For my part of the world, the segmets air at 11 a.m. EST.

If you live in the Greater Toronto Area and are available on the evening of September 15th, act fast to register (no charge) for a chance to hear Ira Basen in person. I’ll be there!

(Registration only went online on Tuesday and spaces are already more than 50 per cent gone. Don’t delay!)

(Share = The listening hours attributed to an individual station expressed as a percentage of all radio listening hours during that time block. )

Depending on the market size across the country those numbers aren’t bad. Radio ratings aren’t quite like TV Neilson rating where you do instant polling, and for the CBC that would be pretty cost prohibitive anyway, so you’ll never really know the numbers for Ira Basen’s shows.

As for the signal problem it is more common that you’d imagine. Are you in a location that has Radio One on FM as well as AM ? The AM signal can really be jerked around by buildings and local interference. The FM signal can generally get around that. In Calgary for instance the AM signal become problematic to the point they eventually added an FM version of the signal as well.

In the world of communication and equal access to all and for all you’ve illustrated a point. Not everyone has $2,000 worth of computer equipment or necessarily the bandwith to stream audio or video. Yet in a heartbeat we tell ‘em to go there to get it.

BTW I was with CBC as a Producer and Program Manager for a number of years–hence the numbers….

Mike

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Re: your comment, you’re welcome for the link, Brian. As Ira Basen has been kind enough to feed me information over the past year on how this show was progressing, I was increasingly thinking how useful and interesting it would be.

No, I don’t work for the CBC, so I have no idea how many people listened to the live show or will access the archived audio version. But, unlike you, I believe that CBC Radio still has a very strong audience base, both nationally and internationally–particularly through its podcasts. I know that CBC Radio is often running in my home, because I continue to find its programs of the highest journalistic calibre and interest.

Here’s a suggestion: why not contact the CBC’s Audience Relations division and ask for numbers? At that time you can also indicate that you have problems receiving the signal on your conventional radios. I suspect it’s a problem isolated to your geographical area. Certainly my signal is very clear and strong.

Cheers,
Judy

The Star and The Globe and Mail have both recently run stories about awards they have won.

The Star recently ran a story about why it refuses some awards, when these are presented by organizations the newspaper covers.

Judy, thanks for the link to the show.

After I failed to get two radios to work on the CBC, we managed to turn on the computer, and used a $2000 device to listen to a radio program.

Good show.

Any idea how many people were listening today, and how many more will listen over the next month of so?

BAK

And indeed I have almost as many years in at the CBC as Ira, but I left in late 2005 to go over to the dark side of PR and communications.

In light of the discussion about the nature of the so-called “news” aspect of public relations needing to change, I draw your attention to an article published in yesterday’s Toronto Star:

Drug ‘reports’ found to be faked
by Stuart Laidlaw, Faith and Ethics Reporter
June 22, 2009

Firms misrepresented some research results, slew of cases suggest

From the creation of fake academic journals, to bogus stories submitted to real journals, to falsified results in some of academia’s most respected publications – the pharmaceutical industry has been rocked by allegations that the world’s biggest drug companies put public relations above public safety. [bolding is mine]

As consumer advocate Peter Lurie put it recently: “I’ve seen no shortage of creativity emanating from the marketing departments of drug companies.”

(Of course this article also dovetails nicely with my other, rather active post, about a new definition for public relations.)