If you're near a radio on Monday, tune into CBC Radio for 25 hours of music and talk programming dedicated to Music Monday. Four years ago, the Coalition for Music Education in Canada established Music Monday—the first Monday in May—to highlight the importance of music education in schools. Kids and school staff across the country are encouraged to go outside and play a short concert. The main focus of Music Monday is to join......

At this time last year, BBC journalist Alan Johnston was being held hostage. For the three years before he was kidnapped by a Palestinian jihadist organization called the Army of Islam, Johnston was the last foreign correspondent brave enough to live and work in the volatile Gaza Strip. He spent four months as a hostage, from March 12 until his release 114 days later on July 4. To celebrate World Press Freedom Day, Alan......

Either sleepy-eyed Christopher Gilliland here has the absolute baddest, most enviable title on his airline (why even open his eyes? He's the Airport Dude) or the CBC is getting lazy with its captions. To be fair, most of what gets typed into the lower third of a news report tends to be a peering-up-the-ladder intern's job. So while this is obviously the result of an ill-conceived stand-in title being forgotten about while some keener......

Fans of obscure pop culture and history buffs will welcome the complete redesign and relaunch of the CBC Digital Archives. The website features an amazing collection of 12,000 television and radio clips drawn from seventy years of CBC broadcasts. The CBC's serious side is well-represented on the site, with historic clips of the Second World War, political profiles, and stories of cultural milestones. But there are also plenty of quaintly anachronistic news reports, such......

The first edition of CBC Radio 3's new series, Searchlight, is forcing the Canadian Record Buying Public to throw down over the #1 Independent Record Store In Canada. "In this digital era of music, it is a very real possibility that the indie record store may go the way of the dodo," says CBC Radio 3 host Grant Lawrence in a press release. "We want to shine a light on all the great stores......

University of Ottawa law professor Michael Geist is reporting that the nation's public broadcaster is about to take a hugely progressive step in media distribution. On Monday, the day after Canada's Next Great Prime Minister (the political fantasy reality show filled with keeners and bored ex-prime ministers) airs, the CBC is going to release a high-quality copy of the episode via BitTorrent, without any digital rights management (DRM) protection. The CBC would be the first......

Each week, Torontoist examines the upcoming TV listings and makes note of programs that are entertaining, informative, and of quality. Or, alternately, none of those. The result: Televisualist.......

You'd think it would be common practice these days for everyone to regularly wash their hands, especially if they work in the health-care profession. Ontario's Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care advises that frequent handwashing is "the single most effective way to prevent the spread of communicable diseases." (Cooties are the obvious exception here, since they can only be prevented by administering a cootie shot.) Unfortunately, the statistics indicate that health-care workers aren't very diligent......

With Rogers' plan to move Citytv, OMNI Television, and the Fan 590 to the southeast corner of Dundas Square, those familiar with the current streetfront studios on Queen Street have wondered if the former Olympic Spirit building will be opened up in a similar way. Though merely an preliminary concept rendering, Rogers and Quadrangle Architects seem to have grand designs for the space, currently dubbed Rogers Television City, as evident in this image supplementing......

According to the Inside the CBC blog and the National Post, Toronto's favourite boyish-looking provocateur, Avi Lewis, is back on the airwaves with his newest show, Frontline: USA. The show promises to "strip away the spin and highlight real issues such as poverty, violence, race, health, and immigration" in America. Considering that Lewis is involved and that the show airs on Al Jazeera English, chances are that Frontline: USA won't be a Dobbsian exercise......

Jeff Healey, legendary Torontonian musician and owner of Jeff Healey's Roundhouse on Blue Jays Way (and Healey's at Queen and Bathurst prior to that), has died of cancer at only 41. The news, posted to his website earlier tonight, comes just under two months before the domestic release of Healey's new album, Mess of Blues, recorded with what Healey called "the best damned bar band in Canada." His website has plenty more information about......

Once a proud Torontoist staffer, now a published YA novelist: Jill Murray is celebrating the release of her first book this week. Break On Through is the story of Nadine, aka Lady Six Sky, a badass b-girl who dreams of winning the Hogtown Showdown with her breakdancing crew. But when her parents announce that they're moving from Parkdale to the fictional suburb of Rivercrest, Nadine's world is turned upside down. Now she's lost her crew,......

Who knew the CBC was so popular in western Africa? Granted, Test the Nation was an unmitigated success (well, for the bloggers anyhow), but the fact that fashion from half-way around the world could be inspired by our venerable national broadcaster still seems quite remarkable. First spotted by the Inside The CBC blog, you're looking at what may very well represent the height of African fashion. This smart and sassy number (a traditional west......

February is Black History Month. To celebrate, the City of Toronto Archives is hosting an evening with Dr. Karolyn Smardz Frost on February 5. She is the winner of the 2007 Governor General’s Award for Non-Fiction for I’ve Got a Home in Gloryland: A Lost Tale of the Underground Railroad, which tells the story of two slaves who escaped to Canada in 1833. In an illustrated presentation entitled Fugitive Sources: Finding Clues to our......

Want to hear the news that's been making its way around the water cooler at theatres all over town this afternoon? Well, do you remember back in May when we reported that actor/director David Storch would be promoted to Artistic Director of CanStage as a result of a recent regime change? Apparently, as of today, in only the seventh month of his directorship (which officially began on July 1, 2007), Storch has resigned from......

Sarah Lazarovic––curator of the garage-based Montrose Portrait Gallery of Canada––is painting a portrait of a Torontonian (be they dog walkers, donut makers or Dan Levy) every day for one hundred days. Each Monday, we'll feature one of those portraits here. Popular former CNN anchor Lynne Russell moved to Toronto a few years ago and took up occasional anchoring gigs at the CBC (though according to the Teamakers, the CEEB has submerged her in Jacques Cousteau's......

Photo by Daniel Kahn. Last night, amidst the falling snow, the torrid wind, and the downtown lights, a sizable contingent of ironically-dressed hipsters, amateur figure skaters, tiny tots, and bewildered parents skated to the sounds of Stars, Major Marker, and Kevin Drew. All the while, Craig Norris froze his ass off while hosting the R3-30, CBC Radio 3's weekly indie rock countdown, at the Natrel Skating Rink at Harbourfront. Besides the music, there was......

For some magically ridiculous reason, CBC Radio 3's weekly countdown, the R3-30, is broadcasting from a skating rink this week in a move that's heavily dividing the hipster set after the announcement of another free—and markedly less active—event that same night: Tokyo Police Club at Nathan Phillips Square. But host Craig Norris offers this pitch in their favour: "If you've ever listened to The R3-30 in the comfort of your warm, cozy home and......

On Sunday night, Team Bloggers kicked some cab driver and celebrity impersonator ass on CBC's Test the Nation: Trivia. The evening ended with the cleanest sweep in quiz show history: bloggers had the best team score with an average of 50; team captain Samantha Bee had the highest score of all the Canadian celebs; teammate Rick Spence had the top in-studio score of 57. Of course, we never doubted that the bloggers would emerge......

Each week, Torontoist examines the upcoming TV listings and makes note of programs that are entertaining, informative and of quality. Or, alternately, none of those. The result: Televisualist.......

Many of us developed an affection for opera early in life through Looney Tunes versions of Rossini and Wagner. For some, having Elmer Fudd chant “Kill the Wabbit” to the tune of “Ride of the Valkyries” in Chuck Jones's animated masterpiece taught us everything we wanted to know about opera. But if your ambition to appreciate the finer things in life extends beyond Bugs Bunny, real opera could be an intimidating world of old rich......

When New York City billionaire Leona Helmsley died in 2007, who inherited her $12-million trust fund? If you said a white Maltese terrier named Trouble, you may want to tune in to CBC television at 8:00 p.m. on Sunday, January 20th for Test the Nation: Trivia. The quiz show, now in its third edition, pits in-audience teams against each other while viewers at home can play along via the interweb. Later, the national quiz......

Nobody likes to be stranded during the holiday season due to car trouble. Whether it's a dead battery, unexpected snowfall, or executing a 180-degree spin into the ditch alongside the 401 on the way back to the city, inclement weather and Murphy's Law often combine to make this a busy time of the year for auto clubs like CAA. Even beloved weekend movie hosts occasionally require their assistance. Before gaining fame as a movie......

Torontoist is ending the year by naming our Heroes and Villains of 2007––the people, places, and things that we've either fallen head over heels in love with or developed uncontrollable rage towards over the past twelve months. Get your dose, starting Boxing Day and running into the new year, three times a day––sunrise, noon, and sunset. Michael Redhill’s had a big year. His novel Consolation, in addition to being nominated for the Man Booker Prize......

A short but sweet season's greeting for you from some of CBC Toronto's mid-1970s personalities. Dig those frames on young Hana Gartner! The passage of time has made it hard to determine if the "oh yeah" was part of the original ad or a sarcastic comment by a previous reader. Note that two of the personalities featured in today's ad have passed away since last Christmas: longtime morning show host Bruce Smith and writer/activist......

In some households, hockey is a key element during the Christmas break. Skates under the tree. That long-desired California Golden Seals sweater from Santa. Fans that cannot be pulled away from the TV during holiday games and tournaments. Christmas songs recorded by a favourite player. We didn't make the last one up. There were people who believed that goaltender Johnny Bower had patrolled the net since the dawn of man, which wasn't far off......

Well, it's about time. Two years after launching downloadable television shows south of the border, Apple has finally flipped the switch here, albeit with a dearth of content. Single television episodes are available via iTunes for $1.99, and full seasons range from about $10–$30. Most of the shows currently available are for domestic productions, like CTV's Degrassi: The Next Generation and the CBC series Little Mosque on the Prairie, but non-Canadian shows, like South......

Each week, Torontoist examines the upcoming TV listings and makes note of programs that are entertaining, informative and of quality. Or, alternately, none of those. The result: Televisualist.......

First and foremost, we're going to warn you that the video above may not be safe for work, children, or the faint of heart. It's from the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board of Ontario's latest ad campaign. In the video, a young sweet sous-chef with her whole future ahead of her happens to slip on some grease, spilling a vat of boiling water all over herself and horribly scalding her face. While she's on......

At the Wellington Street entrance of the CBC Broadcast Centre, visitors of a certain age are met with some familiar sights from their childhoods: the treehouse from Mr. Dressup, a gang of puppets from Sesame Park, and the ratty but iconic Rusty and Jerome figures from The Friendly Giant. Now, the family of the Giant aren't feeling too friendly following a comedic skit shown during this year's Gemini Awards, and they are demanding the removal......