The End of the Long Dash

Now, I am very upset.

From Wikipedia:

The National Research Council Time Signal was Canada's longest running radio program, begun November 5, 1939 until its final broadcast on 9 October, 2023. Broadcast daily shortly before 13:00 Eastern Time across the CBC Radio One network, it lasted between 15 and 60 seconds, ending exactly at 13:00...The segment was discontinued in part due to concerns about accuracy as the CBC's feed is distributed over the internet and satellite as well as conventional radio.

Now, I know that most of you reading this might wonder why I am writing about this, but I became very used to waiting for the broadcast to approach one in the afternoon, hearing those four 'pips' over the air, and having the opportunity to sync up my watches or clocks if the batteries were low or a power surge passed through the home and I had to reset the time.

A reset... That is what it feels like. No one who grew up hearing that sound over many years can truly understand why they might like it. It feels like the relationship one might have with a church bell or the alarm of a local schoolyard. I am living without most of the amenities of our time related to television and film (only a pair of laptops and a turntable to accompany the radio), so I feel particularly annoyed by this. I would come home between classes and have lunch as the noise came in and I felt that I had passed a particular temporal line in the sand.

Am I taking this too personally? Oh, yes, very much so. After more than eighty years of this, I thought that the modern taxpayer-supported broadcaster would get the point and keep certain things that no one had complained about. And I realize now that I am not alone.

As I type this, CBC Radio One is in the middle of their Radio Noon broadcast, asking the public how they feel about this latest loss. And the anger is palpable. One woman complained that she used to play it for her dog and it was a part of her regular routine to get ready for her afternoon. One man who lived overseas said that he would go to bed late in order to hear that signal (he would head off to bed at 1 AM, no matter what he had planned for the next day).

From the Guardian: Like missing the series finale. (A big surprise for me, but I appreciated this one).

Some of these comments make me wonder if our national broadcaster is still listening to the ones paying their salary. We have all heard it. We all know more about its history than we ever did before (apparently Lorne 'Ben Cartwright' Greene was one of the original announcers of the signal; the laboratory in charge of the signal is based in Ottawa; there are two numbers - in French and English - where you can still get accurate information on the time of day, etc.), and there are other things happening on broadcasts that are far more important.

This I know... And I also know that we all like to have the sense that things will continue when we rely on them:

The National Research Council official time signal. The beginning of the long dash indicates exactly one o’clock, Eastern (Standard/Daylight Saving) Time.

Our longest running radio broadcast, folks.

It will be missed...

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You can find more poems, stories, and articles by Kendall Defoe on my Vocal profile. I complain, argue, provoke and create...just like everybody else.

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