Inside CBC Vancouver

Today I had the opportunity to tour CBC Vancouver with my journalism class, where we met radio news anchor Susan McNamee and television news anchor Gloria Macarenko. We even spied Tony Parsons from across the newsroom.

The tour was arranged by our radio prof, Yvonne Eamor, who has been in radio for years and currently works at CBC. She told us to be there at 1:30 and to dress nicely, and beyond that I was unsure of what to expect.

It turned out to be a fun and really informative experience.

We were issued visitors badges and ushered through security into the inner space of the CBC building. The CBC has an integrated system of news gathering, and that policy reflected in the layout of the newsroom. Pretty much all news employees work in a large open space condusive to communication. At the centre of this room is the hub, which has a circle of tv's showing news from different stations with the desks of key people underneath. At one end of the room are radio employees and radio broadcast studios, and on another side are people who work in TV (both French and English). Behind the desks, in a space that overlooks Georgia Street, is the tv studio where the 5 p.m. news is read and broadcast. The integrated system of CBC means that news gathered by radio reporters will be shared with reporters in television and web, so that information is not lost between departments.

Our first stop in this vast room was a radio studio, where we had the opportunity to stand (quietly!) in the broadcast booth and listen to Susan McNamee read the 2 p.m. news. (see pic >>)

It was particularly exciting because the sentencing of Carol Berner (who killed four-year-old Alexa Middelaer while driving drunk last year) was being announced just prior to air time. Susan explained that she would lead her broadcast with this breaking story and that a reporter might phone in a story live from the scene. Sure enough, a minute into the news a man quietly came into the booth to tell Susan the reporter had her story on the phone. Without missing a beat, Susan bumped one of the stories she had planned to read in favour of this live report of breaking news and played the reporter's RANT on the air. It was very fast-paced and I imagine it must have been very difficult for Susan to focus with 20 journalism students crowded into her booth and the neighbouring one. After her 4.5 minute segment, she answered our questions and we were ushered off to another radio booth.

The next person we met was Mark Forsyth, who hosts B.C. Almanac on CBC Radio 1. He talked a bit about getting started in radio and seemed very nice and approachable. Again we had the opportunity to ask questions. We also got to see inside the control room for television. The tv broadcasts are controlled largely by one man and a massive computer system with multiple screens and mouses and switchboards that allow him to cue effects, move cameras and determine what is broadcast.

Finally we met Gloria Macarenko, who reads the 5 o'clock news for CBC and co-anchors the news at 6 p.m. with Tony Parsons. We didn't actually get to meet Tony, but we did catch a glimpse of him across the newsroom.

All in all a fantastic experience. Everyone was very friendly and encouraging of us aspiring journalists. One of the people who spoke to us is a graduate of Langara's journalism program and had started out at CBC as a radio intern after graduating. That interning position turned into a job, and after 3.5 years there she is now in Web and enjoying it.

 While I'm more interested in print for my career, it was a very inspiring day nonetheless.