There's controversy brewing around CBC's Hockey Night in Canada Anthem Challenge, and it doesn't even involve "Hockey Scores"! Every weekday this past week, a new semi-finalist has been unveiled on The Hour, and the competition's down to "Canadian Gold" by Colin Oberst, "Sticks to the Ice" by Robert Fraser Burke, "Eleventh Hour" by Graham McRae, "Let The Game Begin" by Jimmy Tanaka, and "Ice Warriors" by Gerry Mosby. (For what it's worth, "Hockey Scores"......

Every weekday morning, bright and early, we feature a photo (or two) from a photographer in the Torontoist Flickr Pool. It's our way of giving the many excellent photographers in our pool the attention they deserve. Making of CBC "The Border" BY INSIGHT IMAGING......

Photo by Gardinergirl from the Torontoist Flickr Pool. The upcoming election provokes many reactions—fear, anger, and apathy—but very little laughter. Instead, political comedy flows from south of the border, where shows like Saturday Night Live, The Daily Show, and The Colbert Report lampoon the absurdities in their own election, alongside late night talk shows and the unintentionally funny 24/7 EVERYTHING! IS! NEWS! cable news broadcasts. At home, most of the comedy shows won't start......

Kudos to the designer of today's featured ad, which successfully imitates the look and feel of one of the most successful new magazine launches of the 1970s to promote a longtime Toronto wake-up call, CBC Radio's Metro Morning. Time Inc.'s attempt to package a personality-driven magazine with better research than existing scandal-focused publications resulted in People turning a profit within 18 months of its March 1974 debut. Managing editor Richard B. Stolley felt that......

Every Saturday morning, Historicist looks back at the events, places, and characters—good and bad—that have shaped Toronto into the city we know today. Advertisement for CBLT's first night on the air. The Toronto Star, September 8, 1952 Once upon a time, Toronto television viewers had to rely on transmissions from south of the border to watch regular programming. While there had been homegrown demonstrations of the technology at venues like the Canadian National Exhibition from......

On Wednesday, Condoleezza Rice gave a press conference about the South Ossetia war, taking the opportunity to gently chastise Russia on behalf of the American government for not ending military operations in the region. The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, like many other news organizations, had a live feed from the White House to televisions across Canada during the conference—that is, until the feed got knocked out mid-question, just as a reporter was comparing Russia's moves......

It's hard to disagree with the wisdom attributed to New York Sun editor John B. Bogart, that "When a dog bites a man, that is not news, because it happens so often. But if a man bites a dog, that is news." And if a man bites another man? Depends. And if a man eats (even a part of) another man? In that regard, we have to respectfully differ from the CBC. The other......

CBC's How Do You Solve A Problem Like Maria? concludes tonight at 8 p.m. when either Elicia Mackenzie of Vancouver or Janna Polzin of Woodstock will be chosen by the public—over 650,000 Canadians—to spend October as the star of The Sound of Music, yodelling in the Princess of Wales theatre. The show, imported from Britain where a Maria was similarly found, is a hit for the CBC, which must be a relief since the network......

Going by popularity, the song above is the front-runner for the CBC's Hockey Night in Canada Anthem Challenge. Titled "Hockey Scores" and created by Logan Aube from Aurora, it is the most viewed, top rated, and most commented-on submission of over 1,000 themes entered thus far. Described by Aube as "a beautiful theme encompassing the heart of hockey," it is absolutely and irrefutably atrocious, a million times worse than the iconic Hockey Night in......

With summer now officially upon us, some of our fair city's citizens face an age-old dilemma: stay in the city for the weekend or flee to the cottage. Families who choose the latter are then faced with the prospect of entertaining themselves in the midst of gridlock and curveballs tossed by the weather deities. Enter CBC's network of repeater stations to keep family members safe from each other's throats and help them avoid the......

Eight people face 101 charges in an ATM scam which allegedly involved placing equipment on bank machines to steal customer PINs and data. Hey, you know what the real scam is? Paying service charges to get my own money out of the bank! Am I right, folks? Huh? Am I right? Thanks, you've been a great audience. CBC is reportedly considering using the Stompin' Tom Connors classic tune "The Hockey Game" as the new......

Hey, CBC—you wanna come over to Torontoist's house and play a little Texas Hold 'Em sometime? CBC got called on their Hockey Night in Canada bluff today as rival CTV announced that they've struck a deal for the rights to the HNIC signature tune. The news comes four days after the kind-of public broadcaster announced they were pulling out of negotiations for the storied 40-year-old theme, and mere hours after they suggested that they......

If you can complete that lyric, then you need to be at the Royal Cinema next Tuesday to unabashedly sing along to a special screening of The Sound of Music. The CBC is hosting the event to celebrate next weekend's debut of How Do You Solve A Problem Like Maria?, the new series that seeks to cast the lead role of Maria von Trapp in the upcoming staging of The Sound of Music, produced by......

It suddenly gets hot today with a forecast high temperature of 32º, meaning newspapers are required by law to run daily photos of people frolicking in fountains. Sprinklers are also acceptable, provided a dog is included in the shot. Union members angry about the impending job cuts at GM in Oshawa are blockading the entrance to the plant, and CAW President Buzz Hargrove is threatening a strike. The latter would prevent GM from paying......

Ask a group of people who their favourite cook is, and many will choose their grandmother. Eschewing contemporary trends like pre-packaged mixes and powdered stock, many a Nonna, Bubbe, or Oma still warms the tummies of their families with a taste of the old country, which no restaurant can duplicate as accurately. Enter Swiss culture thinker Laurent Haug with one of those "why didn't I think of that" ideas—book a restaurant, invite somone's Nana into......

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......