Behind the sounds at CBC Radio One’s Canadia: 2056

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Canadia: 2056Matt Watts, star and author of Canadia: 2056, has been nominated for the ACTRA Award for “Outstanding Performance – Voice” for his work on Canadia: 2056. Congrats Matt!

To celebrate, CBC’s released two short videos to the Canadia: 2056 website.

1. Sound Designer Anton Szabo shows the different sound qualities in the studio where Canadia: 2056 is recorded. |VIDEO|

2. The writer and series star Matt Watts talks about the creation of Canadia: 2056 was recorded. |VIDEO|

Next week’s episode is a good one…

Episode 6:
Written by David Tomlinson & Matt Watts
Air Dates: February 6th (repeats Feb. 8th)
“Anderson pines for Connie his first love. The crew loses the ability to navigate the ship when they are controlled by a cloud. The up side is that the cloud grants them wishes, the down side is that the cloud grants them wishes.”

Posted by Jesse Willis

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Canadia: 2056 now has an official website

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Canadia: 2056CBC Radio engineer, producer and director (The Adventures Of Apocalypse Al, Afghanada) Greg DeClute tells me that Canadia: 2056 now has a full fledged website!

Amongst the info already found there are an Episode Guide, a Cast List, and a Photo Gallery. DeClute says that later in January we can expect to see a “Canadia: 2056 contest” and a “behind the scenes video of the making of the show”!

And here’s a link back to our listening guide for U.S. listeners.

Posted by Jesse Willis

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Canadia: 2056 Volume 1 on CD available for order

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Canadia: 2056 is available for order at the CBC Store online today (unfortunately its not cheap at $49.95 CDN)! My suggestion, ask your local library to bring one as there is no foreseeable podcast version coming.

Canadia: 2056 by Matt Watts

Canadia: 2056
By Matt Watts; Perfomed by a full cast
5 CDs – Approx. 5 Hours [RADIO DRAMA]
Publisher: CBC Audio
Published: January 21, 2008
Product ID: ERART00217
This entertaining sci-fi comedy series is written by one of Canada’s best-loved comedy writers, Matt Watts. The United States has launched an armada to destroy an alien threat. Canada sends the nation’s only publicly-funded spacecraft, The Canadia – a ship with a single purpose – to plunge the Americans’ toilets

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CBC Radio One has Canadia: 2056 Season 1, Episode 1 Today!

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CBC Radio One - Canadia: 2056 by Matt WattsCBC Radio One is re-broadcasting the first episode of the first season of its Science Fiction / Comedy radio drama series Canadia: 2056 today! Tune in Wednesday, January 2nd 2008 at 11:05PM (this episode will repeat on Friday January 4th at 11:30AM). Don’t know how to hear the show? If you’re in Canada, tune your radio to the appointed station at the appointed time. If you’re outside of Canada or just want to time shift a bit, click on over to the Streaming Radio Map for CBC Radio One.

If you didn’t hear Canadia: 2056‘s first season the first time around do please tune in, you’ll be glad you did. Still a bit skeptical? Check out the Wikipedia entry for the show. Or have a listen to the three promos HERE.

Here’s my intro to show #1:

Episode 1: Getting the replacement parts to leave Earth orbit is harder than getting episodes of the hot TV series Foxy Chalet (”the best Canadian show the Americans ever made”).

UPDATE: Someone asked how to “time-shift listen”, if we ignore Newfoundland (sorry Newfoundland) time zones are pretty easy to figure out across Canada. Just subtract 1 hour as you head West across Canada from the East coast. If you are in New York, NY you’re in the same Time Zone as Toronto, ONT (EST). If you’re in Los Angeles, CA, you’re in the same time zone as Vancouver, BC (PTZ). And of course you need to pick the city appropriate to your time-shifted choice on the Streaming Radio Map to hear it…

Listening Times And Places For The Eastern Time Zone (Ex. NEW YORK, NY):
12:05PM on the HALIFAX CBC RADIO ONE station (ATLANTIC TIME ZONE)
11:05PM on the Toronto CBC RADIO ONE station (EASTERN TIME ZONE)
10:05PM on the Winnipeg CBC Radio ONE station (CENTRAL TIME ZONE)
9:05PM on the Calgary CBC RADIO ONE station (MOUNTAIN TIME ZONE)
8:05PM on the Vancouver CBC RADIO ONE station (PACIFIC TIME ZONE)

Listening Times And Places For The Central Time Zone (Ex. MINNEAPOLIS, MN):
9:05PM on the HALIFAX CBC RADIO ONE station (ATLANTIC TIME ZONE)
10:05PM on the Toronto CBC RADIO ONE station (EASTERN TIME ZONE)
11:05PM on the Winnipeg CBC Radio ONE station (CENTRAL TIME ZONE)
12:05PM on the Calgary CBC RADIO ONE station (MOUNTAIN TIME ZONE)
1:05PM on the Vancouver CBC RADIO ONE station (PACIFIC TIME ZONE)

Listening Times And Places For The Mountain Time Zone (Ex. SALT LAKE CITY, UT):
8:05PM on the HALIFAX CBC RADIO ONE station (ATLANTIC TIME ZONE)
9:05PM on the Toronto CBC RADIO ONE station (EASTERN TIME ZONE)
10:05PM on the Winnipeg CBC Radio ONE station (CENTRAL TIME ZONE)
11:05PM on the Calgary CBC RADIO ONE station (MOUNTAIN TIME ZONE)
12:05PM on the Vancouver CBC RADIO ONE station (PACIFIC TIME ZONE)

Listening Times And Places For The Pacific Time Zone (Ex. LOS ANGELES, CA):
7:05PM on the HALIFAX CBC RADIO ONE station (ATLANTIC TIME ZONE)
8:05PM on the Toronto CBC RADIO ONE station (EASTERN TIME ZONE)
9:05PM on the Winnipeg CBC Radio ONE station (CENTRAL TIME ZONE)
10:05PM on the Calgary CBC RADIO ONE station (MOUNTAIN TIME ZONE)
11:05PM on the Vancouver CBC RADIO ONE station (PACIFIC TIME ZONE)

North American Time Zones

Posted by Jesse Willis

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CBC Radio One begins re-airing Canadia: 2056

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Canadia 2056Matt Watts, long silent (hard at work), has posted some welcome news on his blog

Canadia: 2056

If you notice a complete lack of publicity surrounding a show – if you hear or read absolutely nothing at all about a particular program – the chances are that it’s premiering within a matter of days. It’s CBC Radio’s anti-publicity campaign, their ‘publicity-nouveau’ if you will. If you think about it, it really challenges the listener to ‘discover’ programming. It’s rather brilliant and progressive, actually.

“Our silence and lack of acknowledgment indicates that some thing is about to happen… Maybe.”

But, for the neophobes who can’t get on board with this whole “anti-publicity” fad, and for those who have duly noted that the CBC Program schedule says that Afghanada is still airing on the 2nd of January:

Canadia: 2056 starts airing on Wednesday. Yes, this Wednesday, January 2nd at 11:05PM, repeat on Friday January 4th at 11:30AM. The first season will run through until March, and then the second season (the episodes we’re currently writing/recording) will begin airing.

Also, for those of you enquiring about CD’s of the first season: I think it’s safe to assume at this point that they will not be available for Christmas. I’m assured that they will be available for pre-order by the time the show starts airing on Wednesday… But if you go by my convoluted logic regarding the publicity for the show – if you don’t order the CD’s at all, they will arrive on your doorstep sometime last week.

As for podcasting… Don’t even ask. It’s hopeless at this point. The idea of downloading any radio drama from the CBC website looks like it’ll probably happen around the time digital media is considered out-dated and archaic. Incidentally, I tried to get the phrase ‘now available on the compact disc format!’ on the cover of the CD’s, but they didn’t go for it.

We’re halfway through recording the new season, which I’m really enjoying writing. Although the focus is primarily the characters and their relationships, we’re pushing the SF story-lines as far as we can… For the record, if you think I’ve stolen something from either Douglas Adams or Grant Naylor, it’s an homage…

Not theft.

(Fine, I ‘borrowed’ some ideas… But at least I ADMIT IT!)”

Cool! I’ll be tuning in for the re-running of Season One. Listeners outside of Canada will have to make due with the online listening service provided through the CBC Radio One site. It really pisses me off that CBC can’t get their act together when it comes to podcasting their in-house radio drama. Its the ideal format for the stuff.

We’ll be talking more about Canadia: 2056 as Season Two approaches.

Posted by Jesse Willis

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CBC Canada Reads and Nalo Hopkinson

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CBC Radio One - Canada Reads 2008Canada Reads is relatively new tradition in Canada. An annual ‘battle of the books’ competition, it is organized and broadcast by CBC Radio One. During the week of February 25-29, 2008, for the first time, CBC’ll be podcasting the shows and you’ll be able to subscribe here. In the 2008 batch there’s one Science Fiction title. Brown Girl In The Ring by Nalo Hopkinson.

Listen to Canada Reads producer Ann Jansen talking to Nalo Hopkinson about it |WMV|.

Listen to Nalo reading a two minute excerpt from her novel |WMV|.

Keep track of the battle on the official site.

Also, I wrote a review of the audiobook back in 2004. Check it out HERE.

Posted by Jesse Willis

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