CBC a welcome addition to Waterloo region media

Among student journalists, you’d be hard pressed to find those who aren’t fans of, or have some kind of reverence, for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC). And with little fanfare last week it was announced that the CBC will, at some point in the next year, open a bureau in our corner of southern Ontario.

Producing radio content from Kitchener-Waterloo, the CBC will add some much-needed variety to an often-lacking media landscape in our community.

Aside from the Waterloo Region Record daily newspaper, 570 News radio and the student newspapers produced and distributed in relatively small quantities around Waterloo, there is very little media content available that is directly focused on this community of upwards of 500,000 people. Few media voices means that new and part-time residents of the area are often detached from the goings on — that is unless they read The Cord.

So, of course The Cord Editorial Board supports this decision. Waterloo Region is a rapidly growing urban area with endlessly newsworthy things going on. The bigger question more pertinent to students at Wilfrid Laurier University and the University of Waterloo is what this move means for them.

We can only hope that the presence of the CBC and the familiarity with its work shared by most Canadians will serve to build a stronger awareness of the community that the 40,000 young people at the universities inhabit for a four-year stretch.

—The Cord Editorial Board