby local stations, it was later adapted in Russian, Ukrainian, and Spanish; the following series werealso adapted in Arabic, as well as in three of the South-East Asian languages (Khmer, Vietnamese andLaotian) along with a French course Français parlé (1996-1997). From the very didactic initial 30-minute lessons designed by a McGill University expert (David Levy), the courses evolved, after ashort-lived collaboration with the BBC English by Radio, into RCI’s original more lively 15-minutelong radio broadcasts, grouped by degree of language command and also by theme, such as EveryDay English, Canadian pop music, Canadian business, Canadian Folk Tales etc. Three RCI managersparticipated in the conception and production of these programs, starting with Ted Farrant, head ofthe Japanese and later also Chinese section (1988-1991); the author’s own brief involvement consistedin an emergency take over from the BBC’s Doug Campbell of a tricky series of three thematic courseswritten by RCI newsroom staff (Derek Quinn, Craig McLaine and Frank Rackow) and produced inall language versions by Wojtek Gwiazda (1992-3); and finally Roger Tetrault, the current Editor-in-Chief of the Foreign Language Programs who was responsible for the language lessons the longest ofall (1995-) and most recently worked on the project with Guylaine Piccard, a Radio-Canada musicproducer. See RCI Language Lessons: an Overview. 1998.48 The network in Russia included: Stavropol State Radio & TV Company, ALTAI TV & RadioCompany (Barnaul), Chukotka TV & Radio Co. (Anadir), Novgorod Radio & TV Co. Slavia, Radio& TV Co. of Chita, Ivteleradio Company (Ivanovo), Krasnoyarsk Radio & TV Co., Bryansk Radio &TV Co., Kurgan Radio & TV Co., Ryazan Radio & TV Co. Oka, Irkutsk Radio & TV Co., RegionTiumen Radio & TV Co., Creative Producing Association House of Radio (Perm), Karelia Radio &TV Company (Petrozavodsk), Cheliabinsk Radio & TV Co., Kamchatka Radio & TV Co.(Petropavlovsk Kamchatskii), Europa Plus (Samara), Radio Rendez-vous (Nizhnyi Novgorod), Tikhyi

108 Relations with Communist MediaOkean (Vladivostok), Sakha Republik Radio & TV (Yakutsk), Radio Titan (Ufa, Bashkorkostan).The public stations in Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Belarus, Moldova.49 See T. Hargreaves’ July 12, 1993 Letter to Nancy Stiles, Director General, Bureau of Assistance toCentral and Eastern Europe.50 See Terry Hargreaves, Radio Canada International Tells Russians the ‘Canadian Way’ . “OttawaCitizen”. November 25, 1994 (A13).51 Democracy: many models, many roads; The citizen in a democracy; Elections and electoral basics;Organizing and running an electoral campaign; A profile of a member of parliament; Political partiesand special interest groups; Opposition parties: roles and responsibilities; Municipal government;Voluntarism; Organizing and running a voluntary or non-governmental organization; Lobbying;Community based programs and initiatives; The role of the media in a democratic society.52 Legislation; Conservation; Impact of environment on health; Distribution of energy in a largecountry; Environmental activism; Recycling for individuals; Recycling for industry and communities;Dealing with waste; Air and water pollution; Wilderness and economic development; Conservationof nature: national parks, heritage sites etc.; Car pollution; Environmental regeneration.53 What is a business; Business ethics; What is a manager; Profit; Pricing and market demand; Serviceas a business concept; Quality as a business concept; Advertising; Packaging; Hiring and managingstaff; financial planning and use of credit; A business plan; The place of business in a market-basedsociety; Business as an income generator and revenue source for government.54 See the previously quoted (49) Hargreaves’ letter to Nancy Stiles.55 Information on the initial contacts with Radio Beijing was shared with the author by G. McDougalland confirmed by A. Familiant.56 G. McDougall has been Line-up Editor at RCI for many years; he prepares newscasts for India,Russia and Ukraine and until recently also for China.57 R. Tetrault, Chine RCI 2004 (1) and my 2004 interview with Allan Familiant.58 See George Rejhon’s, Director General, Foreign Policy and General Communications BureauNovember 12, 1987 letter to Betty Zimmerman, Director, RCI followed an October 23, 1987 meetingat External Affairs: “The Asia-Pacific divisions are still discussing the Radio Beijing proposal, butthose discussions do not preclude your preliminary talks with the Chinese. Please keep us informedof your progress with Radio Beijing.”59 Paul Koring. China Airs Official News Line Via CBC Radio Transmitter. “The Globe and Mail”,43,548, Saturday, July 1, 1989.60 See Koring, op.cit. Familiant told the author, at the time, that Radio Beijing originally intended touse the name of Radio China International but decided to reverse the first two words to avoid confusionwith its partner RCI.61 Ann Simard. Broadcasting in Mandarin for Chinese Starts Today. “The Gazette”, Tuesday June20, 1989.62 Tetrault, Chine… 2004 (2).63 Information provided by Jacques Bouliane, former Chief Engineer at RCI and now Senior Manager,Business Development, CBC/Radio-Canada Transmission64 Jean Larin, RCI’s executive director, was also head of the Institute from November 2004 to June2005.65 University of British Columbia School of Journalism’s letter to the Canadian Institute for Trainingin Public Broadcasting, February 23, 2006.66 See Hall (42-45); Siegel does not elaborate on the activities of the Transcription Service but callsit “remarkably innovative” (156).67 Fidel Castro visited Canada twice, in 1959, the year he came to power and in 2000, for the funeralof Pierre Elliott Trudeau.68 See the Department’s for Foreign Affairs online history article Diefenbaker and the Yanks. Retrievedonline July 2006, at www.dfait-maeci.gc.ca/department/history/canada8-en.asp.69 In 1976 Prime Minister P. E. Trudeau was the first leader of a NATO country to visit Cuba sincethe revolution. See Canada-Cuba Facts at www.dfait-maeci.gc.ca/department/history/canada8-en.asp.70 The American intention to create a Radio Free Cuba along the same lines as Radio Free Europe,met with a strong opposition of other US broadcasters; people at VOA thought that opening a parallelservice in Spanish would result in diverting part of their own budget towards an ineffective purelypolitical exercise. It took almost a quarter of a century and the determination of Ronald Reagan,

109 Relations with Communist Mediaconvinced that the idea was worth trying, to launch Radio Marti in 1985, with the mission to broadcastexclusively to Cuba; a TV station called TV Marti began broadcasting in tandem with Radio Marti in1990. The two stations are operated since by the Office of Cuba Broadcasting, a federally fundedagency, supervised by the International Broadcasting Bureau, alongside the VOA.71 RHC was created in 1961. See Ms. Hernández Cuba’s February 16, 2001 letter to Ginette Bourély.72 The head of RCI’s Latin American Service, 1986-96.73 June 13, 1994 Morrison’s fax to Sandra Basile.74 Ginette Bourély. Partenariats RCI en Amérique Latine. Le 1 août 2006.75 Sandra Basile’s October 5, 1995 note to Nobina Robinson, Embassy of Canada, Havana, Cuba.76 He is still hosting a popular DX-mailbag show En contacto on Radio Rebelde.77 February 24, 1997 letter to RCI’s director Allan Familiant from the Canadian Embassy in Cuba,sent in response to his letter to Mark Entwistle of February 13, 1997.78 Carlos Lara Sumano and José Zorrilla, Instituto Mexicano de la Radio, David Dahma Bertelet,Radio Universidad Téchnica Federico Santa Maria, Richard Vera Alvarado, Universidad de Santiagode Chile, Luis Domenianni, Radio Universidad de Buenos Aires, Fabian Merlo, Radio Ideas FM,Mendosa, Argentina, and again the Argentinian couple Arguello and Galasso, Universidad de Formosa.79 G. Bourély’s e-mail to the author entitled …Cuba and dated August 1, 2006.80 Ibidem.81 Statistiques- Courrier des auditeurs – Radio Canada International. March 2006: 82 messagesfrom Cuba, 43 from Argentina; May 2006: 52 from Cuba, 18 from Argentina; June 2006: 52 fromCuba, 28 from Argentina.

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Chapter IV: Partnerships & Alliances

Technical Coordination Meetings

International broadcasters started meeting to coordinate twice a yearshortwave frequencies in the early 60s. Four North American participants, VOA,RFE/RL, Federal Communications Commission and RCI, as well as three westernEuropean international stations, BBC WS, Deutsche Welle, and Radio Nederlandmade up the group. As friendly, useful, and important as these frequencyconferences were, they always remained strictly technical and only occasionallyspilled over into contacts with programming people. In most, if not all internationalradios, there was a clear distinction, little affinity and a hint of competition betweenprogrammers and engineers, the “artists” and the “craftsmen”. Engineers, a minorityin any station, liked to surround their activities with a touch of initiation ritual andjealously guarded to themselves the semi-annual opportunity to be among theirown(1). They met informally, did what they needed to do and never bothered toproduce written records of their meetings.

High Frequency Coordination Conference (2)

Once the Soviet bloc was dismantled and the region embarked upon itstransition towards democracy, the post-communist states joined the frequencycoordination process which evolved into what we know now as HFCC, HighFrequency Coordination Conference. The original core of the five western stationswanted to keep their own special momentum going and has continued to meetfour times a year, twice within the HFCC and twice outside the larger assembly.Since the 1990 first joint East-West meeting in Pamporovo, Bulgaria, HFCC grewconsiderably; it is headquartered in Prague(3) and even though it retained thecharacteristically informal atmosphere, the association began producing nowwritten records of the biannual meetings, in keeping with the more bureaucraticapproach of its many post-communist members. The minutes of the Pamporovoconference reflected strong Slavonic participation: in a symbolic break with theSoviet domination the document was produced in German, a throwback to beforeWW2, when German was used as lingua franca in that part of Europe and jokinglycalled allgemeine Slavische Sprache; in record time(4), English became the commonlanguage for HFCC.

In accordance with HFCC regulations(5), RCI joined the informalorganization as an active member in August 1993 at the Hilversum conference,after an initial participation as an observer at the Cologne meeting in March 1993.

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RCI has since actively participated in all biannual HFCC conferences(6) withoutaspiring to any role greater than that of a solid and dependable member. Theorganization continued to expand its activities in collaboration with the regionalbroadcasting unions: in 1996, it helped create an affiliated frequency coordinationgroup within the Asia Pacific Broadcasting Union; since 1998, members of theArab States Broadcasting Union(7) have held joint meetings with HFCC. In 1999,South Africa (Sentech) joined HFCC and another affiliated coordination groupbegan its activities in sub-Saharan Africa(8). Up till 2006, RCI hosted only oneHFCC meeting in Montreal, in 2001. At the February 2005 conference in MexicoCity, the idea of holding two joint conferences a year with ABU-HFC, one in Asiaand one in a HFCC/ASBU’s country, was discussed and retained for further action.Four times in its history HFCC/ASBU held global meetings with the participationof the ABU-HFC, the most recent one in February 2006 in China. The membershipof the association reached sixty five organizations coordinating shortwaveschedules of fifty five countries, or more than eighty percent of shortwavetransmissions worldwide. HFCC is also an associate member(9) of the Digital RadioMondiale since 2000.

Digital Radio Mondiale

The advent of digital technologies and the need of the internationalbroadcasting community to take the lead in their development resulted in 1998 inthe forming of a consortium given an unusual “franglais” name of Digital RadioMondiale(10), in short DRM. The group behind the initiative was composed oftwenty broadcasters, network operators and broadcasting equipment manufacturers.The consortium intended to pilot the creation and development of a universal,digital system for the broadcasting bands below 30 MHz, covering short, mediumand longwave frequencies.

At the signing ceremony in Guangzhou, China, Lodewijk Bouwens, RadioNetherlands’ Director General, expressed the new organization’s conviction thatthe DRM system will enable listeners “to hear shortwave programs free of fadingand interference”(11). A few months later DRM became member of the Genevabased International Telecommunications Union’s Radiocommunication Sector. InAmsterdam in September the same year, the consortium agreement was formallysigned by thirty two members, not counting affiliates and associates (12). In spite ofnot respecting its overoptimistic promises of delivering inexpensive DRM receiversby 2001(13), the consortium has been steadily pushing forward and acquiring newmembers including broadcasting associations and research institutions, to the pointof passing the threshold of a hundred in late 2005(14). In April 2001, ITU approvedDRM on-air standard which is also currently endorsed by the EuropeanTelecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) and the InternationalElectrotechnical Committee (IEC). In March 2005, DRM decided to broaden theuse of the system to broadcasting bands up to 120 MHz; design, development and

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test stages of this extension are expected to be completed by 2009.

RCI was among the original twenty founding members of DRM and fromthe outset fully participated in all its activities, including worldwide promotionand most importantly, transmission tests conducted out of its Sackville plant inNew Brunswick. When the consortium was barely two months old, RCI gave it anopportunity to present itself at the May 1998 Challenges(15) conference in Ottawa;two years later, a special session on DRM was scheduled at the MontrealChallenges(16). After the 2001 integration of RCI into the CBC / Radio-Canada,when RCI transmission staff and facilities became part of CBC/Radio-CanadaTransmission, the commitment to the DRM process continued as before with activeparticipation of the Sackville station and former RCI’s Chief Engineer JacquesBouliane who is currently Senior Manager of Business Development.

The difficulty in really understanding and assessing a new technology atthe before adoption and establishment stage is caused by the heavy layer of wishfulthinking and promotional hype. DRM is no exception, when all that easilymisleading makeup is stripped off – incidentally, not an easy task – it becomesclear that the success of the technology rides on mass production of a truly cheapreceiver able to rapidly replace the hundreds of millions of conventional receiversin use across the globe. DRM transmission costs to the broadcaster are definitelylower than those of analogue transmission, the reception quality and dependabilitymuch higher, even though there is some talk about interference from power linecommunications; the problem lies in the audiences’ ability to receive the signalwhich is still not in place. This increases the uncertainty surrounding thesimulcasting during the costly transition phase: for how long broadcasters wouldhave to maintain both systems running, to attract new “digital” listeners and toprovide signal for those who still haven’t got the new receivers.

In 2000, DRM calculated that to persuade listeners to buy a new receiver,the price should be firmly below $20 US; the consortium was hoping for a viableprototype to appear on the market in 2001. In fact, the whole process was runningin circles: the manufacturers were waiting to see respectable numbers of potentialbuyers and the listeners expected cheap receivers and lots of attractive programmingand yet, a cheap receiver was nowhere in sight and there was no or very littleprogramming available to tempt the audience. Technology adoption patterns vary:long before any High Definition TV programs were there to watch, people beganbuying new expensive sets; this did not happen with digital radio receivers.Manufacturers did not rush into spending masses of R&D money but rather tooka wait and see approach.

Since 2000 the situation has somewhat changed: in 2006, there werealready over 700 hours of DRM programming broadcast daily worldwide. Thereceivers were slowly coming to the market but with a price tag still much closer

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to $200 than to $20. In parallel to DRM, Digital Audio Broadcasting, a technologybased on Eureka 147 system(17), has been promoted and tested, originally in theUS and later also in about forty other countries, by WorldDMB (formerlyWorldDAB). The two systems see each other as complementary rather thancompeting; since November 2006, a new multi-standard digital radio receiver(Morphy Richard 27024), costing just below 200 €, is available. This is still fartoo much to translate into mass audiences, although a multi-standard receivercombining the appeal of programming produced for two different standards maypossibly speed up and widen adoption at the market level.

International Broadcasting Group

The best functioning partnerships in international broadcasting are thosedriven by necessity or general usefulness, rather than those built on watertightlegal agreements and statutes. The HFCC, International Broadcasting Group ofSix, and CIBAR(18) are living proof of the validity of this principle. IBG-Six’s 30-year old fascinating history is little known even within the member organizations(19).The group operates very informally and its activities leave, amazingly, almost nopaper trail(20), creating in turn some problems for historical research. Fortunately,history in this case is relatively recent and well remembered by people instrumentalin the group’s creation. Among them, Bert Steinkamp, a former executive of RadioNederland and the group’s veteran co-ordinator who shared with RCI hisrecollection (21) of the origins of what was at first called the Four, or the Club ofFour(22). His insightful account combined with the existing documents and otherinputs(23) allows painting a fairly complete picture.

The story of the IBGF is intricately connected to international broadcasters’campaign on the international scene for recognition as a distinctive medium; itmay only be understood against the background of relations with their domesticcolleagues or parent organizations. In the 1960s, well before the partnership began,large international broadcasting bodies, the European Broadcasting Union andthe Asia & Pacific Broadcasting Union, dominated by national public broadcasters,were not properly attuned to the needs of their much smaller and less influentialcousins who broadcast to audiences abroad. It was the International League ofRed Cross Societies’ request for assistance to produce short multilingual broadcasts,made to the EBU in 1971, that prompted the first meeting of program executives(engineers had been meeting much longer for frequency co-ordination) ofinternational radio. EBU circulated to its member countries the request and aninvitation to come to Geneva. The national broadcasters, uninspired by themultilingual aspect of the request, forwarded it to their external services.

Bert Steinkamp attended the 1971 meeting on behalf of Dr Tijmstra,director general of Radio Nederland; he was mandated to show little enthusiasmfor the proposed venture. However, once the Red Cross needs were dealt with at

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the meeting, there was enough time to discuss the “core business” of theparticipants, who for the first time were among their own, not feeling marginalizedor isolated, as they usually did in their own countries. He recalls vividly the pleasureand satisfaction of all present in being able to exchange views and share experienceswithin this distinctive community of broadcasters. Back in Hilversum, Steinkampconvinced the lukewarm Dr Tijmstra that producing high standard journalisticbroadcasts for the Red Cross was a low price to pay for a regular opportunity tointeract with the international radio colleagues.

Following the meeting, Tony Dean(24), EBU Radio Program Director,proposed that international broadcasters be included in the EBU as members intheir own right. EBU member organizations did not like the idea at all, and anumber of executives from European international stations took on an extendedcampaign for the recognition of their kind of radio, which culminated in 1983,with the creation of the EBU Group of International Broadcasting Experts. Therather long and awkward name was chosen to avoid confusion with another“international” EBU group, that of Heads of International Relations.

The minutes of the annual meetings of the IBGF between 1976 and 1983,provide enough detail to map the snail trail from Dean’s initial 1971 proposal, tothe November 1983 first meeting of the Group of International BroadcastingExperts in Geneva. For a full decade, i.e. until 1981, “the climate was notclement”(25) for the EBU members – all national broadcasters - to act upon Dean’ssuggestion. In Bert Steinkamp’s words, they kept erecting “walls against the worldservices” and it took “a long time to melt them down”(26).

Nothing much happened during the first five years, if we discount theRed Cross broadcasts related meetings in Geneva. Finally, in 1976 Dr Tijmstra’ssuccessor at the helm of Radio Nederland, John Acda, discouraged by the on-going opposition within the EBU to any separate representation for the internationalbroadcasters, came up with an idea of a loose partnership of several small to mediumsize organizations. This alternative plan was inspired by the example of KSSU, avery successful alliance between medium-size airlines, KLM, Swissair, SAS andUTA. Joël Curchod, director of Swiss Radio International, gave Acda’s plan hissupport; together they approached Alan Brown (Radio Canada International) andBengt Gustafsson (Radio Sweden). The ease with which they convinced bothdirectors to join the group came as no surprise. The first meeting was held inHilversum, in late October the same year. Participants agreed to meet annuallyfrom then on and, every year, to “put one salient item on the agenda: Do wecontinue or not?”(27). A regular review of the usefulness of the partnership becamea permanent fixture of its identity.

Six years later, with the help of other European international radioexecutives, chief and most tenacious among them, Father Pasquale Borgomeo of

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Radio Vaticana, the group scored a big hit: at the 1981 Istanbul meetings, after adecade of vacillation, the EBU (28) embarked upon the task of assessing the interestand the reasons international stations had for joining the organization. Anoverwhelmingly positive response (29) warranted placing the matter on the agendafor the 1982 fall meeting in Athens. There was, again, no lack of vocal oppositionto separate representation being offered to international broadcasters, with BBCclaiming that external services were already adequately represented by nationalservices. Eventually, the spirit of compromise prevailed: Father Borgomeo agreedto lead a four-member task force (30) mandated to produce a discussion paper forthe spring 1983 EBU meeting in Lisbon.

A five-part document, presented by the task force in Lisbon, begins witha brief history of international broadcasting, followed by a discussion of commonground for international and domestic broadcasters and a review of both, unlikelyand promising areas of co-operation, ending with conclusions andrecommendations. This time, there was little opposition among EBU memberswho in majority(31) voted for the inclusion of international broadcasters in theunion. The task force(32) immediately embarked upon preparation of the first biennialmeeting of the new EBU Group of International Broadcasting Experts, scheduledfor November 1983 in Geneva.

Among the topics discussed at the 1983 IBGF meeting, was the future ofthe partnership in view of the recent successful recognition of internationalbroadcasting within the EBU. The annual question – Do we continue or not? –took on a more immediate meaning. John Acda’s opinion on the subject is reportedin the minutes:

“We should insist on the retaining the Four as we need a kind ofadvance guard of people who know each other with establishedfriendships, who have almost the same outlook on internationalaffairs. The Four are needed to formulate whatever might beimportant within the larger group. It is essential for it to continue”(33)

Bengt Gustafsson (Radio Sweden) is quoted as saying: the organization is moremeaningful following the EBU decision. We will have a better understanding withinthe EBU. The Four can achieve much together if efforts are pooled.(34) Joël Curchod(Swiss Radio International) suggested that the decision be postponed until theactivities of the new EBU Group could be assessed.

However, three(35) and even four years later, efforts to promote internationalbroadcasting within the EBU appeared still not entirely successful. In 1987 a jointcreation of an Asian relay station was seriously considered(36) among some of theIBGF members. In this context, Radio Nederland (an Asia-Pacific BroadcastingUnion member), approached the ABU on behalf of the group with its proposal for

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an Excellence in International Broadcasting Award. The group finalized the detailsof the proposed award the same year, at the annual meeting in Montreal (37). Duringthe previous talks with the ABU concerning the relay station, the union had alreadyexpressed keen interest in the idea of an award, especially that the same year, theIBG Four became IBG Five, incorporating the first Asia/Pacific partner, RadioAustralia, and extending its eastern reach.

There was, in fact, a second reason why the Award for Excellence inExternal Broadcasting came into being as an ABU and not an EBU award: theEBU’s thinking at that time seemed so far removed from the creation of any awardsfor international radio that IBGF deemed pointless attempting this “dead endalley”(38). It is important to put the picture straight, as barely a decade later, anewly appointed RCI Director, handicapped by lack of accessible corporatememory, summarily dismissed the1987 decision of teaming up with the ABU asbeing “purely based on exotic meeting places”(39). Incidentally, internationalbroadcasting executives have been often criticized for their “excessive” travel bythe domestic colleagues, and were sometimes sarcastically called “well travelled”or worse, mostly without reason.

In February 1989, an additional IBGF session (general directors only) inHilversum decided to reduce travel time and costs for the annual meeting bycombining it with the EBU Group of International Broadcasting Experts conferencein Geneva in November. The IBGF ’89 took place one day before the EBU meeting,on premises provided by the union. Since that year, the IBGF meetings werebeing occasionally attached to other events requiring participation of the group’smembers(40). However, the experience with the EBU was never repeated, nor wasany tightening of the link with the Union considered desirable, even though allpartners agreed with a 1991 Radio Nederland’s suggestion(41) to co-ordinatewhenever possible the scheduling of IBGF meetings with the EBU InternationalBroadcasting Experts Group’s biennial schedule.

The 1991 was a pivotal year for international broadcasting: the fall of theSoviet Union and the end of communism in Central and Eastern Europe,dramatically altered the situation of audiences beyond the Iron Curtain. IBGFmembers were not overly impressed with EBU’s services for internationalbroadcasting, but were hopeful that with the dramatic transformation of the Sovietbloc, the union could play a vital role. They recorded their opinion in the minutesof the 1991 meeting, stating that it was:

“worthwhile to continue the work within the EBU, the meetingsare interesting, especially if they are to include Eastern Europeancountries in the near future. It would also be politically wrongto dismiss the EBU, if people participate in its work it has someimpact. It could be said that so far the EBU has not done what

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it was expected to do, but the fringe benefits are of value”(42).

What was frustrating, especially for Radio Nederland, the group’s leader(43)

in all EBU dealings, was the slow, bureaucratic progress of any initiative, amongthem the request for change in the structural dependence of the Group ofInternational Broadcasting Experts, from a subgroup of the EBU Radio Committeeto a subgroup of the Administrative Council. The dependence link to the RadioCommittee contributed to a false impression that international broadcasters weresomehow in the minor league, just an add-on to “important” EBU members,national broadcasters. This misconception would have been dispelled if the groupwere directly linked to the Administrative Council, especially, since most of externalservices were independently or separately funded, thus satisfying the EBUmembership criteria(44).

The systemic inability of the large regional unions to respond adequatelyto the needs of international broadcasters, created winning conditions for initiatives,such as CIBAR(45), the 1984-1989 Valley Forge conferences(46), followed by a fulldecade(47) of Radio Canada International’s biennial Challenges, and by the mostrecent newcomer, Association for International Broadcasting(48). All of theseendeavours, discussed more in detail later in this chapter and in the chapter entitledRCI’s Contributions to International Broadcasting Debates, proved helpful to theindustry going through a stressful period of questioning, redefinition, andrepositioning. Yet, as successful as they have been, they have not diminished IBG’susefulness and its strong informal appeal for the partners. The existential question– Do we continue, or not? – asked at every (49) annual meeting of the group, maybe the key to its longevity. Another important factor is certainly lack of overheadexpenses and membership fees; in fact the only real cost to the partners is theannual travel to the meeting and every six (originally four) years, the hosting ofthe event. Before weighing successes and failures of the group, accumulated sincethe beginning in 1976, it would be interesting to establish how the membersthemselves assessed the advantages of belonging to the club.

In fact, several times in its history the group felt the need to formulatevarious benefits it offered to the partners and to list criteria for membership. Ratherearly on, at the 4th annual meeting in 1980, John Acda came up with the idea todiversify the membership by co-opting two or three 3rd World countries, “which”– he said – “we might adopt, also in the sense of development aid”(50). The buzzwordof the time was the “new information order” which, as we know, went out offashion before making a lasting contribution and before the IBGF had time topursue Acda’s worthy project. Discussion of the group benefits and of themembership were later prompted either by specific strategic goals of the members,or by dramatic political change. At the 1986 annual meeting in Stockholm, whena possible addition of Radio Australia was discussed, Swiss Radio Internationalopposed any extension of the group, as a matter of principle and not against Radio

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Australia’s candidacy as such; the final decision was postponed until a consensuscould be reached (51). This is what eventually happened, in time for Radio Australiato participate as a member in the 1987 meeting in Montreal. “Like-mindednessand similarity in size”, “a sense of co-operation”, “striving for the same goal” and“very credible in the world”(52) were characteristics quoted then as commondenominators for all partners. The strategic goal for the four initial members inRadio Australia joining the IBGF was to extend “the geographical reach of theGroup” and to respond to the “burgeoning world interest in the Pacific Rim” (53).

After the first Challenges in 1990, when the identity crisis of internationalbroadcasters loomed large due to the fall of the Berlin Wall, the partners seriouslyquestioned the need to continue their meetings and came up with the followingrationale:

“SW5 is primarily an informal meeting ground for the seniormost(sic!) managers of the organisations, exactly as the group started in1976. The aim of the group is not necessarily to go into jointoperational action, but rather to provide an opportunity for anexchange of policy considerations and backgrounds, as well as basisfor reliable, friendly links with respected colleagues. In order tonourish the mutual trust and confidence required for such a basis,meeting one another with a certain regularity is essential”(54).

In 1991, a further extension of the IBGF was on the agenda. The idea ofRadio Japan joining the organization was considered, but shelved for the timebeing because of what was perceived as Radio Japan’s highly formal structure.Following RCI’s(55) contacts with Radio Moscow and its declared eagerness tojoin, the issue of possible membership of Radio Moscow or another EasternEuropean station came up for discussion. All partners agreed that even thoughRadio Moscow was rapidly becoming “a reliable and journalistically valid”organization, its huge size barred it from joining the group of “small to medium”broadcasters. In any case, the upheavals in the Soviet Union precluded an accurateevaluation of the issue, Radio Moscow’s future direction and even survival beingtotally uncertain. As good as the timing might have seemed to Radio Moscow, itclearly appeared premature to the IBGF partners who felt that Radio Moscowneeded the group much more than the group needed Radio Moscow(56). MinneDijkstra (Radio Nederland), successor to John Acda, suggested that the groupshould allow itself time to study potential candidates, and then invite representativesas observers for part of the annual meeting, providing an opportunity to carefullyexamine each case. In conclusion, the partners identified two possible guests toan IBGF meeting, Radio Moscow and Radio Exterior de España(57). However, theexisting documents do not mention any invitation being actually issued to eitherstation, at any time(58).

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Out of the two requests for membership the IBGF received in 1992, onewas turned down - Radio Austria International(59) - and one (Radio Japan), broughtup again by RCI, was eventually accepted in 1993, after an exchange of informationand documents between the members(60). Admission of Radio Austria Internationalwould have increased the imbalance between the European and non-Europeancomponents of the group and as such was judged undesirable(61). In an animateddiscussion, the following “crucial characteristics of the Group” were highlighted:

“Organizations of comparable size based in comparable democraticsocieties, doing their work on the basis of comparable charters andsimilar opinions on professional standards… a degree of backgroundand operational diversity between members to such an extent that allderive added value from their membership. Another valuable assetof the Group is its intimacy, leading to a very high level of franknessand openness of discussions”(62).

The same exchange, produced general recommendations (63) for admissionprocedures, including screening aspiring members and assessment of the “newgeopolitical balance of the Group” created by an admission. An increase in costs,due to travel to far away locations, caused concern already in 1986, when RadioAustralia’s admission was being considered. Peter Barnett, Director of RadioAustralia addressed the question at that time by saying that “he would accept notholding meetings in Australia”(64). In fact, contrary to the 1986 and 1992 forecasts,the more remote venues did not create financial hardships and both, Radio Australiaand Radio Japan have been regularly taking their turn at hosting the annualmeetings, since their admission in, respectively, 1987 and 1993. Occasionalabsences of members at some of the annual meetings were due to internalemergencies rather than to financial considerations.

It proved very efficient for the proper functioning of the partnership toappoint a co-ordinator whose task was to liaise between the members assuringthat the necessary communication was taking place and to follow up on all decisionsand commitments taken at the annual meeting. Bert Steinkamp served verysuccessfully in this capacity for twenty years, right up to his retirement after adistinguished 38-year career in international broadcasting. At the 1995 meetingAllan Familiant, RCI Program Director involved in the group’s activities from thebeginning, took over the responsibility of co-ordinator(65), but after his departuretwo years later, the next appointment was not finalized(66) and the functioneventually lapsed.

The actual performance of the partnership, its balance sheet as it were,may be easily followed year after year and compared to the goals set by the foundingmembers in 1976 which corresponded to the main preoccupations of the time.Now, thirty years later, even though the situation evolved considerably, the areas

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of concern, with one notable exception, remain basically the same, as they arespecific to the industry: audience research, frequency co-ordination, publicity,recruitment, scheduling, listeners’ mail, program placement(67), programming co-operation and co-productions, and relations with the other broadcasting groups.The glaring omission is of course, funding, which three decades ago did notparticularly worry international broadcasting executives. The money was there,nobody expected the directors to raise it, earn it or compete for it; they weresimply supposed to manage it well and to account for it. As life eventually takescare of all good things, public money began to shrink in the 80s and that’s whenthe partners started to talk about funding and to seek each other’s advice on howto keep it.

However, during the hopeful 70s, broadcasters had manageable problems:even though with less urgency, they needed to know who was listening to theirprograms, where and why, just like their 21st century colleagues. Lack of immediateor at least rapid audience feedback has been plaguing international radio for ever,making correct evaluation of programming difficult, exerting a negative influenceon staff morale and seriously complicating accountability to stakeholders. Hence,an easy consensus among the IBGF members to give primary importance toaudience research; the best reliable substitute for regular direct feedback thatinternational broadcasting may hope for. What they couldn’t get on their own,they expected to obtain as a group, quicker and cheaper.

At its first meeting, the group mandated Bert Steinkamp to contact BernardBumpus, BBC World Service head of research in order to secure his co-operation,find out the target and scope of forthcoming surveys and inquire about prices (68).Clearly the partners felt the need for a better understanding of what internationalaudiences research can and cannot do because the following year they allparticipated in a special session in Bern, Switzerland, designed to bring them upto date on the main concepts and current methodologies. As a result of thesession(69), they reached a certain number of working objectives, first and foremostbeing regular exchange of information on research related topics, such as concreteresearch needs and plans, means and methods, any previous and future studiesand contacts with researchers in other organizations. Out of concern for gainingthe greatest possible advantage from surveys conducted by the BBC the membersagreed to abide by the BBC requirements of individually approaching the service,but simultaneously, to advise the other partners of the details of questions includedin the questionnaires. On the other hand, they decided to “diversify” and seekother sources of international surveys, outside of the BBC. In an attempt to reducesurvey costs per organization, the group agreed to try and co-opt non-memberstations as participating clients.

The following year, at the 1978 Montreal meeting(70), Bernard Bumpuscame with his assistant to talk to the partners, as well as to Arthur Laird and

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Connie MacFarlane from the CBC research department. Significantly, it was theonly documented case in the group’s history of someone from a non-memberstation being invited to the annual meeting. The 1977 research conference inBern and the meeting in Montreal seem to have prepared ground for the BBC-lead(71) creation of CIBAR in the mid-80s. The fascination of the partners withaudience research began to wane as their knowledge and understanding of itslimitations grew. At the 1980 meeting (72), the consensus was that audience researchwas good for exploring audience profile (“a typical shortwave listener”) and “theimage of a station”. However, in stark contrast with the opinion prevailing a quarterof a century later, the partners claimed that “research on program interests was ofrelative value since the possibilities of adaptation were limited by establishedcharters and program policies”(73). Today, nobody can hope to argue successfullyfor the principle of precedence of mandate over audience’s needs: a broadcasterwho disregards the needs of his audience in the name of his mandate does it at theperil of his own extinction. Any unrealistic, inward looking mandate needs to bereviewed or reinterpreted urgently allowing the broadcaster to produceprogramming relevant to the target listeners. Within a few years, the creation ofCIBAR, initially composed of stations that conducted audience research themselves(BBC, RN, DW and RFI)(74), made it possible for the group to successfully delegateall research related co-operation to research experts.

Publicity, or rather joint publicity, was another area of intense efforts forthe partners since the first 1976 meeting, with Latin America or, if not feasible,Africa, selected for the inaugural project(75). The following year, the partnersagreed(76) on a common slogan, “Cuatro voces – un idioma“, and a promotionaltext to be published in Buenos Aires, Argentina and possibly also in Venezuelaand Mexico. The details were handled by Radio Nederland’s and Radio Sweden’srepresentatives in Argentina and by RCI in the other two countries. In 1978, themembers discussed various concepts related to publicity and promotion(77), andwithin the next few years, several projects were realized: a joint publicity campaignproviding buyers of shortwave receivers manufactured by Panasonic, Sony(1987)(78) and Philips (since 1990)(79) with response coupons addressed to thepartners, a joint participation in the International Radio & TV Fair in Zürich in1980(80) and in the FIRATO Radio & TV Exhibition in Amsterdam in 1982, an adand a poster “Shortwave Foursome“(81), and a stand at the Expo 86 in Vancouver(82).From 1986 to 1989, a series of joint ads was run in the World Radio & TVHandbook(83) using the slogan: “International Broadcasting: Free Choice ofInformation for Better Communication“. After the third run, the partners decidedto stop the ads, because “the added value of a joint presentation…was too marginalto warrant continuation”(84).

Staff exchange(85) has been, for many years, a greatly appreciated activityof the group. It started in 1976 and was conducted on a small scale, involving afew people each year. The details are now impossible to recover but, on the basis

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of the reports from the annual meetings, we know that the exchanges were onlyvery exceptionally longer than 2 to 4-weeks and were rarely real staff exchangesbut rather familiarization visits of journalists and middle managers. True moraleboosters, the visits were highly appreciated by staff at all member stations. Onlythe directors complained that the host stations were not providing properperformance evaluation of visiting staff members. Various difficulties quoted bypartner stations included problems with accommodation for guests and insufficientlanguage skills, especially for Radio Nederland (visitors lacked fluency in Dutch).

Program evaluations(86) began fairly late in IBGF history, only at the 10th

annual meeting in 1986 and were conducted by the group for two consecutiveyears, lapsed for three years, resumed in 1992 and then were suspended for good(87).English broadcasts of RN, RSI and RCI were listened to and discussed in 1986;French programs to Africa produced by all four members were evaluated in 1987.An RCI English program to Europe was assessed in 1992 in Montreal. The reportin the last case is suspiciously laconic: “A frank discussion followed”. The broadcastmust have been atrocious, if the participants were not able to come up with anythingpositive to say! Attempts at group co-productions were rather unsuccessful (88)

and the partners decided to concentrate on bilateral ventures(89). Radio Nederland,for instance, had a very satisfactory experience in that area with Radio Japan(90).

As mentioned above in the discussion of the group’s relations with theEBU, the IBGF founded the ABU prize for External Broadcast Programs in 1989,after two years of careful preparation, in another initiative aimed at boosting staffmorale and providing a substitute for listeners’ feedback. Proposed at the 1987Annual Meeting, simultaneously(91) by Radio Nederland and by RCI, as an awardfor excellence in programming, the prize was integrated into the ABU Prizes, asthe only award specifically designed for international broadcasters. The awardrules provided for the main prize and a commendation. The winner of the prizecould visit one of the four sponsoring stations for a period of two weeks, allexpenses paid. The total value was calculated at US $ 5,000 and the four sponsorscontributed a quarter of the amount each. Radio Sweden decided not to sponsorthe prize because of financial difficulties but also because it did not broadcast toAsia(92) and did not hold an ABU associate membership. The first prize in 1989was a great success, with the number of entries higher than for any other ABUprize, in spite of some complications(93) with a Chinese member of the jury whocould not complete his work due to the Tiananmen Square massacre. RadioNederland(94), was the first winner and it decided not to bill its fellow members forthe related expenses. The following year, Radio Nederland and RCI receivedcommendations. These wins generated some soul-searching – how to combinebeing sponsors, judges and winners? The group came up with an answer at its 15th

annual meeting: the sponsors should not be part of the jury(95). Bert Steinkamp,during his annual(96) visit to ABU, requested a modification of the procedure inorder to accommodate the change. One year later, the prize was accorded to the

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BBC; SRI concerned about it, requested another change(97) of the rules whichwould put the prize more in line with its objectives. SRI decided to remain assponsor until 1993, to give ABU time to proceed with the change. As the rulesremained unchanged and the BBC won the award again in 1993, SRI withdrew.

The rest of the group let the matter rest for a few years until 1997 whenthey finally decided to end the sponsorship as of 1998(98). However, the IBG-6 andthe ABU seemingly forgot to communicate on the subject of the award becauseABU News announced the 1998 Prize, as still being sponsored by the group(99). Inthe meantime, BBC World Service advised by RCI of the IBG-6 withdrawal,obtained VOA’s and Deutsche Welle’s commitments to jointly sponsor the award.Soon after the ABU News erroneous announcement, BBC WS persuaded the Unionto reinstate the competition for 1999. RCI’s director, unaware of the BBC’sinitiative, made a futile attempt to transfer the award from the ABU toChallenges(100). These successive communication failures understandably createdsome confusion and resulted in the prize being suspended for one year (1998).The following year, RCI joined BBC, DW and VOA as the fourth sponsor of theaward(101), to withdraw again, in October 2003(102).

What became of the EBU Group of Experts in International Broadcasting,the subgroup of the EBU Radio Program Committee that Radio Netherlandsconsidered so unsatisfactory because it brought only “fringe benefits”(103)? It isstill operating even though the name at some point changed to InternationalBroadcasting Project Group, then in 2005(104), it shed its “project” status to becomeInternational Broadcasting Group, one of the groups of EBU’s Radio News &Sports Unit, providing a discussion, exchange and technical forum for Europeaninternational broadcasters. As a component of the CBC, RCI enjoys the status ofEBU associate member and as the only non European participant contributes tosome of the meetings of the group which, after a decade long chairmanship byVatican Radio’s Father Borgomeo(105), benefited for a number of years from theleadership of Radio Netherlands’ Lodewijk Bouwens and is now chaired by hissuccessor Jan Hoek. The 2006 meeting took place in late November in Geneva,with only eight organizations present and according to the report(106) prepared byMichael Mullane of the EBU, was a routine occasion: an exchange of currentnews followed by a discussion of the forthcoming specialized meeting scheduledfor June 2007, to be hosted in Stockholm by Anne Sseruvagi, director of RadioSweden.

CIBARThe origin of CIBAR or more precisely of the idea behind the organization couldbe traced to the already mentioned audience research meeting organized by theIBGF in Bern, Switzerland, in 1977. At that time, the BBC’s specializedinternational audience research department (IBAR) was conducting regular surveys

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worldwide, holding a position of quasi monopoly among international broadcasters,along side RFE/RL, a geographically focused leading expert on audiences behindthe Iron Curtain. The BBC surveys were highly appreciated for their professionalqualities but were also considered expensive, which made the internationalbroadcasters eager to seek new sources of audience data or alternative morefavourable arrangements with the BBC. When IBGF tried a group approach in1976, hoping to achieve some savings, IBAR was unwilling to relax the rule ofdealing with one client at a time. However, Bernard Bumpus, head of the BBCresearch, agreed to participate in the IBGF conference in Montreal in October1978, where he also met CBC audience experts, Arthur Laird and ConstanceMcFarlane(107). RCI had always relied on the CBC research staff for its audienceestimates. Nicole Beaulac, currently Senior Research Manager at the Research,Schedule and Broadcasting department of Radio-Canada, has been representingRCI’s interests at CIBAR meetings since 1988, with the exception of the periodfrom 1998 to 2001. During this interlude, RCI had its own Director of Researchand Marketing, Hélène Robillard-Frayne who even served as CIBAR president in2001, until full integration of RCI into the CBC/Radio-Canada structure broughtresearch activity back under the wing of the parent organization.

By the early 80s, more players joined the field of audience research.Deutsche Welle and Radio Nederland increased their research spending to levelsunattainable by smaller stations. Radio France Internationale, anxious to assessits priority African audiences, created its own research department; the newlyappointed head of research, Guy Robert, visited IBAR in London in November1983. In 1985, in Graham Mytton’s(108) Queen House London office audienceresearchers from BBC, DW, RFI and RN decided to meet regularly as a grouprather than pursue only bilateral contacts. Surprisingly, the talks were conductedin French, the only common language the researchers had at that time. Since the1985 meeting, the conferences have continued annually without interruption(109).The 1989 meeting in Paris was hosted by RFI and “it became a much bigger thing– there were even flags on the table and a lot more! RFI made it into somethingmuch bigger than we had originally envisaged”(110). The membership(111) grewquickly and eventually(112), the group became a more formal association calledCIBAR, to distinguish it from its spiritus movens, the BBC’s IBAR, a namesuggested by Michael Type of the EBU(113).

The history of the group since the first meeting in Graham Mytton’soffice(114), to the November 2004 conference, also in London (115), has beenpunctuated not only by the annual gatherings but also by milestone publications,which set the rules and standards for international audience research, making itsvalue and potential known and recognized. The 1993 Munich meeting attendedby EBU’s Michael Type marks the official beginning of links to EBU(116). By thattime, the union had already brought into its orbit CIBAR’s European domesticcounterpart, Group of European Audience Researchers (GEAR). In 1994, at a

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meeting in Bern, CIBAR mandated BBC, RFE/RL, RFI and RN, with the supportfrom the EBU, to produce research guidelines which were published in 1995-6;the 1st edition dealt with survey design and data collection, the 2nd covered alsodata management and reporting. The 3rd edition of the guidelines entitledHarmonized Audience Measurement for International Broadcasting is generallyconsidered the bible of international audience research community, and nowincludes web measurements. It is available at the association’s web sitewww.cibar.org, with a number of appendices and annexes (117). The EBU connection,active until the end of the last century has withered (118).

CIBAR is now headquartered in Cologne and incorporated under Germanlaw (119) as a non-profit association; since 2000, its annual conference reports areedited and published by Deutsche Welle’s Head of Research, Oliver Zoellner (120).Annual membership and conference registration fees cover the costs of runningthe association and some of its services to members. Interested members participatein costs of commissioned studies. Joint research projects, co-ordination of regularupdates, sharing members’ and research agencies’ survey plans within the wholeassociation are the main aims of CIBAR.

During the highly evolutional for international broadcasting decade,between 1990 and 2000, CIBAR members and experts participated in allChallenges conferences, from the very beginnings in Hamilton to the final meetingin Montreal. The research sessions also ranked among the most attended andinteresting. Early in the series, Graham Mytton agreed to suggest speakers for theresearch session and then took over its design and organization, with some logisticalhelp from RCI. When Challenges evolved from a one-time event into a biennialseries, Mytton, of course, immediately saw the potential of the conference forresearch group and its broad purpose formally expressed later as follows: “topromote a deeper understanding among public service international broadcastersof both the practices and value of audience research and audience relationsactivities”(121). RCI and Challenges on the other hand, needed Mytton’s dynamicparticipation to ensure high quality research contributions strongly appealing toall invited broadcasters, those who already were and those who were not membersof CIBAR. However, Mytton’s importance to RCI has not been limited toChallenges. Whenever the need arose, as it frequently did during the 90s and intothe new century, RCI could count on Mytton’s generosity and willingness to usehis vast expertise and influence in the industry to come to the rescue. If therewere a gallery of RCI’s friends and benefactors, Graham Mytton’s portrait wouldhave had to hang there, in a place of honour.

CIBAR’s relations with RCI have been mutually beneficial, especiallydue to the Challenges conferences, with their excellent networking opportunitiesand biennial volumes of proceedings containing full transcripts of all researchpapers presented by CIBAR’s members. Once Challenges were discontinued,

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CIBAR’s own publication of research papers became unavoidable. Each passingyear adds another annual conference under CIBAR’s belt; the growing CIBARlibrary has become impressive and essential to the industry.

The 2005 CIBAR meetings took place in Montreal, in honour of RCI’s60th anniversary year. The conference was opened by Jean Larin, RCI’s ExecutiveDirector, who presented the continued repositioning of the station, setting thestage for a session focusing on media research in Canada. The other themesdiscussed in Montreal included strategic applications of research results by variousinternational broadcasters, crucial issues surrounding sampling, an update on theprogress and prognosis of Digital Radio Mondiale and its research implications,and as usual, results of variety of the most recent audience research studies, withan emphasis on measuring audience of affiliated and partner station re-broadcastinginternational radio and television.(122)

Two of the speakers, Allen Cooper(123) and Oliver Zoellner (124) spoke aboutthe growing importance of ethnographical research, a new approach in studyingaudiences, related to anthropology. This type of observational research looks toaudiences for expertise and innovation: it is conducted by researchers immersedin the environment they study. Similar approaches have been used recently inprogram development at such organizations as the BBC, where production teamsare being sent out to spend some time with “average” listeners and viewers (125).

Regrettably, since the Montreal conference, CIBAR stopped publishingvolumes of proceedings and instead makes the presentations available to membersonly on CIBAR website. Costs of holding the annual events in far away placesseriously deplete available funds of small groups, such as CIBAR (126). The 2006meeting took place in October, in Melbourne, Australia and was hosted by Jean-Gabriel Manguy, director of Radio Australia. The topics included methodologyissues and an impressive array of latest research results in Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq,Middle East, Cambodia, China, East Timor, Cuba, Chile, Democratic Republic ofCongo, Nigeria, and Senegal; use of research for program evaluation, for futureprogramming decisions and for existential questions for the industry, such as“international radio listeners – do they exist?”(127).

Radio Canada International’s Bilateral Partnerships

The discussion of RCI’s partnerships would not be complete without atleast a brief mention of rebroadcast and placement agreements the number ofwhich since 2006 hover close to the 400 mark. The relations with stations inCentral & Eastern Europe, China and Cuba, including the rebroadcast andplacement agreements, took a different turn and are analysed in detail elsewherein this book. RCI has been concluding informal bilateral partnerships with stationsabroad willing to broadcast music, whole spoken word programs or segments,

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such as series, documentaries or single reports since the late forties, starting withina few years of its creation. The Transcription Service, launched in 1947, took overdistribution of material less suitable for delivery via shortwave signal, i.e. musicand drama; distribution lists included Canadian diplomatic posts abroad, radiostations and music schools (128). As discussed in the chapter on funding models,the Transcription Service finally wound up its activities due to the downsizing of1990-1991. Pick of the Pops, the monthly selection of mainstream most popularCanadian songs in English and in French, the last remnant of RCI musicdistribution, continued for almost another decade before falling victim to stricteradherence to copyright requirements.

Soon after the programming in English and French, reduced torepackaging of CBC/Radio-Canada material suitable for international audiencesin 1991, resumed some original production, RCI started offering a monthly half-hour selection of non strictly news oriented items called Canada à la carte toforeign stations broadcasting in English, French and Spanish. The network of re-broadcasting partners in these languages grew slowly until 2001, when GinetteBourély, as the new manager of RCI’s partnerships, began a dynamic campaignfocussing on Africa and Latin America. She also secured assistance from twolongstanding and loyal partners, Deutsche Welle and Radio Netherlands, bothwith extensive affiliate networks.

By early 2007, approximately 400 partner stations (129) of all kind, national,regional as well as community and university radios played RCI material in seventydifferent countries. The fact that these impressive numbers were achieved and aremaintained through the efforts of just one person controlling a truly minimaloperational budget is in itself amazing. The programs are selected within RCIdaily output and offered free of charge; they are available on CDs and in theformat of MP3 audio files posted on a password protected website RCI AUDIOBANK. It is yet unclear what effect on the development of its network of partnerstations abroad will have the latest evolution of RCI programming towardsbroadcasting to immigrant audiences in Canada. Co-productions and training aretwo additional drivers in the growth of RCI’s partnership network, withdistinguished contributions from Latin American (both Spanish and Brazilian),Chinese, French, Arabic and Ukrainian services.

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Endnotes1 This perfectly natural “brotherhood” tendency did not spill over into the way RCI technical staffinteracted with programming people. During this author’s many visits to the Sackville, New Brunswick,plant or Stittsville and then West Carleton, Ontario, monitoring station, she was repeatedly impressed bythe enthusiastic welcome, warm interest, helpfulness, and easy camaraderie extended by the hosts.Montreal technical production staff had been for most of RCI history part of the station personnel and avery well integrated one at that; when in 2001, they acquired the status of the CBC/Radio-Canada ratherthan exclusively RCI employees, few of them took the opportunity of transferring to national programs;those who did, became RCI ambassadors and favourite contacts, like Noël Émond and Stéphane Fournier.2 The original name was High Frequency Coordination Committee. See also J. Wood’s slightly confus-ing and not entirely correct mention of HFCC in his History of International Broadcasting, vol. 2 (18).3 See www.hfcc.org; former frequencies coordinator from Radio Prague International and a shortwaveenthusiast, Oldrich Cip, was instrumental in establishing HFCC headquarters in Prague and in register-ing it as a civic association in the Czech Republic. HFCC was originally registered as a regional co-ordination group with the International Telecommunications Union in Geneva, see www.itu.int/brsoft/terrestrial/hf-propagation/Coordination/coordin.htm. The method of frequency coordination and pro-prietary software developed by HFCC was researched and approved by ITU and consequently becamepart of the International Radio Regulations during the 1997 World Radio Conference. In July 2005HFCC’s application for the Radio sector membership of the ITU (exempted from dues as a non-profitorganization) was approved. In February 2006 Oldrich Cip was re-elected Chairman of the SteeringBoard for another four-year mandate.4 From the second conference in 1991 on, the minutes have been consistently produced in English.See HFCC Plenary Meeting Minutes, 1991-2006; until February 2006 the minutes were prepared byDennis Thompson of VT Communications (originally BBC WS Transmissions and then MerlinCommunications) who retired later in 2006. The duties of the Rapporteur were then taken up byGeoff Spells, Contractor to VTC and its former full time employee.5 See www.hfcc.org/group.html and Gérald Théorêt’s note to Sylvie Robitaille, dated August 16,2004.6 The meetings are listed on HFCC website: 1990 Pamporovo, 1991 Prague, Sinaia, 1992 Budapest,Evesham, 1993 Cologne, Hilversum, 1994 Rome, Paris, 1995 Turin, Stockholm, 1996 Berne, Prague,1997 Istanbul, Warsaw, 1998 Bruges, Tunis, 1999 Vienna, Dubrovnik, 2000 Kuala Lumpur, Geneva,2001 Montreal, Bonn, 2002 Bangkok, Lisbon, 2003 Sandton/Johannesburg, Tromso, 2004 Dubai,Helsinki, 2005 Mexico City, Valencia, 2006 Sanya, Hainan Island, Athens. See also January 12, 2007G. Théorêt’s note to the author.7 www.asbu.tn.8 In accordance with Art. S 12 of ITU Regulations on creation of new frequency coordination groups.9 See http://www.hfcc.org/pro/index.html.10 See DRM history at its website: http://www.drm.org/consortium/history.php.11 See http://www.drm.org/pdfs/pr070798.pdf.12 See http://drm.org/pdfs/pr100998.pdf13 Ibidem.14 See the newsletter, DRM, February 2006 (2) listing 57 full members and 45 associate membersfrom 31 countries. Associate members are all non-profit organizations.15 See Robert Everett, Digital Radio Mondiale in Challenges V…(202-207) followed by a transcriptof general discussion (208-213). Everett was at the time Digital HF Project Director, EngineeringDepartment, International Broadcasting Board. IBB provides transmission services for the VOA.16 Fiona Lowry & Rory MacLachlan, The Threats to DRM in Challenges VI… (332-336), followedby discussion (336-343). F. Lowry and R. MacLachlan were at the time senior executives of MerlinCommunications International.17 See World DMB and DRM Welcome Dual Standard Digital Radio Receiver, London, 27th November2006. Press release at http://www.drm.org/pdfs/press_release_128.pdf.18 Conference of International Broadcasters’ Audience Research Services established informally inthe mid 1980s. It is open to stations with a public service remit, broadcasting to audiences abroad. SeeAllen Cooper. CIBAR – What it is, how it works in: An Essential Link with Audiences Worldwide.

130 Partnerships & AlliancesResearch for International Broadcasting. DW- Schriftenreihe, Bd 5. Berlin: Vistas, 2002 (21-22). Fora detailed discussion of CIBAR’s development see later in the chapter and visit: www.cibar.org.19 Arthur Siegel in his Radio Canada International: History and Development. Oakville, Ont.: MosaicPress, 1996, does not seem to be aware of the existence of the IBG. James Hall in Radio CanadaInternational: Voice of a Middle Power. East Lansing, Mi: Michigan State University Press, 1997(165-166), quoting from an interview with Betty Zimmerman taped December 17, 1987, brieflymentions “the Group of Four” implying that it was defunct at the time of the recording. He gives anincorrect date of the group’s creation (1978 instead of 1976) and misspells the name of RadioNederland’s director (Acor instead of Acda) – a typical error due to unclear audio recording. DonaldR. Browne reports that RCI, Radio Nederland, Radio Sweden and Swiss Radio International exchangestaff as well as information on “operating procedures” but does not offer any other details (InternationalRadio Broadcasting: The Limits of the Limitless Medium. New York: Preager, 1982 (215)).20 All documents related to the group the author was able to locate, are listed in the Works Cited inthis chapter. Circuit fermé (November 8, 1978, p.2), a Radio-Canada staff newsletter mentioned thegroup’s meeting in Montreal and even provided a photograph of representatives of the four stations.It is, to the author’s knowledge, the only such document ever published.21 Bert Steinkamp’s e-mails to the author, dated July 17, 30, 31, 2004. See also B. Steinkamp, Co-operation between Western International Broadcaster in Challenges for International Broadcasting:New Democracies: The Means and the Message. Cap Rouge, QC: Presses Inter Universitaires, 1993(26-27).22 In the earliest documents, the group does not have a name; “The Four” appears for the first time inthe summary of the Audience Research Meeting Report in 1977, followed by “Club of Four” in 1978,back to “The Four” in 1980, changed into “The Shortwave Four” (1981 and 82) and finally assuminga more formal version: the “International Broadcasting Group of Four” (1982), of Five (1987), and ofSix (1993). Bert Steinkamp recalls (July 17, 2004 e-mail) that during the first decade, the memberswould usually refer to the group as the “Club of Four”, or, jokingly the “Gang of Four” – an allusionto the four Chinese radical leaders blamed and condemned after Mao’s death in 1976 for the excessesof the Cultural Revolution.23 IBG-6 members kindly vetted the text of this chapter at the 28th annual meeting hosted by RCI inLac Taureau, Quebec, August 30-31, 2004.24 T. Dean was a former director of the African Broadcasting Services in Nairobi, Kenya. He laterbecame EBU Secretary General.25 See International Broadcasting Group of Four 7th Annual Meeting… 1983 (9).26 B. Steinkamp’s e-mail to the author of July 17, 2004.27 B. Steinkamp, in the same e-mail.28 A clear distinction needs to be drawn between the attitude of EBU officials and administration,generally helpful and favourable to international broadcasting, and that of the membership at large.29 EBU circulated a detailed questionnaire to international broadcasters, see 6th Meeting of “TheShortwave Four”…1982 (3).30 Joël Curchod, Manfred Jenke and Juhani Niinistö (YLE, External Service)31 With Finland and Denmark dissenting and one abstention, Norway. See IBGF 7th Annual Meeting…1983 (9). B. Steinkamp in his September 6, 2004 e-mail to the author recalls that the motion wascarried by a majority of only one vote.32 Borgomeo, Curchod, Niinistö and Steinkamp who replaced Jenke, ibidem (9).33 Ibidem (15).34 Ibidem (10).35 10th Annual Meeting of the International Broadcasting Group of Four. Stockholm, June 14-19,1986 (12).36 B. Steinkamp provided this information in his September 6, 2004 e-mail to the author.37 IBGF 11th Annual Meeting…1987. Wed., August 26 – Moncton – Item 5.2.38 Ibidem.39 Robert O’Reilly’s correspondence with Elizabeth Wright, Head of BBC World Service, Asia andthe Pacific. June 10, 1998.40 Only two other such cases are documented: IBGF 1990 in Australia directly preceded the ABUgeneral assembly in New Delhi. 1998 meeting coincided with Challenges V in Ottawa.41 15th Annual Meeting…1991 (16).

131 Partnerships & Alliances42 Ibidem (16).43 For questions related to engineering and transmission technologies, Radio Nederland has beenactive in another group of international broadcasters in parallel with the IBGF, called informally theBig Five and composed of BBC WS, VOA, Deutsche Welle, RFI, and Radio Nederland. See Minutesof the 21st…1997 (6); G6 Meeting in Tokyo. 2000 (1), as well as B. Steinkamp’s comments in hisSeptember 6, 2004 e-mail to the author.44 Ibidem (16).45 See endnote 28 and later in the chapter, under the heading CIBAR.46 Two events organized at the Valley Forge Freedom Foundation by Professor Ken Short (ofCambridge University and later University of Texas) focussing on broadcasting to the Soviet Unionand the Soviet bloc countries.47 1990 – 2000.48 Founded in 1999. See www.aib.org.uk49 Nicolas Lombard (swissinfo) who participated in most of the annual meetings since 1976 said atthe August 2004 event in Lac Taureau, Quebec, that he remembered clearly regular discussions of thefuture of the group throughout its history but he also recalled that the continued existence of thegroup was never really in question.50 4th Meeting of « The Four ». February 5-9, 1980 (11).51 See 10th Annual Meeting…1986 (13)52 See 11th Annual Meeting… 1987 (1)53 Ibidem.54 14th Annual Meeting… 1990 (8).55 RCI’s Program Director Allan Familiant visited Radio Moscow just before the IBGF in Stockholm.See 15th Annual Meeting of the International Broadcasting Group of Five… 1991 (16).56 Ibidem (17)57 Radio Nederland was trying to obtain EEC funds for a European joint venture with the BBC andRadio Exterior de España. Ibidem (10).58 B. Steinkamp confirms in his September 6, 2004 e-mail to the author that these suggestions werenever followed-up.59 Professor Paul Lendvai’s (Radio Austria International) letter to Hans Wachholz (Radio Sweden), 5May, 1992; Bert Steinkamp’s answer to P. Lendvai, 18 May, 1992; Terry Hargreaves’ (Radio CanadaInternational) letter to Roy Oppenheim (Swiss Radio International), 3 November, 1992. Hargreavestravelled to Vienna to advise Radio Austria International of the refusal which Lendvai “accepted …without comment”. See also Minutes of the 16th Annual Meeting… 1992 (13).60 Ibidem (13-14) and Hargreaves’ letters to Roy Oppenheim, Director, Radio Swiss International,November 4,1992 and to Hiroshi Iwamoto, Director General, Radio Japan, November 11,1992.61 See Minutes of the 16th Annual Meeting…1992 (14). B. Steinkamp on the other hand states in hisSeptember 6, 2004 e-mail to the author that: “The actual worry was not to open up to organizationswith minimal audiences and/or too strict involvement with their government policies. That was themain reason for the ‘yes’ to Radio Japan and the disappointing ‘no’ to our highly valued colleagues inVienna.”62 Ibidem (13).63 Ibidem.64 10th Annual Meeting… 1986 (13).65 International Broadcasting Group of Six 19th Annual Meeting…1995 (5).66 At the 1997 meeting, Nicolas Lombard (SRI), the veteran among the group and a newly appointedRCI Programming and Operations manager were suggested as possible candidates but there is nomention of anybody acting as a co-ordinator in any of the following meetings’ minutes. See Minutesof the 22nd International Broadcasting Group of Six…1998 (8)67 Then called “transcription”.68 Summary of the meeting at Radio Nederland on October 28th and 29th, 1976 (1).69 See Audience Research Meeting of the “Four” in Bern, on December 8th, 1977 (1-2).70 See Club of Four Montreal Meeting October 11-13, 1978. Minutes. (1).71 Graham Mytton’s e-mail to Nicole Beaulac of August 13, 2004 indirectly confirms this.72 There was no meeting during the calendar year of 1979, a February 1980 meeting followed the onein October ’78.

132 Partnerships & Alliances73 4th Meeting of «The Four». February 5-9, 1980 (2).74 12th Annual Meeting of the International Broadcasting Group of Five… 1988 (16-17).75 Summary…1976 (1).76 Brief Summary…1977(1).77 Club of Four…1978 (2).78 IBGF 11th Annual Meeting…1987 (7-8).79 15th Annual Meeting… 1991(19).80 4th Meeting of the “Four“…1980 (3).81 5th Meeting of “The Shortwave Four“…1981 (4).82 10th Annual Meeting… 1986 (5)83 Ibidem; International Broadcasting Group…1987(13); 1988 (18);1989 (8).84 Report of the 13th Annual Meeting… 1989 (8).85 See 1977(1), 1980 (5), 1981 (10), 1982 (5), 1983 (8), 1986 (6), 1987 (6), 1988 (15-16), 1989 (7),1991 (20-21)86 10th Annual Meeting… 1986(11-12), 11th Annual Meeting… 1987 (8-9), 12th Annual Meeting…1988 (13), 15th Annual Meeting… 1991(17-18), Minutes of the 16th Annual Meeting…1992 (14).87 To the great relief of all the members often uncomfortable and uneasy during the evaluations, asNicolas Lombard recalled at the 2004 meeting.88 6th Meeting of the “Shortwave Four“… 1981 (4), 1983 (3)89 12th Annual Meeting… 1988 (13).90 Minutes of the 21st…1997 (1)91 IBGF 11th Annual Meeting… 1987 (11-12).92 12th Annual Meeting… 1988 (17-18), 14th Annual Meeting… 1990 (9).93 Report of the 13th Annual Meeting… 1989 (7)94 14th Annual Meeting… 1990 (9).95 15th Annual Meeting… 1991(18).96 From 1979 to 1995, Steinkamp represented NOS (Nederlandse Omroep Stichting) and RN at theABU General Assemblies, cf. his September 5, 2004 e-mail to the author.97 Minutes of the 16th Annual Meeting… 1992 (14)98 Minutes of the 21st…1997(8).99 Elizabeth Wright’s June 8, 1998 letter to R. O’Reilly.100 Minutes of the 22nd Annual Meeting… 1998 (7)101 The ABU Prizes for Radio and Television. Rules. ABU, 2003. For a complete list of winners seeWinners of the ABU Prizes, 1964-2000. ABU, 2001; for the winners after 2000, consult the ABU website: http://www.abu.org.my102 Ginette Bourély’s (responsible for RCI’s partnerships) October 21, 2003 e-mail to ClaudetteSwann, head of VOA’s East Asia & Pacific Division.103 See earlier in the chapter and 15th Annual Meeting…1991 (16).104 See EBU International Broadcasting Group Meeting. Geneva, 2 December 2005. 15 December2005; see also http://www.ebu.ch/en/radio/programme_groups/index.php and /news_and_sports/intlbc/index.php105 1984-1994. See Who’s Who, Challenges VI. Montreal: RCI, 2000 (10).106 REF: ESMT061214894985 - International Broadcasting Group: minutes of meeting of 29/11/2006. An e-mail to the author sent Dec. 14, 2006.107 See Club of Four Montreal Meeting, October 11-13, 1978. Minutes. (1)108 See G. Mytton’s e-mail to Nicole Beaulac, August 13, 2004.109 1986 Paris, 1987 Hilversum, 1988 Cologne, 1989 Paris, 1990 Madrid, January 1992 London,November 1992 Lisbon, 1993 Munich, 1994 Bern, 1995 Washington, 1996 Prague, 1997 London,1998 Paris, 1999 Geneva, 2000 Cologne, 2001 Washington, 2002 Stockholm, 2003 Moscow, 2004London, 2005 Montreal, 2006 Melbourne.110 G. Mytton in his e-mail to Nicole Beaulac quoted above.111 Currently CIBAR counts 21 full member organizations: BBC WS, Canal France International,Deutsche Welle, Intersearch, Merlin Communications International Ltd., Radio Australia, RadioBudapest, Radio Canada International, Radio France Internationale, Radio Free Asia, Radio ÖsterreichInternational, Radio Prague, Radio Slovakia International, Radio Sweden International, Radio FreeEurope/ Radio Liberty, Radio Romania International, Radio Vatican, Radio Veritas Asia, swissinfo/

133 Partnerships & AlliancesSwiss Radio International, TV5, VOA. There are also associated members: Radio VlaanderenInternational, Voice of Russia, Radio Nederland Vereldomroep and Channel Africa. Retrieved online, August 25, 2004, at www.cibar.org. The page was last updated Jan. 14, 2003.112 Munich was the first time that EBU was involved and it was following that meeting that wecreated the beginnings of an organisation that was CIBAR. G. Mytton’s December 9, 2004 e-mail tothe author.113 Ibidem.114 Mytton’s quoted e-mail to N. Beaulac corrects the transcript of the discussion in St. John’s whichplaced the initial meeting in Paris. See Challenges for International Broadcasting: Audience First?Mytton spoke there at length about CIBAR, its history and plans for the near future (151-156).115 Hosted by the BBC, November 1-3, at Holiday Inn London – Docklands ExCel Hotel.116 Michael Type’s December 9, 2004 e-mail to G. Mytton.117 See Allen Cooper’s introduction to the 3rd edition (4).118 G. Mytton’s handwritten note to the author sent from the 2004 London meeting.119 A “Verband” (‘e.V.’; registration number VR 13905, Cologne, Germany). Retrieved on line, August25, 2004, at www.cibar.org.120 An Essential Link With Audiences Worldwide: Research For International Broadcasting. DeutscheWelle – Schriftenreihe, 5. Berlin: Vistas, 2002. Reaching Audiences Worldwide: Perspectives ofInternational Broadcasting and Audience Research 2001/2002. Ed. by Oliver Zöllner. CIBARProceedings, 1. Bonn: CIBAR, 2003. Beyond Borders: Research for International Broadcasting. Ed.by Oliver Zöllner. CIBAR Proceedings, 2. Bonn: CIBAR, 2004. Targeting International Audiences:Current and Future Approaches to International Broadcasting Research. Ed. by Oliver Zoellner.CIBAR Proceedings, 3. Bonn: CIBAR, 2005.121 CIBAR’s Brochure, March 2002 (2). Retrieved online, August 25, 2004, at www.cibar.org.122 See CIBAR 2005 Invitation Pack and unpublished presentations listed in the Works Cited..123 Getting Closer to Audiences through Observation Approaches. Allen Cooper Associates /InterMedia.124 Ethnographic Perspectives in Global Media Research: A Critical Review. Research Worldwide,Essen.125 Workshop “Creative democracy” moderated by Frank Ash, BBC Training, at the EBU InternationalTraining Assembly, Geneva, 5-6 Oct. 2005.126 Based on a Dec. 7, 2006 phone conversation of the author with Radio-Canada’s Nicole Beaulac.127 Colin Welding. International radio listeners - do they exist? Melbourne: CIBAR, 2006.Presentations consulted at members’ page www.cibar.org.128 See Hall (44-45).129 This figure combines partner stations in all languages. See http://www.rcinet.ca/rci/en/radio.shtml. Retrieved January 2007.

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Chapter V: RCI’s Contribution to International

Broadcasting Debates

Valley Forge Conferences (1)

It was on the initiative of Ken R. Short, an American communicationsprofessor at Oxford University, the editor of The Historical Journal of Radio,Television and Film, that the first conference(2) on broadcasting beyond the IronCurtain took place at Freedoms Foundation in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania. Itbrought together not only a handful of specialized academic experts but alsoprogramming managers from stations broadcasting to the communist world,whether out of Europe like BBC World Service, Deutsche Welle, Deutschlandfunk,RFE/RL or out of North America, like VOA and RCI.

Focusing as it did on broadcasting to countries behind the Iron Curtain,the Valley Forge conference highlighted many shared concerns, some related toprogramming, its philosophy, content and style, some to management and staff.What was fascinating in this exchange between colleagues was the variety ofproposed and practiced solutions. In the area of programming, one of the basicquestions was: should western international broadcasters engage in polemics withthe communist media, directly call their bluff, correct distortions, respond toaccusations or rather concentrate on their own journalistic job, demonstratingeditorial ethics in action and counting on the listener’s ability to discern the ringof truth?

All stations broadcasting to the region were facing the same choice eventhough it was not always a clear cut, either–or proposition; there were instancesand special circumstances when a mixed approach could be considered. WhileDeutsche Welle’s Botho Kirsch argued strongly for the need to denouncemisinformation and correct the lies (3), Peter Fraenkel of the BBC World Serviceemphasized the risks of engaging in direct polemics and praised his station’s stanceduring WW2:

“By giving airtime to Goebbels’ lies we would be leaving it to himto choose the subject for debate. The policy was reaffirmed early inthe cold war by the controller of European Services, Sir Ian Jacob:Britain has to struggle against calumny…Our part in counter-actingthis is not by refuting it but by seizing and retaining initiative”(4).

Still, anybody ever involved in broadcasting to a totalitarian regime such as theSoviet Union knows how overwhelming the temptation to respond to a propagandacampaign can be, especially to programmers with direct affinity to the audience

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and a vested interest in putting the picture straight. The BBC’s Russian servicestaff did not fully subscribe to the station’s policy, as an internal BBC discussionpaper quoted by Fraenkel indicates:

“the absence of a direct challenge merely enhances the impact ofSoviet propaganda. (The Soviet listener) can only conclude that thewestern broadcasters have been unable to prove that the Soviet pressand radio are lying and have therefore dodged a directconfrontation”(5).

Botho Kirsch, a former Moscow correspondent of Der Spiegel, camefrom the intellectual tradition of weekly in-depth news magazines wherecontroversies were debated in detail and polemics was a way of life. However,the difference between the BBC’s and Deutsche Welle’s approach did not makethe latter stray from journalistic standards; when denouncing the lies of Sovietpropaganda, Deutsche Welle stayed well away from the shrill Soviet style rhetoric.Kirsch gave in his presentation a recent example of such, as he called them,“rectifications” which occurred:

“in May 1984 when Foreign Minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher wason an official visit to Moscow to discuss German-Soviet relationswith the Kremlin leaders. When “Pravda” published the text ofGenscher’s dinner speech it was full of distortions. Deutsche Welle’sbroadcast laid particular stress on omitted passages, especially onthose where the Minister underscored Germany’s peace-lovingaspirations. ‘Nobody wants war, and nobody is preparing for war’,said Genscher with a view to the Kremlin’s mounting campaignagainst the alleged resurrection of the spirit of revanchism in WesternGermany. […] All of this was omitted by “Pravda”, which also leftout Genscher’s plea against war ever starting from German soilagain”(6).

RCI’s policy was the same as the BBC’s; it had the merit of guardingagainst the loss of journalistic detachment and clarity in reasoning. Moreover, anunambiguous requirement that journalists abstain from polemics with communistmedia eliminated the need for hair splitting, endless debating of each case, andtortuous editorial decisions. This stance was a huge relief for programmingmanagers and for operations which run best on clear guidelines. While the policydid not prevent internal discussions of its advantages and disadvantages, thesewere formally engaged in during program evaluations or brainstorming retreatsand kept out of the daily business. Audience surveys as well as focus groupsconsistently qualified RCI Russian broadcasts as “friendly” which may beconsidered as an indication that the program policy was viable.

Alan Heil, director of VOA Broadcast Operations spoke about the

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evolution of broadcast practices from the late forties and until the adoption of theVOA Charter (7) in 1960, quoting Charles Thayer, whose first assignment at VOAwas to launch programming in Russian. Thayer admitted that contrary to USdiplomats’ advice that VOA maintain a detached, journalistic approach, it“frequently fell to the temptation of broadcasting bitterly sarcastic, almost vitriolicanti-Stalinist attacks… The result was that the programs lost much of theircredibility” (8). By the mid fifties, VOA broadcasts going over the Iron Curtainwere toned down considerably, as demonstrated by the United States InformationAgency review (9) prompted by, as it turned out, unfounded accusations of creatingfalse hope of forthcoming American armed assistance to support the 1956Hungarian Revolution.

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty whose role was to provide theiraudiences with an equivalent of local public media (10) also gradually changed itspolemical and accusatory tone introducing professional standards in the early 60s,and finally putting them on paper in the 70s as Program Policy Guidelines (11)

which included a Section listing 12 specific Restraints regulating “tone, languageand manner of presentation.” Article 11 stated: “With regards to attacks on RFEand RL themselves in East European and Soviet media, no comment or responseshall be made without prior consultation on its form and content with the directorsof the appropriate radio”(12).

A closely related dilemma and a basic shared concern for broadcastersreaching audiences beyond the Iron Curtain was that of soft versus hard sell. BillBuell, RFE/RL Vice-President spoke about the issue at Freedoms Foundation:

“Western practitioners … have been divided for decadesover the most effective type of broadcasting and practically all thewords used in the argument are loaded… Soft-sell advocates believethat it is the business of international broadcasting to provide newsand information in an objective, professional, accurate, balanced‘warts-an-all’ manner, leaving listeners to make their ownjudgements. The hard-sell people believe that broadcasting is aninstrument of political and social change which must be usedaggressively, persuading the listeners by force of argument of thevirtues of western values and the evils of Marxism-Leninism in theoryand practice…Soft-sellers believe that the listeners are fully awareof the corruption, inefficiency and human degradation of thecommunist system under which they must live and should not bepatronized by having lectures on how badly off they are. Hard-sellers hold that decades of indoctrination have taken root and theevils of communism must be addressed polemically… [They] callsoft-sellers naïve, détentist (a bad word), immorally neutral, wimpishand woefully uninformed of the nature and purposes of the Soviet

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system… These are caricature extremes, of course. Most of thosewith a stake in the international broadcasting business hold viewssomewhere in between – few of them admitting to be in support ofeither soft or hard-sell. Furthermore it would be wrong to equatesoft-sell with dove and hard-sell with hawk. Many who woulddescribe themselves as hard-nosed and hawkish believe that soft-sell gets the best results”(13).

Discussing the issue, the conference participants agreed that it all camedown to the question of integrity and credibility, most easily destroyed throughlapses from professional standards. With much less available air time than RFE/RL and a clear “reflect Canada” mandate, RCI never agonized over the hard versussoft-sell approach and prided itself on its “friendly” tone in Eastern Europeanbroadcasts.

The exchanges at Valley Forge (14) and the opportunity to discuss commonconcerns resulted in a series of invitations and visits between VOA and RCI, startingwith two of RCI’s target area managers travelling to Washington in the spring of1985. VOA managers and human resources officers became fascinated with whatseemed to be a much lower RCI ratio of personnel per produced hour ofprogramming(15). RCI managers on the other hand were interested in training anddevelopment, in exchanges of staff from foreign language services, in programmingevaluation, and in the lessons from computerization recently introduced at VOA.

During the five years after the first Valley Forge conference, relationsbetween VOA and RCI flourished and developed into a series of visits and staffexchanges (16). The largest in scope among them, were one to two week long studytrips to Washington by practically all foreign language announcer-producers fromRCI’s Central & Eastern Europe target area. Other RCI projects such as the 1986-87 comparative evaluation of Central & Eastern European programming, and theExcellence in Programming Award necessitated discussions with Sid Davis, VOA’sDirector of Programs, as well as with Europe and USSR Divisions Chiefs andHeads of Foreign Language Services(17).

RCI’s relations with the other US international broadcaster Radio FreeEurope/Radio Liberty, took a different path despite regular technical and top levelcontacts. At the 1984 Valley Forge conference RCI reinforced links with RFE/RLsenior managers and with people from the research department. Unfortunately,contacts with individual language services were practically non existent. One ofthe reasons was clearly the difference of mandates and of programming profilesbetween the two stations. From the outset the mission of the Radios was to functionas a surrogate public service for audiences in the Soviet Union and in the people’sdemocracies replacing the communist state media; RFE/RL broadcast for manyhours a day with an overwhelming emphasis on the region’s domestic events and

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issues. Due to these differences, the comparative evaluation initiated by RCI, whichprovided numerous occasions for contacts between participating broadcasters,could not include RFE/RL. Still, the western world of international radio beingrelatively small, qualified foreign language radio journalists and producersoccasionally moved from one employer to another. This fact could have in principlebrought in touch managers of the foreign language sections of the two stations,similarly to what was happening on a regular basis between RCI, VOA, BBC WS,RN, DW, and others, but somehow it did not. Although aware of RCI’s existence,RFE/RL line managers had no real understanding, knowledge, or interest in RCIbroadcasts which remained outside of their “surrogate” broadcasting league.

This lack of affinity led to two minor incidents, one quite different fromthe other, but both standing out in the author’s memory as anecdotal examples ofmissed opportunities. The first incident involved the former head of the PolishSection at Radio Free Europe, a celebrated WW2 hero and an icon for Poles undercommunism, Jan Nowak-Jezioranski. After his retirement, Nowak-Jezioranski, anaturalized U.S. citizen, toured Polish communities across the Western world inorder to rally political support for democratization in Poland. At the occasion ofhis October 1986 visit to Canada, RCI’s Polish Section invited him for an interview;he was received with honours by people responsible for broadcasting to Central& Eastern Europe, Betty Zimmerman, RCI’s director, Allan Familiant, Milan Vitekand this author. During the exchange, Nowak-Jezioranski highly praised RCI’sPolish broadcasts he recently listened to but criticised the Canadian focus of RCIprogramming as unlikely to attract an international audience. He recommendedthat RCI broadcasts be closer in character to those of Radio Free Europe; themanagement group explained to him in detail RCI’s mandate, as given by the1968 Order-in-Council, and certain limitations imposed by the available daily air-time of only two half-hours.

As it later transpired, Nowak-Jezioranski subsequently met with fourCanadian federal MPs with ties to the Polish Canadian community, and preparedfor them a memorandum to help bring changes to RCI’s mandate. This initiativesadly backfired as its only result was a letter sent by one of the MPs to the Presidentof the CBC, Pierre Juneau. Harshly critical of RCI’s Polish programming and perextension of all RCI’s broadcasts to Central & Eastern Europe; the letter calledfor unspecified reforms in the organization (18). When approached by RCI forclarification, Nowak-Jezioranski was mortified by the unsubstantiated claims (19)

attributed to him in the letter; he apologized and assured RCI that nothing wasfurther from his intentions than an attack on the organization (20). Ironically, Nowak-Jezioranski was right in his assessment: a more flexible interpretation of theCanadian focus principle would have indeed made RCI programming more relevantto its Central & Eastern European audiences. Instead, the opportunity for evolutionwas lost and the unnecessary limitation remained entrenched for another decadeand a half (21).

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The second incident occurred after the massive cuts of 1991 when asignificant number of RCI’s employees from the Central & Eastern EuropeanService lost their jobs; a few were hired by other international stations. Thedownsizing coincided with a politically and professionally sensitive disciplinaryinquiry against one of RCI’s employees being declared redundant. The consensusamong the managers, already overwhelmed by the scope of the cuts and relatedhuman misery led to a suspension of the employee and eventually to a de factowithdrawal of the disciplinary measures, felt at the time to be an unreasonableburden on all concerned. Some of the laid off employees were promptly hired byRFE/RL; because there was no established communication between the twoorganizations, nobody bothered with reference checks until the same problemsthat precipitated disciplinary procedures at RCI resurfaced with a vengeance atRFE/RL. The situation required decisive measures. Kevin Klose, RFE/RL Presidentat the time, visited RCI to learn the details of the past incident hoping that it wouldhelp him handle his current one. As it turned out, the problem was solved by RFE/RL’s move from Munich to Prague, much as the 1991 RCI budget cuts renderedpointless any disciplinary action. Unwilling to relocate to the Czech Republic, theemployee in question decided to leave the station. The unfortunate incident hadhowever an unexpected a positive effect as it brought about a new phase of closertop level contacts between RFE/RL and RCI, kept up during the whole of thefollowing decade.

The 1984 meeting at the Freedoms Foundation significantly influencednot only RCI’s relations with the US stations but also with Deutsche Welle andDeutschlandfunk; the German stations functioned still at the time as separateorganizations even though housed in the same twin-tower building in Cologne (22).Without the participation at Valley Forge conference, the German setup wouldhave appeared to RCI as confusing, as it did to most outsiders. Discussions withJürgen Reiss, Director of Europa-Program at Deutschlandfunk and Botho Kirsch,Head of East European Service at Deutsche Welle illuminated the intricacies ofthe system and marked the beginning of a professional exchange which developedinto a lasting friendship.

Exactly how unique was the German structure? Its complexity was dueto regional as opposed to national control over broadcasting, and to the divisionof the country into the democratic West and communist East (23) following WW2.The western federal state was composed of regional administrations, eachresponsible for public service broadcasting in its territory under a strict initialsupervision by the Allied High Command. In the Soviet-occupied, eastern part ofthe country, the infamous Nazi Deutschlandsender (24) was renamed BerlinerRundfunk and was promptly reactivated as a propaganda station, this time for thecommunists. West German authorities, committed to reunification, were eager topromote unity in spite of the partition of the country and were determined to

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provide information to all Germans. Yet, without a strong national broadcastingstation and radio frequencies able to reach the whole of East Germany at theirdisposal, they were unable to counter the Soviet propaganda flowing from theBerliner Rundfunk. After intense soul searching and infighting between the federalgovernment and its opposition, the Social Democratic Party (SPD) and, theAssociation of Public Broadcasting Organizations (ARD), a federal station wascreated in 1952 under the name of Deutsche Langwelle. However, the controversiesas to the location of its headquarters, composition of its administration andparticulars of its funding continued preventing the station from broadcastinganything but music. In 1953, the ARD created a shortwave station: DeutscheWelle(25), in addition to the federal longwave station. At the same time, EastGermany increased the Deutschlandsender’s successor programming to the west,added transmitter power, new frequencies and a new station: DeutschenFreheitssender 904 (German Freedom Station). Amazingly, Deutsche Langwellecontinued to play only music, until finally, the Hungarian revolution in 1956precipitated the introduction of hourly news. In 1962, new federal legislationtransformed Deutsche Langwelle into Deutschlandfunk; it was mandated tobroadcast on medium and longwave to all Germany, as well as in foreign languagesto Europe. The same act reconstituted Deutsche Welle into a federal entity,broadcasting exclusively abroad and predominantly on shortwave, with the resultthat a number of European languages were used by both stations. In 1977, DeutscheWelle and Deutschlandfunk formally divided their target audiences putting a stopto duplication of languages, such as Polish, Czech, Slovak, Hungarian, Romanian,Serbian and Croatian; among these, the first four were from then on broadcastonly by Deutschlandfunk, the last three only by Deutsche Welle(26).

Even though Ken Short’s Valley Forge initiative produced only onevolume of proceedings and two meetings, its importance went well beyond easilymeasurable results. A group of western international broadcasters, targeting thesame audiences, were brought together into the peace and quiet of an educationalfoundation far away from the daily pressures, and were able to discuss sharedproblems and concerns with each other and with a number of researchers. Thesescholars such as Short himself realized that there could be no successful researchor historical study of international radio without the complicity of insiders. Untilthe recent advent of digital archives, the media have been notoriously bad recordkeepers(27). Short ensured that a close dialogue between broadcasters and scholarswas established at a time when the industry was poised for truly dramatic changes.Aware of the need for such dialogue and for an outside push and assistance inmaking it happen, the broadcasters accepted Short’s initiative gratefully; RCI’sChallenges followed seamlessly into the wake of the two Valley Forge conferencesand kept the momentum going for another decade.

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Challenges for International Broadcasting (28)

In March 1990, almost a year after the 2nd Valley Forge conference,Challenges for International Broadcasting took place in Hamilton, Ontario. Forthe first time in history, western broadcasters did not discuss their work just amongthemselves but mingled with their intended listeners and colleagues from Centraland Eastern Europe, most of them newly appointed national media executives.The focus of the conference, naturally enough, was broadcasting in times of rapidchange(29); other highlights included a first ever session on religion in internationalbroadcasting(30), on globalization of culture(31) and on audience research(32).

This great success for RCI and McMaster did not prevent either the threatof the station’s closure coming within months after the conference or the March1991 massive cuts to programming beamed to the region so passionately discussedat the Hamilton conference. Although severely crippled, RCI did not turn inwardto lick its wounds but instead co-opted François Demers, the Dean of Arts atLaval University, to the RCI-McMaster team transforming Challenges into abiennial series. RCI decided that in parallel with its broadcasting mandate of makingCanada better known to audiences abroad, it would partner every two years witha different Canadian university and take international broadcasters to a differentlocation in Canada showing them some of the local attractions. The 1990 Hamiltonedition during which the guests, naturally enough, insisted on visiting the nearbyNiagara Falls, was followed by the 1992 Quebec City event which offered thevisitors a formidable view of Saint Lawrence’s frozen waters and a memorableevening spent sugaring off at a cabane à sucre, in the “belle province’s” maplewoods.

New Democracies: the Means and the Message selected as the somewhatcryptic subtitle to the Quebec conference covered a debate on challenges andopportunities for international broadcasting brought forward by the democraticrenewal in Central & Eastern Europe. Discussed were the changed relationshipbetween formerly communist media and western international radio, the future ofthe latter, including financing and chances for continued existence (33), theeducational and developmental role of international radio with separate sessionson the French speaking countries and audience research from the double point ofview, the changing methodology and the evolving listener’s profile. An openexchange on the subject of survival in the new reality between vitally interestedbroadcasters, scholars, and policy makers seemed in the circumstances the bestpossible way of obtaining badly needed state-of-the-art strategic advice for RCI.

The third edition of Challenges was organized in Vancouver in cooperationwith Simon Fraser University. It focused on themes of identity, economics andintegration of international radio (34); specifically on the ups and downs of post-communist transition, broadcasting to and from Asia, globalization and

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fragmentation of public radio, technological reality and vision, and as alwaysaudience research. The Canadian Foreign Affairs Task Force for Assistance toCentral & Eastern Europe financed participation of twenty executives from formercommunist countries and Soviet republics. The conference was immediatelyfollowed by meetings and seminars in Toronto and Montreal organized by RCIand the CBC for the Central & Eastern European visitors. One direct result of thesession in Montreal was the creation of the office of Ombudsman(35) at theLithuanian and Latvian National Radios(36): Mario Cardinal, Radio-Canada’sOmbudsman was a very convincing speaker. Vancouver received the participantsat its Stanley Park Aquarium with fascinating displays of tropical fish and a dinnernext to scenic underwater windows behind which swam and sang several Belugawhales.

The 1996 St. John’s, Newfoundland Challenges brought the visitors toSignal Hill, the birthplace of radio: the first intercontinental radio signal wasreceived there from Cornwall in 1912. The Irish Heritage music band accompaniedparticipants carried on two boats to see birds’ sanctuaries on an archipelago ofsmall uninhabited islands. RCI’s academic partner, Memorial University,represented by Professor Max House, the future Lieutenant Governor ofNewfoundland, and the famous mayor of St. John’s, John H. Murphy, welcomedthe broadcasters to their city. The large canvas conference bags contained thelong overdue Arthur Siegel’s book on RCI and a pair of locally knitted three-finger hunting gloves. The subtitle of the conference ended with a question mark:The Audience First? The debates approached the theme from five regional pointsof view and from a variety of perspectives: the mission of public broadcasting,excellence in programming, the “haves” and “have nots”, the duality of globaland local missions, the continuing impact of technological change, and inevitablythe audience research. The unique regional dimension of the event and the ensuingvolume was reinforced through assessments of media environments andorganizational information produced by all participants(37).

Allan Familiant’s retirement and Hargreaves’ departure coinciding withthe arrival of the Bob O’Reilly–Jean-Claude Asselin team in April 1997 did notput a stop to the Challenges series; on the contrary, the newcomers revived it witha fresh commitment and enthusiasm. Organizers chose Ottawa for the location, tomake it easy to attend for politicians of whom a few indeed came although not ashigh level as O’Reilly would have wished. Still, almost all foreign ambassadorsrepresenting countries participating in the conference came to the official dinneroffered at the Hull Casino by the Mayor of Hull. An evening was spent again onboats, this time on the Gatineau River. The theme of the conference was verymuch future and technology oriented: New Tools, New Skills, New Horizons (38);the debates were divided into six sessions: strategies for success, history ofinternational broadcasting, digital technologies, new technologies: access andimpact, getting the signal there, and international television broadcasting.

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When in 2000, for the first time in Montreal, the group finally turnedtheir attention squarely to programming, nobody expected that it would be the lastevent in the series. Pierre Bourque, the Mayor of Montreal opened the City Hallto the guests who were later treated to a visit to his beloved Botanical Gardensand spent the rest of the evening on top of the 1976 Olympic Stadium Tower.Without it being in any way consciously planned, the last Challenges took onsubjects previously, for various reasons, put aside and thus completed a vast circleof topics debated since the first event, reflecting this time, on the art and craft ofradio, the role of international radio in world conflicts and for the cause of peace,international cooperation, impact of the Internet on programming, the Internet asa broadcasting medium, the dual national and international audiences, some morenew technologies and an update on audience research.

Looking at the whole series of the Challenges conferences spanning overwhat proved to be the last decade of the golden age of international radio, twodistinct groups of personalities, broadcasters-practitioners and researchers-scholars,stand out as having demonstrated a far-sighted and visionary understanding of themedium and its role. RCI’s great merit lies in keeping alive the dialogue launchedat the Valley Forge Freedoms Foundation, broadening the scope from EasternEuropean to global audiences, and offering participants during this whole crucialperiod a forum for regular and sustained debate; recorded for reference (andhistorical research) in the six biennial volumes of proceedings. Continuing regularcontacts with exceptional personalities representing the best of international radioduring that endless decade of upheavals gave RCI a motivational booster andintellectual grounding required to pursue what often looked like a lost cause.

Among the broadcasters, Anthony Rendell, the BBC WS strategist of theearly 90s will remain in the memory of RCI’s staff for his words about publicbroadcasting at the Hamilton conference:

“Broadcasting is a long term business, so the mission must be basedon things which are essential always (…) The only appropriateenduring mission for public service broadcasting, domestic, orinternational, is that it is, simply, a public good”(39).

A message at odds with used at that time justifications of international broadcastingas good for trade and for attracting tourists, for speaking to Canadians abroad, orfor explaining foreign (and national) policies. The last reason seemed less venal,hence more respectable, but all such options remain in fact self-serving, as thetwo first qualify as promotion and the latter easily slides into propaganda. Bynature, international radio displays a missionary aspect attracting people who needan altruistic and idealistic mandate to work at the height of their talents and to bereally happy doing it. In the hustle and bustle of daily production, with RCIresources thinly spread and the threat of closure never far away, people forgot

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how incredibly motivating it was to be told that what they were doing was “simplya public good”.

Two years later, at the Quebec City Challenges, a year after the cripplingcuts at RCI, Rendell revisited his argument in a session on internationalbroadcasting and national priorities. After analyzing the various aspects of thevalue of public international media within the current context of questioning publicmoney allocations, he concluded that international stations must become adept atusing the new criteria and the science of best business practices to protect “thecore editorial values”. It was music to the ears of people who had been franticallyscrambling outside of “the area of public good” (40) to find reasons for RCI’scontinued mission, reasons that would convince politicians who had little sympathyand even less knowledge and interest in international radio(41).

Rendell’s successor at the BBC WS, Fritz Groothues, came twice toChallenges, to St. John’s, Nfld. and to Ottawa. He made his mark in Ottawaspeaking about strategies for success in the age of digital revolution and warningof the threat of becoming irrelevant, like Cutty Sark, the fastest tea-clipper in theworld “built just as steam and the opening of the Suez Canal was making the needfor sailing redundant”(42). The exquisite tall ship from another age provided a lastingimage, yet, at closer examination, the comparison, as powerful as it was, fell shortof rendering the nature of the threat: it was not faster speed, shorter route andlesser cost of delivery that produced change but the end of linear time and distance;programming became available on demand, from a multitude of sources andwhenever listeners felt like listening.

Both Rendell and Groothues explained in their various appearances atChallenges how BBC World Service came to be so successful in internationalradio(43). The former put it most succinctly in his paper on the review of AustralianBroadcasting Corporation(44):

“The Soviet Union and China spent fortunes on trying to influencelisteners in their favour, and failed. Britain has spent sparingly onBBC World Service, but has left it to its own public service programpolicy, summarized as ‘enriching people’s lives’, and the result isvirtual world domination in international radio.”

Father Pasquale Borgomeo, director general of Radio Vaticana, attendedall six Challenges conferences playing important roles at each. Asked to speak onthe subject of religion at a broadcasting conference for the first time in hisjournalistic career(45), he presided a panel in Hamilton; later on always complyingwith the requests of the organizers he presented topics, such as competition andcooperation(46), acted as moderator for sessions and regional groups, or as memberof the final panel formulating recommendations and conclusions (47). The

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Challenges series has been for him a vital link not only with the western colleagueswith whom he had other opportunities to work but most of all with Central &Eastern European and later Latin American, African and Asian broadcasters. FatherBorgomeo tirelessly promoted cooperation among international broadcasters, mostactively and successfully in Europe, as the chairman for a whole decade of theEBU group dealing with international broadcasting (48).

Very few individuals have had the influence, authority and staying powerin international radio that Father Borgomeo possessed. The only names ofcomparable importance among international broadcasters that come to mind arethose of Alan Heil and Graham Mytton, who after most distinguished careers, atVOA and BBC World Service respectively, remained not only in touch with theindustry, but continue writing, research and intensive activities on behalf ofinternational radio(49).

Radio Netherlands, Deutsche Welle and Radio France Internationale madeall significant contributions to the Challenges conferences, people like BertSteinkamp, Lodewijk Bouwens, and Jonathan Marks from Hilversum, BothoKirsch, Dieter Weirich and Peter Senger from Cologne and André Larquié, followedby Jean-Paul Cluzel from Paris. Among Canadian scholars, the most active wereHoward Aster from McMaster University, François Demers from Laval University,Gaétan Tremblay from UQAM; from across the border, Kenneth Short from Oxfordand later from Houston, Douglas Boyd from the University of Kentucky, DonaldBrowne from the University of Minnesota and James Hall from Southern Illinois.Audience research sessions always organized by Graham Mytton brought toChallenges a large number of various experts throughout the decade, but GeneParta from RFE\RL, Dave Gibson from Intermedia and Valentina Zlobina fromthe Voice of Russia came to practically all of the editions.

WRN(50) and AIB(51

Public service international broadcasters even though strapped for moneythemselves, offer certain business opportunities to companies who could provideservices otherwise not available, especially to smaller stations. World RadioNetwork and Association of International Broadcasters are two such companies,both based in the UK and started by former BBC employees. WRN – similarly tothe AIB - could be considered a “child” of the Challenges conferences, as itscreation was announced in March 1992, at the Québec City Challenges II. WRNintended to provide transmission services to the group of broadcasters who metthere. The network grew and expanded rapidly and distributes now English, French,German and Russian language channels featuring a number of international radiobroadcasters reaching audiences via various traditional and digital platforms. A

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bi-annual publication called Network Live! presents WRN’s schedules in English,French, German, and Russian as well as a number of articles on current topics. InJanuary 2006 WRN launched online Interactive Forums advertised as “a roadmapfor the future development and strengthening of international radio.”

Simon Spanswick, one of the people behind the creation of WRN and amember of the group until 2001, was approached by a number of internationalbroadcasters who expressed interest in joining an organization representing theirparticular needs. That was the origin of the Association for InternationalBroadcasting founded in 1993 and now functioning on a non profit basis. Its steadilygrowing membership (52) includes not only broadcasters but many otherorganizations connected with broadcasting. An Executive Committee composedof six people is elected every two years. One of the most important achievementsof AIB is undoubtedly the publication of The Channel, a unique specializedmagazine devoted to international broadcasting. The first issue came out in 1996and the magazine rapidly became a forum for the industry, discussing newdevelopments and trends in the member organizations and globally and reachingmore than 5,500 regular readers. An electronic monthly news letter, AIB IndustryNews is regularly sent to 14,000 people; another one, AIB Market IntelligenceBriefing is circulated to members only. AIB Directory of Global Broadcasting,updated and produced annually contains reference information on a wide spectrumof media along with maps and other relevant data. AIB representatives attendimportant industry meetings across the world and negotiate special participationor display deals for members; they also report the details of each such event tothose who were not able to attend. In 2001, Simon Spanswick left WRN to workfull time for AIB. The organization owes most if not all of its successes to hisconsiderable talent and dedication.

AIB has been organizing high quality annual members’ conferences onselected current themes; in 2005 it launched an international award for bestachievements in programming and technology; in 2006 the second AIB Awardsreceived more than ninety entries and distributed nine prizes; for the best radioand television coverage of a single news event, the best radio and televisionmagazine or documentary, the most innovative use of technology, internationalTV channel of the year, international radio station of the year, and internationalradio and television presenters of the year(53); three awards out of nine went to theBBC WS and BBC World.

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Endnotes1 See a brief history of Valley Forge Conferences in the Preface to Challenges for InternationalBroadcasting V: New Tools, New Skills, New Horizons. Ed. by E. Olechowska & H. Aster. Oakville,Ont.: Mosaic Press, 1999 [8].2 See the conference program and the volume of papers from Valley Forge, edited by Ken R. Short.Western Broadcasting over the Iron Curtain. London: Croom Helm, 1986.3 B. Kirsch, Deutsche Welle’s Russian Service, 1962-85 in Western Broadcasting over the Iron Curtain(168).4 P. Fraenkel. The BBC External Services: Broadcasting to the USSR and Eastern Europe in WesternBroadcasting over the Iron Curtain (151).5 Fraenkel (150-151).6 Kirsch (168).7 VOA Charter was written into law in 1976. See Nicholas J. Cull, The Parallel Experience: USGovernment International Broadcasting since 1942 in Global Voice: Britain’s Future in InternationalBroadcasting. London: Premium Publishing, 2007 (67).8 A. Heil, The Voice Past: VOA, The USSR and Communist Europe in Western Broadcasting over theIron Curtain (99-100); Ch. Thayer, Diplomat. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1959 (200). Thayerserved as VOA director from January 1948 to October 1949.9 The review was conducted by USIA Research director Oren Stephens. See his report “USIA Meetsthe Test”. New York, June 1957.10 “RFE and RL seek to identify with the interests of their listeners, devoting particular attention todevelopments in and directly affecting the peoples of Eastern Europe and the USSR. In focusing onthe special concerns of their audiences, they perform some of the functions of a ‘home service’ aswell as a surrogate free press.” Program Policy Guidelines, Board for International Broadcasting.Eighth Annual Report. 1982. Reproduced in Western Broadcasting over the Iron Curtain (89-90).11 Ibidem (88-97).12 Ibidem (95).13 W. A. Buell, Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty in the Mid 1980s in Western Broadcasting over theIron Curtain (78-79)14 Frank Ward, a former RCI’s journalist from Ottawa prepared a paper on the history of RCI’sbroadcasts beamed to the Soviet bloc while Helen Koshits, supervisor of the Russian Section wroteabout the present. See Short (27-56). RCI’s Program Director Allan Familiant and this authorrepresented RCI at the meeting.15 See the June 24, 1985 Memo from Glenn Sutton and Jane Fox, VOA Personnel Office, to GenePell, VOA Director and the attached report from their visit to RCI, May 21-23, 1985.16 The staff exchanges were agreed to at a November 1985 meeting at VOA. See the November 4-5,1985 agenda of the visit to VOA by Milan Vitek, Assistant Program Director, Larry Harding, Managerof Human Resources and Ted Farrant, responsible for training. The delegation met with Glen Sutton,Director of Personnel, Alan Heil, Director of Broadcast Operations, Ed DeFontaine, Director of News& English Broadcasts, Don Henry, Chief of VOA Newsroom, Harry Heintzen, Chief of InternationalTraining, Robert Conley, Chief of Training, and Patrick Nieburg, Director of Regional LanguageBroadcasts.17 See March 20, 1987 letter from M. Vitek to Sid Davis re: a March 30-31 visit and S. Davis’ letterto M. Vitek re: a July 29-30, 1987 visit.18 David Kilgour’s letter to Pierre Juneau. October 30, 1986.19 Pierre Juneau’s letter to D. Kilgour, December 18, 1986.20 The author’s Internal Memo to Betty Zimmerman, Re: D. Kilgour’s letter to P. Juneau, datedOct.30. November 14, 1986.21 The change in interpretation came gradually and was officially reaffirmed only at the time ofRCI’s repositioning in 2001.22 The evolution of German international broadcasting after the reunification of the country andemergence of Deutsche Welle as the only German international broadcaster are briefly discussed inthe chapter on the funding models for external radio.23 See Western Broadcasting over the Iron Curtain (159, 172-180).

149RCI’s Contributions to International Broadcasting Debtaes

24 German Nazi propaganda station operating out of Berlin during WW2.25 Originally, the Allied High Command authorized only programming in German but from 1954,English, French, Spanish and Portuguese were added. See www.dw-world.de/dw/0,2142,4126,00.html26 Curiously, DW detailed timeline on the station’s website does not mention the 1977 agreementwith Deutschlandfunk. See www.dw-world.de/dw/0,2142,4126,00.html.27 See Graham Mytton comments in Challenges for Inernational Broadcasting VI: Programming:the Heart of International Radio. Ed. By H. Aster & E. Olechowska. Oakville Ont.: Mosaic Press,2001 (8-9). This is not to say that public broadcasters throw documents away without any regard foraccountability and posterity. The Written Archives of the BBC at Caversham is one of many examplesof responsible record keeping. Yet, during the non-digital past, sound archives were notoriouslyincomplete and staff and other files continue to undergo successive purges motivated by lack ofspace.28 See a brief history of Valley Forge Conferences and Challenges in the author’s Preface to ChallengesV…; see also Howard Aster’s introductory remarks to the 5th conference in the same volume (3 -5).29 Challenges for International Broadcasting. Ed. by Howard Aster. Oakville, Ont.: Mosaic Press,1991 (3-48).30 Ibidem (93-114).31 Ibidem (51-90).32 Ibidem (117-168).33 Challenges for International Broadcasting II, Ch. 4: How to compete for public funds in times ofconstraint? The Survival of Publicly Funded International Broadcasting. (83-119) and Ch. 5: How toPreserve and Build on Half a Century of Public Investment? (121-145)34 Challenges for International Broadcasting: Identity, Economics, Integration. Ed. by E. Olechowskaand H. Aster. Oakville, Ont.: Mosaic Press, 1995.35 An independent arbiter of complaints expressed by the public.36 Challenges for International Broadcasting: Identity, Economics, Integration... (XIV).37 Challenges for International Broadcasting: The Audience First? Ed. by H. Aster and E. Olechowska.Oakville, Ont.: Mosaic Press, 1998 (XI, 208-393).38 Challenges for International Broadcasting V: New Tools, New Skills, New Horizons. Ed. by E.Olechowska and H. Aster. Oakville, Ont.: Mosaic Press, 1999.39 Challenges for International Broadcasting. Ed. by Howard Aster. Oakville, Ontario: Mosaic Press,1991 (27).40 Challenges for International Broadcasting. New Democracies: The Means and the Message. Ed.by F. Demers, H. Aster, E. Olechowska. Cap Rouge, Québec: Les Presses Inter Universitaires, 1993(85-89).41 See Anthony Rendell’s Review of the Role and Functions of the Australian BroadcastingCorporation. A Submission to Mr. Bob Mansfield. 1996.42 F. Groothues. International Broadcasting in the 21st Century in Challenges for InternationalBroadcasting V (10).43 See their presentations at Challenges I, II, IV, and V.44 Challenges... V (7).45 Challenges for International Broadcasting. Ed. by Howard Aster. Oakville, Ontario: Mosaic Press,1991 (93).46 Challenges for International Broadcasting. New Democracies: The Means and the Message. Ed.By F. Demers, H. Aster, E. Olechowska. Cap Rouge, Quebec: Les Presses Inter Universitaires, 1993(38-39) and Challenges for International Broadcasting. The Audience First? Ed. by H. Aster and E.Olechowska. Oakville, Ont.: Mosaic Press, 1998 (182-183).47 Challenges for International Broadcasting V: New Tools, New Skills, New Horizons. Ed. by E.Olechowska and H. Aster. Oakville, Ont.: Mosaic Press, 1999 (264-267).48 See B. Steinkamp, Co-operation between Western International Broadcasters in Challenges…1993 (27).49 See for instance the early March 2007 letter to the US Congress against proposed cuts to VOAprogramming signed by 11 former VOA directors; Alan Heil is listed there as a contact person.50 See www.wrn.org.51 AIB “potted history” sketched by its CEO Simon Spanswick, in an e-mail to the author, August 3,2006.

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Chapter VI: Programming: the Heart of Radio(1)

While there is only one real way to appreciate radio – by listening to it – ahistorical account of over half a century of broadcasting abroad can relate up to acertain degree what the programs were like. The device chosen here, presentingbroadcasts through a discussion of successive comparative and internal programevaluations, will allow to show, if not a full picture, at least a reasonable glimpseof the output of RCI and several other international broadcasting organizationsduring the last two decades. This chapter begins with the why, when, and what ofthe comparison evaluations, goes on to retrace changes in RCI Program Policiesagainst which internal evaluations were conducted, and finally, presentsprogramming as seen in the mirror of both exercises.

Uncertainty and a shortage of money have only been two of a long list ofills that have plagued international broadcasting. Another constant and welldocumented worry for managers of international radio has been the lack of audiencefeedback. Whether it’s in the form of direct and timely reaction from listeners oras systematically provided and comparable audience ratings. When listeners’feedback came late and sparingly or not at all, and audience data remained elusive,staff development and motivation – complex and time consuming tasks under anycircumstances– became a Sisyphean labour.

The obvious answer to the problem was program evaluation coupled withthe performance appraisal of production teams. In RCI’s over 60-year long history,only two of RCI’s directors, Betty Zimmerman and Andrew Simon, took directand genuine interest in program evaluation, the others for a variety of good reasonspreferred to leave the task along with performance appraisals to the programmingmanagers. Betty Zimmerman chaired the RCI Task Force of 1973 and wasconsequently very familiar with the organization and its operations; moreover,having been a producer herself she knew the value of feedback. When she tookover from Alan Brown, another member of the same Task Force, in 1979, sherealized that RCI urgently needed a program evaluation process; she went aboutit as she did about everything else, thoroughly and systematically. Andrew Simoncame to RCI with an outstanding current affairs experience; no wonder thatprogramming, which in international radio at that time consisted mainly of newsand current affairs, was his absolute priority. He was also the first (and only) RCIdirector able to fully appreciate broadcasts in languages other than English andFrench. Simon’s ambition was to make RCI reflect, in all languages, the excellenceof Canadian current affairs radio that he deemed the best in the world. RCI’s

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programming was significantly reformatted during the two years of Simon’sleadership, the change coinciding with the transformation of the audiences inCentral and Eastern Europe. To reinforce the new production standards andpractices, Simon devoted one day a week, Wednesday, to the evaluation ofbroadcasts and actively participated in the weekly sessions.

The evaluation system installed by Simon and reinforced by Allan Familiantremained in place until the latter’s departure in 1997. The arrival of Bob O’Reillyand Jean-Claude Asselin who undertook intense reviews and assessments of allRCI activities, overshadowed and put in abeyance the need for programevaluations. Development of new programming (and related to it staff training)caused additional delays in resuming evaluations; they were further postponeddue to a lengthy and inconclusive review of program policies launched in 2000by Joy Sellers. She came to RCI from the business side of CBC Newsworld,replacing Jean-Claude Asselin as Program Director. In spite of Sellers’ relativelyshort time at RCI, the programming managers came to appreciate her knowledge,simplicity of manner and willingness to work with the team; her departure whichcoincided with the beginning of the integration with the CBC/Radio-Canada wasmourned by managers and staff alike. While it remained incomplete and was neveractually announced, the RCI Program Policy resulting from Sellers’ initiative (2)

remains one of the most thorough and inspiring documents of its kind. Theintegration launched in 2001 made a separate new program policy for RCIunnecessary, as the group’s policies and standards adequately covered all of itscomponents. Several rounds of programming changes (3) accompanied theintegration process and placed evaluations, again, on the front burner: adoptionof new formats required regular feedback and frequent adjustments.

RCI Program Policies

In order to have an impact on programming, any program evaluationrequires clear criteria usually found in internal program and editorial policies.The CBC published its last version of Journalistic Policy in 1988 and theJournalistic Standards and Practices appeared in 1993; they are now posted onthe corporate website and updated as required. A brief discussion of the evolutionof RCI program policies since that time will illuminate the process of programevaluation analyzed in this chapter.

Until the 2003 Order in Council, the major objective for RCI and itsprogramming content was described in the CBC Corporate Policy Nr. 14 publishedin 1980:

“Consistent with the instruction contained in the 1968 Order in

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Council, Radio Canada International is directed by the CBC toprovide a program service designed to attract an internationalaudience with the purpose of further developing internationalawareness of Canada and the Canadian identity by distributing,through shortwave and other means, programs which reflect therealities and quality of Canadian life and culture, Canada’s nationalinterests and policies and the spectrum of Canadian viewpoints onnational and international affairs. RCI also broadcasts programs tothe growing number of Canadians abroad, in recognition of theirneed for more Canadian news and information, in those areas alreadyserved under the primary objective of broadcasting to foreignaudiences.

The policies of External Affairs form the basis for decisions onRCI target and language priorities, but programming and editorialpolicies are wholly the responsibility of the CBC. Programmingbroadcast by RCI must comply with general CBC Program Policiesas well as those Program Policies developed specifically for RCI’soperations.” (4)

RCI formulated its own specific policy based on the Corporate Policy Nr.14. This document was reissued three times since 1980, the second time reflectingchanges in programming introduced by Simon in 1989. This version became themain tool for internal program evaluations, from 1989 to 1995, when it was re-issued for the third time, following the publication of its summary in the CBCProgramming Policy Nr. 18:

“RCI’s program personnel … must consider the following:

Article 1. Underlying all RCI programming is the awareness thatCanada is not as well known abroad as it should be, that its imagehas not kept pace with realities, and that it is not represented onforeign newsstands by a Canadian daily or weekly press, nor by anybut the most superficial coverage in foreign media.

Article 2. To “attract an international audience,” RCI programmingmust be adapted to target audience interests and knowledge. Theemphasis within information programming must be on topicality inorder to reach the interested audience for shortwave. Across alllanguage sections, programming must be identifiable by an attractive,lively style, just as program content in any language must stand outby consistency of emphasis and accuracy, by balance and by

154 Programming: The Heart of International Radio

reliability.

Article 3. A better “international awareness of Canada and theCanadian identity” calls for a program mix that aims at an accurateand coherent reflection of Canada’s cultural, political, social andeconomic fabric. This includes, among other subjects, programs thatstress Canada’s linguistic dualism, cultural pluralism, regionaldiversity, its important role as a trading nation, its technical, industrialand agricultural capabilities, its natural resources and traditions, itsinterests and achievements in arts, science and sports.

Article 4. One important function of RCI is to “reflect... Canada’snational interests and policies, and the spectrum of Canadianviewpoints on national and international affairs,” This task shouldbe carried out fairly, accurately, in accord with the CBC’s programpolicies on news and current affairs which apply to RCI as fully asto the domestic networks. Inherent in these policies is the recognitionthat the free expression of opinion in all its variety is a reality of theCanadian way of life.

Article 5. However, in shortwave, there should be particular concernfor balance, wherever possible, within a single transmission orprogram, as there is no guarantee or even likelihood that the audienceis the same from day to day or week to week, and the idea of balanceover a period of time has not the same plausibility as in domesticprogramming.

Article 6. When it is perceived that a Canadian issue, particularlyone that is controversial in nature, is misunderstood abroad, RCI hasa special responsibility to present, insofar as possible, all the knownfacts.

Article 7. Newsworthy events in any country are legitimate subjectsfor accurate reporting and forthright “pro and con” commentary. Itis, however, contrary to RCI’s objectives to indulge in gratuitousattacks (in single programs) or campaigns (over a period of time)against the domestic policies of other countries.” (5)

The Programming Policy Nr. 18 omitted detailed requirements related toformat and production which were included in the RCI document. A standardRCI program format was a half hour of news, current affairs and features, eachsegment taking up about one third of the broadcast. Newscasts had a prescribedlength and a proportion of international and Canadian news according to whether

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it was broadcast to a closed or open society, to a foreign audience or to Canadiansabroad. It was supposed to begin with headlines, have a station ID in the middle,weather and sports at the end; the headlines were to be repeated at the end of thewhole broadcast. Musical bridges and music played in the program had to be100% Canadian, the prescribed RCI signature music was the same for allbroadcasts, as well as a few specific stings and certain program themes.

The program policy, amended(6) according to changes introduced by AndrewSimon, required the format to be predictable while the content, driven by theevents of the day, was not; at that time all permanent weekday columns or “rubrics”were abolished. There was a difference between the weekday and the weekendformats: on a weekday, a 10-minute long newscast was followed by a currentaffairs magazine with items on any imaginable topic, from politics to culture andlife style. The length of the current affairs items was between 2’30” and 3’30”.On the weekend, the newscast was only 6-minute long and could be followed bya combination of short current affairs items and longer specials. The content onweekends was allowed to be more predictable in view of the difference betweenthe weekday and weekend audiences and their varying listening patterns. Thenumber of items about the ethnic communities in Canada with an affinity to thetarget audience – e.g. reports about Canadian Ukrainians broadcast to Ukraine –was limited to two a week, in order to reflect proportionally all culturalcommunities.

The amazingly detailed policy spoke about style and encouraged livelypace and friendly and informal tone, creation of an RCI sound, or what was inlater years called “brand”, greater visibility of hosts, as well as use of audio clips.The host’s presence was supposed to be evident throughout the program. The roleof the host, who should never be just an announcer, was to ensure that the programflow elegantly, to sell it to the audience, to make it irresistible. Continuity providedby the host should be time well spent not time wasted. The policy emphasized theimportance of the program as a whole: a program segment, even if it is a gloriousspecial, should stay just that, a segment, without ever taking precedence over thewhole. If there is a need to frame a regular weekend segment, it should beminimized, musical themes should be drastically reduced, no fanfares, fancycartridges etc. Frames work against the concept of a current affairs magazine, theessence of the new format. Programs were evaluated according to theserequirements as well as according to the general guidelines and main contentthemes outlined in Program Policy Nr. 18.

After Simon’s departure in 1991, his strict guidelines were gradually relaxedover the decade, especially those determining the length of items. The overlyrestrictive program policy served its purpose thoroughly modernizingprogramming; yet, it eventually outlived its usefulness. Pleas for a revision ofpolicy and abandon of rigid numbers and percentages found willing ears at the

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top level of RCI hierarchy. An October 1991 memo to Allan Familiant reflectswell the position of programming managers:

“While our present Program Policy is only 19 months old, it hasalready been outdated by the continuing unprecedented changes allaround the world but most strikingly in the formerly communistcountries. The world evolves now much more rapidly than it usedto, without any regard for the effort that went into establishing andputting in practice the last version of RCI program policy…. Numbersand percentages convince only pharmacists and bureaucrats; theydon’t guarantee excellence in programming and hardly belong in aserious program policy. The management is there to responsiblyoversee, direct, and guide the production teams.” (7)

The policy was softened and redrafted with the cooperation of the entireProgramming Committee, to the delight and relief of all concerned. It wouldhowever be quite wrong to underestimate Andrew Simon’s contribution in bringingRCI programming from the cold war era, preponderance of politically motivatedcontent, and a somewhat missionary style, to the modern radio, lively, attractive,and interesting. The frequent evaluations and tirelessly conducted discussions, onthe merits of creativity and the audience needs for more than information, had astrong revitalizing and salutary effect on RCI programming.

The excellent but ill-starred policy formulated under the direction of JoySellers was never fully applied, with the exception of news policy based on theidea of “news important to Canadians”(8). Since the repositioning of programs in2001, each broadcast had its specific objectives(9) which provided criteria forevaluation, along with the Journalistic Practices and Standards of the CBC. Whenthe integration was complete and the repositioning was well underway, the CBCBoard cancelled the old RCI specific programming policies in 2005, judging them“obsolete” and “not reflecting current operations”(10)..

Comparative Evaluation

At the origin of the process of comparative evaluation at RCI lies the lackof audience feedback. This author was confronted with the problem at the outsetof her management career in the mid 80s. Broadcasting to closed societies wherefully reliable audience research remained an unattainable goal, exacted a highprice on program makers in terms of difficulties in achieving a true rapport withlisteners and of flagging motivation. Technically, the only available interactivityin international radio, until the advent of the Internet, was audience mail, a usefulbut erratic measure of success. Eventually, the author came up with what she

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thought were simple and effective remedies: an international award for excellencein external programming (11) and a comparative evaluation of broadcasts coveringthe output of industry leaders. This was done in the hope that the former wouldprovide a boost to staff creativity and an opportunity to compete with colleaguesfrom around the world, and the latter would help to generate innovative ideas andestablish a certain standard or canon against which to compare. The awardcombined with the evaluation sessions, both designed to strongly encourage thehabit of listening to the competition, could procure an indirect but effective wayof measuring excellence. Surprisingly, preliminary research revealed thatnobody(12) in the industry had ever done anything like this; the attempt to initiatethe projects revealed why.

The basic premise of the exercise was to have production staff listen tocomparable broadcasts produced by a number of international stations on thesame day. RCI’s teams participating in the evaluation would then be able todetermine how their colleagues from the other stations dealt with the same newssituation, how they resolved programming and production problems, and to whatdegree the needs of specific foreign audiences were met. If any serious evaluationwas going to be conducted, the programs had to be recorded. In the mid 80s, thechoice was either to do an air-check or request a studio recording from eachparticipating station. An air-check from shortwave broadcasts was a highlyuncertain exercise resulting most likely in substandard audio(3); a studio recordingat another station required a high level approval. To record in Canada air-checksof dozens of specific broadcasts beamed on a single day from different points oforigin to a number of different countries, would increase exponentially the risk offailure. An attempt to do it from shortwave in the target countries, or enlisting thehelp of western European monitoring stations, appeared significantly moredaunting than simply obtaining each station’s co-operation to secure the necessarycommitment. The dates of the recordings had, of course, to remain confidentialuntil the programs were taped, to ensure that they would not be in any way tailoredfor the evaluation, but would represent the regular output. In order to compensatefor the drawbacks of evaluating randomly selected broadcasts, the exercise wasdesigned in two rounds, the second scheduled approximately six months after thefirst. The author had no problems convincing managers at the four stations of thevalidity of the idea and the design of the project; indeed, they all promised toprovide tapes of the selected broadcasts. The first recording was to take place onApril 22, the second on October 19, 1986.

When the tapes with the April 22 broadcasts arrived, the only two missingprograms were VOA Russian and Polish. All the sections analyzed and comparedthree broadcasts each, with the exception of the Russian service, whose membershad to deal with four. Each group listened to the tapes, filled the evaluationquestionnaires(16), and discussed the merits of the recorded programs. Section headsproduced summaries of broadcasts(17) selected for the exercise, and put together

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general reports based on the discussions among the teams and on the individualratings compiled from completed questionnaires.

The second round of evaluations took place in October (18) and wasconducted much in the same way, even though this time it all went significantlysmoother. Produced reports and recommendations were used for programdevelopment during the next couple of years and another small scale comparativeevaluation was undertaken for the Russian section in 1989. The exercise achievedits goal of giving the staff a better understanding of their particular brand of radioand resulted also in increased listening to other stations for inspiration and pleasure.Until the regular and efficient internal evaluation process was put in place in late1989, the two rounds of structured comparative analysis significantly improvednot only the morale in the service, but also the broadcast quality in the languagescovered by the evaluations. It also prepared ground for the major evolution ofprogramming undertaken by Andrew Simon and continued by Allan Familiant.

Other programming services in Canada’s official languages and in Spanishand Portuguese to Latin America, did not participate in the comparative evaluationin 1986; their managers were not keen on embarking on such a complex and timeconsuming project, especially that the top management, having a much betteridea of the quality of programming in these languages, did not insist on a fullscale exercise. However, the 2001 integration with the CBC/Radio-Canada andthe ensuing changes at the helm and in the organizational structure(19) createdconditions favourable to such undertakings: in early 2002(20), another similaroperation was attempted involving, this time around, programming in all languages.Technically, the logistics of getting the programs recorded for evaluation wereincomparably simpler as the broadcasts were available on the Internet. To facilitatethe evaluation, participants were given the selected shows recorded on CDs, withprinted out detailed summaries of each program. They were asked to listen to theCDs and to complete evaluation tables which were later circulated in each group,adjusted and finalized following a discussion. The whole lengthy but rewardingexercise was concluded in July the same year.

In addition to the stations covered in the 1986 evaluation(21), eleven otherinternational broadcasters were included in 2002: Radio Austria International,Radio Monte-Carlo Moyen-Orient, Radio Netherlands, China Radio International,YLE-Radio Finland, Radio Korea, Radio Polonia, Radio Prague, Radio Sweden,Voice of Russia, and Radio Singapore International. The selection was madeaccording to programs identified as comparable to RCI’s productions in all of itseight broadcast languages. The daily and weekly programs in English and Frenchwere compared with the same language productions of the BBC WS, China RadioInternational, Deutsche Welle, Radio Austria International, RFI, Radio Netherlands,Radio Prague, Radio Singapore International, Voice of America and Voice ofRussia. RCI’s Arabic dailies were compared to those of the BBC WS, Radio Monte-

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Carlo Moyen Orient, and VOA. The evaluation of Chinese broadcasts coveredBBC WS and RFI, in addition to RCI. The Russian selection consisted of RFI,Radio Polonia, Sverige Radio, YLE- Finland, and RCI; the Spanish included BBCWS, RFI, Radio Netherlands, and RCI.

Life rarely complies with the requirements of research. It is impossible toneatly compare RCI’s programming in 1986 to the 2002 output against thebackground of the rest of the industry. RCI’s broadcasts in Czech, Slovak, German,Hungarian, and Polish were discontinued in 1991, and are understandably missingfrom the 2002 evaluation; Chinese and Arabic were added a few years after thefirst exercise; French, English and Spanish programs were not included in the1986 evaluation. This leaves Russian and Ukrainian as the only two broadcaststhat are covered in both studies and should be in theory fully comparable.Unfortunately, even those present certain problems because of the differencesbetween the 1986 and 2002 selection of participating stations and design, i.e. theway broadcast content and evaluation results were reported. A change of managersresponsible for the evaluation resulted in adoption of slightly different standards.In 1986 each language section actively participated in the exercise, and finalgrading and reports were produced by section members under the guidance of thesupervising producers. In 2002, the sections were only asked to listen to theevaluated broadcasts and offer comments at a meeting with the Head of ForeignLanguage Broadcasts. He then produced a brief summary for each language anda general conclusion for the whole service. Consequently, the records for the 2002exercise are sketchy at best and not thorough enough to allow a real comparison:a pity, especially in the case of Spanish broadcasts awarded prizes for variouscoproductions, but also in the case of Arabic programs highly praised by AlanHeil from the VOA and Douglas Boyd from the University of Kentucky, amongother colleagues. The Chinese section distinguished itself in the impressive seriesof coproductions with stations from mainland China, a topic discussed in thechapter Relations with Communist Media. This limitation of the analyzedbroadcasts to Russian, Ukrainian, English and French, most regrettable butunavoidable because of the lack of available material will remain a challenge toRCI’s future historians.

All that can be legitimately gathered on the basis of comparative evaluationconducted at RCI is an impressionistic sketch of the differences and similaritiesbetween the participating broadcasters. But even an approximate picture is ofsignificant interest for the simple reason that it has never been attempted on thisscale by any of the international stations, even for internal use. For those whonever heard these stations, in these languages, nothing much remains to showwhat they really did and how. There is not a single published equivalent inexistence. As time goes by, the records deteriorate or become less accessible; theodds for a credible restoration in the future of a picture encompassing two decadesof broadcasting dwindle.

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The Russian and Ukrainian broadcasts included in all comparison exercisesfrom 1986 to 2002, in spite of the methodological inconsistencies, offer a betterpossibility for a fuller investigation then the other RCI programs. Russianbroadcasts, manifestly some of the most important for international radio duringthe whole golden age of the medium, appear in four separate snapshots in thelight of the four consecutive evaluations(22), with the focus on formats similar tothe RCI half hour format of news, current affairs, and features.

While an analysis of these recorded programs highlights RCI Russianbroadcasts in comparison to other selected international stations, internal programreviews from 1988 to 1997(23), and one from 2006, illustrate the direction and thescope of format and content changes at RCI during the last two decades. RCIUkrainian broadcasts missed out on the smaller scale 1989 comparison evaluationbut were internally reviewed as often(24) as the Russian programs, thus becominganother good subject for an analysis.

The comparative evaluation criteria, naturally, could not be based on specificprogram policies of the participating broadcasters, as these varied to a certainextent from one station to another. The common denominator was the audience towhich the broadcasts were beamed: accordingly, the criteria were focused on theaudience and on the basic tenets of journalism(25). The internal evaluations referredto the successive versions of RCI’s Program Policy combined with the CBCJournalistic Practices & Standards and more recently – when RCI Program Policybecame obsolete – to each program’s objectives.

Before embarking upon this journey into the past sound of internationalradio, potentially laborious for non-broadcasters, there are certain uncomfortablefacts of life of a foreign language service, rarely discussed or even obliquelyreferred to and never ever emphasized, that must be stated openly. In practicallyall of the stations(26), translation of the news was an important part of duties of aforeign language journalist. Yet, when you consider that a newsroom journalistworking in his own language and not assigned to more glamorous news gatheringdid little more than rewrite and to a limited degree verify news wires, the translationproduced by his foreign language colleague remained a basically similar andcomparable activity. It made also good economic sense to have a relatively smallnewsroom producing stories for a large number of foreign language services.

A historic reason for the reliance on translation, stems from the stationmanagement’s lack of trust in foreign, potentially unpredictable or culturallydifferent employees who may have wished to manipulate news to suit their ownpolitical agenda. Historic, because by the mid-eighties Eastern European WW2veterans, stranded abroad and unable to return home because of the communistregime, who considered work in international radio a continuation of their fight

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for national freedom, reached the age of retirement. The subsequent waves ofimmigration brought to the West many young people, of whom few were realdissidents; most just wanted to get away and lead a normal life. While typicallystrongly anti-communist, they embraced democratic values and were unwillingto go against journalistic principles in order to promote their political convictions.Yet, occasional and well publicized exceptions to this prevalent attitude madeprogramming management weary of potential abuses; walking a fine line betweenretaining control and letting staff exercise their journalistic judgement, managerswere inclined to sin on the side of caution and follow the traditional, outdatedarrangement.

Thus, in the life of a foreign language section, anywhere in the world,translation was never limited to news programming. It made just the same goodsense to use the output of foreign and domestic correspondents of the externaland national networks in translation. In the case of RCI, its regional offices,especially the National Capital Bureau and subsequent versions of Central Talksdepartment, were producing reports to be broadcast in the original languages butalso to be translated and broadcast in all other languages. Their use was stronglyrecommended if not mandatory. Original reports were encouraged only in thearea of non-political magazine, being considered low risk. This overly cautiouspolicy motivated by the need to control broadcast content had a profoundly negativeinfluence on staff creativity. Translation tended to replace all journalistic techniquesbecause it produced quick and safe results and did not require any additionaleffort or expense. Next to the mandatory news stories and correspondents’ reports,there were two other sources of material for translation: Canadian newspapersand magazines – an all time favourite – and the national networks (27) programmingin English and French – less prized because the items had to be transcribed fromtape before being translated.

It was an uphill battle to shake up the long-established culture of “glorifiedtranslators”(28) who were comfortably able to do their 8-hour shift in 4 hours flat;some went home early to enjoy their families and other pursuits, others pretendedto leave to cover imaginary events, or stayed to read newspapers, gossip, or indulgein even less work oriented pastimes. It took the best part of two decades and somestrong personalities to break the bad habits and turn translators into journalists,with at least some measure of success. The comparison evaluation conductedroughly half way through the process demonstrated that these problems, far frombeing exclusive to RCI, were occurring widely across the spectrum of westerninternational radio.

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Analysis of Russian Broadcasts

Audience research reports from Central & Eastern Europe consistentlyconfirmed that until well after the democratic transformation began in the regionlisteners to international radio primarily focused on news. For that reason, thepresent analysis will first deal with the content and treatment of news in allevaluated programs, then, following the traditional broadcast structure, move onto current affairs, and finally to features, if distinctive from the current affairs.

On April 22, 1986, from 1600 to midnight Moscow time, a determinedRussian shortwave listener could have caught news from the BBC, RCI, DeutscheWelle and RFI, not counting several other stations not covered by the evaluation.While the length of news bulletins varied widely, the longest (over 15') being theRFI newscast, which was interspersed with backgrounders and even commentaries,the coverage was good in all four broadcasts. News bulletins in the BBC and RCIbroadcasts were both just under 10' long, and DW had the shortest one - 6’15".Only RCI had two announcers reading the news, the others had only one voice,with the exception of RFI, where the news was interrupted by the commentator.In spite of this, the RFI news presentation was somewhat confusing, it was notclear where one item ended and another began. Surprisingly from the Canadianpoint of view, the commentator appeared to be an RFI journalist providing, aftersome stories, brief opinion pieces unlabelled as such and not attributed, a practiceexplicitly banned by public radio standards in Canada and in many other countries.

All four stations gave good coverage of the main story of the day - theaftermath of the US raid on Libya, the expulsion of Libyans from Britain, veto inSecurity Council etc. - and the story on the Palestinians arrested in London andWest Berlin being brothers. But whereas BBC and RFI led off with these items,RCI placed the item on President Reagan and the Tokyo summit ahead, and DWbegan the newscast with several other stories: the US underground test in Nevada,President Reagan’s intention to abide by the SALT-2 treaty and Chancellor Kohl’sspeech at a reception for Kosygin.

The rest of the news was not broadcast by all of the stations. For instance,the Warsaw story on KPN sentences was carried by BBC, RFI, and RCI; the newson Kurt Waldheim – by BBC and RFI; Shimon Peres’ visit to Strasbourg by RFIonly. Also, each station had at least one item of particular concern to its owncountry: BBC – on arrival of King Juan Carlos in Britain; DW – on Gorbachev inEast Germany; RCI – on reaction in Canada to Libyan events; and RFI – on adebate in the French National Assembly and on the death of Marcel Dassault.

Six months later, on October 16, 1986 (29), news coverage varied in contentfrom one station to the next. It is amazing that not a single news story was carried

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by all five stations. The difference in broadcast time could have justified this factonly in the case of Deutsche Welle whose program was broadcast at 0700, ninehours before the earliest of the remaining programs, the BBC. RCI broadcast wastransmitted at 19:30, VOA at 20:00 and RFI at 23:45 Moscow time. Here aresome examples illustrating the scope of variation in the coverage: the East-European dissidents’ appeal was not mentioned in the VOA or RFI broadcast, theexpulsion of American diplomats from USSR was absent from the BBC and DWbroadcasts, and Israel’s demand for closure of PLO offices was missing in theVOA and DW newscasts. A number of news events were covered by one stationonly: Greek elections – BBC; Haiti election, the Pope’s meeting with Weinberger,the Persian Gulf – RFI; OPEC intentions – VOA; US budget approval, and LatinAmerican foreign debt repayment talks – DW; Erich Honecker’s upcoming visitto China and France’s expulsion of illegal immigrants from Mali – RCI.

Discrepancies in the choice of items notwithstanding, all of the newsbulletins were interesting and informative with a high degree of accuracy andfairness; there were no contradictions of any kind between the stations in thecoverage of the same stories. Unfortunately, only short news headlines wereincluded on the VOA tape, which made any comparison with the news output ofthe other stations incomplete. However, what little there was, was neatly andcrisply presented. A welcome improvement in RFI broadcast, while thebackgrounders and analyses still followed each news story, this time they addedinformation not just opinion, like in the April evaluation.

Structurally, the BBC and DW presentation of news seemed best, withheadlines first, then the main body of the news, without further interruption, exceptfor station identification. BBC even repeated the headlines after the bulletin, apractice very useful for the listeners, just like RCI’s policy of reading newsheadlines at the closing of the broadcast. All newscasts were regrettably read byone voice, with the exception of RFI, where a second voice read backgroundersto the news. RCI’s and BBC’s news presentations sounded somewhat boring, asdid DW’s, additionally worsened by choppy reading.

An internal evaluation of Russian and Ukrainian programs conducted inFebruary 1988 is summarized in a note to the staff of both sections. It makesseveral recommendations concerning news: most importantly it emphasizes thesection’s role in producing the newscast properly, even though on the surface itwas a responsibility shared with the newsroom. As mentioned above, at almost allinternational stations, news for foreign language broadcasts was written by themain newsroom for translation. The only exception to that rule continues to beRadio France Internationale, whose foreign language journalists even then didnot translate news but worked directly from wire copies, pre-selected for eachsection by the newsroom – in the “old” times before digitalization, the centralnewsroom staff printed out wire copies and hung the papers on each section’s peg

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on the newsroom wall to be picked up and rewritten directly in the broadcastlanguages. The 1988 post-evaluation note encourages the Russian and Ukrainianstaff to always check the lineup and discuss any doubts with the lineup editor;something clearly nobody wanted to do, for lack of time and because of less thancordial relations between the language sections and the newsroom. The sectionsconsidered Canadian born newsroom journalists naïve and unable to grasp Sovietrealities, the newsroom, unwilling to acknowledge tthe section’s expertise on theSoviet Union, viewed the foreign language staff only as translators. It took decadesto instil a measure of mutual trust and respect into the relations between the sectionsand the newsroom.

The January 5, 1989 comparison evaluation did not include Deutsche Welle,but otherwise covered the same broadcasts as in October 1986: BBC at 1600, RCIat 1930, VOA Panorama at 2000, and RFI at 2330-2415 Moscow time. OnlyBBC, RCI and RFI carried full newscasts, VOA’s Panorama had, as in the twoprevious evaluations, only a brief summary of the latest news. While RCI broadcastas a whole was inferior to others, its news lineup was excellent, with a possibleexception of the story on Canada being the only country opposed to holding ahuman rights conference in Moscow; the evaluating team felt that the item shouldhave been closer to the top of the lineup, and not in the 8th place, where it wasplaced. BBC and RFI also had good lineups, though RFI, having the longest newscoverage, again with backgrounders incorporated into the bulletin, receivedconflicting comments: negative, because of the excessive length, and positive,because of the added relevant information. All news bulletins were found to beaccurate and objective, and their presentation reasonably good. Some pronunciationmistakes were found in all the broadcasts, and the RFI news reader was found tohave an unfortunate speech impediment.

In the current affairs section of the April 1986 evaluation, BBC treatedseveral topics. There were two reports from BBC correspondents in Washington– on Reagan and SALT-2, Reagan and Libya, one from West Berlin – on a bombinginvestigation, another from Manila on the situation in the Philippines; these werefollowed with a correspondence by “The Observer” on the EEC meeting inLuxembourg and rounded up with a press review on a number of topics. It was agood mix, informative and varied, with several voices. DW ran a commentary onthe EEC measures against Libya and had an excellent analysis of the situation inAfghanistan, which though over 12-minute long, was easy to listen to, partlybecause it was well done, and partly because it was presented by two voices. DWthen played a segment entitled “Radio Journal of Cultural Life” featuring a 15'interview with a Russian publisher in Paris. It was very valuable material, if notto a general audience, certainly to a sizeable segment of it. RFI featured a short,but well condensed and professional press review about EEC and terrorism, aswell as on Gorbachev in East Berlin. RFI had a six-minute talk on plastic surgeryin France; interesting and professional, but somewhat long and of questionable

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value to a Russian listener. RCI, the only station which did not analyze EEC andLibya, broadcast instead a report from Bern, Switzerland on the conference onhuman contacts, summarizing presentations of particular interest to an EasternEuropean audience. Even though the subject was well chosen, the productionitself was not entirely convincing. A weekly cultural show followed the report.This show included two subjects: an international television conference (INPUT)in Montreal and a Native Arts Exhibition for the Calgary Olympic Games. Fromthe point of view of content, it was a good program oriented to the listener’sneeds; from the point of view of listening pleasure, nothing could justify runninga 10-minute long, monotonous report with just one voice.

In October 1986, after its news segment, RCI broadcast a report by anOttawa correspondent on the Canadian government’s response to recommendationson family reunification; it was rendered irrelevant to the listener by too muchunnecessary detail, a review of letters to the editors of Canadian newspapers,giving samples of “man in the street” opinions on various current issues. DWbroadcast a solid press review on the Iceland summit, the Bavarian elections anddisarmament, with two announcers and reasonably interesting material followedby a 30-minute round-table “Discussion Club” focusing on the significance of theIceland summit. Well chosen participants engaged in a highly professionaldiscussion. RFI also had a press review, somewhat long (9 minutes) and all readby one voice, but because of a relaxed, easy-flowing presentation, and a varietyof subjects (Troyat’s book on Maxim Gorky, Iceland summit, Elie Wiesel’s NobelPrize, France and the Middle East), it was pleasant to listen to. The BBC program“Looking from London” covered three subjects, of which the first two (EastEuropean dissidents’ appeal, and the 30th anniversary of Polish October) wereespecially valuable to the listener. It was well presented, with several voices andclear introductions. The program’s only shortcoming was the excessive length ofitems, some of the reports exceeded six minutes. An excellent preview of thecoming week’s programs displayed high production values and undoubtedlypersuaded the audience to remember to tune-in. VOA’s “Panorama” featured animpressive bouquet of subjects, voices and treatments, although not all equallyinteresting for the listeners. Yet, even the items of lesser interest, like the racialsituation in Mississippi, were well written and presented. A press review on theIceland summit was included; well read by two voices, but with a somewhat one-sided content, presenting only opinions of like-minded newspapers. Finally, themost compelling was the reading of excerpts from Elena Bonner’s new book.Not only were the book and the fragments of utmost interest to a Soviet listener,but the way it was read deserved the highest praise. It was impossible to remainunmoved.

In January 1989, VOA opened its current affairs magazine with anuninspiring item detailing US government position on the Libyan problem. Onecan sympathize with the reader for having to present an openly partisan opinion

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in a broadcast which strives to be impartial, but there was really no excuse forputting the listener to sleep with a slow pace and an inanimate manner of reading.Fortunately, all other stories in the broadcast were lively and interesting, reachingthe climax with a first class interview with Soviet economist, Vasily Seliunin. TheRFI’s interview with Mstislav Rostropovich, while not a very important one, gavea certain warmth and cachet to the program, provided rather by the personality ofRostropovich himself than by the interviewer, who was obviously reading preparedquestions.

The comparison evaluations sessions formulated general impressions ofthe covered stations. In April 1986, BBC broadcast was judged professional, butindifferent in the sense of a noticeable lack of attention for the Russian listener:this same program could have been broadcast to any other part of the world; therewas no special concern for the Soviet audience. Contributors and announcerswere not identified (only the host), even station identification was not complete,the address was missing; these aspects created an impression of anonymity anddepersonalized the program. The emphasis was on content, not on style and sound;there were no stings or musical bridges. Still, the program overall, was perceivedas well done. The global assessment in October 1986 was expressed in a series ofadjectives; for BBC the most often used were: interesting, professional, thoughsomewhat indifferent. With the show that was evaluated in 1989, BBC had solid,impartial content, but a somewhat indifferent approach. BBC identified only thehost and authors of reports and commentaries, leaving the listener wonderingwhether the reader is the author, or just an obscure announcer. Even the author ofthe press review was not disclosed. As a whole, the BBC broadcast was termedprofessional, though indifferent.

The Deutsche Welle show was packed with good analysis and discussion,it was more personal than BBC, though again announcers’ names were notdisclosed and the station address was not given. Quite a lot of music was played:three selections, one of them unidentified. The use of music and the structure ofthe show made it sound pleasantly relaxed and run at an unhurried pace. TheOctober 1986 show was assessed as interesting, but indifferent. DW was notcovered in the 1989 evaluation.

The RFI program in April 1989 was even more informal than DW, butmore lively, dynamic and friendly. All participants were identified, frequencies ofboth daily broadcasts and the station address were given; station identificationwas clear; frequent musical bridges contributed as well to pleasurable listening.In October 1986 RFI was termed lively and friendly. The 1989 RFI broadcastprovided both variety and valuable information, the station seemed to pay moreattention to listeners’ interests than the BBC, resulting in a more target orientedprogram. The RFI broadcast earned such comments as attractive, friendly, andinteresting.

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The April 1986 RCI Russian program was very friendly and attractive,well targeted towards Soviet listeners. All participants were identified. Musicwas used in bridges and stings. The host did not mention the address at the endand there were also some technical problems at the closing of the program, but allin all, it was pleasant and informative. In October the RCI broadcast was describedas attractive, friendly and professional. In 1989, RCI’s choice of subjects wasreasonably good, but its relevancy paled in comparison with the other broadcasts.In spite of this, RCI scored rather high because of a warm, friendly presentation.

The VOA Russian program was not evaluated in April 1986, but in October;three terms were used in the general assessment: compelling, professional,interesting. In the 1989 program, VOA identified the host, the interviewer and theauthors of commentaries, while all readers remained incognito. This made thebroadcast sound distant and official. Still, most people evaluating the broadcastagreed that the VOA program was very interesting.

The quality of Russian language including pronunciation, in all of theevaluated five shows, was deemed good to very good. The highest number ofmistakes and mispronunciations occurred in the RFI broadcasts. Not allbroadcasters used musical bridges: BBC and DW used only theme music forregular features. Others used it between current affairs items or even inside thenews bulletin (RFI).

During the following eight years until 1997, a number of evaluation notesreflected the evolution of RCI broadcast format; the most dramatic changes,reluctantly accepted by staff, took place during the two years of Andrew Simon’sleadership, in 1989-1990. They were launched to coincide with the biannual changeof broadcast frequencies (30) in March 1989; the services were adopting the newformat gradually, each at its own pace (31). The evaluation of two Russian broadcastsin July 1989 determined (32) that the new format improved program quality butsome fine tuning was still in order: the host’s personality did not shine through,the program still resembled a mere collection of items rather than a broadcastdesigned as a whole, and there too few Canadian stories in the newscast.

Unfortunately, three weeks later, there was little improvement. In August,three program evaluations established that Hungarian, Russian and Ukrainianbroadcasts fell considerably short of the new requirements. The production teamshad to be reminded about a number of specific rules:

“In RCI newscasts, to areas where the access to information iscontrolled, 20 to 25% of the total number of stories should beCanadian domestic stories, averaged over a week. It is theresponsibility of the newsroom to provide these domestic stories.

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However, as the responsibility for the translated newscast is yourown, you should make sure that these stories are available byreminding the newsroom of this requirement, if necessary. Somesort of weekly tally should be kept by all sections in order to have arear mirror view of how we did each week.” (33)

Just a week later, supervising producers of all Central & Eastern Europeanservices were called for an urgent meeting (34) to discuss lack of adherence to rulesabout the length of items, continuity, use of music and freelance items. The processof fully following Simon’s policy was progressing at a snail’s pace, especially inthe Russian service. Almost a year later, a dawn broadcast beamed to Russia brokea number of requirements and its producer had the misfortune of having theprogram selected for an evaluation. The exasperated tone of the post evaluationnote appears fully justified: the broadcast did not carry enough Canadian news,there were no sports news, news stories were too long and included excessivebackground, the headlines were read by the host instead of by the news reader.The current affairs items were not only all longer than the “legal” maximum of3’30” but their content was exclusively political, prompting the followingadmonition to production staff:

“We should finally liberalize ourselves from the traditional shortwavetexture with little variety of topics and themes. Our audience ispassionately interested in Canadian lifestyles and everyday reality….Current affairs lineup is the result of a decision separate from theselection of items. Remember, Radio is the opposite of vaudeville,never keep your star item till the end, the audience is not captive andwill have no problem leaving you in the middle of the show.” (35)

In January the following year most of the wrinkles related to the new formatwere ironed out of the Russian broadcast, with just a few highlighted negativepoints, rather minor in nature and not worth mentioning here. However, from thepoint of view of content, the reluctance of some of the staff towards theprogramming changes came back with a vengeance, as illustrates the followingparagraph in the post-evaluation note entitled Basic Professional Ethics:

“When before the mike, you are the voice of RCI speaking to RCIlisteners. You cannot in any way imply that you have different ideason what we are supposed to do. Any statement to that effect wouldbe most damaging to our credibility. You are paid for and expectedto act within the program policy requirements and not to questionthem on air in any way. You may wish to explain them to the listeners,if they make comments in their letters. You should use our judgementon how much time you want to spend in your letter box on such

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subjects. There is no necessity either to answer all letters, especiallyif the topics in question were already treated in previous issues ofthe program. The air-time is valuable, short and not your own. Thelisteners are not your private listeners but RCI listeners. If youprofoundly disagree with the policy, there are other means ofexpressing your opinion. You have no right to do it on air and toabuse your privileged position.” (36)

While these are strong words, they appear to have been both necessaryand effective: the section visibly heeded the warning, as there is no record in RCIarchives of anything else even loosely resembling this case. Besides, less than ayear later came the massive budget cuts resulting in the dismissal of half of theRussian staff and a 50% reduction in air time, i.e. from four half-hour programs totwo. (37)

The following years saw Russian programming improve its productionvalues and audience appeal. A broadcast evaluated in March 1992 (38) displayedan excellent programming mix, voice mix, use of well selected Canadian music.The current affairs magazine featured an up-date on the Swedish WW2 diplomatRaoul Wallenberg, of direct interest to the target area and to Canada; an acrossCanada press review on the soft lumber trade war with the US; a mini-magazine“Canadian Perspective” with reports on Canadian aid to Belorussian and Ukrainianchildren victims of Chernobyl, as well as on the revelations concerning earlySoviet years of the Korean leader Kim-Il Suong. The producer had to deal with anempty space left by a newscast much shorter than planned and was congratulatedon creatively dealing with the problem. The negative comments zeroed in on thehost who must have been late, run to the studio and was breathless during theopening.

A 1994 evaluation(39) praised a well targeted and constructed news lineupand offered a number of suggestions mainly dealing with production values. Newsreading although clear and attractive did not change tone or tack, or introducepauses between unrelated stories. The style of the broadcast was judged excessivelyformal; it could have been warmed up by friendly references to people participatingin the broadcast and by remembering the universal rule of effective radio, to speakto that one special listener, our friend who tuned in out there. While the content ofthe current affairs magazine appeared interesting, the order of items could havetaken into account the listening span and degree of appeal to the audience. Twovoices were used, but that did not increase the listening pleasure because thevoices were noticeably reading from scripts instead of conversing with each other.A news analysis broadcast after the bulletin was neither labelled nor attributed,contrary to the policy which requires that this valuable format must be clearlydefined and credited, not only at the beginning, but often enough to allow thelisteners to realize what they are listening to and where it comes from. Finally, a

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basic production error was noticed: a partly faded out song was left under thehost’s voice as a background, the lyrics of the song interfered with the words ofthe host – such background music should always be an instrumental piece.

Within a year, a new one-hour Russian show replaced the previous half-hour format. A January 1995 evaluation note (40) describes one of the new broadcastsas very enjoyable, well targeted and at the same time, very Canadian. The newscastprovided a frame for the program which starts and ends with a bulletin. Thelisteners, who in their majority were primarily interested in news, could catch upwith whatever they missed at the beginning. It also allowed for systemic updates,especially welcome in times of armed conflict in the target country. The news waswell lined up: three top stories about Chechnya, most stories very relevant to theaudience, two Canadian stories, one with a Russian angle. The internationalsituation was well reflected, with a variety of topics, hard news and one of alighter kind. Stories were well written, were of reasonable length, very welltranslated and delivered. The current affairs magazine started with a package onChechnya with a correspondence from Russia, followed by an amusing story aboutRussian (Chechen?) mafia wearing luxury clothes stolen in Toronto, a discussionof the consequences of a recent ruling on immigration to Canada from Russia viaa democratic country (Israel), and a two-part Monday magazine “Canada fromSea to Sea” covering life in Quebec seen through the eyes of one very recent andvery “old” Russian immigrant, as well as the 30th anniversary of the Maple Leafflag. The magazine ended with a sports capsule profiling the Canadian sportswriter Red Fisher.

Another good program was praised in a 1996 evaluation note (41) as aninteresting, well produced and hosted show. The newscast, targeted towardsRussian listeners, included 20 stories: well combined topics, good flow of ideas,logical sequence and links between the stories. It covered many areas of the worldand their relations with or to Canada; Eastern European stories were not restrictedexclusively to Russia and Ukraine, the primary target, but took into account thewhole region. The current affairs magazine offered an excellent, concise reportfrom Moscow by Lev Bruni, a former head of the Russian section at Radio FranceInternationale who returned to Russia in the early 90s and started very successfullyfreelancing for RCI. Two other items discussed changes in the Canadiangovernment, unfortunately with a certain overlap and repetition of information.The note suggested treating such topics through a cross-Canada press reviewfollowed by a discussion. An interview with Ella Bobrova, an 85-year old Russianpoet with a book to be published shortly in Canada by Mosaic Press proved to bethe weakest element in the show: very interesting but much too long in view ofquestionable sound quality. The program ended with an enjoyable and informativeHit Parade, a popular music show for young listeners presenting a good mix ofgroups and styles from English Canada and from Quebec.

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The last program evaluated, before the departure of Allan Familianteffectively put a stop to the process, was broadcast on Friday, January 10, 1997.Very positive comments (42) pronounced the program excellent, interesting, targeted,and topical. The news included 17 stories covering world events, with strongCanadian content. The news reading was on the indifferent side. The magazinepresented good topical and targeted items including a superb report on Kielburger,unfortunately without sufficient sound illustration and variety. Personalized andfriendly hosting merited high praise. Only two aspects needed prompt attentionof the production team: one easily corrected – the taillights did not include theInternet address – and one requiring forward planning - there were no femalevoices in the entire broadcast, with the exception of a song in the Hit Parade. Thelatter difficulty stemmed from the 1991 budget cuts when the downsizing, basedexclusively on seniority, eliminated all women in the Russian production team.Usually the mechanisms devised to remedy this shortcoming worked well – usingwomen freelancers, recording continuity announcement cartridges with femalevoices, keeping a reserve supply of interviews with women – but were sadly notfoolproof.

The evaluation process, lapsed in 1997, was fully resumed only after RCI’srepositioning in 2001, a repositioning which cut the Russian broadcast down to ahalf-hour format and eliminated one staff position. The most significant feedbackexercise was the comparison evaluation of Russian broadcasts in 2002. The choiceof stations was for some reason left to the production staff and resulted in aquestionable and very restricted selection. It covered Radio Polonia (January 24),RCI (January 24), Radio Sweden (January 24) Radio France Internationale(January 25), RCI (January 25), YLE-Radio Finland (January 28), and again RCI(January 28). With the exception of RFI, the selected stations belonged to a ratherjunior league and were not covered in 1986 or 1989. Still, the inclusion of threeRCI shows allowed a glimpse into what was being broadcast in Russian out ofMontreal in 2002; RFI, Radio Sweden and YLE, even if uninspiring, do providea basis for comparison. Radio Polonia remains much less relevant, as it is asuccessor to a very different broadcasting tradition. The selected programs wereassessed and compared in relation to four criteria: content & suitability for Russianlisteners, treatment, hosting values, and production values.

Regretfully, the three programs beamed to Russia on January 24, 2002(Radio Sweden, Radio Polonia and RCI) could be described as conventional,unexciting, of dubious listener appeal and mediocre professionalism. All threecontain newscasts clearly addressed to Russian audiences, with emphasis onRussian events; in their five-minute long bulletins, Radio Sweden and RadioPolonia focus also on Sweden and Poland, respectively, as well as on Europe.RCI runs 12 minutes of news including headlines, without actuality orcorrespondents’ reports; a station ID at the middle breaks the monotony of the

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newscast. Emphasis of the news coverage is on Canada and Russia. Radio Polonia’sproducer was the only one who bothered to illustrate the newscast with actualityclips.

Radio Sweden presented (43) a cultural current affairs magazine featuring anew musical comedy, a history of Russian music in Swedish television and aprofile of an immigrant poet. The first topic resembled in style a literary essay,not really suitable for radio, the second displayed attractive musical clips, thethird took the form of an interview, with good and thoughtful questions. Thetarget of the magazine appeared to be a more mature, well educated listener, ratherindifferent to politics. The hosting was conventional, with nothing too modern orexciting.

Radio Polonia host breathed loudly, spoke a questionable Russian, with aPolish accent to boot, generally sounded old and tired and made no attempt atseducing the audience. The current affairs segment covered three topics, Polishgovernment activities, security issues in Poland, and a pre-recorded dialogue withlisteners. Judging by the “promotional” tone and contents of the coverage, all wasrosy in Poland. The lack of a critical journalistic assessment seemed ratherdisturbing, seeing as twelve years of operating as a public service station shouldhave provided enough time to deal with the legacy of a propagandistic past.Russians listeners friendly towards Poland appear to have been the targetedaudience. The program ended with an unexplained 6-minute long musical excerpt,suggesting an unimaginative solution to a shortage of material.

RCI hosting sounded old fashioned, depersonalized; there was no efforteither to seduce or engage the listener; no goodbyes at the end, no proper closingof the broadcast – as if the host forgot that he was speaking to real people. Therewere no program teasers or other attempts to incite the audience to listen the nextday. The current affairs magazine displayed an incomprehensible predilection –there was no logical connection between the items – for economy: Canadianeconomy as seen by the president of the Bank of Canada, economy in Nova Scotia,and economy as discussed by the press. An average listener without specificinterests in economic matters would have tuned out well before the end of theprogram.

RCI Russian output from January 25 was compared to RFI programming.The quality of both broadcasts was higher – but not dramatically so – than thoseof the previous day. RFI targeted Russian Francophiles in a 12-minute longnewscast with some international stories, but with an emphasis on events in Franceand Russia. Short actuality clips used in the news were too quickly faded out,well before they could make any impact. The bulletin was read rapidly by onefemale voice racing to meet a high quota of stories. The host also spoke too fast,

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sounded excited and was difficult to follow, in spite of good quality contemporaryRussian language. The current affairs magazine, conventional in style, offered astandard French press review and a couple of good interviews related to thesituation in two Soviet successor states, Estonia and Kyrgyzstan. The first onewas a five-minute phone conversation – always a certain technical risk – , thesecond a 10-minute item, proportionally too long for a half-hour show. Thebroadcast ended, surprisingly, with a song about the American jazz giant, CountBasie, nobody cared to explain why.

The RCI Russian show of the same day, also presented a 12-minute longnewscast covering international, Canadian and Russian events. Logical line-up,short stories and a good balance between international and Canadian news metthe objective of the program: presenting to listeners in Russia what was importantto Canadians. The bulletin, read by a beautiful but disinterested male voice, wasdivided in two parts by a station ID announced by a female voice. There wereregrettably no actuality clips in the news. The current affairs magazine includedan excellent report on the death of a famous Canadian broadcaster Peter Gzowski,with excerpts of his voice, a long and less than exciting item on a planned reformof the Canadian health system, an interesting but also too long report on Canadianvictims of an unusual accident involving a Russian diplomat in Ottawa and alively and expressive correspondence from Queen Charlotte Island off the CanadianPacific coast. The magazine reflected Canadian reality for that day and had linksto stories in the newscast. The hosting, while adequate sounded too detached, nogreeting or farewell, as if the team did not speak directly to the listeners. Noattempt to engage the interest of the listener or to tease the audience withannouncements of attractive and intriguing programs, for that day or for the future.Sound diversity also left a lot to be desired. As a whole the program wasconventional and predictable.

The last two programs included in the 2002 comparison exercise werebroadcast on January 28, by YLE- Radio Finland and RCI. International, European,Finnish and Russian news were treated in a six-minute long YLE newscast devoidof any actuality clips or news reports. Despite the brevity of the bulletin, thestation ID was given twice, leaving no doubt as to the origin of the broadcast. Thequality of Russian was questionable and so was the slightly incoherent newsreading. A short press review was followed by a long sports bulletin, an evenlonger interview with the Finnish ambassador to Russia, about Chechnya,containing some unclear questions. The hour-long, slow-paced and unexcitingprogram also contained a number of topics related to China; no reason was givenfor this choice. Generally speaking, for a broadcast addressed to a neighbouringcountry, it remained fairly unsympathetic towards its audience throughout theshow.

While compared to the mediocre Finnish offering, RCI broadcast sounded

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more appealing, it was predictable, conventional radio, lacking in excellence,innovative concepts, or treatment. It had practically no sound clips, monotonousvoices obviously reading from written scripts, no enthusiasm or vitality, no attemptat engaging or attracting the listener. The 10-minute newscast was undoubtedlythe best feature of the program: many short, well lined-up stories on international,Canadian and Russian events, targeted towards Russia. The current affairsmagazine featured three reports, one on Art Eggleton and Canadian soldiers, thesecond on porno movies in Saskatchewan, and the last on Bob Rae’s views onracism. Among the current affairs items, only the film report came through asanimated and dynamic. The program ended with the song “The Little Beaver”.

Program development and innovation process undertaken by themanagement, as well as further evolution of RCI’s audiences between 2002 and2006, changed this rather dismal picture into a somewhat more appealing scenarioreflected in an internal evaluation of programs broadcast on July 18 & 20, 2006.Both programs opened dynamically on a musical theme which was quiteattractively threaded back and forth in the broadcast. On July 18, the host introducedmembers of the production team participating in the show creating a friendly andinformal mood. After a short newscast, came an item on Prime Minister’s Harperposition on Lebanon, presented in a somewhat editorial tone and without indicationwhether it was an analysis, report or press review. The next item told the story of17 young men arrested last June in Toronto who faced charges of terrorist activities.The same report dealt also with a convicted serial killer, Clifford Olson, and hisunsuccessful bid for parole. While the presenter did not provide sufficient context,the stories were told informally and well. There was however no attempt atinteraction with the host. From that point, the program adopted a lighter tone anddescribed the Montreal Fireworks Festival; unfortunately the story sounded likeit was read from a script and again the opportunity for a chat with the host wasmissed. The closing item featured the best known Canadian politician of the lastcentury, Pierre Elliott Trudeau becoming the subject of a Canadian opera. Thetone was conversational and the host concluded with a joke.

The July 20th program opened, interestingly, with a sound clip from war-stricken Lebanon. After the news, the host recalled the evacuation difficulties in adiscussion with another journalist. A report from an Ottawa freelancer followedto discuss the role of Canadian diplomats in the evacuation and the reaction of theLebanese community. Both pieces gave a balanced view of the situation; howeverit would have been even more credible if the sources had been identified. Thenext report focused on a Canadian scientific breakthrough in insulin production.The show closed with a story on the Canadian Arctic. Both reports were presentedin a conversation with the host but were lacking in sound clips, expert interviews,local colour, etc. However, the progress in program quality and listener’s appealsince 2002 was obvious; as was the effort to use a friendly and conversationalstyle in hosting. The program mix was interesting and well within the broadcast’s

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objectives; stories were balanced, the use of music pleasant to the ear, and finally,the quality of Russian was very satisfactory.

The evaluation pinpointed areas for improvement: the team should striveto increase interactivity with the listeners, further strengthen the visibility of thehost, prepare the interaction between the host, guests and other contributors morethoroughly, provide more in-depth news analysis and backgrounders, as well asmore variety in format and treatments. Individual talents and interest for newsnon withstanding, the scope of proposed improvement remains clearly a challengeto a team where all members have an academic background in foreign languagesand translation rather than journalism, where the enthusiasm for radio has wanedthrough decades of budget cuts and steadily eroded priority accorded to the service,and where the average age is well over fifty.

Analysis of Ukrainian Broadcasts

Both comparison evaluations of Ukrainian programs in 1986 covered onlytwo stations, RCI and the Voice of America, as at the time neither the BBC norDeutsche Welle had yet launched Ukrainian broadcasts. In spite of the differencein length – RCI’s half hour to VOA’s full hour – the programs were similar enoughto be easily compared.

In April 1986, VOA covered 17 stories in an 11’30” long newscast, RCIrun 11 stories in an 8’ long bulletin. The VOA newscast was followed by newsheadlines and an almost 3’ long sports bulletin. In spite of the use of one musicalbridge in the main news and stings after the headlines, before and after sports, thewhole news bloc seemed very long to be read by one voice, without actuality orother attempts at making it more attractive. The VOA news content was stronglyUS oriented, on the other hand, the Canadian flavour in RCI news was lesspronounced. The lineups were satisfactory in both programs, although the VOAcontent was proportionally richer. VOA did not mention the Spanish elections orthe nuclear test in Nevada but used a story on Khadafy included in RCI’s newscastthe day before. VOA named only three parties voting on the UN resolution - RCIgave the full list but omitted the KPN verdict in Poland, even though the storywas prepared for translation by the newsroom. RCI covered Reagan’s proposalsto the Tokyo summit but without reference to SALT.

In October 1986, VOA ran a long, 13’30” newscast at the top of the hourcovering 14 stories, news headlines in the middle of the broadcast and 7’of newsat the end. The final shorter newscast did not feature any new stories. All itemsprovided the US position, wherever pertinent. Regrettably, a number of itemswere based exclusively on Soviet media reports, bringing up the frequently debated

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question why broadcast back to a Soviet audience what they already heard athome and by the same token unwittingly boost the credibility of Soviet sources?RCI presented an 8’ newscast sadly short on Canadian stories and the Canadianposition related to covered events and issues; it consisted of 9 items, 7 of whichwere also covered in the VOA bulletin, while the two that were not, featuredSoviet deputy foreign minister’s visit to Japan and China’s ties to Eastern Europe.RCI announcer read fast and in a rather indifferent manner. VOA news readingsounded somewhat artificial and unattractive.

Current affairs items in both programs of April 1986 were rather weakerthan the news coverage, with the exception of a concise and well done VOAreport from the Bern Conference. Not only was the quality of translation excellent,but a judicious choice of actuality clips – a tricky exercise when you deal withmaterial in a different language – added a touch of authenticity and increased theease of listening. The rest of the current affairs segment displayed some flaws:VOA editorial emphasized excessively the positive elements of the US positionand the backgrounder related to the events of the day simply repeated manyelements already covered in the news. RCI did not fare any better: against allrules, a press review presented two editorials from one local newspaper, hardlyrepresentative of the national press, and for no obvious reason, the review includeda totally unrelated correspondent’s report. In the October 1986 exercise, the VOAeditorial proved to be of a more credible nature than in April. The weekly newsreview would have been more interesting, had it contained a bit of analysis. RCIran an unending translation of a press commentary discussing the likelihood ofIsraeli use of the nuclear bomb; a more experienced and talented translator wouldhave tightly edited or summarized the text, instead of religiously rendering everyword of the original.

The April 19 VOA magazine consisted of a regular show “For Youth andAbout Youth”. An interesting well developed concept, with a lot of actuality butrather poorly voiced. RCI’s “Kaleidoscope” was attractive but did not offset thebadly drawn out and boring report from the conference on Multiculturalism, withneither interviews nor sound clips. As it was a Sunday, the October 22 magazineswere devoted to religion in both programs. RCI presented an 8’30” long item onreligious and historical aspects of the Millennium followed by a long musicalinterlude. VOA produced a 21’ long religious magazine laced with not entirelyappropriate church music and packed with a variety of religious topics includinghistory and Ukrainian Christian churches news.

The general assessments of the two stations based on the April ’86broadcasts were not dissimilar: both were termed interesting and professional.While VOA was more lively it was not consistently friendly in tone, lapsing attimes into indifference. RCI sounded friendly throughout, with a better voice mixand a good quality of the Ukrainian language; in the VOA broadcast a number of

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awkward expressions were noticed as well as a somewhat excessive tendency touse the passive mode.

At the October listening sessions, VOA’s broadcast was defined asprofessional, interesting and friendly but indifferent in the news presentation. Itdisplayed a good program mix and sufficient variety. RCI’s broadcast was friendly,interesting, and professional although not consistently so throughout the entirebroadcast. The program mix was too formal; the length of some items was notsuitable for a half hour format.

Internal evaluations notes from 1989 to 1996 reflect the introduction ofthe new format by Andrew Simon and further program development continuedby Allan Familiant. The first note, from February 1989, covered two programswhich must have had an unsatisfactory newscast, as it goes on at length about twoschools of news reading and how one voice can better develop the story and varythe tone within an average 8 to 10’ bulletin, provided that it is the voice of a storyteller. In case, there is no such talent available, we are advised to develop one, orgo back to the first school recommending that news be read by two contrastingvoices. There is also concern in the note that the newscast did not contain Canadianstories in spite of RCI being the only Canadian voice out there.

The evaluators found fault also with radiophonic quality and esthetic varietyin the broadcast and advised the use of original audio-clips in translatedcorrespondents’ reports. Another big complaint was lack of conviviality combinedwith rigidly conventional hosting:

“Continuity in general and the introductions in particular should beused to create a link to the target area. The presence of the hostshould be more evident, the continuity more personal and moreinformal, of course within the linguistic restraints and usage. Ourbroadcast should be more companionable. We should model ourapproach on Canadian FM/AM broadcasts, on programs like “SundayMorning”, “Morning Side”, “As it Happens”: that is, become moreCanadian in style, use the first person and get away from the rigidformality of the traditional European radio.” (44)

Ukrainian staffers and for that matter members of other sections as well,fought tooth and nail against these changes and tried to convince Simon that theirlanguage and their audiences’ preferences did not allow for informality, that thebroadcast style had to remain rigid and impersonal. Needless to say, they werewoefully unsuccessful in their attempts while being listened to politely and offeredendless patient explanations as to why the move towards informality was inevitable.

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Over a year later, in June 1990, there were still problems with the newscast,such as violations of minor points in program policy: all news bulletins weresupposed to include a weather & sports capsule. Yet, it got easily forgotten asprogram makers considered it as being of much lesser consequence for the audiencethan political news. The evaluation note emphasizes the fact that weather & sportswere not optional. The section defended the omission by blaming the newsroomfor late delivery of the lineup, too frequent updates and last minute changes. Theywere advised to make a point of translating the weather & sports first and neverleaving it until the scramble just before the broadcast.

Judging by the following comment, the news reading was againunsatisfactory:

“The news should be read vibrantly. If read boringly, then you borethe listener and his/her interest slips from your broadcast. Only thenewsreader should do the newsbreak, as it blends into the pace ofthe reading. Another voice stuck in, can alter the pace of thepresentation”.(45)

The Program Policy required a break half way through the newscast for stationidentification but it did not specify who was supposed to do it, the host or thenews reader.

The process of improvement was slow and painful as witnessed by anotherevaluation conducted within a few months. The second broadcast of MondaySeptember 24, 1990 was selected. The post-evaluation note, highly sarcastic intone and designed to rankle for a while is worth quoting at length:

“‘Another crime of the green phantom??’, or will we ever fix this‘horrible problem taking different forms’? You guessed right: THENEWS. Almost everything that could go wrong in the newscast did,in that unlucky second broadcast. The first broadcast that day hadallegedly a truly perfect bulletin. Unfortunately, it was not evaluated.

Juicy remarks and expressions were flying during the evaluation,and rightly so. Let’s quote a few and remember them for ever, sonothing similar will ever happen again. ‘Gord & Orest (46) Show’,‘news extravaganza’, ‘you all have a finger in touching the news,use them in the desirable direction, the Canadian way’, ‘like asportscast that does not deliver sports’. Want more?

To sum up for those who were not present: the newscast was toolong; the lineup was delivered too late and was consequently

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disregarded; some stories came from an unidentified source; therewas only one Canadian story; in the weather capsule only the skieswere described, no mention of temperatures; no sports. The two lasthorrors resulted from the extreme length of the newscast proper.

The eyes of us all are turned to the News Task Force; this body,planned not a day too soon, will take care of everything to do withnews: Canadian content, line-ups one hour before a foreign languageprogram, stories of similar (short) length which give the newscast acertain rhythm, backgrounding the news without overdoing it, etc.However, before the Task Force starts its victorious progress, let’sfollow our program policy and for instance remember that a Canadianstory is a story about something that happened in Canada.”(47)

The problems with the newscasts did not overshadow the solid improvementin the current affairs magazine: “the old mold has been successfully broken” saysthe post evaluation note and goes on to praise good choice of subjects, use ofinterviews, audio-clips, original reporting and the generally consistent effort tomake the program appealing to the audience. However, while excellence mayhave been within grasp, there were still some imperfections which the noteaddressed with specific advice. We are told how to interview a university professorand remain within the 3’30” time limit, what to ask a foreign visitor who came toCanada and how many times a week we can talk about the Ukrainian communityin Canada without overemphasizing its importance and misleading the audienceabout the role Ukrainian immigrants play in the Canadian society. While the qualityof the program was improving, the attention of the staff was being directed towardsproduction values: using more melodious and friendly musical bridges and findingbetter ways of dealing with uneven sound levels in phone interviews.

February of the following year brings another evaluation (48) of the second2000 UTC Ukrainian broadcast. We are treated to more complaints about the latelineup, shuffling of paper and a certain shortage of stories, as indicated by theadvice on having filler stories on hand to be read at the end of the newscast, ifthere is time left; repeating the top story if no filler is available and printing nomore that one news per page to make changes in the order of stories easier. Thecurrent affairs magazine was highly praised as having had “an interesting mix,good stories reflecting regional Canada, topical, attractive to the target area”; theonly flaw was the length of the items and consequently a smaller total number. Afreelance report with clearly audible evidence of poor handling of the mike wasanother reason for criticism. All in all, a good progress with some minor weakpoints.

Over a year later, after the debacle of the massive cuts of 1991 and Simon’s

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forced departure, there was still an argument over the newscast during an evaluationsession in March 1992(49). The eagerly anticipated News Task Force went by theway side when half of the staff was let go in July ‘91, and it was back to suchcardinal sins as broadcasting news from the previous day, no weather & sportsand no consultation between the section and the newsroom. The length of theindividual items went through the roof: an interview with the Ukrainianambassador’s to the UN visiting Ottawa ran for 12 minutes, even though it couldhave been easily divided in half and broadcast on two consecutive days. A goodregional story from Quebec City had no audio clips. Instead of interviewing PeterGzowski (50), the section decided to summarize his interview with a BBCcorrespondent in Kyiv. The post-evaluation note repeated the RCI’s new Director,Terry Hargreaves’ comment: “Do we have to promote BBC? Although it is perfectlyall right to reflect the best of Canadian radio, we should highlight Canadianexpertise rather than that of our competition.” A slightly unjust remark as thesection did reflect Canadian radio and at the time, the CBC did not have acorrespondent in Ukraine. In spite of the criticism, the program obviously hadbeen developing well: the interview with the UN ambassador may have beenmuch too long, but had pertinent questions, was well edited and interesting. Thebroadcast featured also a good and very topical interview with the president ofthe Ukrainian Olympic Committee, who was passing through Toronto. There wasan excellent voice mix, well chosen musical bridges and friendly, warm hosting.

Things continued to go well in the Ukrainian broadcasts according to aFebruary ’93 evaluation note(51), in spite of it being “a Monday like no otherMonday. Two people called in sick, one was on vacation, another one was off andanother was on the news for the first time in his life. The listeners however couldhardly notice, as the program was excellent in content with only some little snagswhich are discussed below for everyone to learn from. Contravening all laws ofprobability, this hardly typical broadcast was recorded for an evaluation.” Theonly recommendations for improvement concerned sound levels and musicalbridges which appeared long and boring.

The next evaluated broadcast was a glaring example of how a programmay have a highly targeted content with excellent topics, program mix, and logicallineup but still be bad radio. On Monday January 18, 1994, the Ukrainianproduction team broadcast a series of texts read in studio, that were difficult tolisten to and fully understand. No clips, no interviews, no music. One of the textswas a beautifully written essay on teaching Russian literature outside of Russia,based on a recent Toronto round table, perfect for a literary magazine but quiteunsuitable for radio. This unusual lapse in broadcast quality prompted themanagement to proceed with another evaluation barely a month later, one daybefore the election weekend in Ukraine, for which occasion, RCI sent one of itsstaffers to Kyiv.

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The results of the evaluation were amazingly good. The broadcast “wasvery topical, exemplary in its appeal for the listener in Ukraine, presenting a varietyof Canadian opinion on the situation in the country, containing interviews withfive people well selected for their importance to the listener and for their place inthe Canadian context(52).” The current affairs magazine also featured a sportsitem with two interviews providing variety and humour. The music was wellchosen, the hosting warm and personal, making the broadcast flow in a smoothand attractive manner. However, the post-evaluation note contained a reminderthat the newscast was a responsibility shared between the section and thenewsroom; it reflected a certain degree of dissatisfaction on the part of the sectionwith the newsroom performance during a crucial election period in Ukraine. Thesection was not provided with a wrap of pre-election facts for the newscast on theeve of the election weekend. The note admonished the newsroom “to take a moreflexible approach and remember the needs and sensitivities of the listener, eventhough ‘there was nothing new on the wires’ ”.

The collaboration with the newsroom did eventually improve according tothe testimony of a May 1995 evaluation report (53) which praised the excellentnewscast composed of 19 concise, topical, targeted and well written stories. Itwas followed by an interview with the leader of Crimean Tartars – a day afterdemonstrations in Simferopol – timely, relevant and interesting. Later, a Ukrainiandoctor working in the Canadian assistance program “Partners for Progress”, madean interesting comparison between health services in Canada and Ukraine. Anexcellent story about hockey, made even more appealing by a song about hockeybeing the best game, was followed by a report on cults in Russia. There werebarely a couple of recommendations: the first suggested not to run two interviewsback to back but rather break them with another format, the second warned aboutplaying overly long musical bridges which may lead to confusion.

Two more evaluations of the Ukrainian broadcasts were conducted beforechanges in top management and Allan Familiant’s departure halted the processtemporarily in the spring of 1997. Both evaluation reports(54) were mostlycomplimentary, emphasizing targeted newscasts, topical current affairs, lively anddynamic hosting and high production values. A musical bridge between thenewscast and the current affairs was suggested.

The 2002 comparison evaluation(55) covered three Ukrainian programsbroadcast on January 25 (VOA, Deutsche Welle and RCI). For a technical reasonthe BBC Ukrainian was unavailable for recording on the 25th and the managerresponsible decided to record the BBC at a slightly later date (January 29) alongwith an RCI show broadcast the same day. The four areas highlighted in theevaluation were: content & relevance for the Ukrainian audience, treatment, hostingvalues and production values. Interestingly enough, all three broadcasts of January25 were basically alike and while VOA’s was twice as long as the other two, it

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displayed proportionally the same characteristics and ingredients. All three wereobviously aimed at Ukraine, each focusing on the country from which it wasbroadcast: VOA on the US, Deutsche Welle on Germany and RCI on Canada.However VOA and DW featured considerably more international content presentedfrom their particular perspective. VOA ran two items related to Afghanistan; theAfghan situation as seen by the Pentagon and an international press review on theAfghan prisoners in Cuba(56). DW presented the European view on Chechnya andthe economic situation in Ireland and Finland. The RCI newscast contained agood mix of international, Canadian and Ukrainian stories but the current affairsmagazine dealt with Canadian and Ukrainian topics only. VOA broadcast closedwith a British music group song sounding suspiciously like a filler; DW endedeven less appealingly with an unattractive and pointless German language lesson.

All three programs displayed an impressive grasp of Ukrainian politicsand were impartial in the treatment of current affairs themes, with a notableexception of DW’s report on Chechnya whose author openly took sides. Both,VOA and RCI, in items about their own countries, once or twice failed to providesufficient context to ensure understanding by a foreign audience. After a dynamicopening, VOA continued quite conventionally and at a pleasant pace, using adiversified pool of voices, of unfortunately unequal quality, some lackingenthusiasm and warmth, others with English or Russian accents, occasionally usingsentences too long and complex for a radio broadcast. Some sound clips were notidentified and no music was used with the exception of the final British song.Deutsche Welle had no program billboard at the beginning and at times soundedchaotic. This was due in part to the female host with a decisive voice speaking toofast, nervously and having difficulty with breathing. The voice was unattractive,difficult to follow and distracting for the listener. There were numerous audioclips in several different languages and an interesting musical bridge between thenewscast and the current affairs.

Hosting was RCI’s strongest point. Warm, engaging and friendly, the hostguided the listener through the current affairs section at an excellent pace, usingmusic and actuality clips. The newscast had a logical lineup and short, wellbalanced stories; unfortunately, the news reader lacked the host’s dynamism, readwith hesitations and generally did not perform well.

Four days later, on January 29, it was the turn of the BBC and RCI to becompared. BBC presented a worldwide coverage of news with European subjectsdominating the newscast and included two Ukrainian stories. The news wasconcise, well written and well read by one female voice and livened up throughunusual but interesting use of military music. The current affairs magazinepresented eight reports on the following subjects: Yulia Tymoshenko’s car accident,election campaign in Ukraine, a review of Gongadze’s murder, end of US sanctionsagainst Azerbaijan, a border dispute between Moldova and Ukraine, Bush’s State

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of the Union address, Iran- Iraq relations, and a European press review. Thebroadcast sounded very much like a surrogate national media. The emphasis wason latest events. The reports were short; the ones from Ukraine seemingly filedby local Ukrainian reporters. Little room was left for analysis of any kind. Whenit did appear - the controversy related to the US decision to meet with a Chechenspokesman – it somewhat lacked objectivity, similarly to the Chechnya story runa few days earlier by Deutsche Welle.

The BBC hosting was reminiscent of the current Russian mannerism: ashort opening, jerky style, sensational sound, authoritarian tone and exaggeratedpace. All this may have seemed to create a dynamic impression, but in fact,following the host required a lot of concentrated attention from the listener. Therewas plenty of actuality from translated correspondents’ reports from severalcountries. The broadcast featured many voices, with a pleasant male/female mix.

On the same day RCI had a well lined-up newscast, with short international,Canadian and Ukrainian stories and achieved good balance between the threekinds. The Ukrainian stories included Tymoshenko’s car accident and the elections,both topics also featured in the BBC broadcast. A debate about the treatment ofAfghan captives by Canadian soldiers was among Canadian stories. A 12-minutenewscast in a 30-minute broadcast contributed to an impression of excessive length,especially since it was read without sound clips or actuality. Current Affairs coveredthree topics: Taliban prisoners, women in politics, especially in Ukraine andhighlights of the case of Y. Tymoshenko, and finally, the 89th anniversary of theheroic stand of Ukrainian cadets at Kruty against the Red Army advancing onKyiv, with a rare archival witness account. The music played at the end of theitem was highly moving and well suited to the subject. The whole program flowedat a good pace, carried along by friendly and pleasant hosting. In spite of the easylistening, the format remained conventional: there were no surprises, no teasers,no announcement of interesting things to come.

The 2004 RCI repositioning reduced Ukrainian programs to two half-hourweekend magazines broadcast without newscasts; one on Saturdays, and one onSundays. Only two Ukrainian journalists-presenters remained from the largerUkrainian section. Canada Today, produced and hosted by Lina Havryliv is a“weekly program about economics, politics and relationships between Canadaand Ukraine. All subjects of interest to Canadians are also dealt with on a regularbasis: security, human rights, social trends, culture and environment, UkrainianDiaspora.”(57) Luba Demko is responsible for Postcards Canada which is describedas a “weekly program about arts, culture and social trends in Canada. All subjectsof interest to Canadians are also dealt with on a regular basis: security, humanrights, religions, culture and environment, Ukrainian Diaspora.”(58) The magazinesare identical in general philosophy and similar in content but have a differentfocus: Canada Today’s mission is to cover more politics and economy and

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Postcards Canada concentrates on arts & culture. Eventually, with the advent ofRCI viva a secondary audience of Ukrainian newcomers to Canada was added tothe mandate of the program.

In the fall of 2006, after a two-year long interruption in the evaluationcycle, four Ukrainian programs were evaluated: Canada Today broadcast onSeptember 16 and 30 and Postcards Canada on October 1 and 8. Contrary to itsofficial mandate, neither of the two evaluated editions of Canada Today containedany segments on politics but presented topical reports linked to recent Canadianevents, as well as a large variety of minor business stories. Postcards Canada aswell largely disregarded its main objective featuring in two broadcasts only oneitem on arts while including many reports on the Ukrainian Diaspora, a themeundoubtedly fascinating the Ukrainian audiences since the launch of the sectionin the early 50s. The discrepancy between the program objectives and the contentof the broadcasts demonstrated the old truth once again: unrealistic goals, divorcedfrom the reality of listeners’ needs and interests as perceived by program makers,will never be diligently pursued. Whether fully or only approximately on the target,the evaluated broadcasts were not perfect but on the whole attractive, lively, friendlyand well produced, displaying characteristics of good radio.

Let’s examine the evidence (59) supporting this claim. Three days after ashooting rampage at a local junior Dawson College in Montreal, the September16 edition of Canada Today opened with a well focused and backgroundedinterview with a Ukrainian speaking student. It was followed by a report on theCanadian astronaut Steve McLean’s spacewalk illustrated with a diversity of wellsuited audio clips. The secondary audience of new Ukrainian immigrants to Canada,recently added to the program mandate, was targeted in an interview with aneconomist from Ukraine, completing his PhD in Calgary. The young scholar’sresearch centered on immigrant workers and their impact on the workplace inNorth America. Still, for a phone interview of less than studio quality, it shouldhave been shorter, especially that an attempt to liven it up with a music breakfailed. A piece about a small Canadian company growing biological sprouts tookthe audience right into a greenhouse, made them laugh and supplied them with alot of interesting information. The freelance author of the report interacted in afriendly fashion with the host. Finally, the Toronto Film Festival provided anopportunity to present the Canadian film industry and explain how the US filmrating system potentially disadvantaged Canadian movie makers.

Canada Today of Sept 30 centered on economics, starting with the Canadiangovernment’s good performance in paying back the debt with a budgetary surplus.This tape-talk presented clips from an economist, translated and voiced over. Itwas a bit too long and again the music break was less than effective. An interviewabout the credit unions and the trend to merge was informative and gave an insightinto the situation of the Ukrainian credit union in Alberta. A field report discussed

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the issue of the quality of drinking water in Canada. A story about franchisesexplained this type of business to an audience that might not be too familiar withthe concept. The report produced by a freelancer as a talk-tape with the host wasillustrated with clips from a variety of interviews. The program ended with alisteners’ mail segment attractively presented by the hosts of both weekend shows.

Postcards Canada of October 1st began with an interview with the directorof the Ukrainian Research Institute of Document Management and Archives, on aworking visit to uncover Ukrainian documents in Canadian archives. The topicwhile of interest, may have been too specialized for a general audience. It wasfollowed by another interview, this time with the head of a Canadian-UkrainianNGO helping HIV positive children; the interview provided lots of valuable dataon the project. It would have been ideal if the piece was supplemented with clipsfrom people concerned by the problem. Taking advantage of the Montreal Int’lFilm Festival, Postcard Canada presented the work of a Winnipeg film-maker ofUkrainian origin, John Paskievich. He has been stuttering all his life; in his latestfilm, “Unspeakable”, he explored the everyday trauma that stutterers endure. Thereport was well researched, with a lively interview with the film-maker and goodinteraction with the host. Prominent Ukrainian Canadians were regularlyintroduced in the show. The Secretary General of the World Congress of Ukrainianshad just received an important honour from the Ukrainian government and was atthis occasion profiled in the RCI program. The evaluators suggested that youngermembers of the community could also be occasionally featured in the show. “MonaLisa” by Nat King Cole introduced the item about a sophisticated 3D laser scanningsystem developed by the National Research Council of Canada and used to revealthe secrets of the most famous painting in the world.

The October 8 edition of Postcards Canada was largely a trip into thepast: first stop, WW1, when 5000 Ukrainians carrying Austrian passports weredetained in internment camps in Canada. A commemorative ceremony took placein Valcartier and Beauport, Quebec and RCI reporters were there. Numerousinterviews with participants, children and grandchildren of people who have beendetained, provided a vivid recollection of the internment years. The second stopbrought the listener to the WW2 activities of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA).Peter Potichnyj, a well known political scientist formerly of McMaster University,published a monumental series of documents related to UPA history, “LitopysUPA: Chronicles of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army”. The story is not only importantfor historical reasons: there is an ongoing controversy in Ukraine about UPAveterans’ pensions. After the history lesson, came the coverage of two moderntopics, an International Conference on Democratic Development in Ukraineinitiated by a Canadian and the profile of a Vancouver folk music ensemble“Zeelia”. The former was a phone interview with the conference participant, aprofessor at the University of Western Ontario; the latter a colourful report withplenty of music played by the ensemble. Follow-ups were announced after three

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of the reports featured in the program. The evaluators cautioned against theexcessive use of such a device; not only the producer is then bound to deliver onher promise but too many unfinished stories may leave the listener unhappy ratherthan eager to listen to the rest.

A lot changed in the RCI Ukrainian programming since the first comparisonevaluation in 1987. It evolved from two daily half hours broadcast on shortwaveto two weekly half-hours on the National Radio Company of Ukraine and on RCIviva for the Ukrainian newcomers to Canada and for anybody else, anywhere elsesurfing on the Internet. A generously staffed production team lead by a sectionhead became a unit of just two journalist-presenters, each producing and hostingher own weekly show, with the assistance of very few freelancers. Newscasts,until recently, the main attraction for international audiences and over a third ofthe airtime of Ukrainian programming, disappeared entirely from the weeklyshows, leaving room for current affairs now focusing on Canadian society, culture,economy and most of all on anything Ukrainian in Canada. The two remainingweekly Ukrainian half-hour broadcasts feature original interviews, field reporting,coverage of large events, round-tables and very little translation; they soundinformal and friendly offering better, more innovative radio. Somewhere alongthe road soon, traditional distribution will probably stop entirely, but programmingwill be accessible on the Internet, at least for a while. The focus will very likelyshift from Ukrainians in Ukraine to those in Canada, who in any case cared themost about the broadcasts and supported their existence since their launch in 1952.

Analysis of Programming in Canada’s Two National Languages

At least a brief look at the RCI English and French broadcasts against thebackground of the rest of the industry is necessary to round up the discussion ofRCI programming. January 2002 was the only time the broadcasts in nationallanguages were compared in a more systematic manner with the English and Frenchbroadcasts of other international stations. RCI’s daily news and current affairsbroadcasts were called at the time “Canada Today” and “Canada en direct” andwere directly followed by half-hour theme programs created in 2001 as part ofRCI’s repositioning. Five new bilingual thematic units responsible for weeklyprograms “Canada in the World”, “Spotlight”, “Maple Leaf Mailbag”, “MediaZone” and “Business Sense” in English and their French equivalents, “Repères”,“Fréquence culture”, “Courrier mondial”, “Zone médias”, and “Le sens desaffaires” went into regular production in October 2001. “Canada Today” and“Canada en direct” were produced by one large team headed by a team leader andcomposed of the newsroom journalists (also responsible for newscasts for foreignlanguage sections), two hosts, national reporters in Ottawa and the regions, oneresearcher and two production assistants.

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Only in a bilingual country an experiment of combining staffers from twodifferent languages in one production unit had a chance of success; in RCI, thiswas simple because the command of both official languages has been, for decades,a hiring condition. The weekly teams produced ten shows a week, five in eachlanguage. A team had typically one leader who doubled as host in one language,one researcher and one production assistant, a host for the other language, anadditional journalistic position and the use of RCI regional correspondents. Thethematic units produced some of the most exciting and original shows in RCIEnglish and French programming. After a five-year life span from 2001 to 2006,when the format of half-hour daily shows followed by a weekly thematic show, adifferent one every day, was abandoned, the dailies combined with the weekliesto make way for RCI viva and its two-hour long daily Internet shows for newimmigrants, the English “Link” and the French “Tam-tam”. The only weeklyshows that remained were the listeners’ mail programs, “Maple Leaf Mailbag”and “Courrier mondial”, a must have in international radio.

Not to make the present analysis overly extended and boring for non-broadcasters, it will focus on the comparison of the daily English and Frenchnews programs and on one example of the theme shows, the arts & cultureprograms.

In the way of putting the picture straight, it is as good a place as any tounderline the difference between the work of RCI’s foreign language sectionsand the English and French programming staff. The English and French teamsdid not translate the news, as it was written by the newsroom journalists directlyin both languages. While there was no need to translate either current affairs reports,they were produced only in part by the team in Montreal, as most of programelements were filed by RCI national reporters in Ottawa, Calgary, Vancouver andToronto or lifted from the national networks. Additionally, the English and Frenchteams had researchers and production assistants (60) to help sift through networkmaterial in search for elements suitable for international audiences and to serve asstudio directors. The weekly thematic shows on the other hand, were designed asentirely original in-house productions; they did not include newscasts, forming,as it were, the second part of a news show. Each show explored in-depth a specifictopic related to its title theme using a variety of techniques and presenting differentaspects of the subject for a foreign audience. They did not include material fromCBC/Radio-Canada networks.

The January 2002 evaluation of the English & French news & currentaffairs programs covered the BBC’s “World Today” at 0600 UTC and “WorldNews Summary” at 1300 UTC, VOA’s “Talk to America” at 1700 UTC and “Lemonde d’aujourd’hui” , Radio Prague’s “Faits et événements“ and “Journal dujour de Radio Corée Internationale” broadcast on Friday January 25; as well asRadio Netherlands’ “Newsline” at 0000 UTC, RFI’s “Gros plan,” RCI’s “Canada

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en direct” at 2000 UTC and “Canada Today” at 2100 UTC broadcast on MondayJanuary 28.

BBC’s “World Today” featured a 5-minute newscast with actuality fromKabul, US and Belgrade; a current affairs segment following the news: 3 longercorrespondent reports (Kabul, Pakistan, Liberia), one interview with an Iraqipolitical analyst on Iraq-Russia-UN sanctions; news headlines, business news:Enron, Ericsson’s losses- interview with an analyst, stock markets; a pack fromBeijing on how Beijing cabbies learn English and good manners before the 2008Olympics. There was no British news, with the exception of an announcement bya medical institute in London about the gravity of the AIDS pandemic. The selectionof stories was topical and interesting for an international audience. In 5 minutes,8 well written stories were presented, including 3 news reports: a model of conciseand clear writing combined with relevant context and good use of audio clips.The news reports painted vivid, clear pictures (especially Afghan & Belgradereports). All news and correspondent reports or short interviews were credibleand authentic. An excellent Liberian report from BBC West-Africa correspondentand an interview with an Iraqi expert on how sanctions hurt Russia providing afresh angle on the sanctions story, both merit a special mention. The newscastwas read by a different announcer and presented as if coming from a differentsource, a device that strengthens the separation of news from other types of material,but on the other hand breaks the unity of the program.

A few comments from the point of view of hosting values: a goodintroduction with opening program highlights. The news reader and all the othervoices were very average. A very formal, cold style practically eliminated theinteraction between the host and the correspondents; there were no attempts to“engage” the listener and no humour (except within the Beijing piece). Six programidentifications and updates on the hour provided strong branding. Occasionally,the introductions or identifications could have been clearer. The program soundedvery well planned, flowed at a good rhythm, according to a logical line-up. Thelanguage was very correct. Clearly significant production resources were put togood use, the sound quality was generally good and the levels were equal. Therewas no music in the program, only two stings were included within the programIDs. In the middle of the report on blood diamonds, a rough sounding interviewcould have been better edited.

Seven hours later, the BBC posted online its “World News Summary”, a 5-minute international news bulletin. Two stories were repeated from 0600 UTC, athird one was updated. It was a newscast designed for a general audience andcontained seven news items with three voice reports but no actuality. Well writtenconcise stories were credible and balanced, delivered professionally, at a goodrhythm; three station and program IDs in a 5’10” newscast provided a strongbranding. The tightly produced bulletin presented short news reports which flowed

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well, without a glitch of any kind.

VOA’s “Talk to America” at 1700 UTC started with “book briefs” or literarynews followed by a short historical item on a Cuban insurrection against Spainwhich lead on to a 5-minute newscast (only five stories including two news reportsand one story with an audio clip. The first news item was a US oriented Bushstory, the other four were on the same topics as those in the BBC’s “World NewsSummary” at 1300 UTC. The newscast was followed by a debate & phone-in onthe topic of the day – India & Pakistan tensions: the Indian missile test – interesting,solid and credible information on the conflict, Kashmir and possible outcomes.Another newscast, shorter, only 2-minutes long, was inserted into the debate: thesame five stories without the reports and clips and a 6th item on sentencing of anIRA man in Dublin.

A sophisticated format of a live roundtable with phone-ins requires a certainamount of luck with callers. This time, while the guests/experts for the roundtable were well selected, the phone-ins were difficult to understand, the contentof the calls rather rhetorical. The newscasts sounded parachuted from a differentdepartment and were lost in the confusion of the broadcast. Stories were wellwritten but less concisely than in the BBC’s newscast and so badly read that itdetracted from the listening comfort. “Talk to America” in spite of many positiveaspects was a boring and seemingly endless program. The host was friendly andenthusiastic, he presented his guests clearly and well interacted with them, buteither did not follow or did not have his cue-sheet, producing confusion andanarchy. There were too many topics, lots of clutter, lack of a clear line-up. Thementioned above, terrible, whining news readers did a lot of damage to the show.Seven identifications in a 45-minutes broadcast and three promos for the nextedition of “Talk to America” imprinted a strong brand. In spite of a pleasant musicaltheme, well suited to shortwave, the rest of the program sounded less appealing:bad cross-fades, bad levels, fade-ins, poor quality phone-ins, and a sound failureat the end of the 2nd newscast. On top of all these problems, a voice report on theIndia missile test was very hard to understand due to a mixture of poor sound andheavy accents.

Radio Prague’s French language program “Faits et événements” presentednational Czech news and news on German-Czech and Russian-Czech relations ina rather questionable lineup: German reaction to a statement by the Czech PrimeMinister, Czech Foreign Affairs Minister in Moscow, a new Czech political party,Czech TV viewers fail to pay licence fees, problems in a national park, and turfwars between rival gypsy groups. Such a selection could potentially be of interestto Czechs abroad but certainly not to a French speaking audience. Super formal,official and lifeless broadcasting style dating from decades ago could only borethe audience to death. No trace of concern for the listener, not only in the selectionof topics but also in the excessive length of stories: almost 14 minutes for only six

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stories. Within the newscast there were two over 2-minute long reports and a4’20” interview. Announcers with thick, unattractive accents laboured through amost painful delivery. The interview was conducted unprofessionally. There wasno effort at establishing a rapport with the audience, not even a simple greeting atthe end. Only one station ID and non existent production values. The same musicalbridge was played after each story and rapidly became annoying. Unequal levelsalso contributed to a mediocre, metallic sound quality.

VOA’s French broadcast “Le monde d’aujourd’hui” opened in English,then in French, both openings sounded extremely formal and institutional. Itcontained four newscasts: 16’30” of headlines and news targeted to Africa (twosame subjects as the BBC at 1300 UTC), 6’35” sportscast for Africa, 4’20” ofbusiness news (six stories with 2 repeats and one update for the first newscast),and 12’30” long non targeted headlines and news (six repeats from the firstbulletin). All four newscasts practically ignored national US news, featuring onlythose with an international impact. The rationale behind the four consecutive newsblocs was difficult to grasp and so was the device of running longer (up to 3minutes) news reports in between the straight news stories. The news reportsmade the bulletins seem endless, repetitive and slow: a newscast needs to bedynamic, with a sense of immediacy and rapid sequence. The impression of afailed hybrid format resulted also from a mediocre writing of the stories. Thesports newscast’s presentation on the other hand, although marred by sometechnical problems, was very spontaneous and enthusiastic, especially when itcame to football; rather lukewarm about other sports. The newsreaders for businessnews and the last general bulletin performed poorly; four quite unappealing stingsdid nothing to improve the business news.

This news cascade was followed by “Femmes”, a women & human rightsmagazine in two parts: a report on a discrimination complaint by a Muslim womanin Chicago and a story of a lawyer from Chad given an award for her defence ofhuman rights. Both segments were informative and credible, with authentictestimonies and accounts. The translation over the Muslim woman’s voice soundedartificial, as it was more emotional than the original. The broadcast closed with athree-minute song. While the host sounded energetic and interested, the programwas slightly chaotic revealing a lack of unity and cohesion, like an orchestraplaying without its conductor. The sound appeared “young” and inexperiencedbut not without a certain flair. There were six stations IDs in a one-hour broadcast,all outside of the newscasts. A promo with postal and internet addresses wasproduced with the wrong jingles and an overly “sweet” voice.

Radio Korea International’s French news program Journal du jour de RadioCorée Internationale presented headlines and 10 stories focusing on Koreanrelations with abroad, with an emphasis on North Korea, United States and Japan.Only listeners already interested in Korea and speaking French could have been

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the intended audience. Two announcers, a male and a female, presented thenewscast reading in alternation. The broadcast sounded institutional, very formaland boring, leaning towards publicity rather than credible journalism. Not a singlenews report, audio clip or actuality, just a series of straight texts. The generalimpression was of an amateur operation, with little concern or even awareness ofthe listener. No particular production values: music before and under the headlines,two stings within the newscast: sloppy and insensitive radio.

The next batch of daily programs (Radio Netherlands, Radio FranceInternationale, and Radio Canada International) was recorded after the weekend,on Monday January 28. Radio Netherlands’ “Newsline” broadcast at 0000 UTCfeatured a variety of formats: news & news oriented reports and interviews. Thenewscast 5’15” long covered nine stories followed by two approx. 3-minute newsoriented reports (Zimbabwe, Nigeria), three Dutch news stories – one of whichwas about a prize awarded to RN, three interviews with Dutch experts on newstopics: American treatment of Afghan prisoners; loss of US support for Arafat;disappearance of the guilder. Among four announced Dutch headlines ending theprogram, the 1st one was not Dutch at all (suicide bombing in Israel).

The correspondent reports and interviews (with a US professor inAmsterdam, a RN Middle-East specialist and the Dutch Finance Minister) wereinformative and credible. Hosting and production were surprisingly poor: wrongpronunciation, slow and laborious news reading; announcers soundedinexperienced and awkward; the headlines out of order; quite a few instances ofbad grammar; no interaction between the host and the reporters. A humourless,cold and inefficient host couldn’t make proper transitions or blending and soundedself-conscious and tense, doubtlessly aware of his shortcomings. There were fiveprogram IDs in a half-hour program, but none within the news. One bad qualityclip (Mugabe) was used as an opening teaser but otherwise lack of actuality ormusical bridges made the program sound dull; the only instances where musicwas played were the opening, the closing, and a few stings within the stationidentifications.

Radio France Internationale’s “Gros plan” presented a debate on anti-Semitism in France between an Arab professor, author of a book on modernJudaism, and a lawyer representing the Jewish community in Val-de-Marne andCréteil, the scene of recent anti-Semitic events. The opening based on the statisticsof anti-Semitic incidents provided sufficient background for the discussion andintroduced the subject and the two guests. Well educated listeners interested byevents in France of a universal character were the targeted audience. While thediscussion benefited from a dispassionate approach of the host, the communicationproblems inherent in the Arab-Israeli conflict prevented a true debate. The guestswere credible but the professor was less than articulate and the lawyer refused totouch upon controversial issues (“I won’t make any accusations”): there was no

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dialogue but rather two separate interviews with the host who was trying too hardto make the guests interact and was getting visibly frustrated in the process. Inspite of this failure, both points of view were clearly presented and the failureitself highlighted the scope of the problem. However, a better prepared host wouldhave dealt with the issue more effectively. From the point of view of productionvalues, the program displayed good sound quality but was otherwise rather basic.

RCI’s French daily show “Canada en direct” broadcast at 2000 UTCfollowed the standard format of half an hour of news & current affairs.Unfortunately, due to multiplatform encoding(61), the newscast was not recorded.Hence any comparison between news and current affairs and between RCI’s newsand the news of the other stations became impossible. We must restrict theevaluation to the current affairs segment only. In a mixed format of duplexes,chronicle, press review and reports, it covered the return of Parliament: agovernment shuffle, change of Canadian priorities in Afghanistan, the value ofCanadian dollar and New Democratic Party’s stand on health services. The rest ofthe program consisted of a Toronto Star editorialist’s view on the shuffle, a foreignaffairs chronicle on Canadian priorities and disarmament impasse in Geneva, apress review, and a Henry Moore exhibit at a Toronto museum, closing with sportsscores and weather. The mandate of the program was to reflect Canada to Frenchspeaking audiences.

The duplex with the Ottawa correspondent on the return of Parliament wasexcellent: clear, credible, relevant and well structured questions and answers.The comment on the reshuffle definitely of interest but it appeared from nowhere,accompanied by sounds pointing to an interviewer who remained anonymous.The disarmament file was a weekly column produced by an in-house expert, clear,logical and relevant. The press review of mediocre quality was lifted from Radio-Canada and the report on Henry Moore’s exhibit also very average, displayed allthe characteristics of a filler. Sports scores on the other hand were well presentedby the host and illustrated with two good audio clips. There was also a very enticingpromo for the following day’s theme program “Zone médias” but strangely enough,no preview of “Repères”, the weekly broadcast ran within the same hour,immediately after “Canada en direct”.

An informal and warm host interacted very well with the other participants,with the exception of the press review presented without an extro. Otherwise, allintroductions and transitions were expertly done. Good variety of voices combinedwith an excellent treatment of audio and music clips resulted in an overall attractivesound.

RCI’s “Canada Today” at 2100 UTC, the daily half-hour format of newsand current affairs was also recorded without the news, for the same multiplatform

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encoding reason. The content revealed an obvious mandate of reflecting Canadaand sharing with a foreign audience what’s important to Canadians. The samemodel as in the French “Canada en direct” and the same mixed format: Q & A,packs and reports, were applied. The duplex with Ottawa included the same topicsrelated to the return of Parliament, again really interesting and put in an internationalperspective. A mini-documentary about the homeless in Toronto including aninterview on all aspects of the homeless’ life, with lots of background sound waslifted from CBC Radio, backgrounded and presented for an international audience.The press review in the form of Q & A between the journalist and the host coveredtwo strangely minor topics from the Maritimes: a new party in New Brunswickand WW2 bombs with mustard gas dumped into the ocean off Cape Breton, NovaScotia. A good comprehensive pack with interviews and sound inserts on CalgaryStampede, other rodeos and animal rights also came from the CBC, after beingadapted and edited for RCI’s listeners. Sports scores were presented informallyby a journalist from the newsroom, the weather was given by the host.

“Canada Today” of January 28, 2002 provided another example of credible,warm and friendly hosting by RCI’s Jim Craig; a very good voice, pleasantinteraction with all live participants: correspondent in Ottawa, the presenters ofthe press review and of sports. The program flowed at a good pace. Regrettably,there was no teaser at the end for Canada in the World coming immediately after,but one for Media Zone (mistakenly called Media File) to be broadcast thefollowing day. Expert use of clips and musical bridges as well as seamless fade-ins and fade-outs resulted in an attractive overall sound. The tail end credits inthe form of a collective signature indicated harmonious relations among theproduction team.

Let’s now examine closer arts & culture shows, as an example of RCI’sweekly programs. RCI’s “Spotlight” and “Fréquence culture” had in 2002 a numberof equivalents at other international stations. The comparison evaluation coveredin addition to “Spotlight” (January 23) and “Fréquence culture”(January 23):BBC’s “Arts in action” (January 19), Deutsche Welle’s “Arts on the Air” (January20), China Radio International’s “In the Spotlight” (January 20), Radio Prague’s“The Arts” (January 27), Radio France Internationale’s “Culture vive” (January24) and “Actualité littéraire” (January 24).

BBC’s “Arts in Action”, an international cultural magazine, featured seventopics, curiously none of them British; it sounded more like a national show aboutarts abroad than international radio. The lineup was composed of the followingitems: a new documentary by the maker of Hitler’s propaganda films, Yves Saint-Laurent’s retirement, a Greek-Turkish CD from Cyprus, an architecturalcompetition for a new museum in Egypt, a World Trade Centre related exhibitionand concert, a theatre oriented program for youth in Africa and India and blinddancers in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

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A mixed format consisted of interviews, packs, one round table and threesimple news stories. While the topics were presented credibly and from severalpoints of view, there was a certain lack of focus within the items and not enoughattention to detail in general. There was no clear logic behind the choice of topicsand no attempt at providing a rationale. People interviewed in the show wereunimpressive average personalities. A detailed opening billboard presented teasersclipped from the reports but they were not clear or easy to understand. “Lazy”radio in some other areas: music could have been used under bills; transitions andlinks were weak or non existent; Yves St-Laurent round table with not veryarticulate guests would have been more effective as a pack. On the other hand, inthe Sao Paulo pack, extensive voice-overs were expertly done. In spite of onephone interview, the overall quality of sound was good.

The one truly disappointing area, especially for a station such as the BBC,was presentation: the host was hardly noticeable, if it were not for an annoying“wet mouth” sound. Poor interaction with the rest of the team indicated possiblystrained relations: no friendly feeling there at all. Lack of a real line-up or logicalcontinuity throughout the program compounded by too many subjects, insufficienttransitions, no set-ups, no proper background or context from the host pointed toan indifference towards the listener’s needs.

Deutsche Welle’s “Arts on the Air”, an arts program without a detectablemandate or target audience, featured on January 20 the 100th anniversary of NazimHikmet, a Turkish poet of communist convictions, the Mayor of London launchinga campaign to bring more people to West End theatres, an interview with aNorwegian pianist; and a South African tenor performing at the State Opera inMunich. The show was reminiscent in style of the Chaîne culturelle of Radio-Canada, a now defunct French language component of the Canadian public media,maliciously described as having outlived its audience. “Arts on the Air” composedof unrelated packs, interviews, and reports sounded as if the program elementswere picked off a shelf and slapped together, displaying no unity, no coherence,no planning. The only strong item in the show was a well researched and verywell produced pack on the Turkish poet – complete, presenting different points ofview. The program started with a tango without any apparent motive. Mechanicalhosting combined with poor production resulted in a lack of flow. An impersonal“studio” voice, no warmth, no interaction, not enough information about thecontributors in the rather cryptic introductions. No bridges, no proper links orcontinuity. The item on the Norwegian pianist begged in vain for piano excerpts.There was a good variety of voices, yet of unequal quality.

China Radio International’s “In the Spotlight” featured an item about arecent commercially successful Chinese film, a reading from a 1930s author abouta city in Eastern China, and a profile of a Chinese rock singer with excerpts of hissongs. It was a glimpse of Chinese culture for an international English speaking

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audience who was subjected to long and boring texts with some music; nointerviews, even in the profile of the rock singer. How can you do a living artistprofile without actually talking to the artist? A super conservative style ofpresentation, rigid, old-fashioned, without imagination or humour. Only veryelementary analysis and comments were attempted: any originality was killed atbirth by political correctness Chinese style. Very passive and slow host was makingnaïve and misplaced comments about the items and was otherwise boring andunconvincing. There was no interaction between the members of the productionteam. Nothing sounded spontaneous, the whole show was “read”, the deliverystilted, the voices terribly annoying. The on-air team had a serious problem withthe command of English: they used colloquial English and slang in a failed attemptto sound “hip”. There were basic production shortcomings in the show, such asdead air pauses after bridges and music not faded out but cut abruptly. On thepositive side, the opening theme was easily identifiable. Among several voices,only one spoke without a strong Chinese accent. There was no proper closing;the host just disappeared without giving credits. The show had few redeemingfeatures but when you consider that even a few years earlier, it would have beenunthinkable for CRI to talk about a commercially successful film or about a rockstar, such considerable progress must be recognized.

Radio Prague’s “The Arts” contained just one piece; it could have evenbeen only part of the show: the director of the Dance School Prague talked aboutits past and present mission and about the International Dance Week, a currentcultural event. He was an interesting speaker, knowledgeable and articulate, inspite of a strong accent. It was not a complete interview but extensive excerptsbridged with music and the host’s comments or questions. A very unimaginativehost, speaking in a grating voice with a harsh accent, did not interact with theguest and displayed no concern for the listener. The show was poorly paced, theopposite of dynamic radio. Very conventional bridges of beautiful ballet musicwent well with the topic.

Radio France Internationale’s “Cuture vive” presented four 20-minutesegments: the first two featured an interview with Parick Chamoiseau, a writerfrom Martinique, in the third segment, the two hosts spoke to Anne Baquet, amusic-hall singer and illustrated the interview with her music; the fourth segmentdealt with cultural news from Paris and in a lively manner presented Parc Lavilletteand activities organized by a neighbourhood association, as well as a report fromthe Palais de Tokyo, a new museum of contemporary art. The first guest stayedfor two segments to discuss his book and his region, the exchange between himand the two hosts created an impression of a round table. The exceptional qualityof the guests was what made, if not saved, the show and highlighted the use oftwo hosts as a successful formula. The program flowed very naturally and themood was authentically relaxed: we are here, we have lots of time, there is justone problem, “we are at RFI and we must stop at the hour, break the mood and

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listen to the news”. That was exactly what one of the hosts said. But in fact, if itwere not for the news, we would have thought we were listening to France culturerather than to RFI. The tone of one of the hosts was patronising, neither of the twomade an effort to provide more background or showed concern for the listener. Atthe beginning, for no apparent reason, the host played a background music,repetitive and unattractive, but later, during the interview with Chamoiseau, musicalpauses were pleasant, jazzy and clearly from Martinique. There was a standardfeature, the song of the week, played unfortunately at an inopportune moment.The report from Parc Lavillette displayed an expert use of sound and demonstratedhow good it is for the program to leave the studio and go out to see real life.

Another RFI weekly, “Actualité littéraire”, featured an interview withPatrick Grevet, author of “Mes images d’amour,” a literary press review aboutAlexandre Dumas, a Jesuit encyclopaedia on China and a Sino-French writer.This was an obviously elitist broadcast for highly initiated minds, hosted by aliterary expert. The host talked to Grevet for a long time but navigated deftlywithin a difficult and at times delicate subject. The pace was slow and heavy; thehost knew better and more than her guest, did not listen enough and kept imposingher views, forgetting the audience. A very conventional press review went fromone boring subject to another, read in an atrocious manner by the same host. Whynot use another announcer? Lack of resources? Musical bridges were attractiveand well suited to the topics.

RCI’s “Spotlight” and “Fréquence culture” were both exploring poetry intheir January 23 editions and included also a monthly feature, the “Arts calendar”announcing Canadian artists scheduled to appear abroad. “Spotlight” presented apoem Haligonian Market Cry by George Elliot Clarke, recipient of the 2001Governor General poetry award, followed by an interview with the poet. Acinematografic recreation of a Canadian poem by Al Purdy At the Quinte Hoteland two reports, one on performing poets in Calgary, the other on poems postedin Vancouver public transport, completed the show which ended with the monthly“Arts Calendar”. The content was well within the mandate to reflect Canadianarts and culture to international audiences. It was presented in the format of poetryreadings, interviews, packs, and sounds in an original, inventive and dynamicmanner, with good music and interesting audio clips. Exploring unusual facets ofthe theme, the show had excellent focus and clear reasoning within an informativeand appealing treatment of the subject. Hosting by Marc Montgomery proved tobe again a strong point of an RCI program: warm, friendly, personal, addressed tothe listener. Good billboard and continuity in general, combined with lots ofinteraction with the contributors. Recommendations for improvement concernedmore spontaneity in the intros and extros, skipping sign offs by the reporters, as itcramped the host’s style and added a formal tone. The invitation to listen to thefollowing week’s show could have mentioned the forthcoming topic. Phoneinterviews should be avoided because of inferior sound quality; why not arrange

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for a studio to studio duplex instead? The “Arts Calendar” very rich in informationand sound, was possibly too rich as there was no time to breathe between thesubjects.

“Spotlight’s” French equivalent “Fréquence culture” also featured poetryand its place in the year 2002, almost but not quite mirroring the English show.The same format used a mix of host in studio, packs and interviews. An excellentopening providing context for the interviews, the first of which was again with awinner of 2001 Governor General award for poetry, Paul Chanel Malenfant whotaught literature at the University of Quebec at Rimouski. Regrettably, the interviewwas not illustrated with excerpts of Malenfant’s poems. The interview was followedby a French version of the pack on performing poets in Calgary produced by thesame bilingual reporter and by the pack on poetry posted in public transport inVancouver done by RCI national reporter from British Columbia also bilingual.The topic of the second interview was the same as in English, a film adaptation ofAl Purdy poem, but it was done in form of interview with the filmmaker DougBensadoun. The next item did not have its equivalent in the English show: aninterview with a poet-rapper Jean-Sébastien Huot. The program ended with thepresentation of the “Arts Calendar”.

The listener, again heard strong hosting, excellent voice full of energy andinterest, speaking directly to the audience; pleasant personality of the host, Anne-Marie Yvon, and manifestly friendly relations between the members of the teamfrom across Canada. Good closing with the announcement of the topic for thefollowing week. High production values made the program easy to listen to inspite of many voice-overs. However, Malenfant’s interview could have beenshorter; a sting at the end sounded inappropriate. As a personality, Malenfant wastoo different from the other participants and it created a certain dissonance in theshow. Yet, as a whole, this edition of “Fréquence culture” showed imaginationand flair, true to its vocation of reflecting arts.

Conclusion

One general and inescapable conclusion from reviewing these forty fiveRussian, Ukrainian, English and French programs: nobody’s perfect. Not that the“virtual domination” of the BBC World Service, to use Anthony Rendell’s phrase,maybe in any legitimate way questioned, but the art of radio is just that, art. Itfollows some canons, escapes others; there is no magic formula, but the journalisticprinciples of truth, integrity and service to the listener remain the necessaryingredients. The art of radio cannot survive without an audience, at least not for

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long and that is why it must follow closely the evolution of the listeners’ needsand be increasingly sensitive to any change in their taste, habits, or technologicalpossibilities. From being a basic source of information it must evolve into a sourceof wonder and delight; from news only to all that is important to listeners.

The example of RCI’s Ukrainian broadcasts demonstrates how within thelast decade, international radio slowly shed its rigid, official, careful, civil servicegear, to arrive at a point where, to paraphrase a recent broadcasting slogan, contentceased to be an absolute king and a period of enlightement began, with format,style, sound and tone gaining wider recognition.

The review and comparison of English and French broadcasts revealed thedifference in programming standards between the western internationalbroadcasters and the other members of the industry, such as Radio Prague, RadioPolonia, China Radio International or even Radio Korea International. Thedifference due in part to the recently abandoned, or in case of CRI still prevailingtotalitarian tradition, may also be explained by the fact that English (or French),the broadcast language, is not the “mother tongue” of these stations.

Throughout the whole analysis of programming, broadcasts in foreignlanguages display lower standards in treatment, hosting, and production valuesthan broadcasts in the national language of the same station. VOA’s English issuperior to VOA French, Russian or Ukrainian; the quality of BBC English exceedsby far that of its Russian and Ukrainian programs, RFI French appears clearlybetter than its Russian. Even though some of Deutsche Welle’s and RadioNetherlands’ outstanding English broadcasts won prestigious prizes, the average,day to day programs do not sound as well as the same language programs fromBBC, VOA or RCI. The same applies to the French broadcasts of Radio Prague,VOA and China Radio International compared to Radio France Internationale orRCI. The technological developments and economic pressures will most likelyreduce the output of international radio to the national language(s) and, whereapplicable, some sort of lingua franca, typically English, as is the case now withmany public websites abroad.

Endnotes

1 The title of this chapter was first used by the author as a subtitle to Challenges VI in 2000.2 The last draft of the text dated April 2000 was prepared by the Programming Committee composedof Ginette Bourély, Ousseynou Diop, Jean Larin, Elzbieta Olechowska, Hélène Robillard-Frayne,Joy Sellers, and Roger Tetrault.3 2001: introduction of thematic programs in addition to the news and current affairs dailies. 2004:replacement of generic daily programs by targeted broadcasts aimed at a “cosmopolitan” audience infive geographic regions. 2005: phasing-out of the very successful thematic weeklies in order tostrengthen the daily news and current affairs broadcasts. 2006: abandon of targeted broadcasts forinternational audiences, reduction of newscasts and emphasis on culture and society rather than politics;

199Programming: The Heart of International Radio

targeting of recent immigrants (in Canada) speaking Chinese, Arabic, Spanish in addition to Englishand French.4 CBC Corporate Policy No. 14, May 13, 1980. See Reference Documents.5 CBC Program Policy Nr. 18, the last time updated on July 6, 1994. See Reference Documents.6 See RCI Program Policy updated in March 1989.7 See the author’s memo to Allan Familiant dated October 16, 1991.8 A phrase coined by an RCI News committee under Jean Larin and corresponding to the BBC’s“news as seen from London ”. See RCI News Policy, 2000.9 See the Appendix, Mandates & Objectives. RCI Daily Broadcasts in All Languages. Montreal,2004.10 See the Minutes of the CBC Board of Directors Meeting of March 17, 2005. However, the lastpaper version of the JPS dated 2005 still contains RCI Policy in Appendix B 5. While the RCI sectionwas already removed from JPS posted on the corporate website, the old numbering of Appendix Bremains and runs: 1, 2, 3, 4, 6.11 BBC WS, RFI, VOA and DW were contacted on the matter and unanimously expressed a stronginterest in any programming competition open specifically to international radio but were quite scepticalas to the feasibility of such a project. The following year, Radio Netherlands proposed to the membersof the IBG to create an identical award and both projects were merged, eventually resulting in theABU Prize for External Radio. See the chapter Partnerships & Alliances.12 Betty Zimmerman tried a different approach and wanted to involve the International BroadcastingGroup in joint evaluations of the output of all members; after a few attempts met with mitigatedsuccess, the idea was abandoned. Participants kept forgetting to bring tapes and they all felt uneasycriticizing the group’s broadcasts. The agenda of the group was full enough without this additionalitem. See the chapter on Partnerships & Alliances.13 Years later, in an e-mail sent April 10, 2007, Anthony Rendell told the author the following:“Sometime in the 80s I had the idea of getting programs from foreign broadcasters recorded off-airfor us by the Monitoring Service at Caversham. Played them to producers. Not terribly interested.Where our programs sounded better that just meant there was no need to look upon our own asneeding improvement.”14 At the time, Deutsche Welle was a separate organization from Deutschlandfunk and the only commonEastern European language was Russian. For details of the status and relationship of the two Germaninternational stations see Jürgen Reiss. “Deutschlandfunk: Broadcasting to East Germany and EasternEurope” in Western Broadcasting Over the Iron Curtain. Ed. by K.R.M. Short. London: Croom Helm,1986 (180-181). Attempts to co-opt Deutschlandfunk as a participant in the comparative evaluation,with its Polish, Czech, Slovak, German and Hungarian broadcasts failed.15 Sid Davis and Alan Heil at VOA, Peter Fraenkel and Peter Udell at the BBC WS, Botho Kirsch atDeutsche Welle, Fouad Benhalla, Jean-Luc Bellanger and Kazimierz Piekarec at RFI.

16 A copy of the questionnaire is provided in the Reference Documents.17 See Comparison Evaluation File, April 22, 1986 and the program summaries included in theReference Documents.18 See Comparison Evaluation File, October 19, 1986 and the Reference Documents.19 Roger Tetrault became editor-in-chief of the foreign language services and this author took overprogramming in the official languages, including the English and French newsrooms.20 The programs were recorded confidentially on, or close to, January 25, 2002.21 BBC WS, DW, RCI, RFI, VOA22 Programs were recorded on April 22 and October 19, 1986, January 5, 1989 and January 24, 25,and 28, 2002. See details of the evaluated broadcasts and evaluation reports annexed in the ReferenceDocuments.23 The Reviews are dated February 1988, February and July 1989, June 1990, January 1991, March1992, February 1994, January 1995, January 1996, and January 1997.24 In February 1988, February 1989, June and September 1990, February 1991, March 1992, February1993, January and April 1994, May 1995, April 1996, and February 1997.25 For detailed criteria, see the 1986 Questionnaire in the Reference Documents.26 With the exception of Radio France Internationale.27 RCI English & French broadcasts also relied heavily on various items lifted from the networks andprovided with an introduction and background information making them suitable for foreign audiences.

200 Programming: The Heart of International Radio

An average of 30% of RCI English & French programming was originally produced by CBC andRadio-Canada.28 An expression often used by Wladyslaw Zbik, a former diplomat who defected to the West duringa posting in Ottawa soon after WW2 and became later the head of RCI Polish section.29 This time VOA’s broadcast was added to the mix.30 Shortwave frequencies are coordinated twice a year and new schedules come into effect on thesame dates as the changes to and from daylight saving time, traditionally in late March and lateOctober. See also under High Frequency Coordination Conferences, in the chapter Partnerships &Alliances.31 See April 21, 1989 Interoffice Memorandum to Staff New Format and Availability.32 See July 17, 1989 Interoffice Memorandum to the Central & Eastern Europe Service Staff.33 See a memo to all Central & Eastern Europe Service Staff , August 7, 1989.34 See Interoffice Memorandum to supervising producers and programming managers, August 14,1989.35 See Interoffice Memorandum to all Central & Eastern Europe Service Staff, June 17, 199036 See Interoffice Memorandum to Europe Service Staff, January 18, 1991.37 The eliminated broadcasts were the dawn and late night ones, a move which allowed the shorteningof the workday to only one shift. However, within months, the August 1991 coup in Moscow promptedRCI to temporarily extend the half hour format to one hour. As broadcast times remained the same,there was no need to add a work shift, which provides an example of another favourite RCI’s slogan,“doing more with less”.38 See Interoffice Memorandum to Europe Service Staff, March 30, 1992.39 See Summary of the Evaluation Meeting of February 16, 1994. February 18, 1994.40 See Interoffice Memorandum to the Europe Service Staff, January 6, 1995.41 See SRC Note interne (BeyondMail) to the Europe Service Staff, January 31, 1996.42 SCR Note interne (BeyondMail) to the Europe Service Staff, January 15, 1997.43 For the discussion of the 2002 comparison evaluation, see Étude comparative – émissions languerusse. Février 2002.44 Ukrainian Evaluation. Memo to Staff. February 14, 1989.45 Evaluation 6.6.90 – Ukrainian Program 4.6.90.Interoffice Memorandum. June 8, 1990.46 Refers to lineup editor Gordon McDougall and Ukrainian announcer-producer Orest Pawliw.47 Evaluation of the Ukrainian Broadcast. Interoffice Memorandum. September 28, 1990.48 Ukrainian Evaluation. Interoffice Memorandum. February 28, 1991.49 Evaluation of Ukrainian Broadcast, Monday February 24. Interoffice Memorandum. March 2,1992.50 An outstanding CBC broadcaster of Polish origin, at the time host of “Morning Side”, a daily radioshow.51 Ukrainian Evaluation, Monday Feb. 22, 1993. Interoffice memorandum. February 25, 1993.52 Ukrainian Evaluation, March 30, 1994. Interoffice Memorandum April 4, 1994.53 Ukrainian Evaluation. Note interne. 95-05-24.54 Evaluation of Ukrainian Program 12.4. Interoffice Memorandum (BeyondMail). April 18, 1996and Ukrainian Evaluation, Friday February 14, 1997. Note interne (BeyondMail). February 19, 1997.55 Étude comparative. Février 2002. Émission langue ukrainienne.56 The review included even an article from the Montreal daily “Gazette”.57 Ukrainian Program Objectives. 2004.58 Ibidem.59 Program Review: Ukrainian Programs. November 23, 2006.60 Originally at RCI, foreign language sections also had production assistants but the managementdecided to distribute the tasks performed by assistants to the announcer-producers and to transformthe positions themselves into full fledged announcer-producer jobs. This move increased the numberof staffers able to go on air, an obvious advantage for a production team.61 At that time, RCI newscasts were played simultaneously on all platforms and replaced on the siteeach time a new bulletin became available. The current affairs portion of the broadcast was repeatedwithout modification several times for different geographic areas and was available for recording onthe website for 24 hours, i.e. until a new broadcast was produced. This system was changed whendaily programs targeted for specific audiences were introduced in 2004.

201Programming: The Heart of International Radio

REFERENCE DOCUMENTS

202 Programming: The Heart of International Radio

203Programming: The Heart of International Radio

Corporate Policy

Number : CP No. 14Effective: May 13, 1980

RADIO CANADA INTERNATIONAL

PREAMBLERadio Canada International is the voice of Canada abroad. It reaches audiencesby daily shortwave broadcasts in selected languages in appropriate regions of theworld and by taped and recorded programs provided to the domestic radio systemsof many countries. Originally funded separately by the federal government andoperated as the International Service of the CBC, it has been integrated into theCBC since 1968 and, since 1972, identified as Radio Canada International.Complete responsibility for this service was transferred to the CBC by Order inCouncil P.C. 1968-525 of 19th March, 1968, which says in part:“His Excellency the Governor General in Council, on the recommendation of theSecretary of State, pursuant to subsection (2) of section 39 of the BroadcastingAct, within the conditions of licences issued to the Canadian BroadcastingCorporation by the Canadian Radio-Television Commission and subject to anyapplicable regulation of the Commission, is pleased to direct the CanadianBroadcasting Corporation to provide, in consultation with the Department ofExternal Affairs, an International Service by means of shortwave broadcastingsupplemented by relays, transcriptions and sound and visual recordings, providingthereby a continuing expression abroad of Canadian identity, and to consolidatethe accounts relating to the International Service with the accounts of theCorporation and merge any capital assets which may be held in the name of HerMajesty for the purposes of the International Service with the assets of theCorporation…”In October 1979, the Corporation and External Affairs met to further clarify theareas of responsibility related to the consultation required by the foregoing Orderin Council. The meeting provided this opportunity for the Corporation to reaffirmand formalize its Corporate Policy for Radio Canada International.

POLICYConsistent with the instruction contained in the 1968 Order in Council, RadioCanada International is directed by the CBC to provide a program service designedto attract an international audience with the purpose of further developinginternational awareness of Canada and the Canadian identity by distributing,through shortwave and other means, programs which reflect the realities and qualityof Canadian life and culture, Canada’s national interests and policies and the

204 Programming: The Heart of International Radio

spectrum of Canadian viewpoints on national and international affairs. RCI alsobroadcasts programs to the growing number of Canadians abroad, in recognitionof their need for more Canadian news and information, in those areas alreadyserved under the primary objective of broadcasting to foreign audiences.

The policies of External Affairs form the basis for decisions on RCI target andlanguage priorities, but programming and editorial policies are wholly theresponsibility of the CBC. Programming broadcast by RCI must comply withgeneral CBC Program Policies as well as those Program Policies developedspecifically for RCI’s operations.

RESPONSIBILITYResponsibility for the implementation and application of this policy rests withRadio Canada International. The Director of Radio Canada International leadsthe CBC representation at the consultative meetings held with the Department ofExternal Affairs.

SecretariatOttawa, March 5, 1984

205Programming: The Heart of International Radio

Program Policy

Number: P.P. No. 18Effective: July 6, 1994

RADIO CANADA INTERNATIONAL PROGRAMMING

The major objective of Radio Canada International was established in a corporatepolicy1 approved May 13, 1980, by the Directors of the CBC, as follows:“...Radio Canada International is directed by the CBC to provide a program servicedesigned to attract an international audience with the purpose of further developinginternational awareness of Canada and the Canadian identity by distributing,programs which reflect the realities and quality of Canadian life and culture,Canada’s national interests and policies and the spectrum of Canadian viewpointson national and international affairs.”

RCI’s program personnel, in carrying out the various elements of this objective,must consider the following:1. Underlying all RCI programming is the awareness that Canada is not aswell known abroad as it should be, that its image has not kept pace with realities,and that it is not represented on foreign newsstands by a Canadian daily or weeklypress, nor by any but the most superficial coverage in foreign media.2. To “attract an international audience,” RCI programming must be adaptedto target audience interests and knowledge. The emphasis within informationprogramming must be on topicality in order to reach the interested audience forshortwave. Across all language sections, programming must be identifiable by anattractive, lively style, just as program content in any language must stand out byconsistency of emphasis and accuracy, by balance and by reliability.3. A better “international awareness of Canada and the Canadian identity”calls for a program mix that aims at an accurate and coherent reflection of Canada’scultural, political, social and economic fabric. This includes, among other subjects,programs that stress Canada’s linguistic dualism, cultural pluralism, regionaldiversity, its important role as a trading nation, its technical, industrial andagricultural capabilities, its natural resources and traditions, its interests andachievements in arts, science and sports.4. One important function of RCI is to “reflect... Canada’s national interestsand policies, and the spectrum of Canadian viewpoints on national and internationalaffairs,” This task should be carried out fairly, accurately, in accord with the CBC’sprogram policies on new and current affairs which apply to RCI as fully as to thedomestic networks. Inherent in these policies is the recognition that the freeexpression of opinion in all its variety is a reality of the Canadian way of life.

206 Programming: The Heart of International Radio

5. However, in shortwave, there should be particular concern for balance,wherever possible, within a single transmission or program, as there is no guaranteeor even likelihood that the audience is the same from day to day or week to week,and the idea of balance over a period of time has not the same plausibility as indomestic programming.6. When it is perceived that a Canadian issue, particularly one that iscontroversial in nature, is misunderstood abroad, RCI has a special responsibilityto present, insofar as possible, all the known facts.7. Newsworthy events in any country are legitimate subjects for accuratereporting and forthright “pro and con” commentary. It is, however, contrary toRCI’s objectives to indulge in gratuitous attacks (in single programs) or campaigns(over a period of time) against the domestic policies of other countries.

1 See Corporate Policy No.14 - Radio Canada International

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1986 Comparative Evaluation: Questionnaire

Instructions:Complete the questionnaire evaluating one broadcast after the other and thenreview the marks and, if necessary adjust them to reflect as clearly as possiblethe differences between the broadcasts. Add any comments you might wish inorder to clarify your opinion. Unless differently stated, mark each element onthe scale of 1 to 5 (very poor, poor, acceptable, good, excellent) e.g. BBC 4,RCI 2, RFI 5.

I. NEWS COVERAGEa) Were all important events of the day covered?b) Was the treatment of the news adequate (accuracy, objectivity, line-up)?c) Was the newscast target area oriented (choice of news, line-up, presentation)?

II. CURRENT AFFAIRSa) topicalityb) accuracyc) objectivityd) interest for the target areae) adapted for the target area

III. NEWS AND CURRENT AFFAIRS RESOURCESCheck each category without otherwise evaluating, e.g.a) foreign language correspondents: national: BBC RCI foreign:

BBC RFIa) foreign language correspondents:national: foreign:b) network correspondents:national: foreign:c) commentators:d) press:national: foreign:e) news agencies:

IV. MAGAZINEa) topicalityb) accuracyc) objectivityd) interest for target areae) adapted for the target area

208 Programming: The Heart of International Radio

V. STYLE OF THE PROGRAM AS A WHOLEa) Check one or more suitable adjectives:

attractiveindifferentlivelyinterestingprofessionalfriendlycompelling

b) program mixc) continuityd) voice mixe) station identificationsf) musical bridges

VI. LANGUAGE QUALITY:a) grammarb) vocabulary - terminologyc) styled) correct pronunciation

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April 22, 1986 Summaries of Broadcasts

RFI - RUSSIAN BROADCAST 19.45 - 20.15 UTC

(23.45 - 24.15 Moscow time)Ici Paris, govorit Parizh. Times and frequencies of both daily broadcasts. Address.Musical interludeGreetings. Host introduces himself. Menu. News Headlines 20"Identification. Lead-in to news bulletin, Sting 10"News: 14’40"1. EEC countries begin diplomatic measures against Libya.2. British government intends to expel 21 Libyans, Commentary on the

subject 2’35"3. Thatcher approves US raid. USA, France and UK veto resolution of

Security Council condemning raid.4. V. Lomeiko says US lost 5 aircraft. Pentagon denies.5. Bombing in Thailand.6. Palestinian arrested in West Berlin - brother of a terrorist in London.7. Khadafy says no peace possible with USA. Many Arab leaders support

Libya’s stand.Sting 5"8. 10 Americans leave West Beirut. Some Muslim leaders condemn

terrorism in West Beirut. Situation in Beirut. Extremists in South Lebanonshell pro-Israeli South Lebanon Army’s positions.

9. Radio Teheran says Iranian navy intercepts several tankers in Strait ofOrmuz.

10. Iraquis intend to undertake air raids deep into enemy territory.11. Shimon Peres in Strasbourg calls on West European countries to fight

terrorism and support his project of wide economic aid to Middle Easterncountries.

Backgrounder on Peres’ speech 2’00"12. Secretary General of Arab League rejects Peres’ proposals.Musical sting 5"13. In Luxembourg EEC Agriculture ministers fail to come to agreement on

reduction of milk and grain production.14. Italy’s president met in Bonn with Kohl.15. Austrian president refuses to make a statement on Waldheim’s

involvement.16. French National Assembly opens debate on a new bill giving government

power to take economic measures by “ordinances”.17. Death of Marcel Dassault. (promise of an obituary in two days)

210 Programming: The Heart of International Radio

Musical sting 5"18. According to TASS, Soviet representatives at Geneva talks proposed a

plan for gradual destruction of chemical weapons. Gorbachev wantsNATO and Warsaw pact dismantled.

Backgrounder on US - USSR relations 1’50"19. New nuclear test in Nevada. TASS says such tests eliminate only chance

at disarmament process.20. Agreement signed in Moscow on commercial and economic cooperation

with Afghanistan21. Significant guerilla base captured in Afghanistan.22. AFP says former Soviet chess champion Boris Gulko & wife renounce

Soviet citizenship and demand exit visas to Israel.23. Polish government spokesman Jerzy Urban says amnesty of political

prisoners possible if West stops supporting opposition activists. Fiveleaders of KPN sentenced

Musical bridge 15"News lead-out. Station identification.Lead-in to press review, PRESS REVIEW: EEC & terrorism; Gorbachev in East

Berlin 3’15"Music: French song 2’25", Song identification.Lead-in to next item, Talk on Plastic surgery in France 6’10", Lead-out.Station identification. Frequencies and time of next broadcast. Address. Namesof participants. Thanks for listening, good night. Music.

BBC - RUSSIAN BROADCAST 12.00 - 12.30 UTC (16.00 - 16.30 Mos-cow time)Music. Beeps. Moscow time, London time. Greetings, host introductionNews headlinesHost: London calling. Frequencies of current program. Menu. London calling.News: 8’10"1. British government to expel 19 Libyans.2. West Berlin authorities say that the Palestinian arrested after disco

bombing is brother of the man held in London.3. USA, US and France veto a UN Security Council initiative to condemn

the US air raid on Libya.4. King Juan Carlos begins state visit in Great Britain.5. Station Identification6. Warsaw court sentences five members of KPN to different prison terms.7. Investigation continues into Kurt Waldheim’s war-time activities.8. President Reagan decides to observe the terms of SALT-2 treaty.9. Bombing in south Thailand.10. South African Ambassador in London admits to torture being sometimes

used on Blacks.Lead-out. Next news bulletin to be heard at 19 hrs on frequencies…

211Programming: The Heart of International Radio

Station identificationTheme music - Program title: London, chronicle of current events.List of subjects - more theme musicHost - lead in to a report from Washington, Report from Washington on Reagan’sdecision on SALT-2: 1’40"Host - lead-in to the rest of the report from Washington, Report from Washingtonon Reagan and Libya: 2’15" Host - lead-out.Lead-in to report from West Berlin, Report from Berlin on bombing investigation:1’25", Host – Lead -out.Lead-in to next item: Analysis of EEC meeting at Luxemburg by correspondent of“The Observer”: 5', Host - lead-out.Lead-in to press review, Press Review on sanctions against Libya, on TV coverageof air-raid on Libya, on situation on Cyprus, on Spanish king’s visit, on US debateon extradition of criminals to UK: 5', Host - lead-out.Lead-in to a report from Manila, Report from Manila on situation in the Philippines:2’10", Host - lead-out.

DW - RUSSIAN BROADCAST 16.00 - 17.00 UTC (20.00 - 21.00 Moscowtime)Signal & GongStation Identification, Time in Köln and in Moscow, News HeadlinesNews:1. Washington: New US underground test in Nevada2. Washington: President Reagan intends to abide by SALT II treaty and

destroy two submarines.3. Nitze expected in Bonn.4. Bonn: Chancellor Kohl expects constructive reply from USSR to Western

disarmament proposals. Speaks at reception for Kosygin, also onterrorism.

5. New York: USA, France and UK veto Security Council resolutioncondemning US raid on Libya.

Station Identification6. Berlin: Connection suspected between West Berlin disco bombing and

failed attempt at hijacking Israeli liner in London. People arrested arebrothers.

7. London: Great Britain expels 21 Libyans.8. Washington: US government welcomes decision by EEC foreign

ministers to reduce number of Libyan diplomats.9. Beirut: Ten Americans evacuated from West Beirut.10. Berlin: Gorbachev ends visit to GDR.Station IdentificationLead-in to commentary, Commentary on EEC measures against Libya: 4’55"Lead-out. Station Identification, Frequencies of the current broadcast, Menu forthe rest of the hour

212 Programming: The Heart of International Radio

Music: a German song: 4’10"Station IdentificationTheme music - Program title: International review - more theme musicLead-in, Analysis of the situation in Afghanistan (2 voices): 12’10", Lead-out.Announcement of a future series of German language lessonsMusic; an Italian song: 4’50"Station identificationTheme music - Program title: Radio Journal of Cultural Life - more theme musicLead-in to an interview with a Russian publisher in Paris (YMCA-Press): 15’40"Station identification.Lead-out. Announcement of repeat of the interview in the other broadcast thesame day.To end the hour - some music: an unidentified German song: 5’10" followed byclassical music: 1’30"Signals...

RCI - RUSSIAN BROADCAST 15.30 - 16.00 UTC (19.30 - 20.00 Moscowtime)Station Identification. Greetings. Menu of the program. Announcer identifica-tion.News1. Washington: Reagan on Tokyo summit2. London: Britain to expel 19 Libyans. Thatcher supports Reagan’s

position.3. Ottawa: Joe Clark on evacuation of Canadians from Libya.4. Montreal: Douglas Roche comments on US action in Libya.5. Moscow: Vladimir Lomeiko criticizes Canada’s support for Washington’s

measures.6. U.N.: Security Council resolution on US and Libya vetoed.7. Washington: Reagan prepared to abide by SALT-2 treaty and destroy 2

nuclear submarines.8. West Berlin: Palestinians arrested in West Berlin and in London reported

to be brothers.9. Islamabad: Afghan guerillas break through enemy lines to bring aid into

Kandahar.10. Moscow: Nikolai Ryzhkov holds talks with Afghan prime minister.11. Warsaw: Five KPN leaders sentenced to jail terms.News lead-out. Station identification, Musical bridge - 20", station identification.Lead-in to a report from Bern - 20", Report from Bern on conference on humancontacts: 5' musical bridge- 25"Station identification.Lead-in to Cultural review, musical theme: 15", Cultural review: report on INPUTconference: 8’20", musical bridge - 15"

213Programming: The Heart of International Radio

Native art exhibition for Calgary Olympics: 1’50", musical bridge: 20"Closing announcement of time and frequencies for the next broadcast. Upcomingfrequency changes for all programs announced: 45"Closing music – “Vive la canadienne”: 1’10"Sign-off, station identification.

VOA - UKRAINIAN BROADCASTStation identification (time, language): 12", Sting: 5"News: 11’30"1. Khadafy will continue the war against US2. 21 Libyans will be deported from Britain3. Reagan will call in Tokyo for sanctions against terrorism4. France, GB & US veto UN resolution against Libyan raid5. Connection between Berlin disco incident and aborted bombing of Israeli

jet at Heathrow6. 10 Americans evacuated West Beirut after US raid connected killings7. Soviet Union claims the Americans lost more planes in the Libyan raid

than they admit8. Reagan still hopes for a summit with Gorbachev9. Gorbachev in East Berlin (about summit and nuclear ban)10. Reagan ready to destroy two Poseidons in order to adhere to SALT-11Bridge, station identification: 8"11. KPN verdict12. News arrests among the opposition in South Korea13. Nakasone will not visit monument to Japanese WW2 dead14. Campaign against bribery in China15. Mexican finance minister went to Japan to seek economic help16. South African boycott of food stuffs17. NY commemoration of 71st anniversary of Armenian genocideNews headlines: 30", Sting: 5”, News exit: 10"Sports news - Sting: 5", Announcement: 5", Sports news: 2’45", Sting: 5"Program announcement: 1’05"Reagan talks to reporters re: upcoming talks with Gorbachev - VOA reporter (intranslation): 3’50"VOA editorial: Eastern European artists in USA: 4’10"Report from Bern CSCE conference, phone report by Ukrainian languagecorrespondent: 4’05"Announcement of a youth program: 20"News update –headlines: 45".

RCI - UKRAINIAN BROADCASTOpening, Transmission info (only M bands): 35"News: 8’00"1. Reagan: Tokyo summit, Libyan terrorism, summit with Gorbachev

214 Programming: The Heart of International Radio

2. Britain expells 19 Libyans - Thatcher strongly against Libyan terrorists3. Canada - Libya - Clark advises Canadians to leave Libya4. Douglas Roch, Canada’s UN ambassador for disarmament against military

action as remedy for terrorism5. US, France, Britain, Australia & Denmark veto US resolution against

US Libyan raid6. Soviets criticize Canada for approving US raid; Soviets claim US lost

more planes in the raid7. Nuclear test in Nevada8. Perez in Strasbourg following a visit in Paris9. EEC foreign ministers sanction Libya10. General elections in Spain, June 2211. 4 groups of Afghan rebels broke through siege around Kandahar to supply

the cityStation identification: 15"Two “Gazette” editorials and a newser: 5'A lesson for Ottawa: the case of six Soviet deserters in AfghanistanThe easing of pass laws in South AfricaNewser from Bern, US explains Libyan raid, RCI special correspondentMagazine intro: 15", “Canadian Kaleidoscope”: 8’00"“Tears are not enough”, commentary with music: 1’05Intro (10") to: Multiculturalism means business conference (wrap-up), part IIIfreelancer from Toronto: 6’45"Closing

BBC - POLISH BROADCASTStation identification, transmission info (M bands only): 35"News headlines 50"1. Deportation of Libyan students2. Greece waits before joining sanctions against Libyan3. S.U. claims US losses in Libyan raidgreater than admitted4. Nuclear test in Nevada5. KPN trial-verdictBillboard: 1'News: 6’52"As in headlines with following additions:4a. Soviet proposition on chemical weapons in Geneva5a. King of Spain in London“World as Seen from London” 20'1. Libyan aviation student in GB - BBC newser2. Aborted UN resolution against US after the Libyan raid - BBC newser3. EEC foreign ministers in Brussels: sanctions against Libya from the

“Observer”

215Programming: The Heart of International Radio

4. Wrap-up of East German party congress – BBC correspondent5. KNP verdict - commentary by section writer6. Polish delegate to Baltic conference in Sweden defects to the West7. Conference on Christian Culture in Rome - special correspondent in

Polish: 3’55"8. Liberté price for Herling Grudzinski and B. Nedelkovici - special

correspondent in Polish from Paris: 2’49"Bi-weekly magazine “Science-Technology-Industry” Shortwave radio, basicinformation: 14’40"English Lesson: 5'News headlines: 1', tape ends without an extro.

RFI - POLISH BROADCASTStation identification, transmission info (M bands, frequencies, times): 36"Billboard: 17"News: 11’08"News from Poland 3’13"KPN verdict – an in-depth story from AFP, Reuter’s, APNews from France: 3’35"1. Perez in France2. European parliament (Perez)3. EEC on Libya - French reaction4. M. Dassault’s funeral5. “Ordonnances” project at the National Assembly

International news 4’20"1. Change of name of Libyan republic2. EEC sanctions against Libya are being put into effect: Britain,

FRG, US reaction, Benelux3. Libyan plans to assassinate ambassadors in Italy4. Libyan connection in Berlin disco and Heathrow incidents5. Shevardnadze on US raid on Libya6. Reagan still expects Gorbachev to come this year to Washington7. Soviet proposal on chemical weapons8. Nuclear test in Nevada9. Bonn denies Soviet and East German charges (détente)10. TASS about destroying two guerilla bases in Afghanistan - an

indication of a new offensive11. Arab league opposes an Israeli plan of a new Marshall’s plan in

the Middle EastIncorrect announcement: 24"(Parisian) press review: 7’30", from «Le Monde», «La croix», «Le Figaro», «Lequotidien de Paris» - Libya, Poland (KPN, L. Kolakowski)Regular magazine: discussion of an article from “La défence nationale” aboutnew tendencies in defence strategies: 5’55"

216 Programming: The Heart of International Radio

Exit: frequencies and time of the next broadcast, address: 1 ’20".

RCI - POLISH BROADCASTStation identification (M bands, frequencies) 54", Billboard 30"News: 9’08"1. Reagan on Tokyo Summit2. FRG & Britain expel Libyans3. Clark advises Canadians in Libya to leave4. Douglas Roche, Canadian disarmament ambassador, against US raid5. Security council veto resolution against US raid on Libya6. Reagan may order two Poseidons out of service 7. Soviets criticize

Canada’s position on US raid on Libya7. Gorbachev & Honecker accuse Bonn of opposing detente8. Connections between Berlin disco and Heathrow incidents9. KPH verdicts.Station identification 25" (no frequencies, only M bands)Report from Bern, Conference of experts on human contacts, an RCI correspondent:3’10"Canadian asylum promised to Soviet deserters? An RCI Ottawa correspondent:4’20"Plight of Soviet soldiers, from “Ottawa Citizen”: 2’30"Interview with an oil-expert of Polish origin about a patent dispute, an RCI Polishcorrespondent from Vancouver: 3’50"Musical bridgeNews updates 2’50"Exit: times of broadcast, M bands, frequencies, address: 45"

BBC – CZECH BROADCASTMusical theme, Opening announcement and frequencies: 30"News headlines: 30”1. Britain intends to expel 21 Libyans2. USSR says it has information that the USA lost more planes in the

Libyan raid than they are willing to admit3. King Juan Carlos state visit to Britain4. Court in Warsaw sentences five KPM membersBillboard:Expelling of 21 LibyansEEC sanctions against LibyaQueen Elizabeth’s 60th birthdayContest for listeners who follow English language courseNews 7’30"1. Britain intends to deport 21 Libyans, including pilot trainee2. Palestinian arrested in W.Germany is brother of Palestinian behind planned

bombing at Heathrow

217Programming: The Heart of International Radio

3. Soviet spokesman Lomeiko says that the Americans have lost 5 or 6planes in raid on Libya

4. Five women detained at US air force base in OxfordshireStation identification5. Juan Carlos starts visit to Britain6. Court in Warsaw sentences five members of KPN7. Editor of Tanjug agency reveals that Waldheim was not handed over to

Yugoslav authorities after war due to rising East-West tensions8. Austrian president to speak on radio about Waldheim case9. Soviet delegation puts forward new proposals at Geneva conference10. USA will carry out another nuclear test in the Nevada desertStation identificationIntro, Correspondent Harold Briley’s report about expelling of Libyans fromBritain: 2’10"Press review: 7’10"Title pages devoted to Queen’s birthday (no other details)EEC sanctions against Libya – “Daily Telegraph”“The Guardian’s” editorial, “Scotsman’s” editorial - historical overview of MiddleEast situation - Reagan ignores Middle East problems, Libyan situation –Thatcher’s and Mitterand’s attitude“Sun” and “Times” editorials on Irish terrorists seeking sanctuary in the USA andconnection between Libya and IRA“Times” editorial on monarchy in connection with Queen’s birthday - comparisonbetween Queen Victoria and Queen Elizabeth II - how monarchy has evolvedduring the present Queen’s reign.Vienna correspondent report on Kirschlager’s speech (same evening, on TV)about Waldheim and his wartime activities: 1’15"Station identification, Musical bridgeEnglish language course, competition for listeners of “Everyday English” and“Business English”: 8’00", Radio and other prizes offered Listeners were askedto write something about themselves, what they think about the courses, whenand how often they listen. There was a couple of songs and a short English lessonwith more contest questions based on the songs. Listeners were told they couldanswer in Czech, Slovak or English.Musical bridge and station identificationNews recap1. 21 Libyans expelled2. USSR has information that more American planes downed during raid

on Libya3. Juan Carlos in Britain4. USA have carried out nuclear test in Nevada

BBC - SLOVAK BROADCASTOpening announcement/frequencies

218 Programming: The Heart of International Radio

News Headlines: 40"Deportation of 21 LibyansGreece says it needs more proof before taking measures against LibyaUSSR says that US losses in Libyan raid were greater than the Americans admitUSA has carried out another nuclear test in NevadaCourt in Warsaw sentences 5 members of KPNBillboardNews: 6’40"1. Britain expels 21 Libyans; Greece will not take steps against Libya agreed

on by EEC ministers unless it has more proof of Libyan involvement interrorism

2. Soviet spokesman Lomeiko says Americans lost more planes over Libyathan they admit

3. USSR Foreign minister condemns terrorism (occasion of speech wasanniversary of Lenin’s birth - Gromyko not present) - raid on Libya alsocondemned

Station identification4. Another US nuclear test carried out in Nevada5. USSR puts forward new proposals at Geneva disarmament conference6. Warsaw court sentences 5 members of KPN7. According to Charter 77, religious activist Augustin Navratil has been

sent to psychiatric institution - arrested in November after illegalpublications found in his home - two Charter 77 sympathizers and oneProtestant minister also arrested

Station identification and info about the next Czech and Slovak news bulletinCommentary about efforts to heal a rift in Western alliance caused by US raid onLibya by Leslie Stone: 5’15" (criticism regarding raid - Reagan and Thatcherbelieve it was the right thing to do - EEC decision to cut number of Libyan diplomatsin member countries, what Mitterrand said to Walters - terrorism to be discussedat Tokyo summit)Decision to expel 21 Libyans from Britain - report by correspondent Harold Brailey:1’45" (others may be expelled if security of Britain is threatened - about 250Libyans train at British airports)Lead out and lead in to next item on King Juan Carlos in Britain - report bydiplomatic correspondent Gordon Martin: 1’20" (first visit of its kind in 41 years- question of Gibraltar)Station identificationArticle in the Hungarian Communist Party daily condemns the appeal by 30prominent Hungarians published in the Austrian daily “Die Presse” - commentaryby BBC commentator Jan Repa: 4’45" (Commentary deals with the controversysurrounding aplanned hydro-electric project on the Danube, its effect on Hungarian-Austrianrelations, ecological consequences)Station identification

219Programming: The Heart of International Radio

“Musical Pulse”: 7'Theme: 20"Introducing a new British group Pet Shop Boys: 10"Song “I want a lover”: 55"Who are the Pet Shop Boys? : 1’25"Song “Love Comes Quickly”: 1’55"More about the group’s album: 45"Song “West-End Girls”: 1’25"News recap1. Britain expels Libyans2. Greece wants more proof before taking action against Libya3. Soviet say American losses over Libya were greater than US admits.End of tape.

VOA - CZECH/SLOVAK BROADCASTOpening announcement in English and “Yankee Doodle”Opening announcement in Czech, giving Washington time, (no frequencies)News headlines1. Reagan expects summit with Gorbachev in spite of US raid on Libya2. Britain expels 21 Libyans3. US carries out another nuclear test in NevadaIntro to the newsNews 8’30"1. Reagan expects summit with Gorbachev this year, Gorbachev says he is

ready to meet Reagan but that recent US action has poisoned internationalrelations (statement made at E. German communist party congress) alsocalls for reduction of armed forces in Europe

2. Reagan will take 2 nuclear submarines out of service - furtherconsultations with allies and congress are planned

3. Weinberger is against this decision - says Soviets do not adhere to SALTII treaty

4. USSR puts forward new proposals at Geneva disarmament conference5. Palestinian arrested in West Berlin is a brother of the Palestinian who

planned bombing at Heathrow6. USSR says it has proof that the Americans lost at least 5 planes in raid on

Libya7. Britain expels 21 Libyans8. Reagan will strive for coordinated action against terrorism at Tokyo

summit9. UN security council veto resolution condemning US raid on Libya10. Khadafy says on Yugoslav TV that he will continue fight against US

imperialismVOA identification (woman’s voice) and stating that the broadcast is on 251 m(no other frequencies mentioned) — then more news

220 Programming: The Heart of International Radio

11. 10 Americans evacuated from West to East Beirut12. Bomb explodes near American consulate in northern Thailand13. Five members of KPN sentenced in Poland14. USA carries out third nuclear test in Nevada desert.Musical bridgeVOA identification and frequencies (woman’ s voice)BillboardMusical bridge - then intro to the first itemReport by Ellen Johansson on the Security Council debate about the Americanraid on Libya which ended in a triple veto - how countries voted – what delegatessaid - who put forward resolution: 2’45"VOA identificationMusical bridgeReport by Philomena Jury - President Reagan talks to reporters about what theallies think about the American raid on Libya - some allies were for a broaderbased action - Reagan thinks these questions should be discussed in Tokyo -criticizes French government’s refusal to let American planes through French airspace - what Mitterand said to the American UN representative. Lead out and leadin to next item.Another report by Philomena Jury - Reagan continues consultations with Congressand with the allies about adherence to the SALT II treaty: 1’20"Musical bridgeAnnouncement about the upcoming 2-hour programMusical bridgeNew exhibition hall opens in the Jacob Javits congress palace in New York -feature by Martin Bush about Art Expo New York, biggest in the world – 25countries represented; description of building - who was Jacob Javits (item includedclip, in English, with voice of director of Art Expo): 4’20"Musical bridgeNews stingNews recap1. Reagan expects to meet with Gorbachev in the USA2. Gorbachev speech at E. Germany party3. Congress SALT II - Poseidon subs4. USSR proposals in Geneva5. 2 Palestinians arrested6. Britain expels 21 Libyans7. Khadafy on Yugoslav television8. Warsaw court sentences 5 members of KPNClosing announcement

RCI - CZECH/SLOVAK BROADCASTOpening announcementBillboard

221Programming: The Heart of International Radio

News: 8’30"1. Reagan - Tokyo summit2. Britain expels 21 Libyans3. Briton kidnapped in Beirut4. Thatcher urges European Community countries to sever diplomatic ties

with Libya5. Clark suggests now is time for Canadians to leave Libya6. D. Roche at International peace conf. in Montreal Security Council veto

on resolution condemning US raid on Libya7. Reagan ready to take 2 Poseidon submarines out of fleet8. Connection between West Berlin disco and Heathrow incidents9. Fighting in Afghanistan10. Five KPN members sentenced in Poland11. Canada - Afghan POWsNews stingRCI identificationIntro to the next item: Conference of Canadian Committee for UNESCO (Canadain an interdependent world/why Canada will not leave UNESCO/ Vézina speech/what Canada contributes to UNESCO/ John Meisel speech): 3’35"Musical bridge, RCI identificationReport on Bern conference on human contacts (emigration, travelling restrictions,marriages with nationals of other countries, tampering with mail, family re-unification): 2’20"An interview with Jaroslav Javorsky who was imprisoned in Czechoslovakiaand exchanged during the recent East-West spy swap (S. Bird’s questions translatedinto Czech) -interview dealt mainly with prison conditions in Valdice: 4’25"RCI identification and sports magazine signature tunePreview of sports magazine and first part of sports mag. devoted to the NHL:2’00"Interview with Miroslav Frycer: 4’05".World hockey championships in Moscow and the Boston marathon: 2’00"Music RCI address and closing announcement

BBC - HUNGARIAN BROADCASTMusic 20"Station identification / M band, frequencies: 35"News headlines & program billboard: 1’50"News: 7'1. Libyans deported from Britain2. Berlin disco & London terrorist connection3. Greece asks for more proof of Libyan terrorism4. Moscow spokesman on US raid lossesShort station identification.5. US underground test

222 Programming: The Heart of International Radio

6. Soviets about chemical weaponry7. Anti-communists convicted in Poland8. King Juan Carlos of Spain in England PanoramaLibyan package - BBC newsers: 6’30". European Community vs. Libya. Libyan Peoples Offices in Europe. EEC foreign ministers on Libya. Reagan on terrorism - Tokyo Summit. Reagan on flights over France. Reagan about raid victims.J. Anderson/UPI/ on Washington’s Libyan policies: 2’00"King Juan Carlos in London - section writer: 4’20"East German party congress - Gorbachev – BBC correspondent 4’35"Hungarians protest Danube Hydro project in Austrian press - Budapest reaction :6’15”New terminal at Heathrow Airport – section writer/”Daily Mail”: 5’30"Brazilian shamans by L. Kutasi Kovacs: 6’40"News headlines: 1’30"English by Radio: 11’50"Announcement of coming programs.Tape ends.

VOA - HUNGARIAN BROADCASTEnglish introduction and music: 23"Station identification / M band, frequencies,Washington time: 30"News: 9’50"1. Khadafy on Reagan - Libyans expelled from Britain - UN Security Council

on Libya2. Moscow spokesman on US raid - Washington reply3. Berlin disco & London terrorist connection4. Peres on Palestinians/Strasbourg5. The PLO in Jordan6. KPN members sentenced in Warsaw7. Chinese leader on the future of Hongkong8. Mexican finances and Japan Stat. ident. and program announcement 1’00"Oil prices - VOA writer and London & Cairo VOA correspondents: 7’30"Musical bridgeBook Review - Soviet war in Afghanistan / a US author and another reporterquoted: 8’45" Musical bridgeScience Review - Bacterial “Architecture” / California scientists, discoveries: 2’00"

RCI - HUNGARIAN BROADCASTStation identification / M bands, times 30"

223Programming: The Heart of International Radio

Weather 25"News: 5’35"1. Reagan - Tokyo Summit2. Libyans expelled from England3. Canadians in Libya /Clark4. Reagan - submarines/SALT5. UN - Libya6. Canadian disarmament envoy against raid7. Berlin Disco and El Al incident connection8. Bern conference - Libya9. AfghanistanMusical bridge 20"World Affairs - Canadian Affairs1. RCI correspondent’s report from Bern conference on human contacts: 2'2. Press Review: Playing games with Summit after Libya raid/Ottawa: 2’20"3. Press Review: Automation in Canadian industry/Toronto: 2’30"Musical bridge 20"MagazineStation identification/M bands, time: 15"Over 700 TV professionals attending INPUT conference in Montreal: 1’10"Interview with Hungarian film director L.B. Revesz: Public TV in Europe andNorth-America: 2’45"Musical bridge: 35"“Frank words are not enough” - A Hungarian film for the festival - not yet playedin Hungary; about youngsters on the margin of society: 4’50"Station identification/ M bands, time:15"Struggle for quality - 100 TV- features in 30 categories: 2’55"Music: 3’00"Closing / M bands, time: 30"

BBC - GERMAN BROADCASTBig BenBillboard: news, correspondents’ reports, science magazine: 30"News headlines1. Britain expels 21 Libyans2. Greek government will not take steps against Libya unless it has proof of

Libyan terrorism3. USA has carried out another nuclear test4. Juan Carlos visit to BritainNews: 8'1. Britain expels 21 Libyans - mostly students2. Palestinian arrested in Germany is brother of Palestinian behind the

Heathrow incident3. USSR says that Americans lost more planes over Libya than they are

224 Programming: The Heart of International Radio

willing to admit4. Greek government will not take measures against Libya unless it has

further proof that there is a connection between Libya and terrorism5. Israeli prime minister Peres asks western European countries to take firm

stand against terrorism (in speech to European Council in Strasbourg)Station identification6. USA has carried out another nuclear test in Nevada desert7. Juan Carlos has started visit to Britain8. European court in Luxembourg says that British government is guilty of

sex discrimination in some social assistance payments9. Waldheim controversy - TANJUG says he was member of a unit

responsible for death of thousands of Yugoslav citizensMusical bridgePreview of what will followBackgrounder on expulsion of Libyans by Mary Raine: 2’30"Two Palestinians arrested in connection with terrorist activities - telephone reportfrom Berlin correspondent Tony Patterson: 2’00"Security Council resolution on American raid on Libya - triple veto - report fromthe United Nations with clip in English by US representative Vernon Walters:2’45"Leader of main opposition party and former Tunisian minister Ahmed Mestirisentenced in connection with demonstration against American raid on Libya -report from correspondent Paul Legge in Tunis: 2’30"Disarmament conference in Geneva - Soviets put forward new proposals dealingwith chemical weapons -report from Geneva: 2’00"Third World debt - Baker plan, role of World Bank and commercial banks - reportby James Morgan: 2’45"Japanese yen reaches new high against US$ - report by William Horsley fromTokyo: 2’05" China opens door to west but government and party try to keepcontacts between Chinese citizens and foreigners to minimum - report from Pekingby Mark Brain: 2’35"Juan Carlos visit (start of a dialogue about Gibraltar - both countries now membersof NATO and EEC) report by Gordon Martin: 2’10"Station identification/frequencies/weather“London Science Magazine” (tobacco is bad for your health, based on “NewScientist” article — “Science” and “Nature” articles about flying foxes — DrDavid Barker from the Medical Research Council in England says that spinach isgood for your appendix — Humboldt stream and its influence on weather):11’20".

RFI - GERMAN BROADCASTBillboard, MusicNews: 6’40"1. Security Council vote2. Shimon Peres in Paris and in Strasbourg - includes a special report from

225Programming: The Heart of International Radio

Strasbourg on Peres speech (terrorism, Arab-Israel relations, Israeleconomy) -female voice

3. Waldheim affair - 15 socialist as well as other members of EuropeanCouncil request publication of files on Waldheim

4. French reaction to US raid on Libya (clip of French Minister of Posts,Industry and Tourism)

Sting 5"Press Review:Party congress of the Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands, quotes from AFP,“Figaro”, “Le Monde”, “Quotidien”, “L’Humanité”: 3’40"Sting: 5"Newser - French assembly debate on new economic and social policy:1’25"Sting: 5"More news: 2’45"1. Agriculture ministers’ meeting in Luxembourg2. A new banner for the European Community3. French ambassador in Bonn visits Berlin4. Giscard d’Estaing and Helmut Schmidt found a new committee for

European monetary union 8000 laid off by French railways5. 30.000 Frs. for racquet used by Boris BeckerSting: 5"Song by Françoise Hardy,”V.I.P.”: 3’25" used as intro to an obituary (!) for MarcelDassault, French industrialist, politician, engineer, multimillionaire, and richestman in France who died in the American hospital of Neuilly at the age of 94(with clip of his voice in French): 6’00"A song: 3'New French dictionary takes different and often irreverent look at language: 6’00"A song: 2’30"Station identificationJapanese boarding school in Alsace for sons and daughters of Japanese living inEurope: 2’00"Musical interlude 1'Language course

RCI - GERMAN BROADCASTOpening announcement and program previewNews: 9’00"1. P.E.I. election results2. US/Canada free trade vote in the US senate finance committee (a

newser):1’40"3. Clark suggests Canadians should leave Libya4. USSR spokesman criticizes Canada in connection with US raid on Libya5. D. Roche talks about terrorism at Intl. peace conference in Montreal6. Libyans expelled from Britain

226 Programming: The Heart of International Radio

7. Security Council vote on US raid on Libya8. Palestinian arrested in West Berlin is the brother of a Palestinian arrested

in London9. Reagan ready to take 2 Poseidon submarines out of fleetSports/weatherMusical bridgeRCI identification and intro to a commentaryCanadian government’s attitude towards unemployment and its overall job strategydiffers from that of the liberals: 3’35"Musical bridgeRCI identificationDoreen Wicks organizes help for sick children in Haiti and creates a new medicalorganization in Canada to aid Third World countries: 4’40”Musical bridge.

227Programming: The Heart of International Radio

October 19, 1986 Summaries of Broadcasts

BBC - RUSSIAN BROADCASTStation identification – music – time in Moscow and LondonGreetings Host introduction: 30"News headlines: 45"Station identification. Meter bands of current broadcast.Menu of program: 30"Station identificationNews: 7’40"1. East-European dissidents call for democratization of their regimes, mark

ing Hungarian anniversary.2. Soviet academician says Chernobyl proved medicine helpless in case of

nuclear war.3. Soviet health minister describes new system of material incentives in his

department.4. P.M. of Ireland calls for united front against violence.Station identification5. British minister of external affairs on Queen’s visit to China.6. Disagreement between the Philippines president and her minister of

defence on dealing with communists.7. The pull-out of Soviet troops from Afghanistan continues.8. Israel demands closure of PLO offices in Washington and New York.9. Second round of voting in several Greek cities.News headlines (same as above): 45"Announcement of next news bulletin.Station identification: 10"Music - Looking from London - more musicBillboard: 30"Lead-in to first item:1’30"Report from Berlin by Tony Patterson on East-European dissidents’ appeal: 3’50"Lead-in to second item: 45"Commentary by Jan Repa on meaning of Polish October 1956: 6'Lead to third item: 30"Report from London on investigation of Palme’s assassination: 1’45"Announcement of next program “Looking from London”, Preview of programs ofthe week, station identification, sign-off: 5’30".

VOA - RUSSIAN BROADCASTMusic: 25"Station identification, host introduction - program content: PANORAMA: 25"Music: 5"

228 Programming: The Heart of International Radio

Introduction to a correspondent’s report on the work of the US Congress: 25"Report by correspondent: 1’55"Introduction to a report of a correspondent in Jerusalem on Max Kampelman’svisit there: 40"Report by correspondent: 2’05"Introduction to a commentary by VOA observer on racial situation in Mississippi:55"Commentary by observer: 4’25"Station, program identification. Items to come: 20"Announcement & instructions on receiving WorldNet TV programs: 2’10"Brief news bulletin: 1’45"1. George Shultz on Soviet expulsion of Americans2. Soviet & Afghan troops increase efforts to cut rebel supply lines.3. Resumption of talks between Manila gov’t & communists.4. OPEC countries close to agreement on production cuts.5. Renewed fighting between Christian and Moslem groups in Beirut.Music: 5"Introduction to excerpts from Elena Bonner’s book “Postscriptum”: 25"Reading of excerpts: 14’20"Lead-out. Time of next reading: 20"Music: 30"Introduction to weekly press review on Soviet Union: 10"Press Review (all on the Reykjavik summit): 12’45"Lead-out: 10"Music: 15"End of program: meter bands for the next newscast. Host id. Music.

RFI - RUSSIAN BROADCASTStation identification, times, frequencies, meter bands of both daily broadcast, ad-dress: 55"Music: 20"Greetings, host identification, broadcast menu: 20"News headlines: 45"Sting: 5"News: 13’30"1. USSR expels 5 American diplomats. Report & commentary on American

reaction by V. Moskvin.2. N.Y.Times says USSR prepared to compromise on SDI.3. Physicians’ conference in Madrid urges world leaders to stop nuclear tests.4. Danish PM goes to Moscow, German chancellor to Washington, to discuss

Reykjavik.Sting: 5"5. Change of Prime Ministers in Israel. Max Kampelman in Jerusalem. Re

port on Kampelman’s visit by Vitaly Moskvin.

229Programming: The Heart of International Radio

6. New developments in Persian Gulf war.7. Arab League’s ministerial meeting continues in Tunisia.8. French defence minister ends visit to Saudi ArabiaSting: 5"9. Pope John Paul II meets Weinberger & condemns arms race.10. EEC internal ministers to hold meeting in London on terrorism, drugs and

immigration.11. Chirac visits Comoros and Mayotte. Report on background of the visits, by

V. Moskvin. Sting: 5"12. Elections in Haiti.13. Soviet deputy minister of ext. affairs visits Japan, will brief gov’t on Reykja

vik summit.14. Afghan leader promises measures to end civil war.Sting: 15"Lead-out, station identification, Introduction to a song.A French song: 3’30"Song lead-out. Intro for weekly press review by A. SlavinaPress Review (Henri Troyat’s book on Maxim Gorky; Reykjavik summit; Nobelprize for Elie Wiesel; France & the Middle East): 9'Sting: 5"Lead-out. News headlines: 20"Station identification, next broadcast’s time & meter bands, address, identificationof participants, greetings: 30"Music.

DW - RUSSIAN BROADCASTStation identification.Frequencies & meter bands 40" News headlines 1'News: 5’20"1. E.European dissidents mark anniversary of Hungarian revolution.2. US Secretary of defence says USSR has been developing its own space

defence system for 17 yrs.3. Head of Novosti press agency optimistic about Reykjavik summit (Der

Spiegel interview)4. FRG Minister of external affairs believes Moscow & Washington will solve

the space arms problem.5. US Congress approves new budget.6. In Peru, Latin American countries agree on repayment of foreign debts based

on their exports.7. Demonstrations in West Germany against new nuclear power stations.Station identification. Information on the rest of program: 35"Musical theme - Press review announcement - more music: 20"Press Review. Subjects: Reykjavik meeting, Disarmament, Elections in Bavaria..Station identification. Times frequencies & meter bands of both daily broadcasts:

230 Programming: The Heart of International Radio

1’05"Introduction of DW Discussion Club program - Round table with prof. M.Voslenskyand journalist Abram Levin, on results of Reykjavik:15"Round-table discussion: 30'Lead-out: 15"News headlines: 2'End of program announcements: frequencies, meter bands, times. Address, tel-ephone: 1’05"

RCI - RUSSIAN BROADCASTStation identification, Greetings Frequencies & meter bands of current broadcast.Announcement of coming frequency changes in daily broadcasts. Billboard, Hostidentification: 1’25"News: 10’05"1. Soviet Union reported pulling back from its position on SDI.2. US-Soviet accord on nuclear test monitoring expected soon.3. East European dissidents issue appeal for human rights.4. Shultz on reaction to Soviet expulsion of American diplomats.5. France expels 101 illegal immigrants from Mali.6. Erich Honecker to visit China. Station identification7. Max Kampelman in Israel reports on Reykjavik summit.8. Western diplomats comment on withdrawal of Soviet soldiers from

Afghanistan.9. Soviet deputy minister of foreign affairs visits Tokyo.10. Israel wants PLO offices in world capitals closed.11. Arab League foreign ministers agree an Arab summit ought to be held.12. Boxes of artillery shells washed up on Florida shores bear Russian

markings.Music: 10"Station identification.Introduction to report by Ottawa correspondent on Government’s response to rec-ommendations on family reunification: 45"Report from Ottawa: 3"30"Music: 10"Station identification, Introduction to review of letters to editors of Canadian news-papers. Identification of participants:10"Music: 10"Review of letters to editors. Subjects: English instruction in Quebec schools Canada& Soviet actions in Afghanistan, Capital punishment debate.Lead-out: 10"Music: 20"News headlines: 1'Station identification. Time, meter bands of other broadcast. Address.Music: 5". Sign-off.

231Programming: The Heart of International Radio

VOA - UKRAINIAN BROADCASTIntro: 10"StingNews: 13’30"1. USSR diplomats expelled2. Afghanistan Pakistan newest3. Nabi Beri re Israeli pilot4. League of Arab Nations to meet5. Richard Pearl reacts to possibility of a new treaty6. Madrid Symposium - Chernobyl reactionAt 6: 30 - short bridge and station identification.7. Hungarian Uprising remembered.8. US Congress budget debates end prior to Congress elections9. Elizabeth II and Prince Philip leave China10. Nicaragua contra aid approved - Hazenfus trial11. Pope John Paul II speaks to Italians in Florence.12. Demonstrations re nuclear plants in Germany13. USSR energy shortfall due to Chernobyl.14. Latest USSR statistics on alcohol consumptionHeadlines reminders: 30"Musical BridgeVOA EditorialPeople to People International celebrate 30th anniversary. Their goals, purposeand history. 3’40"Extro: 5"Musical BridgeProgram Preview, Station identification, Musical IntroSeven-Day press review ( in two voices)Intro: 30"Reagan/Gorbachev meetings. Positions US side – USSR stance. Positive as-pects: 3’30"Gorbachev re troop withdrawals Afghanistan. US position: 1'Musical Bridge, Station identificationEl Salvador earthquake relief efforts US position: 1'Israeli Raids:1'Iran/Irak Wars: 1'Nobel Laureates announced last week; short history and prize splits: 1’45"Extro: 30"Station identification, Upcoming Program Preview (Religious Program): 10'.News headlines: 45'Intro (Musical) Religion ProgramFirst Synod History & Orthodox Church in Kyiv (preview), read in 2 voicesHistory of Christianity and Ukrainian Church in Ukraine: 10’30"Musical Religious interlude (previewed): 3’15"

232 Programming: The Heart of International Radio

ExtroReligious topic to be cont’d (short identification): 15"News from the Christian community lifeUkrainian Christian Movement calls for 1 min. common prayer: 1’30"Philadelphia archbishop calls upon people to recall famine: 30"Institute to sponsor courses on Eastern Liturgy: 1'Keston College advise re: Ukraine: 1’30"Keston College brochure on Protestants in the Ukraine released: 1’30"Musical interlude, extro: 30"Station identification, musical bridgeNews Headlines: 7'1. Schultz USSR expulsions2. Afghan withdrawals3. League Arab Nations4. Richard Pearl on TV5. Symposium Madrid/Chernobyl6. Pope Florence7. Hungarian 30 yrs remembered8. Congress closes debates9. NicaraguaExtro: 15"Preview of the next day program: 30"Station identification, extro, frequencies: 30"

RCI - UKRAINIAN BROADCASTIntro: 25"Musical Bridge - news intro: 25"News: 6’45"1. Nuclear Test2. China ties to Eastern Europe3. Expulsions4. Dissidents5. Kampelman Israel6. Soviet Deputy Foreign Minister in Japan7. Afghan Withdrawals8. PLO9. League of Arab NationsShort identification, musical extro 30"Intro Press Commentary: 20"Press Commentary: 7’15"Would Israel use nuclear bomb first - G. Dyer (translated – Source: Toronto Star)Bridge, station identification: 30"Intro-Magazine-Religious item (freelance): 25"Item - Religious and Historic Aspects of Millennium: 8’30"

233Programming: The Heart of International Radio

Musical Interlude (no intro): 3’05"Extro, station identification: 30".

BBC - CZECH BROADCASTOpening announcement missing on tapeProgram previewNews in briefMusic by request (regular Sunday feature) by John KelwayNews in brief: 1’15"1. 5 American diplomats expelled from the USSR.2. Human rights activists in four Eastern European countries issue appeal for

the strengthening of democracy.3. Karmal makes rare appearance in Kabul.4. Disagreement inside Philippines government regarding talks with commu

nist insurgents.Promo for program at 20:00. which will include review of past week’s events andinterview with Dr. Josef Prusa, legal adviser of the Jazz Section of the Union ofCzech musicians: 35"John Kelway’s Sunday disco: A half-hour of requests and news releases, includingcontestTitles of songs:“Comfort” - by June Brides: 2'group “Slepe strevo” (wrong song played): 2’30"“Three wishes” - by TV Personalities: 2’30"“In the army now” - by Status Quo: 2’50"“Tar Baby”: 1’55"“Dressed in white” by King Diamond:1’25"“Run to the hills” by Iron Maiden: 2’25"Very short texts between individual songs, mostly just announcing next number. Afew words about freedom and the abuse of drugs, also Boy George drug problem.Beatles exhibition in London mentioned. Contest was based on short excerpt fromsong by an American group. Prize is an LP. Listeners are asked for name of group.There will be 8 winners. Address where to send replies given.Promo for next musical program - names of technicians - sign off song by PeterGabriel “Sledgehammer”: 2"45"Sign off by first announcer - promo for program at 20:00.

BBC - SLOVAK BROADCASTOpening announcement - 2100-2130 Central European time – frequencies: 50"News Preview: 35"1. USSR expels 5 American diplomats2. Dissidents from 4 East European countries issue appeal for greater democ

racy.3. Babrak Karmal makes rare appearance in Kabul.

234 Programming: The Heart of International Radio

4. Signs of further discord inside Philippine government.Programme Preview: 30"Press review based on British weeklies, this time about Reykjavik summit.Regular cultural magazine:1. London exhibition of photographic self-portraits.2. English language course sold by BBC to the whole world.3. Portrait of recipient of Nobel prize for literature.News: 7’1. USSR expels 5 American diplomats.2. Dissidents in 4 East European countries issue appeal for greater democracy

and fundamental changes in their political systems. Appeal coincides with30th anniversary of Hungarian revolution.

3. Former Afghan leader Karmal present during military parade in Kabul.4. International meeting of doctors and health professionals in Madrid issues

statement about perils of nuclear war.5. BBC identification.6. Phillippine defence minister Enrile does not agree with Aquino’s efforts to

reach peaceful agreement with communist insurgents.7. Another 5 bodies found on board of tanker in Persian Gulf hit by rocket

fired from Iranian gunboat.8. 2 more people killed in Soweto during latest riots.9. Police guard in Londonderry attacked by armed assailants.10. Second round of municipal elections in Greece.Review of British weeklies about Iceland summit -“Spectator” - “New Statesman” - “Economist”: 4’45"Cultural magazine menu (2 new recipients of Nobel prizes/London exhibition ofphotographic self-portraits/BBC language course sold abroad): 30"Nobel prize for literature awarded to Nigerian writer Wole Soyinka - portrait ofW.S. :2’30"Nobel peace prize for Elie Weisel: 2’55"Exhibition of photographic self-portraits “Staging the self”: 4'BBC English language courses and their world wide influence: 5’05"Sign off for Cultural magazine, followed by brief news recap1. 5 Americans expelled2. Dissidents in 4 countries sign appeal3. Karmal surfaces in Kabul4. Discord inside Philippine government.Sign off.

VOA - CZECH/SLOVAK BROADCASTOpening announcement – 13:30 Washington time:15"News Preview: 25"1. TASS announces expulsion of 5 American diplomats from the USSR.2. 122 citizens from four Soviet bloc countries sign worldwide appeal to remem-

235Programming: The Heart of International Radio

ber events in Hungary 30 years before.3. USA does not intend to link arms control talks with question of Jewish

emigration from the USSR.News: 7’30"1. USA is prepared to retaliate for expulsion of 5 U.S. diplomats from the

Soviet Union.2. Dissidents from four Soviet bloc countries issue world-wide appeal to re

member events in Hungary in 1956 (incl. names of some prominent signatories).

3. Chief U.S. delegate at Geneva arms talks, Max Kampelman, states in Jerusa-lem that the USA does not intend to link disarmament talks with the prob-lem of Jewish emigration from the USSR.

4. Pakistani authorities say that one of the hijackers of the PanAm plane lastmonth had a Libyan passport and had obtained Pakistani visa at the requestof the Libyan ForeignOffice.

Station identification - frequency announcement (only 251 m mentioned)5. US congress has approved the budget proposal for the 1987 fiscal year.6. Philippine government has renewed talks with communist rebels.Sports news:1. Becker wins tennis tournament in Australia.2. Ramesh Krishnan beats Carlsson in tennis tournament in Japan.3. Winner of Peking marathon is a Japanese runner.4. NHL results.Musical bridgeStation identification and frequencies: 25"Program Preview: 35"Report from VOA correspondent in Islamabad about fighting in Afghanistan.How to watch Soviet TV with help of antenna built by Harvard specialists.Meeting between Catholics and Marxists in Budapest.News recapMusical bridgeReport by Fred Brown about situation in Afghanistan, based on information givenby Mudjahedeen leader M. H. Muhammad, now in hospital in Pakistan: 3'Musical bridgeHarvard specialists studying the Russian language and life in the USSR have con-structed an antenna which makes it possible to receive Soviet TV signal from sat-ellite – Report by Fred Cooper: 3'Station identification - Bridge“Commercial” for new Saturday evening program called “Songs and text appeal”,followed by preview of the day’s two-hour broadcast, from 21:00-23:00 CentralEuropean time: “Ode to the man in the bowler hat” - report from Basel.Congress of exiled Slovak journalists in Bridgeport, Conn. A report by MiroslavOravec.Paul Simon’s new album

236 Programming: The Heart of International Radio

Women’s equality in the USA - report by Martin Cermak.Success of American musicals in Japan:1’25"BridgePress review concerning dialogue in Budapest between Catholics and Marxists byRome correspondent Peter Manin: 7’10"Musical BridgeNews recap:Expulsion of five American diplomats from the USSR.Dissidents in four countries issue appeal.Kampelman states USA will not link disarmament and Jewish emigration.Hijacker of PanAm jet had Libyan passport.US congress votes on budget proposals for 1987.Talks in the Philippines between government and insurgents: 2 ’20"Sign off and announcement about the upcoming 2-hour evening broadcast.

RCI - CZECH/SLOVAK BROADCASTOpening announcement, with frequencies: 1’10"Program menu: 40"Report on trade between Canada and Eastern Europe;Soviet atrocities in Afghanistan;Portrait of a motorist;Visit to one of the most beautiful gardens in the world.News: 4'1. According to N.Y. Times, the USSR is prepared to take a more lenient

attitude towards SDI than indicated at the Iceland summit.2. US-Soviet accord on monitoring of nuclear tests now a possibility.3. Dissidents from four Eastern European countries issue appeal for human

rights.4. USSR has expelled five American diplomats.5. American opinion polls show support for Reagan’s position at Reykjavik

summit.6. US and Soviet representatives discuss jamming of foreign broadcasts.BridgeReport about Canadian trade with the Soviet Union based on a “Globe & Mail”article: 6'Station identificationJack Cahil article in the “Toronto Star” about Soviet atrocities in Afghanistan: 4'BridgeStation identification and frequencies: 25"Auto-moto magazine - “Jan Rubes loves cars” - article in the “Toronto Star” (withmusical intro. and lead-out): 4’45"Report on visit to Butchard Gardens on Vancouver Island: 4 ’35"A song excerptRCI identification, address and closing announcement.

237Programming: The Heart of International Radio

BBC - HUNGARIAN BROADCASTStation identification, M bands, frequencies: 40"News headlines & program highlights: 1’30"News: 7'1. US diplomats expelled from the Soviet Union - Shultz reply.2. Dissidents from 4 Soviet block countries manifesto on the anniversary of

the 1956 Hungarian uprising.3. Karmal reappeared in Kabul - Soviet troop withdrawal.4. International physicians conf. in Madrid on nuclear winter.5. Philippine government in trouble.6. Rocket hits oil tanker in Persian Gulf.7. 0PEC talks on quotas.8. Police attacked in Northern Ireland.Weekend Panorama: Dissident resistance combined for the first time in Central &Eastern Europe “For more democracy” - 1956 goals still not reached/ Interviewwith Hungarian dissident G. Krasso, visiting in London: 12'Press Review:“New Statesman” on the revival of nationalism in Hungary - The Transylvanianquestion - Media campaign before the anniversary of 1956 - 6'.“Sunday Telegraph”: 1956. Hungarian coalition remembered - The social-demo-crats and the British Embassy: 4’40"Socialist International conference in Bonn /telephone report: 2’25"Soviet dissident poet Ratushinskaya’s ordeal/ with cooperation of BBC RussianSection:7’20"Literary historian Lorand Czigany about the success of playwright Franz Molnar:6’40" Pastor Sandor Varga’s Sunday thoughts: 6’50"Announcement about 1956 memorial programs:1’50"Main news items (1 & 2): 30" Closing: 30".

VOA - HUNGARIAN BROADCASTEnglish intro and music: 20"Station identification, M bands, frequencies Washington time: 25"News: - 9’50"1. US diplomats expelled from the Soviet Union - Shultz protests.2. US budget - New elections - Reagan radio speech.3. Eastern European dissidents’ joint proclamation.4. Soviet unit under siege in Afghanistan - MIG shot down -5. Soviet armored regiment called back to Turkmenistan.6. Washington about medium range rockets in Europe.7. PanAm hijacker in Pakistan had Libyan passport.8. Israel asks for closing of PLO offices in US.9. Gandhi in Thailand - Vietnamese in Kampuchea.10. OPEC meeting in Geneva.Station identification and program announcement: 1'

238 Programming: The Heart of International Radio

World Report: 18’20"New York correspondents interview with Israeli writer, journalist, broadcaster DanOfry - about the economy of Israel, the media in Israel, the Hungarian colony/(circa 250.000), the Hungarian radio program in Jerusalem etc.Tape ends shortly before the end of the interview.

RCI HUNGARIAN BROADCASTStation identification/M bands, times, weather: 25"News: 5'1. Soviets softer on “Star Wars” /NYT/2. Moscow disp. on chequing experimental nuclear explosions.3. Satellite for chequing /East Germ. disp./4. China - Eastern Europe contacts.5. Dissidents in Central & Eastern Europe on the 1956 Hungarian uprising.6. Soviet troop withdrawal from Afghanistan.7. Israel on PLO offices.Musical bridgeToronto “Globe and Mail” on closing of Vancouver EXPO - innovations of thefuture & warnings of Challenger, Chernobyl: 3'Musical bridgeMagazine Health and Environment / talks with Hungarian Canadians1. Round table discussion about natural medicines, plants, herbs, Vancouver

correspondent with a British Columbia herb expert and his Vancouver business partner/ 2 parts:10’35"

2. Health and proper eating habits: the “macrobiotic” way of life, Montrealinterview about the Oriental “nouvelle cuisine” influence of the Zen Buddhist kitchen / -2 parts: 8’25"

Exit/M bands, address: 40".

BBC - GERMAN BROADCASTStation identificationEnglish language course followed by musical bridge and station identification:15'Program Preview: 45"“Words on Sunday”, “A propos”, Album of the week, Tips for touristsTime signal – 19:30 Central European time – Big BenNews headlines: 30"1. Five American diplomats expelled from the USSR2. Dissidents from four East European countries issue appeal for greater de

mocracy.3. Karmal present at military ceremony in Kabul.4. Disagreement among members of Philippine government.News: 7’20"1. USSR asks 5 American diplomats to leave the country.2. Dissidents from four Eastern European countries call for greater democ-

239Programming: The Heart of International Radio

racy - appeal published on the 30th anniversary of the Hungarian uprising.3. In Kabul, Babrak Karmal was present at military ceremony on the occasion

of the withdrawal of the third of 6 Soviet regiments scheduled to leave thecountry.

BBC identification.4. Disagreement between Enrile and Aquino regarding the approach to nego

tiations with communist rebels.5. Five other bodies found on board of tanker in Persian Gulf hit by rocket

from Iranian gunboat.6. OPEC oil ministers have postponed meeting about production quotas.7. Second round of municipal elections in Greece.8. Talks in Bangkok between Rajiv Gandhi and Thai P.M. about situation in

Kampuchea.9. Inhabitants of Ukasi township in S.Africa protest against a plan to relocate

them.Announcement about news recap 3 mins before 9 p.m.– BBC identification - frequencies.“Words on Sunday” features interview about Elie Weisel, recipient of this year’sNobel peace prize, F.Groothues interviews Jewish theologian Albert Friedlander:1’05"“A propos”, a report about exhibition in military museum in London called “Thebest years of your life”: 4’45"End of tape.

RFI - GERMAN BROADCASTOpening announcement – 19:00-20:00 Central European time – 18:00-19:00 UTCFrequencies - music - welcome to Sunday Magazine - weather – music: 1’35"News in brief: 3’45"1. New French immigration laws.2. New element in Abdallah terrorist story.3. 2 explosions in Corsica.4. EEC ministers to meet in London to coordinate fight against terrorism, drugs

and immigration problems.5. Chirac visits Reunion and the Comoro islands.6. Mitterrand’s’ adviser for African affairs elected to senate.7. Nobel Prize winner for literature guest at festival in Limoges.8. President of Iceland opens exhibition in Montpellier.9. Yannick Noah loses in finals of tournament in Basel.10. Becker beats Lendl in Australia.11. Ballasteros and Langer share Lancôme trophy in golf.Time - Station identificationSunday Magazine:Song: 4’35"Sunday Mag menu: new quiz - answer to question from previous quiz - visit to

240 Programming: The Heart of International Radio

exhibition and interview with artist Raymond Weiderlich: 20"Short introduction to exhibition and the artist: 1’45"Song: 4’30"Interview with Weiderlich: 5’15"Music: 1’50"Interview continues: 6’30"Song: 3’25"Information about previous quiz, names of winners, prizes: 1’30"Song: 3’30"Station identification - times of broadcast - frequenciesSong: 3’25"New quiz - about artist born in Strasbourg 100 years ago - profile of artist and hiswork - address where to send answers: 3’20"Song: 2’45"Answer to listener’s question about breeding of snails in France: 3’05"Song: 3’50"Repeat of quiz question - address of RFI - musicSign-off - frequencies – music: 3’45"

RCI - GERMAN BROADCASTOpening announcement, with frequencies. BillboardPress review - Reagan/Gorbachev summit: 55"Letter boxNews: 8’20"1. N.Y. Times article states that USSR is apparently ready to take more lenient

attitude towards SDI.2. American officials in Moscow believe there could be a US/Soviet accord

on monitoring of nuclear tests.3. Dissidents from four Eastern European nations issue appeal for human rights.4. USA will retaliate against Soviet Union’s expulsion of five American diplo-

mats.5. Honecker to start official visit to Peking.6. Kampelman talks in Jerusalem about Iceland summit and Jewish emigra-

tion.7. Military parade in Kabul - withdrawal of Soviet troops.8. Soviet representative in Tokyo talks about US/USSR summit and prepara-

tions for Gorbachev visit.9. Shamir on closing of PLO offices in different countries.10. Dutch reformed church synod and apartheidWeather in CanadaBridgePress review on Reykjavik summit, based on the “Toronto Star” (AllanFotheringham/ Christopher Young) ”Vancouver Sun” and “La Presse”: 4’30"Bridge

241Programming: The Heart of International Radio

Letter box: Acknowledgement of letters, 2 songs (about 2 minutes each), reply to aquestion about gulls in Canada and about Niagara Falls:14’20"Brief closing announcement.

242 Programming: The Heart of International Radio

243Programming: The Heart of International Radio

2002 Comparison Evaluation: Summaries

BBC – WORLD TODAY, 25/01/0200:00 Program highlights (two voices), clips, program identification (0:45)00:45 Announcer identification, NEWS (one voice) (5:00)1. UN Secretary General flies to Kabul for a day of talk with Afghanistan’s

interim government (report 0:30)2. The Israelis have killed a member of the militant Islamic group Hamas3. President Bush has provided three Arab countries with what he says is

evidence of Yasser Arafat’s involvement in weapon smuggling (report 0:50)Program identification4. A verdict is expected in the trial of a retired French general charged with

condoning war crimes during Algerian independence struggle5. Authorities in Belgrade have arrested 150 people involved in the slave trade

of women for prostitution from the former Soviet Union (report 0:50)6. A British medical institute says AIDS is set to become the worst pandemic

in human history7. An American government agency has confirmed reports that it’s funding

Arabic station broadcasting from London to ZimbabweProgram identification, sting and GMT time (Voice change)8. Kabul is hosting the United Nations’ Secretary General (report)05:45 Program identification, sting and GMT time (two voices) (0:05)05:50 Kabul is hosting the United Nations’ Secretary General (Interview with cor

respondent in Kabul) (3:05)08:55 Tensions between Indians and Pakistanis in recent weeks (Interview with

Indian Foreign ministry spokesperson) (3:45)12:40 (Program identification and GMT time (0:05)12:45 Liberia faces the growing problem of an insurgency that just won’t be put

down (West-Africa correspondent report) (3:45)16:00 The Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister is having talks with the Russian Foreign

Minister on the question of getting UN sanctions against Iraq lifted. (Interview with Iraqi political analyst from Royal Institute for International Affairs) (3:45)

19:45 Top news recalled (0:30)20:15 Sting, GMT time, station identification, program identification, next an-nouncer identification (0:10)20:25 BUSINESS NEWS (3:40)1. The collapse of Enron : US congressmen say they have not found why

important documents were shredded2. The Swedish mobile phone company, Ericsson, is reporting losses in the

first quarter (interview with industry analyst, 2:10)3. Stock markets (0:35)

244 Programming: The Heart of International Radio

24:05 Preparations to host the Olympic Games in Beijing include re-educating thecity’s notoriously grumpy taxi drivers in matters of English, careful drivingand courtesy (correspondent report) (4:40)

28:45 Promotion of a new series on religion, teaser (1:00)29:45 Station identification, hosts identification, headlines recap (0:15)30:00 CUT

BBC – WORLD NEWS SUMMARY, 25/01/0200:00 Station identification, GMT time, program identification (0:10)00:10 NEWS (5:00)1. Suicide attack in Israel in a crowded pedestrian area in the centre of Tel

Aviv(report 0:45)2. American government has begun providing Arab countries with informa

tion which it says proves that the Palestinian authority was involved inweapon smuggling

3. The United Nations has announced the next step in returning Afghanistanto stable government

4. The Indian Prime Minister has described India’s test of a nuclear-capableballistic missile as just a first step to ensure national security (report 0:40)

Program and station identification5. Plane landing in lava-ravaged Goma and the return of refugees to the city

(report 0:40)6. China’s first ever friendly comments about Taiwan7. A British medical institute says AIDS is set to become the worst pandemic

in human historyProgram and station identification05:10

VOA – TALK TO AMERICA, 25/01/0200:00 Program highlights, coming announcer identification (0:10)00:10 BOOK BRIEFS (3:15)British suspense novelist on US best-seller list, excerpts of interview with author(1:35)Magazine reports long list of books turned into filmsRoots was broadcast 25 years ago in the USAThe Family Orchard, recently published book, excerpts of interview with author(1:35)Sign off04:25 Sting, station break announcement, station and program identification (0:20)04:45 History flashback at a litigious affair between the US and Spain over the

protection of American citizens and property during Cuban insurrectionagainst Spain (1:00)

05:45 Time, frequencies, identification of next segment (0:55)06:40 Pause (0:05)

245Programming: The Heart of International Radio

06:45 Time, segment identification, sting, subject of the day (tension betweenIndia and Pakistan) on TALK TO AMERICA (1:00)

07:45 Program and announcer identification, NEWS (5:00)1. President Bush on his way to the US State of Maine to reveal more budget

plans to protect US against terrorists2. Possible sanctions against Palestinian authorities for their involvement in

smuggling weapons (report 0:55)3. Suicide bomber wounds14 in Tel Aviv4. The United Nations names a 21-member Afghan Commission to organise a

Grand Tribal Council to set the stage for an elected government (clip 0:15)5. The testing by India of a new missile capable of carrying a nuclear warhead

(report 0:55)6. Financial indexesProgram identification12:45 Presentation of TALK TO AMERICA, host identification, subject, phone

numbers, guests identification (1:30)14:15 Round table on the subject of the day (7:00)21:15 Musical disruption, program identification (0:30)21:45 Promo: coming subject on TALK TO AMERICA (1:00)22:45 Host identification, guests identification (0:30)23:15 Callers’ questions, guests’ comments (12:30)35:45 Phone numbers recalled, promo subjects to come, identification of coming

segment (1:00)36:45 Announcer identification, program identification, NEWS (2:00)1. President Bush on his way to the US State of Maine to reveal more budget

plans to protect US against terrorists,2. Possible sanctions against Palestinian authorities for their involvement in 3.

smuggling weapons3. Suicide bomber wounds14 in Tel Aviv4. The United Nations names a 21-member Afghan Commission to organise a

Grand Tribal Council to set the stage for an elected government5. The testing by India of a new missile capable of carrying a nuclear warhead6. A Dublin court has sentenced a suspected Irish Republican Army dissident

to … (sound failure)Announcer identification, program identification38:45 Sting, program identification, phone numbers recalled, host identification,

guests identification (0:55)39:40 Round table (2:40)42:20 Callers’ questions, guests’ comments (occasional sound failures) (9:00)51:15 Sting, program identification, phone numbers recalled (0:30)51:45 Promo (next subject on TALK TO AMERICA) (1:00)

RADIO NETHERLANDS – NEWSLINE, 28/01/0200:00 Music, host, program identification, program highlights, clip, next segment

246 Programming: The Heart of International Radio

identification (0:45)00:45 Announcer identification, NEWS (05:15)1. Explosion in Lagos, first accounts2. US President pledges additional millions for reconstruction of Afghanistan3. US troops storm a hospital in Kandahar4. Large American high-speed communication company runs into financial

problems5. Ecuadorian airplane with 92 people on board missing6. Peacekeeping force in Kosovo have arrested three Albanians suspected of

war crimes7. Russian army denies that Chechen rebels blew a helicopter8. Uzbekistan population supports extension of president’s term in office9. EU sanctions threat against Zimbabwe if it bars foreign observers and inter

national press during presidential electionsSign off, next announcer identification06:00 President Mugabe given a six-day deadline to allow EU election observers

in Zimbabwe. Correspondent speaks to Dutch Foreign Minister after a EUmeeting on possible sanctions. (3:15)

09:15 Military officials in Nigeria apologise for explosion. Interview with jour-nalist in Nigeria (3:00)

12:15 Station identification, sting (0:05)12:20 Segment identification, DUTCH NEWS (1:35)1. Police confiscates black money, surrounding Euro introduction2. Alarming rise of a river water level in Netherlands due to heavy rain3. Radio Netherlands wins prize from the World Bank for supporting stations

in AfricaSegment and next announcer identification, music13:55 Controversy over America’s treatment of prisoners from Afghanistan con

tinues. Interview with American Studies lecturer in Amsterdam (3:10)17:10 Yasser Arafat’s loss of qualified support from the US Administration. Inter

view with Radio Netherlands’ Middle East editor (4:00)21:10 The disappearance of the national currency for the Euro. Interview with

Dutch Finance Minister. (2:30)23:40 Segment identification, DUTCH HEADLINES (two voices) (3:50)1. Suicide bombing in Israel2. Local conservative party held conference recently3. People’s reaction to the disappearance of the national currency.4. TV interview with prince and fiancée on children program27:30 Salutation and sign off, music27:55 Station identification, following programs

VOA – LE MONDE AUJOURD’HUI , 25/01/0200:00 (En anglais) Identification de la station, de la desserte et de la langue dediffusion (0:05)

247Programming: The Heart of International Radio

00:05 (En français) Identification de la station, de l’émission, durée, grandes lignes,segment suivant et annonceur (0:35)00:40 JOURNAL (16:30)Manchettes1. Une cour certifie les résultats de la présidentielle de Madagascar (entrevue

2:00)2. Manœuvres militaires conjointes des É.-U. et de l’Ouganda3. Réouverture de l’aéroport à Goma (entrevue 3:00)4. Une enquête conclut à la corruption d’agents de l’ONU pour faciliter

l’immigration de réfugiés5. L’UNITA rejette les dernières offres du gouvernement (reportage 1:20)6. La Suisse s’apprête à remettre au Nigeria des documents bancaires pour

faciliter une enquête sur un détournement de fonds7. Trois morts dans une bousculade au Nigeria pour assister à un sermon8. Viol d’enfants en Afrique du Sud (reportage 2:10)9. Réunion du Comité de préservation du patrimoine culturel et de la libération

de Jérusalem (reportage 1:00)10. Sanctions de l’Administration Bush contre Yasser Arafat11. Attentat-suicide à Jérusalem (reportage 1:30)12. Suicide d’un dirigeant d’Enron17:10 Sting, identification de l’annonceur, de la station et du prochain segment

(0:15)17:25 NOUVELLES DU SPORT (défaillances techniques occasionnelles) (6:35)1. Premiers tours de la Coupe de football…2. Match Mali-Nigeria, autres rencontres au programme (correspondant 3:25)3. Entrevue avec le président de la Fédération sénégalaise de football (0:35)Sting (0:10)4. Michael Jordan marque 40 points et autres nouvelles du basketball américainSting (0:10)24:10 Présentation des nouvelles économiques (4:20)Sting (0:10)1. L’économie américaine montre des signes de sortie de récession2. Enquête sur l’affaire Enron et suicide d’un dirigeant3. Pratiques comptables peu orthodoxes chez K-MartSting (0:10)4. La Suisse s’apprête à remettre au Nigeria des documents bancaires pour

faciliter une enquête sur un détournement de fonds5. Une enquête conclut à la corruption d’agents de l’ONU pour faciliter

l’immigration de réfugiésSting (0:10)6. On fait la queue pour acheter ou vendre des dollars en ArgentineSting (0:20)28:30 Salutations, annonce d’événements à venir, identification de la station (0:30)29:00 Promo lettres, adresses civile et électronique (0:40)

248 Programming: The Heart of International Radio

29:40 Sujets à venir, heure, prochain segment, identification de l’annonceur (0:20)30:00 JOURNAL (12:30)Manchettes1. Sanctions de l’Administration Bush contre Yasser Arafat2. Attentat-suicide à Jérusalem (reportage 1:30)3. Réunion du Comité de préservation du patrimoine culturel et de la libération

de Jérusalem (reportage 1:00)4. Général à la retraite condamné par une cour française pour complicité

d’apologie de crime de guerre durant la guerre d’Algérie5. Le secrétaire général de l’ONU est à Téhéran pour discuter de la reconstruc

tion de l’Afghanistan (reportage 1:00)… Kabul (défaillance technique) (reportage 0:50)

6. Le chef d’État major de l’armée américaine rencontre le ministre afghan dela Défense pour discuter des questions de sécurité

7. Le président Bush affirme que la sécurité intérieure des États-Unis est sapriorité

8. Des parlementaires américains visitent la base militaire de Guantanamo9. Suicide d’un dirigeant d’EnronSting10. Réouverture de l’aéroport de Goma (reportage 3:00)11. Une cour certifie les résultats de la présidentielle de Madagascar42:30 Identification de la station, prochain segment (0:10)42:40 Magazine FEMMES (13:20)Sommaire, identification de l’animateurUne musulmane et une organisation de défense des droits civiques de Chicagoportent plainte pour discrimination (clips et traduction) (4:00)StingUne avocate tchadienne reçoit un prix de défense des droits de l’homme (entrevue8:00)Signature et musique56:00 Transition musicale, identification de la station, présentation d’une chanson

(0:20)56:20 In Excess Tonight (3:00)59:30 Coupure (30 dernières minutes de l’émission non disponibles sur le Web)

RFI – GROS PLAN, 28/01/0200:00 Musique, identification de l’émission, de son orientation, des animateurs et

du sujet du jour (l’antisémitisme en France) (0:15)00:15 Statistiques sur la montée en France d’actes de violence antisémites,

apparemment liée au conflit judéo-palestinien (0:40)0:55 Identification de l’animateur, identification des experts invités : une

professeure en histoire du judaïsme moderne à l’École pratique des hautesétudes et auteure d’un livre intitulé “Les juifs ont-ils un avenir ?” ; un avocat,président des communautés juives du Val-de-Marne et de l’Association ((…))

249Programming: The Heart of International Radio

israélite de Créteil (0:25)1:20 Débat (17:40)19:00 Crédits, sujet et identification de l’animateur du lendemain, identificationde la prochaine émission (0:20)

RADIO PRAGUE – FAITS ET ÉVÉNEMENTS, 25/01/0200:00 Identification de l’émission (0:05)00:05 Sommaire et identification de l’animateur (0:30)00:35 JOURNAL (13:45)1. Des déclarations du premier ministre tchèque auraient vexé l’Allemagne

(reportage 2:30)Sting (0:05)2. Le chef de la diplomatie tchèque en visite à Moscou pour renforcer les

relations politiques, économiques et commerciales avec la Russie etremboursement de la dette à la République Tchèque

Sting (0:05)3. Formation d’un nouveau parti politique en Rép. Tchèque : L’espoir (entrevue

avec la future présidente pressentie du nouveau parti 4:20)Sting (0:05)4. La télévision tchèque, une télévision d’État, renforce sa lutte aux mauvaises

créancesSting (0:05)5. Les défenseurs d’un parc national tchèque sonnent l’alarme : l’État brade

les terres du parc (reportage 2:15)Sting (0:05)6. Règlement de compte entre deux groupes tziganes en Bohème14:15 Sting (0:05)

250 Programming: The Heart of International Radio

251Programming: The Heart of International Radio

2002 Comparison Evaluation: Theme Broadcasts

ARTS

BBC – ARTS IN ACTION – 19/01/0200:00 Station, program, host identification (0:05)00:05 Billboard (clips) (1:00)01:05 A German filmmaker and photographer, a 99-year old woman, is about to

release a 45-minute documentary about sub-aquatic life off the coast ofPapua-New Guinea (excerpts of author and of Triumph of the Will,a 1944propaganda film portraying Adolf Hitler). Interview with expert(4:30)

07:30 The end of Yves Saint-Laurent’s career (clip). Live interview with a writerand fashion journalist for Vogue magazine, and an art critic (7:00)

14:30 Station and program identification (0:05)14:35 Greek and Turkish Cypriots have collaborated over the Internet in the com

position of a CD. (1:20)15:55 The Egyptian Minister of Culture opened a design competition for a new

antiquities museum to be built near the Pyramids and to be the world’slargest. (0:35)

16:35 An exhibition on those who survived the attacks on Washington and theWorld Trade Center and a concert in Bangkok to commemorate the disaster(1:00)

17:35 (Music) Interview with the director for Great Britain of an international venture project called (Pakama, which means “rise up” in a South African dialect) aimed at giving young people a new voice through theatre (2:00), andan interview with the Pakama director for India (1:00)

21:00 (SFX) In Sao Paulo, would-be ballerinas with a difference: they’re blind.Report (SFX, clips and translation) (4:50)

25:50 Sign off, music, credits26:30

DW – ARTS ON THE AIR - 20/01/0200:00 Station identification (0:05)00:05 Music (0:25)00:30 Program and host identification, music, billboard, teasers (1:40)02:10 100th birth anniversary of a controversial Turkish poet, play writer and nov

elist, whose work has been translated in many languages. Report (music,comments, interview, readings, clips, translation) (8:30)

10:40 Major campaign launched by London mayor to attract people back in city’sWest End theatres, deserted since September 11th with a correspondingdownturn in business. Report (play excerpts, comments, various interviews,

252 Programming: The Heart of International Radio

music) (6:45)17:25 South African tenor, after studying at the Bavarian State Opera Studio is

invited to sing at the Bavarian State Opera House in Munich. Report (mu-sic, singing, comments, interviews) (12:15)

29:40 Fade out

China Radio International – IN THE SPOTLIGHT - 20/01/0200:00 Music, station, program, host identification (0:25)00:25 Summary (0:50)01:15 Sting (0:10)01:25 The biggest domestic box office hit in China; film director not shielded

from criticism. Report on the debate (SFX, music, clips 11:35)13:00 Extro (0:20)13:20 Writings from China: A tour of a picturesque city in Eastern China

with many waterways. (Music and reading 11:25)24:45 Extro (0:25)25:10 Station and program identification (0:10)25:20 Profile of a bold and direct, yet gentle and sensitive Chinese rock singer.

Report (music and comments 3:50)29:10 Extro (0:35)29:45 Featured artist’s song (2:00)31:45 More comments on the rock singer (0:30)32:15 Featured artist’s song (2:10)

Radio Prague International – THE ARTS - 27/01/02Interview with the director of the Dance School Prague. He talks about its past andpresent mission and about the International Dance Week, a cultural event.

Radio France Internationale – CULTURE VIVE - 24/01/02SEGMENT 100:00 Musique, identification de l’émission et des animateurs (0:25)00:25 Animation (deux voix) (0:20)00:45 « Biblique des derniers gestes », le dernier roman d’un auteur martiniquais.

Entretien des animateurs avec l’auteur (5:15)06:00 Pièce musicale : Pour une chanson douce, Bernard Lavilliers (2:25)06:25 Suite de l’entretien (12:40)19:10 Musique, identification du prochain segment (0:15)SEGMENT 200:00 Musique, identification de l’émission et des animateurs (0:20)00:20 Suite de l’entretien (9:25)09:45 Pause musicale (0:55)

253Programming: The Heart of International Radio

10:40 Musée martiniquais des arts des Amériques (même invité) (4:30)15:25 Musique martiniquaise, adresse électronique (4:00)SEGMENT 300:00 Musique, identification de l’émission et des animateurs (0:20)00:20 Invitée : une comédienne du music-hall français. (3:00)03:20 Extrait musical (2:10)05:30 Suite de l’entretien19:00 Fin de l’entretien et extrait musical (0:25)

Radio France Internationale – L’ACTUALITÉ LITTÉRAIRE- 24/01/0200:00 Musique, identification de l’émission et de l’animatrice (0:10)00:10 Sommaire, le retour des Anciens selon le Figaro littéraire et présentation

poético-symbolique du premier sujet (1:35)01:45 Mes images de l’amour, propos sur l’amour. Lecture d’extraits du livre par

l’auteur lui-même (soutien musical) et entretien avec l’auteur (6:15)08:00 Pause musicale (0:20)08:20 Suite de l’entretien (4:10)12:30 Pause musicale (0:15)12:45 Suite de l’entretien (3:15)16:00 Musique, identification du segment et de l’animatrice (0:10)16:10 Revue de presse littéraire

La commémoration d’Alexandre Dumas (L’Express)L’achèvement d’un dictionnaire chinois-français (Nouvel Observateur)Gros plan sur un écrivain sino-français (Nouvel Observateur)

18:45 Salutations, crédits, musique (0:50)

BUSINESS

BBC – GLOBAL BUSINESS – Sunday 27/01/02

00:00 Program, focus (0:10)00:10 Welcome, music, staging old slogans (0:30)00:40 Personal note on the false promises of new technologies. How

transformational are they? The difficulty of identifying really promisingones (clips, unidentified experts 1:05). The case of the Segway thatwould change the way cities work (clips of the unveiling on GoodMorning America). (3:00)

03:45 The hyperbole as an unmissable part of the business process… Interviewwith research director of I Society, a research project sponsored byMicrosoft and run by a British think-tank that considers the impact oftechnology on our lives. (3:45)

254 Programming: The Heart of International Radio

07:30 Betrayal by technologies that don’t seem to deliver on its promises.Interview with a founding father of the explosion of technologyenterprise in and around Cambridge. (3:35)

11:05 High-tech companies have to evolve to keep pace with the evolution.South African academic who found a pioneer computer company. (2:55)

14:00 How can a business try to predict how people are going to respond tobrand new ideas? Interview with leading international computer industryresearcher and author of a book that examines the uptake of new things.(2:30)

16:30 Interview with a futurist from the Institute for the Future, in SiliconValley. (2:00)

18:30 CUT

Radio Singapore International – BUSINESS WORLD– Friday 25/01/02

00:00 Music, program identification, billboard (0:30)00:30 Tourism ministers from the ten Asian countries are gathered inDjakarta to discuss the collapse of tourism in Southeast Asia, followingthe September 11th attacks in the US, and propose solutions. Interviewwith dean of the Asian Tourism Institute at the University of Philippines(clips and comments) (4:10)

04:40 With the recession and rising business costs, strategic relocation is thetrend. The case of a high precision engineering firm that has relocated onan Indonesian island. (Comments and clips) (4:05)

08:45 Sign off, music (0:15)

Radio France Internationale – DIMANCHE ÉCONOMIE –Dimanche 20/01/02

00:00 Promo (0:30)00:30 Musique, identification de l’émission et de l’animateur (0:05)00:45 Crise économique en Argentine. (SFX, clips, commentaires, entrevues et

traduction) (15:00)15:45 Musique argentine, crédits (4:15)19:58

255Programming: The Heart of International Radio

INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS –INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

BBC – PEOPLE AND POLITICS – Friday 18/01/02

00:00 Station, program, focus, host identification (0:05)00:05 The British Foreign Secretary said that Great Britain hadnegotiated a deal with Spain over the sovereignty of Gibraltar (clip,former British Foreign Secretary 1:00)

01:40 British claim over Gibraltar. Gibraltarians love being British (clip,Gibraltarian, 1:00)03:15 British government is ready to reach an accommodation to see astop toharassment from Spain, and tension within European Union.Interview with a former Chief Minister of Gibraltar and founder of theGibraltar Labour Party (5:45)

09:00 Warm relationship between British and Spanish Prime Ministers.Interview with a former Foreign Office Minister who endorses the deal.(5:00)

14:05 Program, station, host identification (0:05)14:10 Gibraltar deal to be concluded before summer, but British politicians fear

problems similar to the Zimbabwe case. Interview with the ForeignSecretary who negotiated with Rhodesia. (6:50)

21:00 The invisibility of the current British Foreign Office occupant. Interviewwith veteran political commentator (5:15)

26:15 Sign off, program and host identification credits26:30

Radio Österreich International – NETWORK EUROPE – Monday28/01/02

00:00 Music, country, host, program, focus identification (0:20)00:20 Theme identification (living abroad), next announcer identification(0:20)00:40 Program highlights: the flexibility of immigration within the European

Union. The pleasures and the pitfalls of living abroad. Foreign workerswho choose cultural self-determination over assimilation (clip) (0:50)

01:30 Multiplex with a Brussels-based Czech journalist for the Czech newsagency, a BBC foreign correspondent in Belgrade, and an Italianjournalist in London. (2:45)04:15 Is a common European work culture evolving? Interview with aprofessor at the European Management School in Lyon. (2:25)

06:40 Back to multiplex. (3:20)10:00 The difficulty of learning a foreign language and culture. Interview with

a hybrid couple (Austrian/New Zealander) living in Vienna (2:50)

256 Programming: The Heart of International Radio

12:50 Back to multiplex. (6:50)19:40 Program, theme identification (0:05)19:45 Foreign workers who choose self-determination rather than assimilation.

Report (music, SFX, comments, clips, translation) (5:15)24:00 Salutations (0:20)24:20 Program, comments, schedules, civic and e-mail addresses, website(0:30)24:50

Radio France Internationale –UNE SEMAINE DANS LE MONDE – Samedi 19/01/02

Segment 100:00 Musique, identification de l’émission et de l’animateur (0:10)00:10 Sommaire et journalistes participants (0:40)00:50 Ouverture de négociations sur l’avenir de Chypre. Reportage (01:25)02:15 Entrevue avec une journaliste à propos de son livre sur la société

japonaise, L’Empire désorienté (1:45)04:00 Musique (0:05)04:05 Bombardements sur l’Afghanistan. Reportage (1:25)05:30 Musique (0:05)05:35 Tensions entre l’Inde et le Pakistan. Reportage (1:25)07:00 Musique (0:05)07:05 Attentats dans le nord d’Israël.07:20 Adresse électronique07:30 Suite de l’entrevue avec une journaliste à propos de son livre sur la

société japonaise, L’Empire désorienté (2:40)10:10 Musique (0:05)10:15 Différend entre l’OMC et les États-Unis. Reportage (1:20)11:35 Musique (0:05)11:40 Procès pour une bavure en Tchétchénie. Reportage (1:20)13:00 Musique (0:05)13:05 Visite d’une délégation de l’AIEA en Corée du Nord (0:55)14:00 Musique (0:05)14:05 Suite de l’entrevue avec une journaliste (L’Empire désorienté) sur la

situation en Corée et sur la Coupe du monde au Japon (4:55)19:00 Annonce du prochain segment, rappel des principaux événements de la

semaine, crédits, adresse Internet, musique (0:30)19:30SEGMENT 2 (not available on the website)

257Programming: The Heart of International Radio

MEDIA

Radio France Internationale – AFRIQUE PRESSE– Samedi 19/01/02

PLAGE 100:00 Musique, identification de la station, de l’émission et de l’animateur(0:15)

00:15 Orientation de l’émission (actualités africaines et internationales)Sommaire des points abordés :Madagascar, un compromis en vue ?Mali, la Coupe d’Afrique des Nations et les présidentiellesZimbabwe, Mugabe refuse la présence d’observateurs lors desprésidentiellesNigeria, islamisation et lapidation1er anniversaire de l’assassinat de Kabila, où va la RDCIdentification des invités : journaliste de l’Express, journaliste de l’AFP,directeur de l’Organisation panafricaine des journalistes indépendants,journaliste de RFI (1:15)

01:30 Débat Madagascar (12:50)14:20 Débat Mali (Coupe) (5:00)19:20 Musique, annonce d’une pause et du prochain segment19:30 FIN

PLAGE 200:00 Musique, identification de la station, de l’émission et de l’animateur(0:15)00:15 Rappel des invités (0:15)00:30 Débat Mali (présidentielles) (5:00)05:30 Débat Zimbabwe (4:50)10:20 Débat Nigeria (5:55)16:15 Musique, identification de l’émission, de l’animateur (0:05)16:20 Débat RDC (2:30)18:50 Salutations (0:15)19:05 Musique (0:25)19:30 FIN

Radio France Internationale – ARRÊT SUR INFO– Samedi 19/01/02

00:00 Musique, identification de la station, de l’émission et de l’animateur(0:15)00:15 Thème de l’émission (Afghanistan), musique (0:15)

258 Programming: The Heart of International Radio

Identification des participants (correspondants de RFI) : le correspondantà New Delhi, le correspondant anglophone pour l’Asie et deuxpersonnes des services techniques. Émission dédiée à la journaliste deRFI décédée en Afghanistan (1:15)

01:30 Le vécu du personnel de RFI envoyé en Afghanistan durant les attaques(6:30)

07:40 Pause musicale (0:20)08:00 Le vécu du personnel de RFI envoyé en Afghanistan durant les attaques

(4:45)12:45 Pause musicale (0:30)13:15 L’Afghanistan après les attaques (5:35)18:50 Musique, salutation, prochain segment, crédits, sujet de la semaine

prochaine (0:20)19:10 Adresses électronique (0:10)19:20

BBC – TALKING POINT – Monday 28/01/02

00:00 Station, program, host identification (0:05)00:05Theme identification(Nazi Holocaust) 50th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz andHolocaust Memorial Day… special events across Europe. What aboutthe other genocides… bigotry between ethnic groups?

01:10 Music, phone number, e-mail address, text-message number (0:30)01:40 Guest identification: ((M.P. of Atrocity at the Holocaust Educational

Trust)) and Minister for Youth Education in UK; actress and humanrights campaigner (0:15)

01:55 Music, phone number, e-mail address, text-message number (foreignaccents) (0:25)

02:20 Callers (3:20)05:40 Comments from guests, e-mails and calls (10:40)16:20 Program, station, guests identification (0:15)16:35 Music, phone number, e-mail address, text-message number (foreign

accents) (0:25)17:00 Comments from guests, e-mails and calls (9:20)36:20 Program, station, guests identification (0:10)36:30 Music, phone number, e-mail address, text-message number (0:30)37:00 Comments from guests, e-mails and calls (14:35)51:35 Salutations, promos, next subject, next host (1:00)52:35 Pause (0:25)53:00 Promo, website (0:30)53:30 Promo, station (0:20)54:00 Next programs (1:00)55:00

259Programming: The Heart of International Radio

LISTENERS’ MAIL SHOWS

Radio Netherlands – SINCEREL YOURS – Sunday 03/02/02

SEGMENT 100:00 Music, program and host identification (0:15)00:15 Letter’s excerpt, music (0:25)00:40 Welcome, co-host identification, chatting (0:35)01:15 Letters, listeners’ questions and comments, answers, program excerpt

(3:30)04:45 Music, program identification, postal, e-mail addresses and phone

number (1:00)05:45 Letters, listeners’ questions and comments, answers, program excerpt

(4:15)10:00 Music, program identification (0:15)10:15 Letters, listeners’ questions and comments, answers, program excerpt

(4:50)15:05 Music (0:10)15:15 Letters, listeners’ comments (1:15)16:35 Postal, e-mail addresses and phone number (0:50)17:25 Sign off (0:20)17:45

BBC – POSTMARK AFRICA – Sunday 20/01/02

00:00 Station identification, program identification, program orientation(answering any question from Africa), host identification, teaser

01:30 Question 1: Why people who stammer never do so when they sing?(1:00)02:30 Answer: interview with an expert from the British Stammering

Association (5:15)07:45 Extro & Sting (0:10)07:55 Question 2: Royalty. How many royal families? Are they allowed to take

part in politics? Questions about the British royal family. (0:25)08:20 Answer : Given by a researcher with an African accent (1:40)10:00 Extro and recall of features to come (0:10)10:10 Question 3: The oldest dated work of art in Africa, and where it’s found?

(0:35)10:45 Answer : Journalist interviews author of a book on African rock art

(3:45)14:30 Extro and information on contest (0:10)14:40 Excerpts of a street musician in Nairobi, and excerpts of the same song

by the original group ((Bony Ham?)) of the 1970’s (1:55)

260 Programming: The Heart of International Radio

16:35 Question 4: Where are they now? (0:35)17:10 Answer: Interview with a member of the group, musical excerpts (11:00)28:10 Civic and e-mail addresses (0:20) (fades before the end)

Voice of Russia – MOSCOW MAILBAG – Sunday 20/01/02

00:00 Program identification, musical theme, host identification (0:30)00:30 Question and answer 1: How did Youri Gagarine die? (2:00)02:30 Question and answer 2: Comment the attempts to build a bridge next to

the monument which marks the nearest spot that the Nazis reached intheir advance on Moscow. (1:30)

04:00 Question and answer 3: Comment sculptures in Russia. (1:20)05:20 Question and answer 4: Do you have any hobby clubs? (0:30)05:50 Question and answer 5: Are there any shortwave receivers made in

Russia? (0:30)06:20 Question and answer 6: The origin of the double-headed eagle, emblem

of Russia? (1:15)07:35 Question and answer 7: Is there a VOR club of regular listeners? (0:35)08:10 Question and answer 8: The source of financing of VOR, apart from

government funding? (0:35)08:45 Question and answer 9: Draft system in Russia? (1:50)10:35 Question and answer 10: Relations between Russia and China? (1:50)12:25 Question and answer 11: Freedom of the press in Russia? (1:35)14:00 Question and answer 12: How will Russia ((see)) in the new millenium?

(1:00)15:00 Question and answer 13: The origin of the Russian monetary unit, the

rouble? (0:50)15:50 Wrap-up jokes (1:15)17:05 Civic and e-mail addresses (0:25)17:30 Music (1:20)18:50

Radio Österreich International – FLASH DES ONDES – Dimanche20/01/02

00:00 Identification de la station (0:05)00:05 Musique, identification de l’émission (0:15)00:20 Identification de l’animateur, prévisions de propagation des ondes (0:35)00:55 Rubrique DX (15:00)

Nouvelle station de radio en maintien de la paix : Radio Okapi (ONU etla Fondation Hirondelle) en République démocratique du Congo (2:00)Le gouvernement zimbabwéen accepte la présence d’observateurs del’Union européenne durant les élections présidentielles (0:50)

261Programming: The Heart of International Radio

La BBC, dont les journalistes sont interdits au Zimbabwe, se défend detout parti-pris (0:05)

Musique (0:15)Des journalistes dissidents de la chaîne privée TV6 ont créé une nouvellesociété télévisuelle, et liquidation de TV6 (1:45)L’Internet poursuit son envolée en Chine (0:50)

Musique (0:15)Déménagement de Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberté (3:35)Retour du relais en ondes courtes du service national de la radioislandaise (1:30)Radio Yougoslavie arrête ses émissions, faute de paiement à lacompagnie d’électricité (0:35)

Correction d’heure de diffusion sur VOR (0:20)Musique (0:15)Annonce de stations qui diffusent sur ondes courtes, extraits sonores, adresses

(02:05)15:55 Courrier des auditeurs

Identification du co-animateur. Rapports d’écoute de ROI, questionset commentaires d’auditeurs, réponses. (12:05)

28:00 Adresses postale et électronique (0:50)28:50

Radio France Internationale – CLUB RFI – Dimanche 20/01/02

SEGMENT 100:00 Musique, identification de l’émission et des animateurs (deux voix)(0:10)00:10 Animation : bilan de santé (0:40)00:50 Messages enregistrés de divers auditeurs (1:55)02:45 Clip sonore (0:15)03:00 Animation : sommaire de chroniques à venir (0:55)03:55 Identification de l’émission et des animateurs (0:05)04:00 Animation : lettres, Club RFI et adresses civile et électronique (2:10)06:10 Chronique « Écoute ce disque » (disque dédié par un auditeur) (2:00)08:10 Numéro du répondeur (0:10)08:20 Chronique « Les débrouillards du Club » (interview avec le fondateur

d’un organisme au Bénin, Village d’espoir 21, qui recueille des orphelinset des enfants en difficulté) (4:10)

12:30 Adresses civile et électronique (0:20)12:50 Chronique « Les voyageurs du Club » (interview avec un travailleur

guinéen ayant immigré au Maroc) (4:30)17:20 Adresses civile et électronique, fermeture (1:00)18:20 Disque dédié par un auditeur (1:40)19:58

262 Programming: The Heart of International Radio

SEGMENT 200:00 Musique, identification de l’émission et des animateurs (deux voix)(0:10)00:10 Après diverses salutations, un auditeur annonce en direct le menu de

l’émission à venir (1:10)01:20 Chronique « Le tiroir de RFI » (entrevue avec un réalisateur de RFI,

extraits d’émissions de ce réalisateur) (10:10)11:30 Chronique « Écoute ce disque » (disque dédié par un auditeur) (1:30)13:10 Numéro du répondeur (0:10)13:20 Chronique « Les correspondants » (annonces : recherche de

correspondants) (2:15)15:35 Chronique « Le concours du Club » (question du concours, prix,adresses, gagnant de la semaine précédente)

17:40 Adresse Internet (0:05)17:45 Fermeture, participation aux chroniques, disque dédié par un auditeur

(1:35)19:20

263Programming: The Heart of International Radio

2004 Mandates and ObjectivesDaily Broadcasts in All Languages

An RCI daily broadcast strives to reflect Canada to specific target audiences ren-dering events and issues important to Canadians, relevant, clear, worthwhile andappealing to foreign listeners defined as cosmopolitan*.

The daily broadcasts aim at achieving this objective by focussing on each targetedaudience’s interests, its information needs, level of knowledge about Canada, cul-tural sensitivities, political system, economy and generally, realities of each targetarea.The daily teams seek to provide context, including an exploration of links betweenCanada and their target region as well as comparisons of both realities.A daily RCI broadcast should cover Canadian relations with and Canadian pres-ence in the target region in a manner as closely as possible attuned to the audience.

Content and OrganizationThe daily broadcasts present the most important international and Canadian news,especially those related to the target area, generally in form of briefs, followed byand integrated with context pieces and analyses, interviews with appropriate ex-perts and practitioners, people in the news, personalities, listeners, etc. Judicioususe of network material drawn from “corbeilles” and web-sites, as well as from thewhole spectrum of English and French domestic radio programming, allows theteams to spend more time on context, reporting and other targeted elements.Building a network of Canadians and Canadophiles in the target area who are ac-tive in a spectrum of fields and professions and a similar network of people fromthe respective ethnic communities in Canada, enables the daily teams to add logi-cal links and to draw convincing parallels; it also creates the highly desirable effectof providing frequently and regularly an interactive aspect to the broadcasts.Targeting is achieved through the choice of news and context, as well as in thepresentations, with addition of interviews and other elements related to the audi-ence.

Format and StyleThe daily programs use live flexible formats driven equally by the events of theday and by the needs of the audience. The broadcasts present a virtually seamlessmix of news, context, analysis, reports, interviews, dialogues, and opinion pieces.Strong, informed, dynamic, friendly and informal hosting combined with continu-ity attuned to the audience is a crucial aspect of the recommended style. Innova-tive use of sound including music, ensures a well paced flow and provides a mod-ern signature to the broadcast.

* Interested in other cultures and world affairs.

264

265

“Although their justification lies in the service theyprovide, fundamental objective [of public institutions]has always been self-preservation.”(1)

Conclusion

Radio Canada International, as discussed throughout this book, has facedthe same challenges as the rest of the international broadcasting community. Createdto speak “to friends and foes” during WW2, the station continued to broadcast toformer combatants in the aftermath of the war and finally, during the Cold War, inthe name of threatened democratic ideals to nations held captive by totalitariancommunist regime. Once the Soviet domination crumbled, RCI along with itsmany western broadcasting colleagues, generously helped media in the region tobegin the transition from servants of the state to servants of the public andwatchdogs of democracy.

At the same time, relations within the broadcasting community itself,destabilized by the political transformations, took on a special meaning: on theirown, the smaller stations faced a slide into oblivion or insignificance, the possibilityto consult with colleagues, share insights and compare strategies, ranging fromfunding issues to programming and audience research, provided a ray of hope.While the western governments more or less willingly financed internationalbroadcasting during the Cold War, when post-communist democratization got underway, external radio found itself under hostile financial scrutiny and became aneasy target for budget cuts. Instead of trying to assess whether the funding wasadequate, the governments questioned the need for a continued existence of thestations.

Politicians by definition think short-term, from one election to the next;barring instances of exceptional vision and wisdom, they are rarely motivated bygains likely to bring benefits to their successors. Verifiable goals and effects ofinternational broadcasting are predominantly long-term, and even when achieved,are painfully open to interpretation, notoriously hard to measure and as such, notoverly exciting or useful to politicians. Totalitarian governments have been knownto pay for a propagandistic spin on their activities. Democratic ones on the otherhand have other more pressing priorities than to finance a critical and balancedjournalistic reporting, especially on a “hands off” and at “arm’s length” basis, andto top it all off, for broadcast to non-voting foreign audiences. If a way could bedevised to reduce or cease financing such ventures without a generalized outcryand negative political fall-out, democratic governments would likely favour it.

In an attempt to actively stall and eventually resolve the looming disaster,RCI created the Challenges series and for a full decade, biennially, hosted in Canada

266 Conclusiona large cross-section of international broadcasters, publishing after each consecutiveconference a volume of proceedings, a de facto practical guide to the industry’sstatus and current issues. Answers to the burning questions of the time were shared,debated and analyzed by the best minds in the field and to the benefit of all.Everybody wanted to know how the others were making the case for publicbroadcasting beamed to non-voting audiences abroad; how they negotiated withtheir governments; how they proved financial efficiency and broadcastingexcellence; how they presented long-term goals as desirable in the short-term;how they translated iffy, extrapolated audience ratings into waterproof arguments;and which new technologies they planned to adopt. The acknowledged value ofthe Challenges conferences for the international broadcasting community andincidentally, for the image of Radio Canada International, made the considerableeffort of organizing the biennial event truly worthwhile.

In parallel to its foreign equivalents, the Canadian station had to creativelyrethink its priorities and find its own niche in view of the dramatically changinginternational audiences and of the exponential growth of digital technologies.Almost overnight, the interest and voice of the audiences grew louder and couldbe ignored only at the peril of the broadcaster; especially at a time when untilthen, elusive and unreliable audience ratings were slowly becoming available; amuch refined research methodology combined with a harmonized set ofmeasurements developed by CIBAR were proving efficient. For RCI, a lack ofresponse to the listeners’ new situation, whether political or technological, wasnot an option; complacency and procrastination spelled an acute and wellunderstood danger of losing the protective shield against government cuts: RCI’slisteners abroad and likeminded friends at home lobbied hard, repeatedly andsuccessfully to save their station, in 1991, 1995 and 1996. The other internationalstations, now in a much closer relationship with RCI, as a result of the Challengesmeetings, added their voices to the lobbying effort and tipped the scale in favourof RCI’s survival.

Before the collapse of communism, stations broadcasting out of countriesunder Soviet domination were driven by the governments funding the station’soperations; the information needs of the audience were of little consequence. Theoutput was strictly controlled by internal censors; while a trained ear couldoccasionally decode hidden critical meaning, few listeners bothered to try(2).Broadcasting for the communist cause was financed well enough; unofficially,the fact that it preached exclusively to the converted few was accepted withindifference by all involved. But radio without listeners may operate only in anundemocratic environment where nobody is allowed to question the wisdom ofgovernmental decisions. It seems important for totalitarian governments to havestations broadcasting abroad, serving as tools in their ideological arsenals; whetheranybody listens to such stations is of secondary importance.

Conclusion 267In democratic countries, the lack of listeners cannot be hidden from the

stakeholders for long. The first to sense the dwindling of the audience are, naturally,the program makers, who need the rapport with the listeners to perform well. Asthe awareness of the link with the audience wanes, so does the staff’s worksatisfaction and the urgency of mission. At such time, the best among the staffbegin to leave; those who stay rapidly become disillusioned and cynical. Eventually,broadcasting to virtual audiences kills the spirit of the station. “Radio fantôme” or“Ghost radio”, unless maintained on an artificial respirator, has a limited andmiserable life span. Yet, such doomsday scenarios are quite rare and can be avoided,if the station management maintains a regular exchange of views with the programmakers and focuses on the audiences.

When the digital revolution exploded the habits of the audiences, anothergeneration of listeners grew up with fingers glued to computer and cell phonekeyboards, sporting ears equipped with listening devices connected to a myriadof sources of sound, consumers doubled as creators of audio and visual content,the golden age of international radio drew to a close. These new audiences are nothelpless captives starved for information; they look around, pick and chose andjump at the opportunity to share with others what they think, see, know and dreamof. A public service station that is not ready for this generation is becomingirrelevant fast and fatally fails the citizens who pay for its operations. It also lacksbasic integrity and as such has no place on the broadcasting scene. The programmakers, journalists and broadcasters may deplore the loss of traditional emphasison news and their immediacy; they may try to resist the evolution towards an asyet unclear, albeit quite different broadcasting model. And yet, the times, whenthe station knew better than their audiences what it was they wanted and whatturned them on, are past and will not return. While there is still place for solidjournalism and excellence in broadcasting, the advent of interactivity made thependulum of power shaping the future swing toward the audiences; the age ofradio evolved into the age of the audience: not only the power but some of the art& glory shifted from broadcasters to the public.

268 Conclusion

Endnotes1 Sir Anthony Jay. Confessions of a Reformed BBC Producer, London: Center For Policy Studies,2007 (5).2 Graham Mytton often quoted one of the few communist successes, Radio Moscow’s Bambaraprogramming to Mali. As no other international station broadcast in that African language, RadioMoscow built up a sizeable audience and was the most popular station in the country. Ironically, whenRadio Moscow started reducing the number of broadcast languages after the dismantling of the SovietUnion, Bambara was the first language to go. Challenges for International Broadcasting: Identity,Economics, Integration. Ed. by E. Olechowska and H. Aster. Oakville, Ont.: Mosaic Press, 1995(225, 326-327).

269

Works & Documents Cited

The Preface

Agreement between the CBC, Canadian Media Content Consultants and A. Siegel. Montreal, May 7, 1986.Aster, Howard. Letter to A. Siegel and E. Olechowska, March 31, 1996.Bumpus, Bernard and Skelt, Barbara. Seventy Years of International Broadcasting. Communication and Society, 14. Paris: UNESCO, 1984. Canada: p. 67, 90- 91.Browne, Donald R. International Radio Broadcasting: The Limits of the Limitless

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in the Cold War. London: Brassey’s, 1997.NHK Says Consensus Needed to Use Viewer Fees for International Service. Kyodo

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“Le Droit”, Ottawa-Hull, 13 décembre 1995.Canadian Press. Radio layoffs ‘still in place’. “The Toronto Star”, February 28,

1996.Canadian Press. RCI axed in order to help CBC at home. “The Gazette”, December

19, 1995.Canadian Press. RCI fermera le 31 mars. ““Le Journal de Montréal””, le 13

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1996.Canadian Press. Sheila Copps à la rescousse du ministre des Affaires indiennes.

“Le Soleil”, Québec, le 15 février 1996.Canadian Press, Sheila Copps veut sauver Radio Canada International. “La

Presse”, Montréal, le 26 janvier 1996.Canadian Press. Sursis pour RCI. Le Soleil, 22 mars 1996.Chandwani, Ashok. From the Himalayas to Sudan, we might lose Canada. “The

Gazette”, December 18, 1995.Colpron, Suzanne. La voix du Canada à l’étranger s’éteint. “La Presse”, Montréal,

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“La Presse”, Montréal, le 12 décembre 1995.Copps still supports radio. The Toronto Star, February 15, 1996.Cornellier, Manon. Vic PARSONS. La SRC joue une partie de bras de fer avec

Ottawa, selon Ouellet. “Le Devoir”, Le 19 décembre 1995.— . Radio-Canada International en phase terminale. “Le Soleil”, Le 13 décembre 1995.CP -Staff. International radio service to die. “The Toronto Star”, December 13, 1995.Crombie, James. La voix du Canada se taira-t-elle? “Le Courrier de la Nouvelle-

Ecosse”. Le 22 décembre 1995.Des Rivières, Paule. Au moins un an de sursis pour RCI. “Le Devoir”, 22 mars

1996.— . Copps serait loin du compte. “Le Devoir”, 21 mars 1996.— . De la publicité pour RCI? “Le Devoir”, le 15 février 1996.— . Faute de budget RCI va fermer le 31 mars. “Le Devoir”, Le 13 décembre

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décembre 1995.Eendicott, Azana. Crees, Inuit to lose shortwave service. “The Gazette”, January

18, 1996.Ending short wave is shortsighted, “The Leader Post”, January 15, 1996.Falling silence. “Maclean’s” December 25, 1995-January 1, 1996.Fiorito, Joe. New hope for RCI. “The Gazette”, January 26, 1996.Fontaine, Mario. Sheila Copps défend Irwin et Dion. “La Presse”, Montréal, le 15 février 1996.Fotheringham, Allan. Ottawa is really stupid to kill RCI. “The Financial Post”,

January 9, 1996.Gauvin, Yvon. Radio Canada Int’l closure to hit Sackville. “Moncton Times-

Transcript”, December 13, 1995.Goddard, Peter. CBC short-wave ‘Voice of Canada’ facing final axe. “The Toronto

Star” December 12, 1995.— . RCI’s independent edge upsets the control freaks. “The Toronto Star”, December 17, 1995.Harris, Christopher. CBC’s shortwave service to be killed. “The Globe and Mail”,

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January 10, 1996.Maltais, Murray, Sauver RCI. “Le Droit”, Ottawa-Hull, Le 14 décembre 1995.McFarland, Ian. Will the Sun Set...on Radio Canada. “Monitoring Times”, March 1996.Merridew, Alan. RCI loss would hurt Canada’s links to the Pacific world. “The

Vancouver Sun”, December 24, 1995.Mobilisation contre la fermeture de RCI. “La Presse”, Montréal, le 18 janvier 1996.Nuovo, Franco. “Le Journal de Montréal”, le 15 février 1996.— . RCI ne répond plus. “Le Journal de Montréal”, Le 14 décembre 1995.

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to Central and Eastern Europe. Montreal, July 12, 1993.—. “Radio Canada International Tells Russians the ‘Canadian Way’ ”. The Ottawa

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30, 1972.Koring, Paul. China Airs Official News Line Via CBC Radio Transmitter. The

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Partnerships & AlliancesTechnical Coordination MeetingsBrowne, Donald R. International Radio Broadcasting: The Limits of the Limitless Medium. New York: Preager, 1982.Circuit fermé. Montreal: Radio-Canada, November 8, 1978.Cooper, Allen CIBAR – What it is, how it works in: An Essential Link with Audi- ences Worldwide. Research for International Broadcasting. DW- Schriftenreihe, Bd 5. Berlin: Vistas, 2002 (21-22).Hall, James L. Radio Canada International: Voice of a Middle Power. East Lansing,

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HFCC Minutes, 1991-2005: A Chronological List of DocumentsShort Wave broadcasting Conference, Pamporovo, Bulgarien [24.09 bis 28.09.] September 1990. Schlussinformation.Short Wave broadcasting Conference, Prague, [9th – 11th ] April 1991. Final Information.Short Wave broadcasting Conference, Sinaia, [Romania] August 26-29, 1991. Final Document. 29.08.1991.Short Wave broadcasting Conference, Budapest, [24th – 26th] March 1992.Evesham, Worcestershire, United kingdom; 17th – 21th August 1992.High Frequency (HF) Co-ordination Conference Wintertime 1992/93 Schedule (27th September – 27th March 1993 inclusive). Final Protocol.International Broadcasters High Frequency Co-ordination Conference. Cologne [Germany], 1-4 March 1993. Final Protocol.International Broadcasters High Frequency Co-ordination Conference. Hilversum [The Netherlands], 16 – 20 August 1993. Final Protocol.International Broadcasters’ HF Coordination Conference. Paris, 22-26 August 1994. Final Protocol. Montrouge, 22 November 1994.International Broadcaster’s HF Coordination Conference. Vatican City, 21 – 25 February 1994. 14 April 1994.HF Co-ordination Conference “Summer ‘95”. Final Protocol. [Torino, Italy, 13th

– 17th February 1995.]“HFCC” Co-ordination Conference, Wintertime 1995 (W95) Season. Stockholm, Sweden; 7th – 11th August 1995.“HFCC” Co-ordination Conference, Summertime 1996 (Z96) Season. Bern, Switzerland; 5th – 9th February 1996.[Since February 1996, all reports have been prepared by Dennis Thompson, member ofHFCC Steering Committee].“HFCC” Co-ordination Conference, Wintertime 1996 (W96) Season. Prague, Czech Republic; 19th – 23rd August 1996.“HFCC” Co-ordination Conference, Summertime 1997 (Z97) Season. Istanbul, Turkey; 3rd – 7th February 1997.HFCC C-ordination Conference – Protocol – Minutes. Warsaw, Poland; 25th – 29th August 1997.HFCC Plenary Meeting Minutes –Bruges, Belgium; 2nd – 6th February 1998. HFCC Plenary Meeting Minutes – Tunis, Tunesia; 24th – 28th August 1998.HFCC Plenary Meeting Minutes – Lisbon, Portugal; 1st – 5th February 1999.HFCC Plenary Meeting Minutes – Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; 21st – 25th August

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2000.HFCC Plenary Meeting Minutes – Geneva, Switzerland; 5th – 9th February 2001.HFCC Plenary Meeting Minutes – Montreal, Canada; 27th – 31st August 2001.HFCC Plenary Meeting Minutes – Bonn, Germany; 4th – 8th February 2002.HFCC Plenary Meeting Minutes – Bangkok, Thailand; 26th – 30th August 2002.HFCC Plenary Meeting Minutes – Johannesburg, RSA; 3rd – 7th February 2003.HFCC Plenary Meeting Minutes – Tromso, Norway; 25th – 29th August 2003.HFCC Plenary Meeting Minutes – Dubai, UAE; 9th – 13th February 2004.HFCC Plenary Meeting Minutes – Helsinki, Finland, 23rd -27th August 2004.HFCC Plenary Meeting Minutes –Mexico City, Mexico, 7th – 11th February 2005.HFCC Plenary Meeting Minutes –Valencia, Spain, 22nd-26th August 2005.HFCC Plenary Meeting Minutes –Sanya, Hainan Island, China, 13th – 17th

February 2006.HFCC Plenary Meeting Minutes –Athens, Greece, 28th August – 1st September 2006.

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CIBAR 2005 List of Presentations(available on the members’ page at www.cibar.org)Beaulac, Nicole. Evolution of Radio Listening in Canada. Radio-Canada.Bouliane, Jacques. DRM in North America History & Current Activities with an Outlook for the Future. Radio-Canada.Cooper, Allen. Getting Closer To Audiences Through Observation Approaches. Allen Cooper Associates / InterMedia.Ellison, Don and Ermarth, Leah. Effect of Geographic Selection of Sampling Clusters on Probability of Household Selection (Africa). ORC Macro.Ellison, Don. Network Theory and Media Measurement. ORC Macro.Fortner, Robert S.. Leap of Faith: Evaluating Public Diplomacy. InterSearch.Mayrand, Chantal. TV Audiences: Adapting to PPM Measurement. Radio-Canada.Nobi, Daniel. 126 000 Radio Île de France. Avril – Juin 2005. Source : Médiamétrie. RFI.—. 126 000Radio Paris – Petite Couronne. Janvier- Juin 2005. Source : Médiamétrie. RFI.—. 126 000Radio. Avril – Juin 2005. Source: Médiamétrie. RFI.—. How the Technology Measurement Can Improve Knowledge and Leave Generally Accepted Ideas ? RFI.—. Étude sur les moyens d’information. Sénégal – Juin 2005. TNS- SOFRES—. Impact des émissions du week-end à Dakar en juin 2005. TNS-SOFRES.

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CIBAR 2006 List of Presentations(available on the members’ page at www.cibar.org)Abdul-Latif, Rola. InterMedia. Reach and perceptions of Al Manar TV: lessons for reaching Arab populationsBell, Bill. IBB Office of Research. Nobi, Daniel. RFI. Using random and quota survey methods in Senegal: how do the results compare?Cassidy, Margaret. ABC. DRM and Digital Radio: An ABC PerspectiveColbert, Mark. Radio Australia. Harrison, Trevor. Asian Strategies. A talkback programme for National Radio Cambodia.Cusack, Agnes. SBS. Serving minority audiences with SBS radio.Driessen. Frank. Radio Netherlands. Panels for RNW’s Dutch, Spanish and Eng lish audiences: the story so far.Ellison, Don. ORC Macro. GPS technology: an aid to rural sampling in Nigeria.Fortner, Robert. Intersearch. Disconnect: Public diplomacy, state behaviour and alternative news sources.Hirschler, Daniel. Deutsche Welle. Heading down the digital river: is radio ready to ride the rapids?Horton, David. Synovate. The Pan Asian Cross Media Survey (PAX).

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the Message. Ed. By François Demers, Howard Aster, Elzbieta Olechowska.Cap Rouge, Quebec: Les Presses Inter- Universitaires, 1993

Challenges for International Broadcasting III: Identity, Economics, Integration.Ed. by Elzbieta Olechowska and Howard Aster. Oakville, Ont.: Mosaic Press,1995.

Challenges for International Broadcasting: The Audience First? Ed. by HowardAster and Elzbieta Olechowska. Oakville, Ont.: Mosaic Press, 1998.

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Freedoms Foundation, Valley Forge, Pa. April 1989.Juneau, P. A letter to D. Kilgour, MP. December 18, 1986.Kilgour, David. A letter to Pierre Juneau, President of the CBC. October 30, 1986.Kirsch, Botho. Deutsche Welle’s Russian Service, 1962-85 in Western Broadcasting

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287

INDEXOF PEOPLE AND

STATIONS

288 Index of People & Stations

AAcda, John 115, 118, 119, 130Africa No1 37African Broadcasting Services 130Ahmaranian, Pierre 39Akerblom, Maggy 39Akhtyrski, Alexander 97Al-Jazeera 18, 36Anderson, J. 222Applebaum-Hébert Report 33Aquino, Corazon 234, 239Arab States Broadcasting Union 112Arafat, Yasser 243, 246Arguello, Sandra 104Asselin, Jean-Claude 143, 152Association for International Broad-

casting 96, 118, 146, 147, 149Awards 147Directory of Global Broadcasting

147Industry News 147Market Intelligence Briefing 147

Association of Public BroadcastingOrganizations (ARD) 141

Aster, Howard10, 14, 97, 146, 148, 149

Australian Broadcasting Corporation145

Axworthy, Lloyd 26, 27, 34, 104Aylen, Peter 15, 78, 86

BBaker, James 224Ballasteros, Severiano 239Baquet, Anne 195Barker, David 224Barnett, Peter 120Basile, Sandra 83, 87, 103, 104BBC World Service 58, 59 et passimBeatty, Perrin 25, 27Beaulac, Nicole

13, 125, 131, 132, 133Beaulne, Yvon 86Becker, Boris 225, 235, 239

Beijing People’s Broadcasting Station100, 101

Beijing Radio 101, 102Bellanger, Jean-Luc 199Benhalla, Fouad 199Bensadoun, Doug 197Ber, Nabi 231Bériault, Jean 39Berliner Rundfunk 140Big Five 131Bilak 90Bird, Sheila 221Black, Daniel 39Bobrova, Ella 170Bolduc, Jean-François 39Bonnell, Lorne 39Bonner, Elena 165, 228Borgomeo, Father Pasquale

115, 124, 130, 145, 146Bouliane, Jacques 13, 39, 113Bourély, Ginette

13, 39, 87, 104, 128, 132, 198Bourque, Pierre 144Bouwens, Lodewijk

13, 112, 124, 146Boyd, Doug 159Boyd, Douglas A. 146Brailey, Harold 217, 218Brain, Mark 224Brides, June 233Broadcasting Corporation of China

101Brodsky, Mikhail 98Brown, Alan 15, 33, 115, 151Brown, Fred 235Browne, Donald R.

12, 37, 130, 146Brunet, Jack 85Bruni, Lev 170Buell, William 137, 148Bumpus, Bernard 12, 121, 125Bush, George W.

182, 189, 243, 245, 247, 248Bush, Martin 220

289Index of People & Stations

CCahil, Jack 236Canal France International 132Caplan-Sauvageau Task Force on

Broadcasting Policy 33Cardinal, Mario 143Carlsson, Ingvar 235Caron, Jean-Lucien 13, 33Castro, Fidel 102, 104Central China Television 102Cermak, Martin 236Chamoiseau, Patrick 196Channel Africa 133China National Radio 100, 101China Radio International

99, 102, 103, 158, 193, 194, 198Chipman, Carroll 86Chirac, Jacques 229, 239Chrétien, Jean 97CIBAR 114, 118, 122, 124, 125,126, 127, 130, 131, 132, 133Cip, Oldrich 129Clark, Joe 212, 214, 216, 221, 225Clarke, George Elliot 196Cluzel, Jean-Paul 146Coalition to Restore Full Funding to

RCI 25Cody-Rice, Edith 14Cole, Nat King 185Conley, Robert 148Cooper, Allen 127, 129, 133Cooper, Fred 235Copps, Sheila 26, 27, 34Coro, Arnaldo 103, 104Craig, James 193Cull, Nicholas J. 148Curchod, Joël 115, 116, 130Cutty Sark 145Czech Radio 92, 93, 95, 96Czech Radio Council 93Czechoslovak National Assembly 90Czechoslovak Radio 78, 91Czechoslovak Television 90Czigany, Lorand 237

DDan, Li 102Dassault, Marcel

162, 209, 215, 225Davis, Sid 138, 148, 199Dawson College 184de la Rosa, Manolo Hernàndez 104Dean, Tony 115, 130DeFontaine, Ed 148Delafield, Charles 11, 13, 15, 33,35, 40, 49, 79, 84, 85, 86, 87,89, 90Delafield, Elizabeth 91Demers, François 142, 146, 149Demko, Luba 183Désy, Jean 15, 16, 40, 79, 86Deutsche Langwelle 141Deutsche Welle

18, 60, 61, 93, 111, 122, 124,125, 126, 128, 131, 132, 135, 136, 139,140, 141, 146, 148, 158, 162, 163,164, 165, 166, 167, 175, 183, 193, 199Deutsche Welle -TV 18Deutschen Freheitssender 904 141Deutschlandfunk18, 135, 140,141, 149, 199Deutschlandsender 140Diefenbaker, John 103Digital Audio Broadcasting 114Digital Radio Mondiale

112, 113, 114, 127, 129Digital Radio Worldwide 48Dijkstra, Minne 119Dilworth, Ira 15, 79, 81, 86Diop, Ousseynou 39, 85, 198Doucet, Denis 15, 40Dumas, Alexandre 196, 253Dupuis, Michel 26Dyer, Gwyn 232

EEggleton, Art 174Elizabeth II 217, 231Émond, Noël 129

290 Index of People & Stations

Enrile, Juan Ponce 234, 239Entwistle, Mark 104Eureka 147 114Everett, Robert 129Expolingua ’94 103

FFamiliant, Allan 10, 11, 13, 15, 26,96, 99, 100, 101, 120, 131, 139, 143,148, 152, 156, 158, 171, 177, 181, 199Fardales, Isidro 104, 105Farrant, Ted 148Federal Communications Commission

111FIRATO 122Fisher, Red 170Fotheringham, Allan 240Fournier, Stéphane 39, 129Fox, Jane 148Fraenkel, Peter

86, 135, 136, 148, 199Frankley 79Friedlander, Albert 239Frycer, Miroslav 221Frydrak, Yarema 96

GGabriel, Peter 233Galasso, Roberto 104Gandhi, Rajiv 237, 239Genscher, Hans-Dietrich 136Gibson, Dave 146Giscard d’Estaing, Valéry 225Goebbels, Joseph Paul 135Goldfarb Report 48Gongadze, Georgiy 182Gorbachev, Mikhail 36, 162, 164,210, 211, 213, 216, 219, 222, 231, 240Gorky, Maxim 165, 229Gosteleradio 98Grevet, Patrick 196Griffith, Stewart 79Gromyko, Andrei 218Groothues, Fritz 145, 149, 239

Gulko, Boris 210Gustafsson, Bengt 115, 116Gutter, Mireille 14Gwiazda, Wojtek 38, 39Gzowski, Peter 173, 180

HHall, James L. 9, 10, 11, 12,33, 84, 85, 130, 133, 146Hamilton, John E. 13Harding, Larry 39, 148Hardy, Françoise 225Hargreaves, Terry 15, 24, 26, 51,85, 92, 93, 94, 97, 98, 131, 143, 180Harper, Stephen 174Harvey, Sheldon 39Havel, Vaclav 17, 36Havryliv, Lina 183Hazenfus, Eugene H. 231Heil, Alan 159Heil, Alan L., Jr.10, 13, 86, 136,146, 148, 149, 199Heintzen, Harry 148Henry, Don 148Herling-Grudzinski, Gustaw 215Hernández Cuba, Milagro de Jesu

104HFCC 111, 112, 114, 129HFCC/ASBU 112Hibbitts, Bernard J. 13, 85Hikmet, Nazim 194Hitler, Adolf 193, 251Hoek, Jan 124Honecker, Erich 163, 216, 230, 240Horsley, William 224House, Max 143Hrihoriev 79, 81Huot, Jean-Sébastien 197

IIBAR 124, 125IBG Five 117IBG Four 117

291Index of People & Stations

IBG-Six 114, 124, 130IBGF 114, 115, 116, 117, 119, 121, 123, 124, 125, 130, 131Instituto Cubano de Radio y

Televisión 103, 104Instituto Mexicano de la Radio 109International Broadcasting Group

118, 130, 199International League of Red Cross

Societies 114International Music Festival in

Shanghai 101International Radio & TV Fair 122International Radio Regulations 129International Telecommunications

Union 112, 129International Telecommunications

Union’s Radiocomm 112Intersearch 132Iwamoto, Hiroshi 131

JJacob, Sir Ian 135Javits, Jacob K. 220Javorsky, Jaroslav 221Jedrzejczak, Jaroslaw 14Jedrzejewski, Stanislaw 92Jenke, Manfred 130Jezek, Vlastimil 93Jixuan, Xia 102Johansson, Ellen 220John Paul II 163, 229, 231Jordan, Michael 247Juan Carlos 210, 217, 218,222, 223Juneau, Pierre 99, 139, 148Jury, Philomena 220

KKabila, Laurent-Désiré 257Kampelman, Max

228, 230, 236, 240Karmal, Babrak 233, 234, 237, 239Ke-Win, Yuan 98

Kelway, John 233Kennedy, John 103Khadafy, Muammar 175, 209,213, 219, 220, 222Kielburger, Craig 171Kilgour, David 148Kirsch, Botho 135, 136, 140,146, 148, 199Kirschlager, Rudolf 217KLM 115Klose, Kevin 140Kohl, Helmut 162, 209, 211Kolakowski, Leszek 215Koshits, Helen 12, 14, 148Kostál, Jaroslav 92Kosygin, Aleksey 162, 211Krasso, G. 237Krishnan, Ramesh 235Krupicka, Miroslav 96Kutasi Kovacs, Lajos 222

LLafrance, Sylvain 28, 35, 40, 101Laird, Arthur 121, 125Langer, Justin 239Lara Sumano, Carlos 109Larin, Jean 13, 15, 35, 40, 42,82, 101, 127, 198Larquié, André 146Lastovicka, Bohuslav 90, 91Lavilliers, Bernard 252Leclerc, France 13Legge, Paul 224Lendl, Ivan 239Lendvai, Paul 131Lenin, Vladimir Iliich 218Lévesque, Georges-Henri 31Levin, Abram 230Lincoln, Clifford 39, 40Logan, Donna 102Loginov, Andrey 98Lombard, Nicolas 131, 132Lomeiko, Vladimir 209, 212, 217,218

292 Index of People & Stations

Lopez, Luis 105Lowry, Fiona 129

MMacLachlan, Rory 129Malenfant, Paul Chanel 197Manera, Anthony 25Manguy, Jean-Gabriel 127Manin, Peter 236Markiv, Dmytro 96Marks, Jonathan 146Martin, Gordon 218, 224Martins, Americo 83Massey, Vincent 31Massey-Lévesque Commission 31McBride Commission 15, 51McDougall, Gordon 98, 200McFarlane, Constance 125McLaine, Alan 92, 93McLean, Steve 184McLuhan, Marshall 15, 51Meisel, John 221Mejstrik, Jiri 92, 93Melançon, Sylvie 87Merlin Communications 129Merlin Communications International

129, 132Mestiri, Ahmed 224Miles, Hugh 36Mitterrand, François

217, 218, 220, 239Molnar, Franz 237Montgomery, Marc 196Moore, Henry 192Morgan, James 224Morphy Richard 27024 114Morrison, David 103Mosaic Press 11Moscow, Radio 268Moskvin, Vitaly 228, 229Mugabe, Robert 191, 246, 257Mullane, Michael 124Murphy, John H. 143Mytton, Graham 13, 125, 126,

131, 132, 133, 146, 149, 268

NNabrusko, Viktor 86, 97National Radio Company of Ukraine

81, 85, 86, 97, 98, 186Navratil, Augustin 218Nedelkovici, Bujor 215Nederlandse Omroep Stichting 132Nelson, Michael 12, 36Nemec, Elizabeth 91Nemec, Frantisek 91Ni, Peiwei 39Nieburg, Patrick 148Niinistö, Juhani 130Nitze, Paul 211Noah, Yannick 239Novak 90Nowak-Jezioranski, Jan 139

OOfry, Dan 238Olechowska, Elzbieta

14, 39, 148, 149, 198Oliver, Donald H. 39Olson, Clifford 174Ombudsman 143Oppenheim, Roy 131Oravec, Miroslav 235Order-in-Council 28, 29, 30, 31,33, 77, 85, 139, 152O’Reilly, Robert E. 15, 40, 100,101, 104, 130, 132, 143, 152Osolsobe, Svetlana 92O’Sullivan, Marc 40Ouellet, André 25, 34

PPainter, James 104Palme, Olof 227Panchuk, Bohdan 86Parta, Gene 146Paskievich, John 185Patterson, Tony 224, 227

293Index of People & Stations

Pawliw, Orest 200Pearl, Richard 231, 232Pearl River Economic Station

84, 100, 101Pell, Gene 148Peres, Shimon 162, 209, 214,215, 222, 224Perron, Keith 103Peterson, Susan 40Phelps, Arthur 15Piekarec, Kazimierz 199Pitt, Roman 39Polish Radio 92Potichnyj, Peter J. 97, 185Pravda 136Prince Prince 231Princess Juliana of Holland 78, 85Prominy 97Prusa, Josef 233Puhan, A. 79, 81Purdy, Al 196, 197

QQueen Victoria 217

RRadio 1 98Radio Australia 62, 63, 117, 118,120, 127, 132Radio Beijing 98, 100Radio Berlin International 18Radio Budapest 132Radio Canada International 64, 65Radio Caribbean International 37Radio Chongqing 101Radio Ciudad Habana 103Radio Exterior de España 119, 131Radio France Internationale 18,122, 125, 126, 131, 132, 146,159, 162, 163, 164, 165, 166, 167,170, 172, 187, 191, 195, 198, 199Radio Free Asia 132Radio Free Europe 139Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty

17, 111, 125, 126, 132, 137, 138, 261Radio Guangdong 99, 101Radio Guangdong group 84Radio Guangdong International Music

Festival 100Radio Havana Cuba 103, 104Radio Japan 13, 66, 67,98, 119, 120, 123, 131Radio Korea International 158, 190,198Radio Kyiv 89, 96Radio Méditerranée Internationale 37Radio Monte-Carlo Moyen Orient

20, 37, 158Radio Moscow 89, 119, 131Radio Nederland Wereldomroep 70Radio Netherlands 13, 71, 83, 84,111, 112, 114, 117, 118, 119, 122,123, 124, 126, 128, 130, 131, 132,146, 159, 187, 191, 199Radio Okapi 260Radio Österreich International 132Radio Polonia 158, 171, 198Radio Prague 96, 129, 132,158, 187, 189, 193, 195, 198Radio Progreso 105Radio Rebelde 105Radio Romania International 132Radio Shanghai 101Radio Singapore International 158Radio Slovakia International 132Radio Sweden 13, 115, 116, 122,123, 124, 130, 131, 132, 158, 171Radio Tanpa 84Radio Teheran 209Radio Vaticana 116, 124, 132, 145Radio Veritas Asia 132Radio Vlaanderen International 133Radio Zhejiang 101Rae, Bob 174Rahemtulla, Iqbal 85Raine, Mary 224Rajewski, Volodimir 82, 87Randall, Keith 14

294 Index of People & Stations

Ratushinskaya, Irina 237RCI Action Committee 39RCMP (Royal Canadian Mounted

Police) 82Reagan, Ronald 162, 164, 175,211, 212, 213, 216, 219, 220,221, 222, 231, 236, 237, 240Red Cross 115Reichman, Ota 90Reiss, Jürgen 140, 199Rejhon, George 99Rendell, Anthony 13, 24, 36, 144,145, 149, 197, 199Repa, Jan 218, 227Revesz, L. B. 223Robert, Guy 125Robillard-Frayne, Hélène

13, 125, 198Robitaille, Sylvie 13, 87, 129Roche, Douglas

212, 214, 216, 221, 225Rostropovich, Mstislav 166Rubes, Jan 236Ryzhkov, Nikolai 212

SSaavedra Dahm, Oscar 104Samper, Marianela Salmonte 105Samson, Michel 92SAS 115Saunders, Leslie 14Schmidt, Helmut 225Schmolka, Walter 78, 79, 80, 81,82, 86, 87, 90, 91Seliunin, Vasily 166Sellers, Joy 101, 152, 156, 198Senger, Peter 146Sentech 112Sestre, Michelle 13Shakespeare, Frank 17Shamir, Yitzhak 240Shanghai International Music Festival

100, 101Shanghai Radio 99

Shevardnadze, Eduard A. 215Short, Kenneth R. M. 14, 131,135, 141, 146, 148Shultz, George 228, 230, 232, 237Siegel, Arthur 9, 10, 11,33, 84, 86, 130, 143Simoes, Rogerio 83, 87Simon, Andrew 14, 15, 51, 91,92, 96, 151, 155, 156, 158,167, 168, 177, 179Simon, Paul 235Skelt, Barbara 12Skilling, Gordon H. 16, 78, 86Skvorecký, Josef 95Slavina, A. 229Sliwinski, Marek 13Soviet State Committee on Radio and

Television Broadcasting 89Soyinka, Wole 234Spanswick, Simon 147, 149Spells, Geoff 129Spicer, Keith 25Sseruvagi, Anne 124St-Jacques, Caroline 13St-Laurent, Yves 193, 194, 251Stary, Karel 92Steinhardt, Laurence 91Steinkamp, Bert 13, 114, 120, 121,123, 130, 131, 132, 146, 149Stephens, Oren 148Stone, Leslie 218Suong, Kim-Il 169Susa, Zdenek 93Sutton, Glenn 148Swann, Claudette 132Swiss Radio International 68, 115,116, 118, 123, 124, 130, 131Swissair 115swissinfo 69, 131swissinfo/ Swiss Radio International

132Syndicat des communications de

Radio-Canada 36

295Index of People & Stations

TTaylor, Allyson 12Tétrault, Roger 13, 83, 84, 87,100, 101, 198, 199Thatcher, Margaret 209, 212,214, 221Thayer, Charles 137, 148The Channel

an AIB publication 147The Historical Journal of Radio,

Television and Film 135Théorêt, Gérald 13, 39, 129Thompson, Dennis 129Tijmstra 115Tobin, P. 85Tombes, George 12Townsley, Brian 33Tremblay, Gaétan 146Troyat, Henri 165, 229Trudeau, Pierre Elliott 174Tusa, John 36TV5 133Tymoshenko, Yulia 182Type, Michael 125, 133

UUdell, Peter 93, 199Ukrainian State TV and Radio Com-

mittee 97Urban, Jerzy 210

Vvan Steensel, Maja 85van Ulden, Mieke 39Varga, Sandor 237Vega, Jesús 103Vézina, Monique 221Vitek, Milan 13, 87, 90, 91, 92,93, 139, 148Voice of America 72, 73 et passimVoice of Russia 133, 146, 158Vollert, Frauke 39Voslensky, Mikhail 230

VT Communications 129

WWachholz, Hans 131Waldheim, Kurt 162, 209, 210,217, 224, 225Walesa, Lech 36Wallenberg, Raoul 169Walters, Vernon 218, 224Ward, Frank 12, 148Weiderlich, Raymond 240Weinberger, Caspar W. 163, 219,229Weirich, Dieter 146Wernick, Michael 28Westenhaver, Bill 39Wicks, Doreen 226Wiesel, Elie 165, 229Witherow, David 36Wood, James 12, 129World Radio Network 146, 147WorldDAB 114WorldDMB 114Wright, Elizabeth 130, 132

XXian Radio 100Xiao-Ling, Zhang 100

YYeltsin, Boris 36YLE - Radio Finland 73, 75, 130,158, 171, 173Young, Christopher 240Yurichko, Vasyl 97Yushchenko, Viktor 85Yvon, Anne-Marie 39, 197

ZZaher, HM Muhammad 235Zbik, Wladyslaw 200Zeelia 185Zemla, Miroslav 90Zimmerman, Betty 15, 33, 51,

296 Index of People & Stations

100, 130, 139, 148, 151, 199Zlobina, Valentina 146Zoellner, Oliver 126, 127Zorrilla, José 109