Canada’s 84-year radio time check has stopped because of accuracy concerns
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Oh wow! I only listen to CBC radio in the car (usually I read their web page), so it's rare that I catch the official time signal, but I heard it a few times on my road trip this summer and it was, indeed, somewhat comforting that something I grew up with would still be going on.
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That would be pretty impressive since WWII only started in Sept 1939. I’m not actually sure where this came from since none of the source articles seem to have it.
That said, this is a loss of an iconic sound, but there are definitely better sources of time now.
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See, before the time signal, the passage of time was a bit wibbly-wobbly, so a year could go by in just over a month.
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Well you seem to think the CBC is communism incarnate, so I'm not too surprised.
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TheWerewolf
Ars Scholae Palatinae
Bizarrely, in my mind, I always think back to "CHU (say ash oo) Canada, Heure normale de l'Est, huit heures, trente minutes" which is "CHU Canada, Eastern Standard Time, eight hours, thirty minutes." Not sure why that specific time has stuck with me all these years, but CHU will always have a fond place in my memory.
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Yes. But then you wouldn't have an accurate time signal being distributed across the nation. Notice that this got set up during wartime.
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The BBC world service does something similar in its broadcasts at the top of each hour. And even a few years ago I noticed it was quite a bit off. I was listening on XM at the time and it was probably a good 10 seconds delayed. Was kind of sad cause it was perfect to set my car's clock and yes I know I can just look at my Apple watch but it was cool doing it old school like that (yeah I'm a nerd like the rest of y'all).
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TheWerewolf
Ars Scholae Palatinae
Canada joined the war September 10, 1939, so yeah, so something off here, but VE9OB converted over to CHU in 1938, so I suspect they meant to say 'a year before Canada entering into WWII.'
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Can't get people to believe that there are some places with a half hour time zone.
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Some of us up here think this is simply another step in the move by the head of CBC to remake the CBC into a digital on-demand information provider and to move away (far away!) from its roots as an over-the-air radio broadcaster. She has said words to the effect that "in ten years there will be no over the air CBC radio."
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In other Star Wars sound effect news, I just learned yesterday that John Wayne's voice was used for the fly-looking Imperial Spy on Tatooine in "Star Wars" (via https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/secret-cameo-john-wayne-in-star-wars).
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Shame on CBC for this, the same reasons haven't stopped the BBC from doing their pips or even just reading out the time on regular radio stations here in the US
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If the issue is its inaccuracy due to transmission disparities, but the tone remains a popular sound that signals to many "all is well" in a sense, then keep it as a preamble to the news. Just drop the text about "exactly" whatever time. It has a purpose which has legitimacy even if that isn't its original one.
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Keith Tanner
Ars Tribunus Militum
I remember the 1 pm time signal from when I was a kid - CBC played pretty much non-stop in the kitchen. It's a shame it's gone.
A friend has the Hinterland Who's Who theme as a ringtone on his phone and he used to travel overseas pretty much full-time. He says it's excellent for spotting Canadians of a certain age in airports.
A friend has the Hinterland Who's Who theme as a ringtone on his phone and he used to travel overseas pretty much full-time. He says it's excellent for spotting Canadians of a certain age in airports.
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Both these statements cannot be true. /s
I can't say I'd heard it much recently (I haven't listen to a radio broadcast more than once or twice in the last decade, I think), but it's definitely a fixture of my childhood to hear the SRC time broadcast. It's the sort of thing you just assume would go on forever. All good things must come to an end, I suppose.
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2:30 in Newfoundland. Of course, getting the time wrong in Newfoundland is a very Canadian thing.
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Well it certainly would make it cheaper to operate, reaction to the possibility of a certain fearmonger having a chance at PM?
Would be a terrible blow to CBC's role in small communities, going all digital...
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My Dad still has the short wave radio we used to use to synchronize our clocks from CHU. I hope they keep that station operating for a long time yet!
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In the 70s and 80s, it was possible to listen to a stereo broadcast of a live TV show. This was primarily done with classical music, but perhaps it was also done with other genres. It was called "Simulcasts".
The latencies were so short that the radio and TV broadcasts appeared to be in sync. This was done because many people only had mono TV sets, but did have stereo FM amplifier systems.
With internet packet latency and transcoding you really can't do that any more. One more thing the Internet killed. Not that it matters really anymore, but it was novel.
The latencies were so short that the radio and TV broadcasts appeared to be in sync. This was done because many people only had mono TV sets, but did have stereo FM amplifier systems.
With internet packet latency and transcoding you really can't do that any more. One more thing the Internet killed. Not that it matters really anymore, but it was novel.
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As with many things about Star Wars, I learn a lot was lost between the intended design and the final visuals. My first animal comparison of that Imperial Spy would be to an elephant. If pressed, a tapir. I would absolutely never have gone for any sort of insect, although I don't doubt the designers intended that. On that note, who else knew that Tauntauns were supposed to be some sort of snow lizard? Yeah, lizard. Weird.
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Back in my childhood in the 80s, at nighttime, I was able to pick up some Canadian broadcasts on my humble AM/FM clock radio way down near the low end of the band from several hundred miles away. If I kind of pushed the knob up against the end of its range of motion, I could pick up a time station similar to this one. As I recall, it only included tick noises and the "data" portions of the signal, not the longer beeps demonstrated in these videos. I was never able to figure out the exact frequency or where the station was located, but it was somewhere around 520-540 kHz and could have been from much of the eastern US or Canada. On a later rewatch of ESB, of course, I immediately recognized the sound from the Hoth base control room.
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Unfortunately for the CBC, nothing they can do to appease a Conservative PM will ever reduce their need to rag on the CBC. It's an unchangeable fact of Canadian politics.
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I've really never listened to CBC radio, which may explain it, I guess?
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Bummer. It was a comforting reminder that the news station was keeping track of time.
If I heard the announcement and tone it meant to come in from lunch or that my work lunch was starting late that day. Loved listening to the news on my break.
To give context it has been running since before my mother was born (she is a great grandmother).
Or it has been running when the Maple Leafs last took a cup
Had to throw that in there.
It's been a weird year. Canadians cannot share news links on Facebook or Google.
This seems to be an issue with a bill from our elected government. For once I can't seem to blame Facebook.
The net effect is that I use both less, I can't share news with my friends and I can't read Canadian news on Facebook.
And now one of our biggest radio stations stopped a cultural symbol. So sad.
I never knew that. Thank you!
If I heard the announcement and tone it meant to come in from lunch or that my work lunch was starting late that day. Loved listening to the news on my break.
To give context it has been running since before my mother was born (she is a great grandmother).
Or it has been running when the Maple Leafs last took a cup
Had to throw that in there.It's been a weird year. Canadians cannot share news links on Facebook or Google.
This seems to be an issue with a bill from our elected government. For once I can't seem to blame Facebook.
The net effect is that I use both less, I can't share news with my friends and I can't read Canadian news on Facebook.
And now one of our biggest radio stations stopped a cultural symbol. So sad.
I never knew that. Thank you!
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WTOP news used to have that every hour too. And my old 1983 Honda Civic had a button on the clock for just that purpose. And that button was about the only way I could get a manual clock to within 10 seconds anyway.
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It's mentioned in a post, and I thought it was linked, but perhaps not. Anyways, corrected now to more generally encompass WWII, not ... predict it.
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