CBC today announced the first details of an initiative with an increased local focus, part of its recent commitment under the 2024 strategic plan "Everyone, Every Way," to introduce or improve services to more than six million Canadians over the next four years.
All-new radio and online 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 British Columbia interior, while 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 commence in fall, 2024, with Kamloops to follow in spring, 2024. In addition, new weekend news programs on television and expanded weekend news programming on radio and online will be launched in Toronto this fall and in Calgary in winter, 2024.
"These first important steps form part of our overall plan to improve services to Canadians," says Kirstine Stewart, executive vice-president of CBC English Services. "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. 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."