John Gushue . . . Dot Dot Dot

The lockout, a year on

Hard to believe, but the CBC lockout began a year ago. I recall waking up early that Monday morning to check on things, and before my computer had even finished booting up, I knew something was off: the early-morning schedule was not following normal suit, in that the usual breakaway from overnight programming that precedes the Morning Show did not kick in.

Sigh.

Actually, a lot of sighs, eight weeks' worth. It ended, and though I blogged a lot about the lockout (mostly something of a clipping service, to be frank) I don't think about it much these days, which is probably good for mental health.

On the up side, I got to know many of my coworkers quite well. That's all of us above, in a shot that Greg Locke took at Cape Spear, to mark the end of the lockout. (That's me raising my arm, at the upper middle.)

I don't blog much about the CBC, either, but I was involved in a discussion the last few weeks that led to this: the CBC Blogging Manifesto. (It's nowhere near as staid as it sounds.) The idea was sparked by Ouimet, the anonymous manager-blogger who is still posting, usually hilariously. A number of other of us have signed on; basically, it's a set of guidelines on how CBC employees should blog. What I've told my colleagues (and supervisors, especially) can be boiled down to this: I don't write anything on the blog that I wouldn't say on the air.

In the meantime, Guy Dixon has this article about the manifesto et al. in today's Globe.

UPDATE (5:45 p.m.): Antonia Zerbisias has this post on her blog today.

ANOTHER UPDATE (5:45 p.m.): My friend Mike and I went out for a break on the sidewalk on Duckworth Street this afternoon. I have to say, it was nice to go back in the building when we wanted.

A lockout legacy

A report out today from Statistics Canada demonstrated what many of us involved in last year's CBC lockout knew: audiences were tuning out. The StatsCan survey on radio listening habits was conducted during much of the period of the lockout, which ended in October. More details are here in today's Daily. A CanWest service report is here. (Incidentally, all of the posts I made during the lockout are still online, through this index. Some of the blogs that flourished through the lockout, though, are gone, which explains the dead links.)

Dear lockout readers

I'm creating this post because I still receive a fair number of visitors each day to the lockout index on this blog ... which is certainly fine. (The index is linked from a variety of other sites.)

If you're one of those readers landing here, welcome. However, I haven't been posting much about the CBC lockout lately, and indeed don't expect to be saying much in anything about it again.

However, feel free to poke around the blog, which is updated regularly. On the upper-right corner, you'll find the latest posts to Dot Dot Dot - click on any that suit your fancy. Among other things, I write a lot about journalism, websites, books, television and a whole bunch of things that are excellent ways to waste your time.

Thanks for coming by. Don't be a stranger.

Ouimet breaks off

Ouimet, the anonymous manager-blogger responsible for the must-read Tea Makers site during the lockout, is going to be taking a break ... sort of. As for the great guessing game, she (we're assuming O's a she) says ...

A lot of people are really curious about my identity, I know. They want to know what department I'm in, or where I fit into the food chain, if they have seen my face crossing the line, if I am made by a committee, or if I am even real. But if you read this all over again it’s obvious that I am real. I was always real, and all you ever got was me trying to tell it straight.

Because the truth is that I could be anybody.

That was the whole point.

Live, from Winnipeg ...

From Locked Out Employee ...

This is the crew in Winnipeg, after voting to ratify their new contract. Nice shot. In St. John's, we're meeting (and voting) today.

[They actually got the idea for this shot after seeing the group shot on this blog of all the folks gathered together on Tuesday morning in Cape Spear. Around in circles ...)

Last of the lockout roundups

Today - Thursday, Oct. 6 - is technically the last day of the CBC lockout. That, of course, assumes ratification of the new contract, voting of which actually continues through Sunday. However, some of the locked-out employees have already been called back in to work as of Friday, although most won't be called back until this coming Tuesday.

This is the last of the roundups of news reports, etc., that I have been filing since the lockout started Aug. 15. It includes some material from the last couple of days, as I've been busy doing some other things (mowing my lawn, realizing the lengthy list of "to do" items is going to remain largely undone next week).

In the papers of late ...

Guy Dixon of the Globe and Mail reports today on some of the mechanics of getting CBC programming back on the air.

But the task of returning the CBC to normal won't be a matter of staff simply going back to work and flipping a switch. Regular programming will take a while to resume, insiders say. The general aim is to have The National back on the air Tuesday or Wednesday with Peter Mansbridge anchoring, although there was no firm confirmation of this yesterday, according to spokesman Jason MacDonald.

CBC Radio's local programming won't return immediately. On Tuesday, Radio One's morning show will be a national broadcast from Montreal, while the afternoon drive-time show will also be national, originating from Toronto. Regular local programming is expected to resume in some cities by Wednesday, with CBC Radio across the rest of the country returning to normal possibly by next Thursday, Mr. MacDonald said.

A Toronto Star report on Wednesday reported that new CBC chair Guy Fournier publicly disagrees with CBC president Robert Rabinovitch's lockout strategy. Fournier gave the interview to the Star shortly after his confirmation hearing before a parliamentary hearing. Excerpts:

Fournier said he doesn't remember all of the details of the meeting, although he came away with the sense that CBC management favoured the lockout option because of concern that the Guild, which already had an overwhelming strike mandate, would go out on the eve of hockey season.

"But it wasn't clear," said Fournier. "What is certain is that there was no meeting in between that time and the lockout, either by telephone or in person, in which management said, `We favour a lockout. What is your opinion?'

"I feel that we should have had at least a conference call before going to a lockout," said Fournier, adding he has made his views known to Frulla.

The article also quotes Heritage Minister Liza Frulla, who has asked for legal advice on whether her office ought to have been informed in advance of the lockout.

Yesterday, Frulla said: "My intention is to review the rules governing the CBC and, if the rules permit me to sit down with the board, I will do so ... I want to know their vision for 2005 — and beyond."

Meanwhile, the Friends of Canadian Broadcasting lobby group has been pressing for new rules in how the president of the CBC is appointed. Here's a link to its news release.

A Graham Fraser report in the Star today follows up on the Fournier-Rabinovitch issue with some political analysis, including chatter on Parliament Hill:

Conservative MP Monte Solberg suggested that the disagreement between Rabinovitch and Fournier was a reflection of a broader problem.

"It will probably require some analysis, and people will have to say `We didn't do this very well, we're going to have to have another look at how we do these things in the future,'" Solberg said.

The Globe's Jeffrey Simpson wrote on Wednesday about politicians who spoke up in favour of expediently restoring CBC programming during the lockout. Simpsons notes politicians have raised funding levels to other Crown departments and agencies, but not the CBC. He does not expect much change in the future:

Would those same throaty politicians now demanding heads on pikes accept a smaller audience in exchange for elevated programming, and be ready as a consequence to substitute more public monies for the foregone private ones?

They have not in the past. Therefore, as they prepare to huff and puff through a lockout post-mortem, they should be asked: Would you commit money in the future?

Globe colleague Kate Taylor pondered Wednesday who won what in the lockout. Some excerpts from her column:

With Liberal MPs baying for Robert Rabinovitch's blood while Toronto morning man Andy Barrie was joyfully slumming it on campus radio, it's not hard to say who won the PR war during the CBC lockout. Hands down, that would be the Canadian Media Guild and the 5,500 broadcasters and technicians it represents. What's more tricky is to determine who got the better deal in the agreement in principle that the two sides hammered out last weekend and that, if ratified by the union members this weekend, will finally end the eight-week lockout. ...

What is new is the agreement to allow a set ratio of contract workers to permanent staff -- and that gives management not just a foot in the door but a leg in the front hall. ...

The truth is that management has done such a feeble job of explaining why they needed the "flexibility" that more contract workers would bring them, it is impossible to judge whether or not they should be happy with the mere 75 or 80 extra contract workers that the 9.5-per-cent cap will currently permit. To outside observers, it looks like a paltry number to have achieved at the expense of a labour disruption that has done as-yet-uncalculated damage to the CBC's relationship with Canadians. Pressed to make their case during the lockout, CBC managers could never cite a single example of a television or radio show where the preponderance of permanent staffers meant they couldn't make the hires they needed. Their argument was entirely hypothetical: In an ever-changing, fast-paced and highly competitive media environment, they argued, they needed to be able hire people for short-term jobs.

'More clout than the average fan'

Chip Martin of the London Free Press reported Wednesday on Labour Minister Joe Fontana, who represents the city in parliament. Fontana conspicuously uses hockey metaphors to describe his role in helping to bring about a resolution to the lockout:

"It was getting down to the overtime period," Fontana said yesterday of the seven- week lockout of 5,000 CBC employees.

"It wasn't going anywhere when I called both sides into the dressing room, my office," he said. "I read them the riot act and told them they needed to put their own personal agendas aside and think of the bigger picture and the public interest."

Editorial symposium

The Toronto Star includes a synopsis of editorials that have appeared across the country about the return of CBC programming. Here's an example:

Montreal Gazette: The CBC is a dinosaur, grazing placidly at the public trough, smugly unaware of the giant meteor of change racing across the media sky. By paying the price in lost audience without winning any real concessions from its high-priced unions, management accepts a return to business as usual. That means the CBC resumes living on borrowed time in this world of pod-casts (sic), satellite radio and general media fragmentation.

[Ed. note: CBC actually launched the first media-based podcast; if the lockout showed anything, employees are keen to dive into the new-media pool.]

Karl's letter, and another view

Karl Wells of CBC Television wrote a response to a column published last Friday in the St. John's Telegram by Brian Jones, the paper's Sunday editor. (Click here for the roundup that clipped the column.) Karl's letter appeared Wednesday on the editorial page. I'm afraid I can't excerpt it - it's not online, and the front section of my copy of the paper has gone wherever five-year-old children put things. The Telegram also published a letter from a Paradise resident who supported Jones' position, and said he disliked CBC Television's coverage locally.

Skewing young, skewering listeners

The Star also publishes a letter from listener Zelda R. Harris of Toronto about CBC Radio's recent programming changes:

I was so pleased to read professor Michael Deturbide's article and I agree wholeheartedly with all his comments. If CBC thinks this kind of puerile programming will entice the young to CBC radio let them think again. We seniors (I am 81 and a retired professor) have been very upset by the "new" type of programming — and have been listening elsewhere. After being a loyal fan of CBC for 60 plus years , I am saddened by my loss. However, the thought that Andy Barrie will soon start my day off again fills me with a tiny bit of hope for the future of that once valuable organization.

Here's a link to the Michael Deturbide op-ed referenced in the above letter. It was published Tuesday. An excerpt:

I don't know why CBC programmers decided to fix what wasn't broken, but I can guess, having sat on the boards of arts organizations that were determined to make their offerings more relevant to young people.

The argument goes something like this: Young people are our future. We need them as our audience, or we risk stagnation. Invariably, the result of this woolly thinking is a less intelligent product that fails to attract a younger demographic and disaffects loyal audiences.

Will audiences return to the CBC? The Toronto Star queried readers; here are some responses.

That's -30-

That's it for the lockout roundups. Thanks for reading. The directory of lockout-related material is here.

As the blogs sign off ...

Ever been in a nightclub at the end of the night when the lights go up? Not always a pretty site. The crowds have gone home, there's a lot of yawning, there's debris on the floor, and a few stragglers are refusing to go home.

That's one of the feelings I've had this week, as the lockout blogs sign off and the locked-out get ready for what we assume will be a return to work. (My bet is that normal programming will return next Wednesday.)

I will be keeping Dot Dot Dot running, of course. I started it in the summer of 2004 as a hobby; over the last two months, the lockout consumed my life, and as a consequence this site was consumed with it, too.

I won't be writing about the lockout much longer, though. I'm looking forward to writing about my usual interests: technology, journalism ('craft singles,' I like to call them, to the confusion of the occasional reader), websites, pop culture, Newfoundland - whatever catches my fancy. (To get a sense of what I mean, click here to see posts from July.) And, as always, I will not be writing about matters of policy or things that involve my work. I held my powder fairly dry about my own opinions about the lockout, too, for the same reasons that I refuse to write about my work-related opinions.

We built a community

One of the reasons why blogs were a phenomenon during the lockout is that we built a community. We linked to each other (and I think we liked each other, too). Traffic mounted continually, and how. My bandwidth has almost burst; I've subscribed to the maximum amount I can buy from TypePad; after four days  this month, I've used up almost 40 per cent of my limit.

Robin Rowland is thinking about a "reunion" - a real one - of the bloggers for later this fall, in Toronto. I'll be there, as will others. It will be nice (and kind of weird) to have a conversation that doesn't involve e-mail, blog postings and comments.

I have to correct a common misapprehension. I've read and heard a lot that the blogs were a clever way for the Guild to run things during this dispute. With all due respect to the Guild, the blogs started independently, and often spontaneously. The union had its message to massage, and we had our own interests. Sometimes they didn't jibe. But I do think that if there were misapprehensions about what we were doing, they disappeared ... the blogs filled an information vacuum that comes with a labour dispute. Within a few weeks, I collected thank-you notes from Guild folk across the country.

I think we all learned one thing: information is a necessity. My wife called my blog a "metablog," meaning I linked heavily to what was being said out there - in newspapers, columns, blogs, etc. I got grief occasionally (four times, to be precise, including one threat to cause me personal harm) for reporting what CBC management said, but I dismiss these anonymous dopes for what they are. Most everyone appreciates that in a time of upheaval, knowledge really is power.

Where now?

This experience taught us all about the power and immediacy of blogging. I think there will be ripple effects - and good ones - once we go inside. As I told an Online News colleague of mine in Toronto yesterday, there is a huge awareness now among our colleagues about the potential (and place) of digital media. Online News is a small cousin in the CBC family, but we're growing. I'm really optimistic about what lies ahead in the months and years to come.

As for the lockout blogs ...

Tod Maffin has unplugged Unplugged. Can you blame him? Todd built CBC Unplugged from scratch, and kept it running through force of will - and a commitment that belies not only what he's made of, but why a great many CBC employees were determined to get through the last seven weeks. Just read the comments section (there are a handful so far, but they'll multiply in number, I'm sure) to get a sense of what Tod has meant to people.

Tod and I have yet to meet in person, but he's an impressive fellow and a good person to chat with by e-mail. I look forward to buying him a beverage some day.

Meanwhile, as for his plans:

As for me, long before the lockout began, I went on a sabbatical of sorts from CBC (I was always on "freelance fixed-term" so it's sort of a long unpaid vacation). I'll continue to do some work here and there, like my technology column and hopefully some guest-hosting (As It Happens producers: I'm available!! ). ...

My goal is to return to CBC Radio in a permanent, full-time job next September, either as a radio producer, host, or somehow involved in recruiting/training new voices.

Someone in CBC, please read that last graf, and make something happen. Find a meaningful role for this guy. (In meantime, Tod's long-running I Love Radio blog is going to continue.)

Hanging up shingles ...

Tessa Sproule, a colleague of mine in the online world (she works for Marketplace's web site), is walking away from her blog. She writes of the peculiar strangeness of a looming ratification ...

It will be even stranger when we step through the doors and enter the building for the first time in two months. We’ll head back to our desks, dust off our keyboards, check on the plants, and wrack our brains for long-forgotten passwords.

Ah, yes, those passwords. This is no joke! I was a good boy and didn't put my passwords (I use quite a few at work) anywhere but in my brain.

CBC Worker Bee has signed off ... and revealed his secret identity, a la Clark Kent: He is Joe Mahoney, who has recorded many of the radio arts & entertainment shows audiences have enjoyed.

Robin Rowland is also going back to normal mode. Hello, Creative Guide to Research.

CBC Drone will be packing it in, after all. (He notes the new collective agreement advises against negative blogging.)

Shoot Both Sides, an anonymous blogger who was as interested in keeping the Canadian Media Guild as accountable as the CBC, has also signed off. 

Justin Beach, though, is sticking around - with plans for a new site about public broadcasting. Stay tuned.

Darryl MacLeod in Halifax is going to stick with the blog thing, but will shift focus. He won't be missing the lockout cookouts.

Yep, a big wind-down all-round. Heck, even Pedro is having a retirement party.

Pictures of a benefit

This is Neil Bishop, a well-known musician for several decades in Newfoundland music. He has also lived much of his adult life in Stephenville, and he performed a wicked acoustic set with Scott Goudie Monday night at the Step Out for Stephenville benefit. That evening raised $15,000 for the Canadian Red Cross appeal for Stephenville flooding victims; Neil played wonderful music, but his words - about the losses that his neighbours have endured, losses that can never be replaced - were haunting and unforgettable.

Ken Cave took this image. A whole gallery of shots are online in a gallery at the St. John's CMG page.

You might also want to look at some pictures Sue Campbell took for the Shelagh Rogers Caravan site of the benefit, as well as this post Shelagh wrote of her visit to Stephenville several days before.

Getting back to normal ...

CBC Unlocked - which, like picket lines across the country, is poised to wind down - reports that CBC employees will begin voting Thursday on a new contract.

There's still no word on when the workers will return to their jobs delivering radio, television and online programming, although betting is high that people working on Hockey Night in Canada will be back right away.

A formal return-to-work protocol should be completed by the end of Tuesday, the union says.

CBC has insisted that it would begin its schedule of Hockey Night in Canada broadcasts on Saturday, regardless of the status of the lockout. However, it has made many signals it would prefer to have all the bells and whistles - and Coach's Corner - in place.

Holding a vote in all locations will be a little tricky; the deal will need to be explained by CMG representatives. It appears likely that many locations (possibly including St. John's) will vote Friday.

Getting the rest of programming back on the air will take a while longer than getting Hockey Night in Canada up on the air. Complicating things is the fact that Monday is the Thanksgiving holiday. As well, newsrooms will need some lead time to gather material for broadcast.

In the news ...

The Globe and Mail reports that MPs are still furious with CBC president Robert Rabinovitch, although less so than before a tentative deal was reached. Excerpts:

"Explain to me why the lockout was necessary," said Gatineau, Que. MP Françoise Boivin, a former management-side labour lawyer.

"If you have the right motivation for asking for certain things and you're really willing to negotiate, why do you need such drastic measures?"

'Time has run out' for Rabinovitch: editorial

The Globe's editorial poses tough questions to Rabinovitch, while also being critical of the Canadian Media Guild itself. It opens:

Time has run out for CBC president Robert Rabinovitch. His failure to communicate a strategic reason for the seven-week-long lockout and to paint a compelling picture of the CBC's future have left him badly positioned. Now that the dispute appears finally to be over, Mr. Rabinovitch has some explaining to do. What was he trying to achieve by precipitating this bitter confrontation with the CBC union? What, if anything, has been gained by it? And where does he intend to take the public broadcaster now that it is over?

In Ottawa, where his shareholders reside, he is a man bereft of supporters. His relationship with the Heritage Minister isn't great. In the Prime Minister's Office, where they think of him as the creation of leading political aide Eddie Goldenberg, a guy who used to play defence for the Chrétien Liberals, he is even more isolated.

A National Post editorial, on the other hand, says Rabinovitch should hold firm:

But the Corporation no longer needs to be all things to all Canadians. Mr. Rabinovitch does not deserve to lose his job over this fall's work stoppage. If anything good comes of the work stoppage it should be that he becomes emboldened to tackle the biggest issue of all: the ongoing purpose and direction of the organization.

Back in the Globe (lot there today), Guy Dixon - who covered the lockout extensively - poses the question, Which lost more: radio or TV?:

Still, there's a lingering sense out there, even within the CBC itself, that radio was doing well and that most of the lockout (with all the debates over contractual versus permanent workers and even the larger relevance of the CBC) had more to do with TV than radio. The CBC morning radio show in Ottawa, for instance, has consistently been top-rated, and Toronto's Metro Morning had shot up to Number One before the lockout. Now radio will have to work to regain that audience.

On the business end o' things ...

Rick Westhead reports in the Toronto Star on the fallout for CBC Television's revenues:

Since the impasse was resolved before the start of the National Hockey League's regular season, the broadcaster, still smarting from the loss of millions of advertising dollars because of the cancellation of last year's NHL season, will probably sidestep any serious financial fallout, marketing executives say.

The end of the line

These photographs were taken this morning at Cape Spear, the most easterly point in North America. Shelagh Rogers - who started a cross-country caravan in Victoria at the end of August - completed her journey to St. John's in early October, coincidentally just as an agreement-in-principle was struck.

Rogers vowed to cross the country as long as the lockout dragged on.

While we were thrilled Shelagh - who was accompanied by producer Sue Campbell - was able to come for a visit, it's sad that the lockout indeed lasted long enough for the caravan to actually make it this far east.

Shelagh told me this morning what the last month has been like; definitely an incredible way to see Canada. I suggested she put a book together, and I'm not kidding.

These photographs are copyright of St. John's photographer Greg Locke, and are used with his permission. (And now, go check out his blog.)

Feel free to click on the images to see larger versions.