Extract from 1 Air Division HQ Historical Report - 31 December 1966.
CFN NETWORK
General
The network consists of five 50-watt FM transmitters located at Network HQ, Metz, 1,3 & 4 Wings and at Ramstein (4ATAF). Public property involvement in the network includes all transmitter and broadcast antennas, and CFN HQ studios at Metz. Studios at Wing locations are provided out of M&I funds. Network connections are made by RCAF micro-wave to the Wings, and by 4 ATAF micro-wave to Ramstein.
At the beginning of the period CFN continued to broadcast 116 hours a week. With the increase of announce staff from three to four during the summer months it became possible to extend broadcast hours. In Oct the Saturday and Sunday sign-on time was advanced one hour to 0900 hrs, and in November sign-off was retarded on 4 nights a week to 0300 hrs, bring the weekly total to 120 hours. These two changes allowed CFN to bring an early newscast (recorded at 0700 hrs) to listeners on Saturday and Sunday morning, and a late, live newscast ("The World at Six") via telephone (0000 hrs to 0030 hrs) Tuesday to Friday inclusive. The four-hour increase in programming time involved a seven-hour weekly increase in the announcer's work schedule, as weekend duty announcers reported at 0700 hrs to record the news and week-night annnouncers worked until 0045 hrs on four occasions each week.
Programming
Of the total number of hours broadcast weekly approximately 70 were provided by CBC tape and shortwave services. The remainder was programmed locally from Metz studios by CFN staff. Certain programmes were contributed on a rotating basis by all stations of the network (eg children's stories, "Twenty-One Questions", inter-wing hockey etc). Where volunteer staff allowed, Wing stations carried on local programming during Metz "local" periods, but the Metz programme was available at all times at all network locations.
CFN continued to rebroadcast seven regular news broadcasts daily, one of which was read live from CFN studios, having been compiled from CBC short wave and Canadian press copy, as well as any releases from the 1 Air Division Information Office. CBC tapes were delivered first to 4 CIBG and forwarded, after broadcast there, to CFN. The tape schedule contained a cross-section of Canadian programmes designed to interest specific groups (housewives, pre-school children teenagers, car-hobby groups etc) as well as a general audience. A new programme source became available during the year in the form of a Service telephone connection with Ottawa. On the whole it has proven a useful supplement to short wave and commercial cable for providing immediate coverage of certain events, including "The World at Six" broadcast mentined in 1. It is, however, subject to interruption by service calls, and varies greatly in its quality. The Queen's Christmas message had to be sent fourteen times over this line before a barely acceptable version could be recorded by CFN. Attempts to relay these phone transmissions to RADIO CAE had mixed success, despite additional amplification injected at Metz.
Technical
Technical maintenance was carried out during the period by CPl S Brezinski, ComTech assigned full-time to CFN. He is responsible for maintenance of publicly owned components of the network.
Prospective Move to Germany
An FM relay was envisaged as possible substitute for micro-wave in setting up CFN in the Air Division's new posture in Germany, foreseen for 1967. Tests were carried out to attempt to ascertain the feasibility of such a relay system, and the advice of German broadcasting engineers was obtained to the same end. At the close of the period German Bundespost authorities had not yet been approached for their reaction to the propoal, which could not be spelled out for this purpose until the new area to be covered had been defined. As a result the proposal was still in a tentative stage at the end of the period under review.
Personnel
Staff at the beginning of the period were as follows:
In Jan 66 the 3 Wing manager was dismised for incompetence and absenteeism, and his position was filled pro tem by the dependent secretary of CFN 3 Wing. The position was still vacant at the end of the period. One Metz announcer returned to Canada during April and was temorarily replaced by a dependent with one year at Ryerson. The French-National secretary left at the same time, and was replaced by a bilingual dependent wife. During June the 4 Wing manager was repatriated and the temporary Metz announcer (above mentioned) left CFN. Two new announcer-operators recruited in Canada joined Metz staff in June, completing the new establishment for four. In July a third new announcer joined Metz staff, to fill a vacancy scheduled for Sep 2. On 2 Sep the staff was again reduced to four. On the same date the 1 Wing manager was repatriated. Manager positions at Wings have not been filled permanently, though in 1 Wing as in 3 Wing the position was filled pro tem by the secretary there. Finally, the last member of CFNs Metz staff (as it was at the beginning of the period) was repatriated in Oct and replaced by a new recruit from Canada. Thus in the course of the year the three CFN Metz staff announcers were replaced, and a fourth new member added, and all Wing Manager positions became vacant. Wing Manager positions were not filled by recruiting from Canada as the future posture of CFN was still uncertain, and a two-year contract could not be honoured with any certainty.
Updated: March 30, 2004