All posts by Raymond Tomlin

About Raymond Tomlin

Raymond Tomlin is a veteran journalist and educator who has written frequently on the political realm — municipal, provincial and federal — as well as on cinema, mainstream popular culture, the arts, and technology.

Vancouver Radio Ratings, Spring 2009. A Sea Change.

Radio, Vancouver

Vancouver Spring 2009 radio ratings

The Vancouver 2009 Winter radio ratings were published this morning, and the news is huge! For the first time ever, Canada’s public broadcaster, the CBC, has emerged as the top-rated radio station in the market, besting long-time market leader CKNW by almost a full percentage point. Only four short years ago, in 2005, CBC Radio One scored a paltry 5 percentage points, behind eight other stations. Now, CBC Vancouver is number one!
Tom Monaghan, VP media director of Vancouver-based advertising agency Cossette Media told the Globe and Mail’s Fiona Morrow that recent developments in the city’s radio scene had made an impact on the figures, noting the arrival of The Peak and some re-branding among other stations.

“It’s a balancing out of the marketplace,” he told Morrow. “And, to be honest with you, it’s CKNW’s audience that has declined – it’s not that we’re seeing a dramatic increase with the CBC, and it’s a relatively small increase anyway.”


Taking a look at the ratings above (click on the graphic at the top for the fullscreen graph), apart from the local CBC radio outlet, AM650 (formerly CISL) emerges as the other big winner, tripling their ratings in the past year with a move to the low-key “All Time Favourites” format, a format they assumed when Jimmy Pattison’s AM600 went dark in the autumn of 2008.
In the morning slot, 6 – 9 a.m., CBC Radio One pulled in an unprecedented 16.9, with JACK a distant second at 9.4, and the other morning shows emerging as also-rans, averaging 5.1 (the Team) to 7.7 (QM-FM). News1130 registered 9.0 in the morning, with Rock 101 and Virgin tied at 6.4, CKNW dipped to 6.1, JR-FM held steady at 5.7, with Virgin and CFOX tied at 5.3. CFUN, AM730, CISL and The Peak are the bottom dwellers (1 point each). CKCL, 104.9 (oldies), remains stuck at 3 percentage points.
Otherwise, for the most part, the 2009 Winter radio ratings book is stand pat. One supposes that the Team 1040 (CKST) has reason to celebrate (as the Canucks do well, so does the Team), reaching 4.0 for the first time. And Jimmy Pattison can’t exactly be thrilled with a rating of 1.0 for The Peak, his new triple-A radio station (can’t sell many ads with a 1.0 rating).
PugetSoundRadio has published a further demographic breakdown of the numbers, which shows perennial favourite 103.5 QM-FM and 96.9 JACK-FM in the lead 25 – 54, and CHQM out in way out in front with women 25 – 54.
The folks at RadioWest (from whom we appropriated the graphic) have also begun to weigh in on the Winter 2009 radio ratings book, the commentary in the early going focusing on the “erosion of the once Giant 98.”
With the portable people meter coming to Vancouver as early as this fall, to record local radio ratings, we’ll see what effect, if any, the new technology has on recording radio listening preferences on the Lower Mainland.

A Fever Dream or Wishful Thinking: The Fate of the BC Liberals

BC Politics

OUTCOME OF THE 2009 BC PROVINCIAL ELECTION

With a provincial election just around the corner (May 12), and the pollsters reporting a current BC Liberal government lead of 16-points in public confidence, the results of the upcoming election would seem to be a forgone conclusion.
Still and all, given that it’s BC politics we’re talking about here, and with just shy of two months to go before the election, an accurate prediction as to the outcome is, really, anyone’s guess.
With the above in mind, there’s one person who seems to know what the future has in store for British Columbians, at least as far as the political scene is concerned. Going way out on a limb, savvy astrologer Lasha Seniuk writes in this week’s issue of the Georgia Straight …

Gordon Campbell’s astrological chart reveals him to be a cunning negotiator who works tirelessly to achieve his goals. While publicly congenial, privately he is capable of unusual political methods. Campbell is, however, a skilled and passionate leader. Astrologically, he will be the victor in the upcoming election. But not by much and not for long.
Carole James, a resourceful and shrewd politician, will also be a permanent fixture in British Columbia politics. After the election, she will use her hard-won street smarts, energetic appeal, and social altruism to challenge Campbell’s slender power advantage. Within three months, her influence will be undeniable.
By mid August, a financial controversy or political mutiny from Campbell’s back benches will trigger a crisis of leadership. The fight will be fierce, dramatic, and painfully public. Before the end of December, James and the New Democrats will win leadership of the house.


So, is it possible that the May 12th provincial election will be that close? Will Gordon Campbell and his merry band of corporate capitalists emerge victorious in a third consecutive provincial election, only to lose it all this summer, only six months away from his cherished 2010 Winter Olympics?

Insatiable Olympic Budget Puts Paid To All-Day Kindergarten In BC
by Noel Herron, retired school principal / former Vancouver school trustee

Politics

noel-feb-19-09.jpg

If anyone doubts the imminent demise of the emergence of a province-wide all-day kindergarten programme in BC in the near future, think again.
The emergence of an apparently insatiable Olympic appetite for taxpayer money coupled with the recent release of several bogus Olympic budgets, points to not just a postponement but the demise of key education initiatives, among them universal all-day kindergarten.
To think otherwise flies in the face of reality.
It’s not just the rushed January convening of a special session of the BC provincial legislature to bail out the billion dollar Olympic Village boondoggle, but the upcoming gathering storm around the hidden Olympic security budget that could top a billion dollars, eliminating any pretense of the availability of funds from Victoria for essential early childhood programmes.
Ironically, the Vancouver Olympic Committee and the International Olympic Committee have excluded the highly regarded humanitarian organization Right to Play from operating from the Vancouver Olympic Village site as it has in previous Olympics. Right to Play uses sports and play programmes to improve health, develop life skills and foster peace for children and communities in some of the world’s most disadvantaged countries.
On top of the Olympic Village’s potentially heavy debt, the exclusion of Right to Play further tarnishes the iconic status of this controversial site.
However, it was the late January front-page analysis by the Vancouver Sun pegging the overall Olympic debt at a massive $6 billion (and counting!), that puts paid to any remaining hope for the implementation of universal all-day kindergarten in all of BC’s 59 school districts in the near future.
Shamefully, it has now emerged that both Canadian and BC taxpayers have been either hoodwinked or lied to — in this case, both — by politicians at all levels (municipal, provincial, and federal) in the lead up to next year’s much ballyhooed Olympic sports extravaganza.
For the past three years provincial politicians have shamelessly promised action on the early childhood file. There has been no let up on the hype and spin from the Ministry of Education on this topic.
Parents were told we would have “great early childhood programmes in BC. Make no mistake: they will be some of the best in Canada.” The provincial government pleaded that it needed a little more time to “get it right,” and then, as our education minister boasted, “we are going to lead the way!”
The BC Liberals’ 2007 speech from the throne belatedly conceded that “currently approximately 25% of children (in BC) are not ready to learn when they enter kindergarten.”
Vague and over-the-top promises followed this speech, such as BC Education Minister Shirley Bond’s assertion that by the year 2012, BC will have, “pre-kindergarten classes for 3-year-olds” when at the same time the prospects for all-day kindergarten for 5-year-olds, as the minister well knew, were rapidly disappearing over BC’s financial horizon.
However, that did not prevent Bond from claiming that currently, “BC leads the country in early childhood education” when in reality, according to most analysts, BC is close to being dead last.

Continue reading Insatiable Olympic Budget Puts Paid To All-Day Kindergarten In BC
by Noel Herron, retired school principal / former Vancouver school trustee →

Daniel Northcott’s Sketches for Roam, One Night: Feb. 15 2009

VanRamblings


DAN NORTHCOTT'S 'SKETCHES FOR ROAM'

Click on the poster above for more information on the début of Daniel Northcott’s new film
Sketches for Roam
A New Film by Daniel Northcott
A Benefit, Proceeds to the VGH & UBC Hospital Foundation with funds being designated to The Diana Krall Leukemia & BMT Centre

Date: February 15, 2009
Time: Doors open a half-hour in advance of each screening
Three Exclusive Screenings / 4:30 p.m., 7 p.m. and 9:30 p.m.
Venue: District 319, 319 Main Street, Vancouver (across from police station)
Admission: $30 advance, or $38 for entrance and donation
Advance Tickets: Information @ www.thezerohundredblock.com

On Sunday, February 15, 2009, filmmaker Daniel Northcott will début his new film, Sketches for Roam (here’s an excerpt of the film), at District 319, a state-of-the-art multimedia facility located in Vancouver’s urban core.

A courageous self-portrait of Northcott’s battle with acute myeloid leukemia, and a study of a personal crisis that offers testament to the need to persevere, Sketches for Roam offers the viewer a subjective, elegiac memoir, & a richly rewarding evocation of the filmmaker’s past and present.

At times harrowing, but more a rapturously moving and a gently melancholic visual poem, Sketches for Roam presents a kaleidoscopic odyssey across four continents that is lushly textured, illuminating, heartfelt, brashly emotional, and an earthquake of docu-collage filmmaking.

Advance tickets are available online at www.thezerohundredblock.com, or in-person at Little Sister’s Book and Art Emporium (1238 Davie Street), Zulu Records (1972 West 4th Avenue), Red Cat Records (4307 Main Street), Ayden Gallery (2nd floor, 88 W Pender Street in the Tinseltown Centre), Highlife World Music (1317 Commercial Drive), and Dandelion Records (228 East Broadway, between Main and Kingsway). A limited number of tickets will be available at the door for the three screenings.