TORONTO – CBC will beef up local coverage in British Columbia this year, before rolling out new weekend news programming in Toronto and Calgary, the CBC said Thursday.
Specifically, all-new radio and on-line services will be established in Kamloops; CBC in Kelowna will expand its current service to include a new afternoon radio program focused on serving the B.C. interior; and CBC Victoria’s existing programming will be enhanced to better serve the specific needs of Vancouver Island audiences. Victoria and Kelowna’s new programming will begin this fall with Kamloops to follow in spring, 2012.
And that’s in addition to new TV weekend news programs in Toronto this fall plus expanded weekend news programming on radio and on-line arriving in Calgary early in the new year.
The ‘pubcaster said that the moves are the first step in its ‘Everyone, Every Way’ strategic plan to improve services to more than six million Canadians over the next four years.
"Canadians tell us that local service is what they want. So as a public broadcaster, it’s our job to meet that expectation, evolving the ways in which we deliver our services as well as creating new ones”, said Kirstine Stewart, executive vice-president of CBC English Services, in the announcement. “We’ll be expanding the kinds of programs we offer. Canada’s communities are changing and growing; we know there are millions of Canadians who now live in areas which we aren’t serving locally, or aren’t serving enough. Our objective is to address that over the next four years."
