Not to be left out, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation is prepping up its very own underground emergency bunker for the coming 'three day winter storm'...

Friday, November 26, 1999

Broadcasting live from underneath Saskatchewan...
CBC's Y2K disaster plan

Adam Killick
National Post

The CBC's fallout shelter near Watrous, Sask., has the call letters for Canadian Broadcasting Kelsey posted on the side of the building. Henry Kelsey was one of the first Europeans to explore the Prairies.

WATROUS, Sask. - The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation will be sending an on-air host and technician to an isolated Saskat-chewan transmitter site complete with fallout shelter for New Year's Eve in case Y2K problems cause a major breakdown in communications.

The site, near Watrous, used to function as the home of CBC radio for the Prairies before CBC Saskatchewan was moved to Regina after 1947. The fallout shelter was built several years later to protect staff should a nuclear attack be launched at Canada.

On Jan. 31, two people will be dispatched to the now-unstaffed site to broadcast survival information in case telephone lines and satellite communications from Regina, which is about 200 kilometres southwest from Watrous, break down.

"It's the ultimate, if everything fails," said John Calver, the executive producer of CBC radio in Saskatchewan. "That's our last defence if everything goes for a crap."

At the onset of the Cold War, the fallout shelter was built to ensure the public "mission critical" broadcaster could remain on the air following a nuclear attack. It has since fallen into disrepair, CBC officials said yesterday, although it is still accessible.

About five metres square, it was circulated with purified air, stored enough food for a month, and had a console so broadcasts could be sent out during a nuclear winter. It contained an astronaut-style suit so a technician could go outside for a brief period to fix mechanical problems, recalled Wayne Bjorndahl, a retired engineering supervisor who now lives in Regina.

The transmitter, which is still used for CBC Radio One transmissions, is powerful enough to send a signal as far as Thunder Bay, Ont., to the east and Calgary to the west. At night, it can frequently be picked up from California, said Mr. Calver.

Use of the Watrous transmitter site is just one of several contingency plans the CBC has for a Y2K meltdown, said Ruth-Ellen Soles, a CBC spokeswoman in Toronto. Other transmitters -- without fallout shelters -- will also be staffed, she said.

Mr. Bjorndahl, who worked in Watrous during the 1960s, said a locker in the shelter was filled with corned beef and ham. "About once a month, we'd eat it, go to the corner store and replace it with new tins. We felt we were going to be the ones eating it, anyway."

It is unlikely Ted Deller, a news reader "who drew the short straw," according to Mr. Calver, will have to make use of the shelter on New Year's Eve. "The paint's all peeling," said Mr. Bjorndahl, who still conducts tours of the facility, which has an art-deco look. "The only thing running around there is mice."

Nor will Mr. Deller have to resort to cans of Spam to survive. "He'll probably just pick up a pizza at the pizza parlour in town."

[ENDS]

-- John Whitley (jwhitley@inforamp.net), November 30, 1999

Answers

Holy shit.

That nuke stuff doesn't sound too Canadian if you as me. Do you have a URL John? I just can't imagine anyone ever worrying to much about nuking Saskabush :o).

One thing it broadcasts real clearly is CBC gets it. A pretty alarming article.

Hopefully they don't need it.

-- Brian (imager@home.com), November 30, 1999.

Don'tcha get a little ticked at all that tax money being spent on all those bunkers for a problem that 'they' say DOESN'T EXIST?

Taxpayer Kook

-- Y2Kook (Y2Kook@usa.net), November 30, 1999.

Clearly they ain't spendin a LOT of money if:

"It has since fallen into disrepair, CBC officials said yesterday, although it is still accessible. "

Chuck

-- Chuck, a night driver (rienzoo@en.com), November 30, 1999.

The URL is: http://www.nationalpost.com/npsearch.asp article #7

-- Val (vjones@cableestevan.com), November 30, 1999.

Long ago on this forum some SOB said he figured bombs intended for the U.S. could fall short and land on Canada. The concept is not totally unbelievable.

-- anonymous (this.time@lotus.land), November 30, 1999.

I would bet serious money that National Public Radio in the U-S does not have contigency plans like this. Or ABC, NBC, Mutual, USA, CBS or any other radio networks.

I know for a fact that the state radio networks behind the Cheddar Curtain, the Land of Lincoln, and around the Great Lakes don't have plans like this.

Bravo to the CBC.

-- Lara (nprbuff@hotmail.com), November 30, 1999.

Cool. Canada will stay on the air somehow.

-- can hear from california (tuning@in.new years), November 30, 1999.

Here's the correct link< /a>.

-- Steve (hartsman@ticon.net), November 30, 1999.

Close tag? Link works.

-- Steve (hartsman@ticon.net), November 30, 1999.

CNN has prepared a "bunker" in downtown Atlanta - completely independent with 30+ days of supplies and fuel ....

... that information from the technician who installed it....but you won't here that from Oprah.

Wonder if she will be on the air from Chicago - if the troubles can stop fresh water delivery there in two hours.....

-- Robert A. Cook, PE (Marietta, GA) (cook.r@csaatl.com), November 30, 1999.