In the past year and due to circumstances beyond our control — that is, the unprecedented and rapid consolidation that affected Canada's radio and TV industries — the Foundation's operations were placed in serious jeopardy … when three of our industry partners were gobbled up as the number of Canadian players shrank. But we're moving on from there – and we'll need your help to do it – because the issues surrounding broadcast heritage must be addressed nationally – and soon – before everything ‘fades to black’.

Graham Spry used to say that, “Broadcasting is about people talking to people.” It's a story-telling process, yes … but there are also artefacts … the ‘things’ that bring these stories to life by providing the setting and feel of the adventures, tragedies and romances that, taken together, tell the tale of our national evolution.

Early on, we decided to collect stories – or as they are known in the “heritage biz”, Oral Histories – of interesting people in all aspects of Canadian radio and television. We call it “In Their Own Voices” … a project that uses Canada's broadcast veterans to tell the story of the development and evolution of our radio and television systems and services – after all, they are the characters who made it happen.

We have the stories of newscasters like Lloyd Robertson, iconic producers like Peter Pearson, Leo Rampen and Harry Rasky, national and foreign correspondents such as Michael Maclear, performers of course, technologists, regulators and ‘the builders’ – the Slaights, the Waters and Newfoundland's Geoff Stirling and many others whose vision and ambition have shaped our system

We started recording in 2002 and immediately realized two things:

Most people are initially startled to be asked to do an interview. “Why are you interested in me? Nobody else is,” is the usual question. But we've never been refused … and on a few – somewhat startling – occasions, the response to an initial phone call has been, “Can you come over right now?”

Then, at the conclusion of the interview … and often over a stiff celebratory drink, I'm told, “My god, I don't know where all that came from. You've given me back my life!” Or, as one interviewee said about his 50 year career, “I'm telling you a lot of things I probably shouldn't be talking about – but you know about this stuff anyway and I may never get another chance!”

The result is we've assembled and are adding to weekly, a remarkable collection of personal recollections of what happened, when, how and to whom. We find ourselves in a unique situation, one that June Callwood pointed out when we interviewed her not long before her death. She noted that our staff combines a knowledge of broadcasting with a knowledge of heritage, two areas that simply have not come together productively in the past … and it's especially important that they do now before technology changes conventional media altogether and the stories – and the lessons – are lost.

Recording an oral history generally has several ancillary results.

The subject subsequently shares his or her experience with colleagues who then ‘volunteer’ to record for us. We find that, on average, each interview generates five other contacts, so the process expands geometrically.

To supplement their stories, each interviewee usually has career mementos, sometimes program–related, often photos, awards, or even technology – for example, along with photos, scripts and film, Maclear gave us the battered portable Olivetti typewriter he lugged on assignments and we have the greens for many of his series, with changes and camera directions handwritten on them.

So the word spreads – sometimes in unusual ways. However, not always in time.

In the past few months, Bob Weaver, Barry Morse, Jack Duffy, Len Peterson, Don Chevrier, Don Wittman and Keith Rich, Peter Liba, Ron Weyman and many others have died so time is of the essence in this project because we're losing our broadcast veterans very quickly.

Several times in the past year we have acquired material from private collections only days before basement floods would have destroyed them. We salvaged the collection of Leo Rampen, who began his career as a graphic artist at CBC-TV in the early ‘50s, then became producer of TAKE 30 and MAN ALIVE, before moving into management. Only days after we moved the last of his boxes to Toronto, his basement ended up under water when a pipe broke. Among the items we now hold are original graphics Leo did for such programs as Hockey Night In Canada and CBC TV news – remember, this was in the ‘50s, before you could transmit news photos or film instantaneously, so artists drew pictures to illustrate the evening news. It's a unique and very precious collection.

And there are many other collections waiting to come our way: BC's Red Robinson has thousands of hours of radio interviews; Geoff Stirling has a complete archive of the evolution of Newfoundland broadcasting going back well before that province joined Canada, wonderful artefacts from Harry Rasky's career as an award–winning documentarian are being assembled for us by his wife, Arlene; and the CHUM collection that Bob Laine and his colleagues have been labouring over so assiduously also must find a new home.

In the past year, the CBC has been re–evaluating its role with respect to broadcast heritage. A decision was taken to close the CBC Museum and, last fall, the staff who cared for the collection were let go. Simultaneously, it was decided that CBC would no longer maintain its own sets, props and costume collections since in–house production was no longer a priority.

From the CBC, we acquired map cases full of set designs, important creations of which the special effects department was especially proud, costumes and props from such famous series as Mr. Dressup, King of Kensington, Tommy Hunter, Sesame Park, Juliette, and Toller Cranston specials, that will be useful in telling the story of Canadian public television. Of course, we couldn't take much because our storage space is not large – but we salvaged what we could.

Once told about the importance of broadcast heritage issues, most people ‘get it’ instantly. The usual response is, “Well, surely the government – or the CBC – is doing that!” Well, no, not comprehensively.

Library and Archives Canada does what it can with very, very limited resources and the CBC does not consider that heritage is part of its mandate.

In Quebec, the appreciation of the cultural importance of French–language radio and television is very strong and, Radio-Canada, the Bibliothèque Nationale and Cinémathèque Québécoise have combined forces with the provincial government to ensure preservation is a priority.

But in English Canada broadcast heritage has had no champion. Perhaps that's why, whenever the Foundation appears – as we have been invited to do, for instance, at the CRTC and at the House Committee on Canadian Heritage, our presentations generate terrific responses. Indeed, almost by default, the Foundation is becoming the necessary advocates for broadcast heritage.

Government agencies like LAC, national museums and the CBC have their own protocols with government which necessarily constrain the nature and amount of advocacy in which they can engage. But the Foundation is a private initiative with strong links to the broadcast sector and when we make the case – as we recently did – that more needs to be done and the necessary resources found – (buttressing the argument with a few – truthful – disaster stories), even bureaucrats get the message.

We know our business – and we're prepared to work closely with others in the heritage sector to make sure things happen … so that Canadians can appreciate the singular importance of what radio and television have meant to the quality of life in this country.

If it takes development of a national policy, so be it. If there are other solutions, we are ready to help find them as well.

Meanwhile, we are working on the development of an exhibition that will celebrate Canada's tradition of war correspondents, “Bringing Home the Sounds of War”, for the Canada Museum of Science of Technology. Featuring the reports of Marcel Ouimet, Matthew Halton, Peter Stursberg, a young René Lévesque and others, it will bring the lessons of history from WWII and the Korean War to a new generation of Canadians who now take for granted that you can see and hear every battle “as it happens”.

But it wasn't always thus – and it was the technical wizardry of Canadian Art Holmes that provided the background sound that made the wars of the mid–20th century come alive for North American audiences. In fact, Holmes' recordings of the sounds of battle are still the ‘gold standard’. And the Canadian Army to going to lend the exhibition one of the original HUP vehicles, the type that Holmes fitted out as “Big Betsy” so we can tell Art's story at the same time.

All of this is to tell you the Foundation has in place the policies, the minimum infrastructure and small staff with specialized knowledge who have begun the job we set ourselves: the collection, preservation and celebration of Canada's broadcasting heritage.

It's a fact, though, that the scope of the challenge is considerably larger than we had originally thought and we're now at a critical point. With our partners, we must find the resources to continue to build and secure the National Broadcast Collection … and we will need your help to do that.