CBC Radio 3 is a Canadian digital radio station operated by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, which plays a relatively freeform mix of indie rock, indie pop, alternative hip hop, folk, country and electronic music.
The service, which launched in 2005 as a station on Sirius Satellite Radio, evolved out of programming on CBC Radio 2 (now CBC Music), which also simulcasted Radio 3 on Saturday and Sunday nights from December 2005 until March 17, 2007. The station was formerly available online from CBC's website"CBC digital music service launched". CBC News, February 13, 2012. and iTunes Radio, but geographical restrictions were in place to prevent access outside of Canada. The French-language equivalent to Radio 3 was Bande à part.
The network's primary studio was located in the CBC Regional Broadcast Centre in Vancouver, although guest hosts typically hosted from an alternate CBC studio in their home city.
An article on Nerve.com, published in October 2006, called CBC Radio 3 "possibly the world's best radio station".
In October 2022, CBC Radio 3 was dropped from SiriusXM, but remains available as a playlist through CBC Listen.Richie Assaly,"‘Final nail in the coffin’: Why SiriusXM dropping CBC Radio 3 is ‘potentially catastrophic’ for Canadian artists" . Archived December 10, 2023. From the original, Toronto Star, October 25, 2022.
History Origins and launch (late 1990s–2005) Operated by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Radio 3 had its genesis in a late-1990s proposal to launch a radio network devoted to youth culture, comparable to BBC Radio 1 and Australia's Triple J."CBC Radio 3: the definitive timeline". CBC Music, March 27, 2015. The network, which would complement CBC Radio One and CBC Radio 2, would build on existing CBC Radio programming such as Night Lines, Brave New Waves and RealTime. The original plan was codenamed "Clubhouse" and was developed by Susan Englebert, Robert Ouimet, Anton Leo and C. William Smith. The CBC filed an application with the CRTC to launch the network in 1998,"CBC Radio 3 dead, says newspaper". Edmonton Journal, November 26, 1999. but later asked the CRTC to defer consideration of its application.
A precursor to Radio 3 started in 1997, when Nightlines and RealTime were merged into the new program RadioSonic, cohosted by former Nightlines host David Wisdom and former RealTime host Leora Kornfeld.
The current incarnation of Radio 3 was launched in 2000 as a converged webcasting project based in Vancouver,"Hottest music now on cool web radio". The Province, January 17, 2001. with its own servers and managed by CBC Radio. The team consisted of Susan Englebert,Fiona Morrow, "Obituary: Susan Englebert, Broadcaster 1946–2006, The Globe and Mail, November 15, 2006. Robert Ouimet, Dave Tonner, Loc Dao, Rob McLaughlin and other partners. CBC Radio 3 initially launched separate sites 120 Seconds, New Music Canada and Just Concerts through a collaboration between CBC Radio, media design company Dotaku Group, and technology company Internet Edge. Each provided audio, video and Flash content as media-on-demand streaming for site users. 120 Seconds was a directory of user and artist-created video and documentary projects, New Music Canada was composed entirely of user-created and uploaded music by Canadian independent pop, rock, electronic and hip hop musicians, and Just Concerts included exclusive recordings of live performances by independent artists, both regular concert performances and Radio 3 studio sessions. The first musician to create an artist profile on the site was rapper Classified. Roots Music Canada was later added to the trio of websites, and offered songs uploaded by country and folk musicians.
In 2001, Grant Lawrence became the host of RadioSonic.
In late 2002, the group, led by Robert Ouimet and Rob McLaughlin, created CBCRadio3.com, a full-screen online magazine which profiled Canadian music, literature and visual arts, accompanied by a set musical playlist which changed with each "issue"."CBC's new Radio 3 goes to the Net". The Province, February 9, 2003. The site also served as a portal to the other content sites. The site was recognized internationally, winning three Webby Awards, including People's Voice Award for Best Broadband site, in 2003."The Webby Awards". The Telegram, June 13, 2003. The site won over 20 other awards, including the Art Director's Club, New York Festival Awards and Communication Arts Awards, as well as being published in several books. By this time, the site was averaging 5.5 million page views per month."Pump up the volume, hue and brightness". Toronto Star, August 23, 2003.
In 2003, RadioSonic was integrated into the Radio 3 project, and was renamed CBC Radio 3 to reflect the change."Indie music and beyond". The Globe and Mail, January 19, 2004. With new host Alexis Mazurin, the program featured music and performances from the Radio 3 website.
On June 2, 2005, Radio 3 also launched a weekly podcast, hosted by Grant Lawrence."Choice of listening gets wider for iPod owners". Vancouver Sun, June 11, 2005. The hour-long podcast, which has also aired as a program on the satellite radio network, has ranked as the most downloaded Canadian podcast on the Internet, with an estimated 125,000 weekly listeners in 2006.Radio 3 Canada’s most popular podcast – CBC podcast host Lawrence introduces new Canadian music , UWO Gazette, November 9, 2006.
Launch on satellite radio (2005–2007) Satellite radio was approved in Canada by the CRTC on June 18, 2005. Over the next several months, Radio 3 was relaunched as a channel on Sirius Satellite Radio."CBC plans to beam up Radio 3". The Globe and Mail, November 2, 2005. The main CBC Radio 3 site was shut down for part of 2005 to facilitate the relaunch, although the podcast, the media-on-demand subsites and the Saturday night Radio Two program remained active.
The satellite radio service launched on December 3, 2005, at which time the weekend program on CBC Radio 2 became a live simulcast of the satellite radio service. The main CBC Radio 3 website was relaunched a few days earlier, now featuring a collaborative music blog and an Icecast stream of Canadian music.
Mazurin, the original host of CBC Radio 3 in its radio show format, died in October 2005,"Broadcaster, comic Alexis Mazurin dies at 27: CBC Radio 3 loses rising star". Vancouver Sun, October 22, 2005. and the main Vancouver studio was named the Alexis Mazurin Studio in his memory.
In August 2006, Radio 3 launched its own weekly chart show, The R3-30. Originally hosted by Craig Norris until he left the network to join CBC Radio's new outlet for Kitchener-Waterloo, CBLA-FM-2, in 2013, the program was then taken over by Lana Gay.
On December 25, 2006, CBC Radio 3 held its first annual "Bucky Awards". The Bucky Awards were an awards celebration to promote independent Canadian music, and fans voted on the winners in each category.Welcome to the First Annual Bucky Awards cbc.ca
The station aired on Sirius 94 from its launch until June 24, 2008, when it moved to Sirius 86 as part of a major realignment of the Sirius lineup.
Radio 3 leaves Radio Two (2007) On January 17, 2007, the CBC announced that as part of a major programming realignment on CBC Radio 2, that network would discontinue its Radio 3 simulcast in March of that year."CBC courting younger ears with changes; More Cancon, jazz and indie may not make up for other programming cuts, one critic says". Toronto Star, March 19, 2007. The final simulcast, which aired on March 17, was a retrospective broadcast which included past interviews with William Shatner and John Lydon, visits from past hosts David Wisdom and Leora Kornfeld, phone interviews with Buck 65, Joel Plaskett, Sara Quin and Jim Bryson, and live in-studio performances by John K. Samson and Christine Fellows, as well as listener requests for classic songs from any era in which Radio 3 or its predecessors aired.
The R3-30, which was usually taped in advance and rebroadcast on Radio Two in a later time slot, also aired live from Vancouver that evening and incorporated listener phone calls into the program's usual format.
Later changes On May 4, 2011, the channel was again moved as part of a reorganization of Sirius' channel lineup to channel 152. On May 9, 2013 the channel was moved to channel 162 and was also launched on XM.
The channel was removed from SiriusXM effective October 1, 2022.
Concerts As well as the on-air studio sessions, the network also regularly sponsored public concerts in music venues. The network also broadcast the annual Polaris Music Prize gala.
The Connect the Dots Tour in 2004 featured a different lineup of bands in each city, including p:ano, Ninja High School, The Russian Futurists, Young and Sexy, The Unicorns, The Super Friendz, Lederhosen Lucil, Dragon Fli Empire and controller.controller."CBC Radio walks on wild side". Toronto Star, May 7, 2004.
Tour Tournée in the winter of 2006, jointly sponsored by CBC Radio 3 and Bande à part, included bands such as Wintersleep, Two Hours Traffic, Konflit Dramatik, Hexes and Ohs, Great Aunt Ida, Shout Out Out Out Out, Novillero, Les Breastfeeders, SS Cardiacs, Les Dales Hawerchuk, Pony Up! and The Deadly Snakes."8 free concerts across Canada - February 23-March 11, 2006". Canada NewsWire, February 8, 2006. Each of the eight locations had a different lineup of predominantly local bands, and at least one francophone band performed at each venue. On October 1, 2006, Radio 3 and Bande à part again jointly sponsored See Vous Play, a show in Toronto featuring Les Breastfeeders, Emily Haines and the Soft Skeleton, Les Trois Accords and The Joel Plaskett Emergency."Québécois bands hit Rest Of Canada". The Globe and Mail, December 2, 2006.
Also in October, the network was a sponsor of the Exclaim! Mint Road Show, a cross-Canada tour featuring The New Pornographers, Immaculate Machine and Novillero to celebrate the 15th birthdays of Exclaim!, a Canadian music magazine, and Mint Records, a Vancouver independent record label.
CBC Radio 3 was also the sponsor of a nationwide tour in March and April 2007 featuring The Constantines and Jon-Rae and the River. The tour also featured Shotgun & Jaybird for the Eastern Canada portion of the tour while Ladyhawk toured for the Western Canadian portion of the tour.
On April 27, 2007, CBC Radio 3 and Bande à part jointly presented Quebec Scene, an Ottawa concert featuring The Stills, The Besnard Lakes, Karkwa and Mahjor Bidet."Sounds great, in any language; Francophone music groups are finding accepting audiences outside La Belle Province". Ottawa Citizen, April 23, 2007.
On June 9, 2007, as a part of the annual NXNE festival, CBC Radio 3 presented a concert in Toronto featuring United Steel Workers of Montreal, Ohbijou, Sebastien Grainger et Les Montagnes, You Say Party, In-Flight Safety and Two Hours Traffic.CBC Radio 3 Presents a NXNE Showcase Spectacular at Toronto's Horseshoe Tavern cbc.ca .
In 2008, the network sponsored and broadcast several live shows at the South by Southwest festival in Austin, Texas, including performances by Basia Bulat, The Constantines, The Most Serene Republic, The Stills, Shout Out Louds, Christine Fellows, Grand Analog and Hot Springs.
The network's live broadcast from the 2009 NXNE festival featured Woodpigeon, DD/MM/YYYY, Ruby Coast, Jason Collett, Hot Panda and The Lovely Feathers."Radio 3 Coming to you Live from NxNE!" cbc.ca , June 16, 2009.
In 2011, they sponsored Victoria's Rifflandia Music Festival Side Stage at Royal Athletic Park, featuring Jon Middleton of Jon and Roy, Besnard Lakes, Jakarta, Hollerado, and USS.Rifflandia Music Festivalcbc.ca
Multimedia activities Webcast