NO LONGER TRANSMITTING THE VOICE OF CANADA

LIGHTNING BLAMED FOR FIRE THAT DESTROYED WOODSTOCK MILL >A3
MONDAY, .JULY 2, 2012
TELEGRAPH.JOURNAL.COM
Sackville's Alf Walker. a former technician at the Radio Canada International's shortwave transmission station. says he is sad to see the facility close.
'Shortwave is the most direct, most accessible form of broadcasting in the international field.' PHOTO: VIKTOR PIVOVAROV/TIMES & TRANSCRIPT
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NO LONGER TRANSMITTING
THE VOICE OF CANADA
Airwaves As CBC Radio closes shortwave transmission
station and seeks buyer for property, Sackville residents
consider potential loss of towers, longtime landmarks
CHRIS MORRIS
LEGISLATURE BUREAU
The CBC's shortwave transmission station near Sackville has
been a New Brunswick landmark
for nearly seven decades, serving
as an almost other-worldly sentinel on the windswept Tantramar
Marshes.
The soaring towers, the spiderweb of cable antennas and the
buildings perched on the marsh
at the edge of the Trans-Canada
Highway have been transmitting
the voice of Canada to the world
since 1945.
But the days of the Sackville
transmission station appear numbered now that Radio Canada
International has ceased its shortwave broadcasts and the CBC is
in the process of trying to unload
the facility, either through selling
it, or, if there are no takers, tearing
it down.
Some people living in and
around Sackville are unhappy
at the prospect of losing the towers, which have been part of the
landscape of their lives for so
many years.
"I am sad;' Alf Walker of Sackville, a former technician at the
RCI station, said in an interview.
"I don't totally agree with the
CBC's decision to close this facility ... Shortwave is the most direct,
most accessible form of broadcasting in the international field.
You can buy a very inexpensive
radio, put a couple of batteries in
it, and listen to broadcasts from
a number of different countries
PLEASE SEE - t RADIO, A2
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'It is a landmark, both during the daytime and at night:' retired RCI worker
RADIO f- AI
anywhere in the world, including Radio
Canada International?'
Sackville Mayor Bob Berry, who has
lived in the community all of his life, said
he still remembers the sign that used to be
perched next to the station, on the side of
the highway: "Canada speaks to the world
from here?'
"Without those towers on the skyline, it
wouldn't quite be the Tantramar Marshes
as far as I'm concerned;' Berry said in an
interview.
'
"When you're driving and you spot the
station, it's like a beacon telling you that
you're close to home. The fact is I grew up
with them, and I will miss them?'
Berry said he has known many of the
people who worked at the station over
the years, including one friend, now deceased, who used to have to change the
light bulbs at the top of the towers, some
of them reaching more than 120 metres
into the air.
"He told me would go out on a little
CM K . i*J
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hanging cart, or a seat, strung on a cable
between the towers to change the light
bulbS:' Berry said with a laugh.
"He used to tell me how far they would
sway in the wind- they have to move or
they would snap off.'
Walker, who retired from the station in
2001 after 30 years, said four of the 13 towers at the station date back to the 1940s.
"The rest of them were installed after
1970;'he said, adding that he was involved
in the modernization and expansion of
the station at that time.
"It is a landmark, both during the daytime and at night:'
The CBC is defending its decision to
cease shortwave broadcasting by insisting
that the medium is dying around the
world.
"Our decision to put an end to this way
of broadcasting is consistent with a worldwide trend, as the evolution of technologies such as the Internet, cellular phone
and others prove more convenient to reflect Canada and Canadians around the
world;' the corporation said in a recent
statement.
proceed with the dismantling of the facilMartin Marcotte, director of CBC Trans- ity?'
mission, ~aid in an interview the corporaThe station will remain open until Octotion is looking at several options for the ber, Marcotte said. In addition to transmitSackville station.
ting Canadian shows to the world, it also
He said the preferred option would be · serves as a relay for broadcasts from other
to sell the station intact to a private short- countries into North America.
wave operator. But he said that is probHe said there are several contracts to fulably the most unlikely option.
fill before the relay service can end.
"It will be a challenge to find a buyer of
There is opposition to the CBC's decision
that sort because shortwave has been on to end the shortwave broadcasts.
the decl.ifle for several years around the
In an emotional final broadcast last
world;' Marcotte said.
week, RCI host Marc Montgomery broke
"Nevertheless, there are still companies down on the air as he said "goodbye to 67
that operate shortwave facilities and there yearsofradio?' ·
"There's no denying the importance of
are a few international brokers of shortwave time. We will be talking to some of the internet;' he said on air. "There's also
those companies to see if there is any in- no denying that it can be and is regularly
terest in acquiring the facility?'
blocked by authoritarian regimes. ShortMarcotte said there's a wind farm wn- wave broadcasts, on the other hand, alstructed recently on another section of most always get through to people hunsalt marsh near Amherst, N.S. He said that gry for information?'
kind of operation may be attracted to the
Conservative Senator Hugh Segal said
22(}-acre station site near Sackville.
he wants a special Senate inquiry into the
"Finally, if we cannot find some sort of CBC decision to eliminate the shortwave
alternative use, only then will we have to service.
"It is going to take the Canadian message out of the international marketplace;' Segal said.
Sheldon Harvey, president of the Canadian International DX Club, and a longtime shortwave enthusiast, said he supports Segal's move, although he said a
Senate inquiry may not go far enough.
Harvey said he wants the federal government to impose a moratorium on elimination of the shortwave service.
However, he said pressure on Ottawa
for a moratorium has to come from Canadians, and he admits that will be hard to
muster for a service most people in this
country know little, if anything, about.
"It is going to be the people who tick
their names on ballots in voting booths
who are going to make a difference;' Harveysaid.
"Those are the people who have to
stand up and I don't know how to reach
those people in the masses to make them
understand what this is and why it needs
to be there and how it will be different
when it's not:'