Issues w/ Canadian Satellite-Cable Networks

The promise of having several satellite-cable networks, called "narrowcasting" is that we would be never far away from the genre of programming that we love. However, the promise has failed to deliver. This blog entry and the next one attempt to review the current status of Canadian, American and International television networks available today.

The CRTC licensed these channels. So they are partly to blame for not keeping the channel owners on their toes when it comes to making sure they have interesting content on most of the time. But it's also a failure of the Canadian Television Fund which helps pay for that Canadian content over all these multitude of channels.

My answer to the problem is to combine some of these channels. For example, do we really need 5 music stations, licensed to play music videos and none of them do, but intead feature reality television crap? Maybe instead of MuchMusic, MuchMoreMusic, MuchVibe, and MuchLOUD, they should consolidate into one MuchMusic station like originally. Also MTV Canada should be allowed to air music videos. In the end we subscribers would pay less for our television service and there would be fewer channels into which better programming could be produced or purchased. Everybody wins.

BNN

BPM:tv - The only music station that still plays music videos, although most of them can be classified in the "soft erotica" category. I find I have to turn off the tv because I find the "tits n ass" in the videos offensive. There is no need for most of it.

Bravo!

Canadian Learning Television - this channel isn't educational at all. It shows too much general interest entertainment programming like Monk, The West Wing, which are not the kind of educational type programming that CLT is licensed for in the first place.

CBC Newsworld - consists of three programs "Morning", "Today", and "The National". The network needs to develop more programs like in the old days of Newsworld.

CMT Canada - I'm not a Country music fan, so this channel is useless to me.

Comedy Channel - don't like 99% of the shows

Country Canada - should combine with The Documentary Channel to create CBC-2.

CP24 - This channel I like.

CPAC

CTV NewsNet - mostly better than CBC Newsworld

Dejaview - sometimes

Discovery Channel Canada - not as good as it was in the 90s. Don't watch anymore.

DriveIn - Watch very rarely.

Encore Avenue - OK. No complaints

G4 TechTv - Call for Help I watch, but the videogame shows are junk to me.

History Television - Nothing on here is interesting to me. It's mostly about various Wars.

iChannel - was good when it first started, but is not interesting anymore. I dumped the channel last year.

IFC Canada - Watch very rarely.

Lonestar - Don't watch.

Movie Central - OK. No complaints

Movieola - has too many 1920s/1930s Mickey Mouse cartoon shows.

MTV Canada - This service cannot play music videos because of the conditions of their current license. So if I want to watch music videos there's YouTube.

MuchMusic - Doesn't play music videos any more. Useless channel that used to be very good in the 1980s.

MuchMoreMusic - Was very good when it first started in October 1998, but also no longer plays music videos. Have to go to YouTube to watch a music video.

Mystery - Useless channel to me.

OLN - Good for the one month in the year that they carry the Tour De France bike race. Otherwise a useless channel. Maybe this channel could fold and TSN could pick up the annual bike race.

ROGERS SportsNet - I watch is sometimes when I'm interested in sports. They have good baseball and basketball coverage.

Showcase Television -

Showcase Action -

Showcase Diva -

Score - Don't watch this channel. I used to watch when it was HeadlineSports in the late 90s.

Scream - Rarely watch.

Space - Rarely watch. I probably need a rest from all those Star Trek series that were on during the 90s, and the other programming doesn't interest me much because it's poorly done.

Telelatino -- would watch more often if they had musical variety programming in Italian & Spanish, but most of the time it features English language American sitcoms. You can't really call this an ethnic station I guess.

The Documentary Channel -- Too many documentaries that focus on the drug trade and prostitution. And when they do have other documentaries, they rerun them too often in the day, so if you saw one doc there is no others to watch.

The Shopping Channel -- Longtime complaint I have is that there are very few items of interest to guys like electronics, gadgets, etc... Too many items for women.

TSN The Sports Network -- Sometimes I'll watch.

The Weather Network -- Way too many frequent interruptions for advertising. And the advertising is for hair care products or cars.

Treehouse -- Nothing of interest to me. Although it looks like Treehouse has lots of Canadian content, most of it is so cheaply produced that it doesn't warrant my time to view.

Tv Land Canada -- Has some interesting programming.

Tropolis -- Nothing of interest to me. This service used to be called Prime, and it had some
magazine programs that were viewable.

YTV Youth Television -- I used to watch alot of YTV in the first 4 or 5 years, then they started to change the programming and it's been downhill since then. I'm not into anime or violent programs like that.

Informal poll shows most Winnipeggers are smart on rapid transit issue

Last January 28th I set up a web poll at NewWinnipeg.com. I wanted to find out for myself what percentage of people want different types of rapid transit (BRT, LRT, subway), those that drive cars and SUVs and don't want any, those that cycle and prefer that mode of commuting.

Well, after more than two months and 43 votes later I can confidently say that Winnipeggers are smarter than the politicians when it comes to the rapid transit issue in Winnipeg.

The question was:

What form of rapid transit should Winnipeg implement?

And the results to now are:

Bus Rapid Transit 9% (4 votes)
Light Rail Transit 44% (19 votes)
Subway/metro 14% (6 votes)
None - my bicycle is my rapid transit 7% (3 votes)
None - my car/SUV is my rapid transit 26% (11 votes)

So even if you just extract the LRT and subway percentages from this poll, 58% of people like the rail option. That's impressive Winnipeg. Thanks.

So there you have it. Though the BRT Hippies like Axworthy (oh my gawd!, Lloyd Axworthy a "hippie"?), Jenny Gerbasi, Donald Benham, and Kaj Hasselriis, can be quite noisy and vocal about their rapid transit preference; in reality most people support rail in the form of LRT or a subway (even if that's just 4-car trains mainly underground) for Winnipeg. The BRT gang are in the minority. And as the climate of our planet is changing for the worse, the BRT Hippies will one day eat their words.

So I firmly believe that TRUWinnipeg is here to stay and we're on the right track. The rail transit advocates just need to make more noise than the BRT people. Soon the politicians will cave in because it'll be that mob like that Free Press article from 1990 predicted will happen if the politicians are not following the people's wishes on this issue.

Keep sending those pro subway e-mails and letters to the politicians people.

Pseudo-Environmentalists Holding Back Winnipeg's Progress

As I age and as the years go by in the Internet discussions with others over what to do with Winnipeg's transportation problem, I've gained some insight as to what is keeping central Winnipeg from becoming a more lively, vibrant urban place.

There are various "factions" at work, who seem to want to stop all good progress towards this end. One of them I discuss in this piece.

Let's start off with a definition of what an environmentalist is. From Wictionary:

One who works to protect the biosphere from misuse through such measures as ecosystem protection, waste reduction and pollution prevention

But when it comes to mass transportation, they would throw out this ideal, and, in their senseless desire for "cheap" transportation, advocate for a much less desirable option for Winnipeg.

1. They claim to be environmentalists, but advocate for things that are not -- diesel bus BRT
2. They claim to be progressive, but are anti-progressive when it comes to downtown development and "alternative transportation"
3. Want, in effect, a rural/country-like setting
4. They advocate for "cheap" transportation, ie. cycling, Bus "Rapid Transit".
5. They're generally recognized as the children of the Hippies, or are from the Hippie generation themselves
6. During the rapid transit debate of 2004 news reporters referred to the pro-BRT camp as "transit advocates". Nothing could be further from the truth, as BRT will ultimately hurt transit ridership and the environment, not help these two things
   

The thing is that I like cycling myself. As I write this, it's early January, and it'll be at least another three months before the temperatures are warm enough for cycling in this city. I absolutely love cycling. Cycle commute to my parent's home twice a week and rode to Grant Park shopping centre to catch a movie. Last year I participated in three Critical Mass Winnipeg rides (August - October).

I'm not against the environment. Far from it. I recycle most of my garbage. I give away to others some of the things I don't need anymore.

But the difference between myself and the Hippie environmentalists is that I acknowledge that a rail vehicle is better than a bus for moving large numbers of people in a city.

24Hours is back ... Part 2

On November 30th, 2006, CBC English Tv announced that the full 60-minutes of local newscast would be reinstated as of February 2007.

Hoorray!

OK, so now they need to fill that other 30 minutes again. I just had an idea.

In Winnipeg there are only two or three people re-publishing the archives of CBWT ... newsclips from 24Hours, local station IDs and promos, and putting them on YouTube.

It would be nice if CBWT dug out their own (original) copies of its archive and started to digitize them and also put them onto YouTube or the CBC Manitoba site. There's probably stuff in there prior to consumer video recorders that would be classified as gems.

And if they featured some of this archival material, at least once a week, on 24Hours and equivalent supper hour news programs across Canada, they'd make our country a better place. The CBC does republish archival material that is of national nature, but they just haven't had the time or resources to work on the local end of things.

Anyways, hoping someone at CBWT (CBC Manitoba) will read this over and consider ...

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to everyone.

24Hours is baaaack!

On November 30th, after 6 loooooong years, after Robbie Rabinovitch's last few months as President of the CBC, after his pal Mr. Stursburg is going to (possibly) follow him out the door, we hear that they are going to put back the full 60 minutes of locally produced news in each region.

Burn in Hell , Canada Now!

So the return of the full hour means that most likely the highly respected and loved name for the Winnipeg 'cast will remain -- 24Hours.




Anyways, three cheers for CBC Television.

got subway?

Last week Premier Gary Doer announced in his throne speech for the 2006-07 Legislative Session that he intends on spending $4 Billion for maintenance and expansion of rural highways, and another $4 Billion to construct a hydro dam called Conawappa, which was cancelled when the other Gary (Filmon) took power in 1990.

So Premier Gary, where is the $4 Billion for an underground (mass transit) subway for Winnipeg? Huh?

Marianne Cerilli

A few weeks ago, very near to the time when the Mayoral candidates deadline to register, my friend came to me and requested that I sign Marianne Cerilli's petition to run for Mayor in this years civic election.

I signed.

What a mistake that was.

I don't know much about Ms. Cerilli ... she is a former NDP MLA from 1990 to 2003 in the Raddisson area.

This friend, whom I've admired for his writings for the past twenty years, and this other person who also is a regular writer are supporting Marianne's campaign.

The first guy says, "Jim, we convinced Marianne of the need for light rail in Winnipeg."

That says it all doesn't it. This person is normally in favour of subways for Winnipeg and also has a pretty good sense of who is for and who is against rail rapid transit in Winnipeg. But I guess if you carry the "labour" card around this town, well that somehow manages to trump the other values.

Why would I support a politician who says they were "convinced" of the value of rapid transit by another person, when indeed it is common sense that if you understand the dynamics of living in a big city and how to make it work properly you shouldn't have to be "convinced" of its value, it should just naturally become part of your urbanist values, right?

Not for Marianne and her minions though.

Secondly, and this has seemed to compromise my values when it comes to gender issues.

See Marianne refers to herself as an "eco-feminist". What is that you say? Well I'm more concerned about the feminist part. There are two kinds of feminists:

1. Eqality or Egaliarian
2. Gender

It is the second type that I strongly dislike. They are the root cause the breakdown of the nuclear family. They set out to feminize boys, and they wish to raise children on their own, sans Dad. They have absolutely no use for men, unless they can use them in some sort of way to help them reach to the top of some ladder -- in this case being Mayor of Winnipeg.

So while I did sign her campaign nomination paper, based on the usually good judgement of my transit friend, I think he missed the mark this time.

I have absolutely no plans to vote for Ms. Cerilli on October 25th. None. Nada.

I may choose to vote for Sam Katz this time because at least Mayor Sam took the initiative in late 2004/early 2005 to sample light rail transit in other cities. He didn't need to be convinced of this. He had also been quoted several times in the local media that he prefers LRT over BRT.

So there you have it. I think that Marianne is just leading these men around by the nose and that she is using them to further her

What Marianne also stands for is also to sustain the poverty industry here in Winnipeg. She has worked with, or supports or is in favour of the Social Planning Council. They are part of the problem, not the solution.

Further reading:
The Black Rod

Who are they writing for?

I am puzzled over happenings at the Winnipeg Free Press. I'm wondering just who they are writing to when they create their version of the daily newspaper.

I like a newspaper to carry lots of local stories, and am interested in local politics and that.

But when I buy the weekend paper, because I have more time on my hands to do more casual reading, I prefer to have a paper like you see in other cities like Toronto, New York, etc... These are huge papers, filled with background stories of what's happening in their area and trends around the world.

But when I open the Freep, I find I flip from page to page, not finding anything to hold my interest to want to read that article.

I just want to know.... when they prepare the paper every day, who do they 'see' as their reader? It surely doesn't seem to be someone like myself.

More on this issue in further blog writings...

St. Iggy's 9 p.m. Group

What is happening to the 9 p.m. singing group at St. Ignatius Church here in Winnipeg?

They used to be sooooo goood, so soulful, like a direct connection to heaven.

Now, after 30 years, they sing with most of the group not even there.

There used to be a drummer, a guitarist, a bass guitarist. Now we're lucky if we get the bass guitar guy, whom I love when he used play those jazzy riffs back in 1991.

Are they just losing the interest, or like, what's wrong? I wish I could fix it. If there's no drummer, then try and find a replacement. It really does make a difference.

This past weekend Jeff Doerr (the keyboardist) and his wife (singer) were gone, probably on vacation somewhere. But it wasn't that much better during the winter months.

The oomph is missing. The drums are missing, like when they sing the Our Father prayer ... (one, two, three) "Our Father, Who Art in Heaven" (boom) "Hallowed be Thy Name" (boom).

There were just the jazzy bassist and one of the singers. I had to help provide backing vocals, from the pew, because there weren't any others singing it.

And the relatives were wondering WHY Jim doesn't like going to St. Iggy's anymore, which I've been doing on a regular basis since 1982. That's one of the reasons.

What happened to Classiness?

See this ABBA video from 1982, then compare this to the pop culture of today with its cell phones, trashy music videos, and reality tv:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8jqAEoogHw

I'm old enough to remember those good old days of the 1980s when Winnipeg had two department stores downtown -- Eaton's and The Bay.

This video signifies for me a certain classiness that is so missing in today's culture. To some it may seem like ABBA is acting "arrogant" or whatever, but you compare that to the crap that's put out today and it just doesn't.

You see, people like to emulate the celebrities, they kind of show the way to style and therefore create culture.

In this music video, Head Over Heels, members of the group go on a shopping trip downtown. They are dressed well and shop at the nice stores. There is no discount/bargain shops in sight.

When I was living through 1982 this is in a way my feelings in that year, it was kinda like an artsy kind of year, symphony music, and all that stuff, but nice pop music, like the Jazz from Joe Jackson's Breaking Us In Two. That song I somehow associated with morning delivery of the Winnipeg Sun -- I used to be a carrier for them at the time.

Social Planning Council Hindering Winnipeg Growth

There is a group in Winnipeg that's been around since 1919, the Social Planning Council. It's current leader is Wayne Helgason, an aboriginal.

I feel that this group is part of the problem of why Winnipeg has been growing its underclass sinc about 1987 and the skilled middle-class has been leaving since about 1990.

What has the SPC ever done to improve Winnipeg for everyone? I think they've just helped to expand the underclass here.

If Winnipeg is to grow into a large metropolis on the scale of other cities like Minneapolis Minnesota, Toronto Ontario, or Chicago Illinois, we seriously need to either:

1. Re-examine the leadership of this organization
2. Get rid of the SPC itself

They are holding us back, and have been helping to make Winnipeg a backwater, a hick-town.

I got my MTV today

I was sitting watching tv this evening flicking the channels, and WGN of them had the Smallville Superman-related show in the IPG list. So I watched a few minutes of that.

Then after the commercial it switched to WGN-DT2, which was showing THETUBE, a "real" music video channel, started in 2005 by one of the co-founders of MTV back in August of 1981.

WOW!

True to its slogan All Music, it plays absolutely no commercials, and no reality crap. Just music videos from the past 6 decades.

Unfortunately I don't have an HDTv set yet and so this was just an error that one of the ExpressVu technicians did or maybe WGN shows this program now in the summer.

In any way, I was really happy with this program. MuchMusic has lost their way. They don't need 4 different Much* channels. We just need one that plays music videos and concerts the way it used to be back in the 1980s.

OneMedia in Canada

In the Christian bible, in the New Testament section there are stories about one day everything on this planet being owned by Satan. Everything. In Canada, we're a step closer to that awful day.

Last November (2005) Allan Waters, who built the CHUMCity empire (CityTv, MuchMusic, Bravo!, CHUM Radio, etc...) died. His relative (son or younger brother) was named as the successor owner of the company.

Now today, not eight months later, we hear CHUMCity being bought up by Canada's largest private media company, Bell Globemedia (CTV, BellExpressVu, CKY, CFTO, Discovery Channel Canada, ROBTv, the Globe and Mail, etc...).

Winnipeg has CityTv (nee 13MTN, nee A-Channel Winnipeg), which in the "friendly" takeover annoncement has decided to cancel all further local newscasts until further notice.

I have to ask this question. How does this deal better serve the Canadian citizen when it comes to local programming (news)?

I hope the CRTC will look closely and scrutinize every detail of this, and force Bell Globemedia to sell off more of its holdings than just the ones they agree to (A-Channel, ACCESS Alberta).

I'd like them to sell of CityTv Winnipeg because we already have a Bell station here -- CKY (CTV). We don't need two stations owned by the same company. Even though they promise to keep the newsrooms separate, I don't have enough trust in things like this. Certainly one of the stations would be the poorer in terms of news resources.

For example, prior to this merger, CKY primarily focuses on provincial government news and local crime stories. For years their newscasts began with the words "Police". Ever since CHMI went on the air though, they've focused on local issues, and were more likely to cover City Hall.

And what of my favourite local news anchor, Glen Kirby, who was cut from the staff today due to the merger agreement? There is an opening for news anchor though at CBWT (CBC Winnipeg) because my least favourite news anchor, Krista Erickson, has married and left Winnipeg for Ottawa (good riddance Krista). So this would be a great opportunity for CBWT to hire Glen as anchor of the CBC Local News at Six here. I already sent an e-mail to John at the station. Hope something can be worked out.

Another question: It's been several hours since Bell Globemedia announced it wants to purchase CHUMCity for $1.7 Billion. Why hasn't there been a news report about it on CBC Newsworld? They're too busy covering the endless conflict in the Middle East, that's why. (sigh)

CNN HeadlineNews

I remember a time when the news networks actually carried news reporting, not the news commentary so prevalent today. Those were the days I look fondly to. Will they ever return?

TRUWinnipeg Endorsements

Urban renewal group TRUWinnipeg.org, has its first endorsements:

1. The Weakerthans
2. The Winnipeg Green Party

The "rock" is being pushed closer to the subway.

Church @ King St., Toronto - southward view

Church @ King St., Toronto - southward view
Originally uploaded by jimj_wpg.

Whenever I'm in Toronto I stay at the HI Hostel on Church St. because I pay $27 instead of the insane price of $150/night.

This is the view southward, when I get out of the Hostel building and turn right.

25 The Esplanade Luxury Apartment, Toronto

25 The Esplanade Luxury Apartment, Toronto
Originally uploaded by jimj_wpg.

I love this building everytime I see it when I'm in Toronto.

But the cost of living there would be $1600/mo. Too much for my current budget.

DirectCD

When creating MP3 CDs to play on various players, do not use the DirectCD format, as I found that it won't play at all on some players.

TRUWinnipeg.org

Since June a new group has risen out of the ashes of Citizens for Better Public Transit in Winnipeg (CBPTW).

The new group, headed by columnist Dallas Hansen, is Transit Riders' Union of Winnipeg (TRUWinnipeg).

Where CBPTW failed was in the various values of each of the participants. Some, like myself, wanted LRT. Another wanted extensive subway ala W.A.T.S. Scheme III. A couple of others wanted BRT and a couple of cyclists were satisfied with just basic upgrades to our diesel bus fleet (and they call themselves 'environmentalist'. Shame!)

So last year Dallas Hansen discovered my uwto.org website and wrote an Op-Ed piece in the Freep about the Wilson subway, which has been ignored since the 1960s.

He contacted me in early 2005 and said he wanted to do more to make this particular subway plan for Winnipeg a reality in our lifetimes.

By June he had the idea to start a brand new transit rider group, dedicated to the Wilson plan and mixed-use design for downtown Winnipeg and the immediate city proper.

The truwinnipeg.org domain name and some web space was reserved in July 2005. We have been holding weekly meetings, since that time.

Another Op-Ed piece was written and this included contact info. We had a couple of people from Western Economic Diversification attend our meeting advising us to become a registered non-profit organization and have the Wilson plan updated to today's realities.
This is in the process of happening now, and should be ready by early next year.

By this time next year, the Wilson subway plan will be front page news (again) and will be part of the debate during the next civic election campaign.

Winnie the Shit

I'm from Winnipeg you see, and I have to deal with this Winnie the Pooh stuff all the time. I caught on to the name thing — a LONG time ago.

To say clearly now. I'm NOT a fan of Winnie the Pooh.

The reason is this:

The Winnie character was "invented" in Winnipeg way back in World War I days (1914-1918). The story goes that A. A. Milne's son had seen a brown or black bear at the Winnipeg Zoo and asked what it's name was. The boy said "I think I'll call him Winnie". The father replies "Why is that son?". The boy says "I don't know, just Winnie the Pooh".

Now any half-brained person can figure this out. The boy saw the brown coloured bear, it reminded him of (was the same colour as) shit, and he lived in Winnipeg. He put it all together and you have the character name — Winnipeg the Shit! Kind of sums up our town, doesn't it?

To me, it's really an embarrassment to our City.

And they were going to put a Winnie the Pooh display at Assinibioine Park Zoo. Total waste of money. It could be better spent on a rail-based rapid transit system for Winnipeg.

There's a short story on the Net that proves I'm not the only one who connects the dots. It goes something like this:
A group of kindergartners were trying very hard to become accustomed to the first grade. The biggest hurdle they faced was that the teacher insisted on NO baby talk! You need to use 'Big People' words," she was always reminding them.

She asked John what he had done over the weekend?
"I went to visit my Nana."
No, you went to visit your GRANDMOTHER. Use ?Big People' words!"

She then asked Mitchell what he had done
"I took a ride on a choo-choo."
She said "No, you took a ride on a TRAIN. You must remember to use 'Big People' words."

She then asked little Alex what he had done? "I read a book," he replied.
That's WONDERFUL!" the teacher said. "What book did you read?"
Alex thought real hard about it, then puffed out his chest with great Pride, and said, "Winnie the SHIT"