BY RICK PUSIAK
In days gone by staff at the private ratio stations in town were known to laugh when anyone talked about the chances of CBC owning the morning slot in the ratings book.
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The giggling died down significantly Friday.
And everybody at CBC Sudbury was grinning ear-to-ear.
For the first time in 20 years, CBC Sudbury is number one in this designated central market for the 6 am to 9 am period.
Â?ItÂ?s a big deal for us,Â? said Kelly McInnes, the program manager for CBC Radio in Northern Ontario.
She received the Bureau of Broadcast Measurement (BBM) data for the fall ratings period Thursday and promptly informed the staff.
Â?Everybody was ecstatic,Â? said McInnes.
Â?We had the director of (CBC) radio calling us, and calls from all over across Canada from our colleagues who were really excited.Â?
The downtown broadcast building on Mackenzie Street went into party mode and the celebration continued on-air the next day during the Morning North show hosted by Markus Schwabe along with news reader Ruth Reid.
CBC was the only radio station in Sudbury that subscribed to BBM for the fall book.
The other stations in town, however, were rated as part of the process.
McInnes said the numbers indicated the CBC morning show is No. 1 overall. The data was still being analyzed Friday, and she did not have exact figures.
Last fall CBC was number three.
Â?WeÂ?re constantly moving up in the fall period,Â? said McInnes. Â?We never hit No. 2. We went from third to No. 1.Â?
Part of the success of CBC Radio is owed to what McInnes called an amazing team of journalists. Over the past three years, the Sudbury station won three Radio Television News Directors Association (RTNDA) awards including best newscast in Central Canada for market size and best feature in Central Canada for a program on the Budd Car.
Â?WeÂ?re one of the few places thatÂ?covers stories from across Northern Ontario and also northwestern Ontario,Â? said McInnes.
ThereÂ?s another (CBC) station in Thunder Bay which we use. ItÂ?s a networked organization and strongly rooted in the communities which I think is important.Â?
McInnes said people are tuning in to 99.9 FM because they want to hear about whatÂ?s going on in their communities.
The CBC morning show also contains provincial and national news updates, analysis, features and breaking news.
Â?What weÂ?ve been doing differently is being more rooted in the communities, reflecting a lot of Northern Ontario stories that nobody else is covering sometimes,Â? said McInnes.
Â?And people like to hear about themselves.Â?
The last ratings period private radio stations in town took part in was the Apring 2002 book.
After the Z-103 sales department was let go in June and the job contracted out to the competing Rogers Radio Inc. station, a decision was made to opt out of ratings as a cost-saving measure.
