Roger Gillespie

CBC will bring you the best of the Hamilton blog world

Thu, 10 May 2012 11:36:18 -0500

Roger Gillespie (left), and Paul Wilson. (Eric Foss/CBC).

One of the new frontiers we will bring you at CBC Hamilton is curation.

Early every morning we will comb through the digital world to bring you the best of Hamilton's bloggers and Tweeters.

So we will flag for you beautiful photography, strong commentary, video from around the city, the latest from the city's local sports groups and business, just to name a few.

We will bring you the best of the Hamilton blog world with writers as diverse as Brian Henley, who writes about Hamilton history, to Stephanie Trendocher and Jacklyn Warmington, more commonly know as Beaux Mondes.

Their beautifully crafted blog is described as something that began as a love letter to the city and has evolved into an inspiration board of people, places and things they love within it.

On the other hand, we will also bring you Hamilton Scores, a blog devoted exclusively to covering sport and athletes in and from Hamilton.

We will also give you the latest from the streets, whether that is a young man doing a Buddy Holly tribute out front of the Hamilton City Centre or a rollerblade along the Beach Strip.

Roger Gillespie is the Executive Producer of CBC Hamilton.

CBC Hamilton reunites two Hamilton news veterans

Thu, 26 Apr 2012 10:44:32 -0500

Watching a couple of middle aged guys hunched over Ola Cafe coffee in early January must have been a sight.

They sounded like kids.

There was excitement in the early morning air as Paul Wilson and I talked about possibilities.

I had just been hired as the Executive Producer for CBC Hamilton and my very first stop on my very first return visit to Hamilton was to a coffee shop with one of Hamilton's most enduring and endearing writers.

Paul and I have known each other for many, many years. How many I couldn't actually say.

But I have often recounted our months together more than a decade ago when I was the Spec's city editor and Paul worked beside me keeping a careful eye on the day-to-day work of Spec writers.

It was an unlikely job for a free-spirited writer, known for his spare but eloquent work about ''the rest of us.''

But then editor-in-chief Kirk Lapointe had a way of shaking things up.

Paul did hard time on the assignment desk for six months. I am convinced he hated the routine but he never said so.

His work was impeccable and everything was in its place, no assignment went astray or off the rails on Paul's watch.

But when his sentence was finally over he wrote a celebratory column singing the praises of being free to walk the streets any time of day instead of being tethered to a desk with a phone on it.

So I am thrilled beyond thrilled that Paul will be joining our little band on James Street North when CBC Hamilton launches.

He, like me, is a changed man.

The old dogs are learning new tricks of the trade and I am positive the new Paul Wilson will be even better than the one Hamilton grew to love -- no adore -- over the more than two decades he wrote columns about this city.

A decade after working side by side on the floor of the Hamilton Spectator, Streetbeat's Paul Wilson (right) and former city editor Roger Gillespie (left) are a team again.

Proud to live and work in Hamilton

Fri, 09 Mar 2012 10:16:30 -0500

Hello Hamilton. It is great to be back.

Taking on the new job of Executive Producer for CBC Hamilton brings me back to a city that has given so much to my life.

This is the place where I cut my teeth in journalism, learned the value of hard work and made many friends.

For 20 years, I covered the city from a desk in The Hamilton Spectator's newsroom where I began as a copy editor and went on to be city editor and then managing editor.

From early morning until late into the night, I was a witness to the rhythm of Steeltown.

If journalism is a first draft of history, Hamilton was at the centre of many unforgettable and now historic stories.

Stelco in bankruptcy protection, Dofasco sold, Plastimet, Red Hill Creek and then the expressway, the Lister Block, amalgamation, Tim Hortons, Tim Hortons, Tim Hortons, the Beach Strip, the Cactus Festival, Randle Reef, Around the Bay, Festival of Friends, Ticats, Bulldogs, AGH, Mac, Mohawk, the General, Innovation Park. What a fascinating place.

I lived and worked for a generation with the journalists on Frid Street from Mike Hanley and Teri Pecoskie to John Gibson and Cheryl Stepan.

One of my closest relationships was with my colleague on the city desk. You know him as the Spec's publisher.

Dana Robbins and I shared the trials and victories of the city for close to 15 years. We saw more of each other than we saw of our families and I am indebted to him for his friendship and wisdom. When I took on the job of Executive Producer, a courtesy trip to his office with its magnificent view was at the top of my list.

But much has changed in the almost five years since I left to work at the Toronto Star and my life at the Spec is past tense.

Early one morning in January I took a walk along James Street North, home to CBC Hamilton. It was not the street I remembered.

The city feels more vibrant, there is a sense of excitement, a hope perhaps, that the city has weathered the worst of a bad storm.

I stopped off for something warm at Mulberry Street Coffeehouse. It was early but I had a chocolate oatmeal cookie with my fair trade coffee just the same.

Less than two years old, Mulberry Street Coffeehouse is one of the new kids on the block. It has set up shop in the old Hotel Hamilton and lives happily alongside Vasco Da Gama Football Club, Gate of India, Morgenstern's, Lighthouse Fish Market and Central Billiards in a United Nations of establishments, so typical of the new James Street North.

We at CBC Hamilton are proud to be coming to work and live in this city and we are thrilled to be a part of the renewed downtown.

We know there are many questions about what we will offer and what we will do.

This is a show-me city. We know we will have to earn your trust and respect. We will do our best to earn them.

We know this city works hard for everything it gets and we are working hard to bring you the best we've got. We are confident we will do that.

Hamilton is not Toronto's little sister. Yes, we get that too.

CBC Hamilton is a continuation of the promise made by CBC in a five-year strategic plan. The service we offer will put CBC news and content at the finger tips of all Hamiltonians. This is a ground breaking service that will give you news, information and conversations about your city, when and how you want to use it.

We ask you to partner with us on the development of the next generation of local news and information delivery, one that uses the tools of the digital age to build and enhance Hamilton.

We hope you will join us.

Roger Gillespie is the executive producer of CBC Hamilton.

CBC Hamilton: Honouring the past with an eye to the future

Wed, 29 Feb 2012 12:29:40 -0500

When you walk in the door of CBC's new Hamilton location on 118 James Street North, it is hard not to be distracted by the past.

From the lovingly restored beveled glass transom to the rough cut wood floor and tin ceiling, the remnants of another era recall the grand history of Steeltown's downtown.

That a new kind of journalism will launch from the first floor of the former Dominion Furniture store symbolizes CBC Hamilton -- deep respect for the past but also a fresh face and eyes on the future.

CBC Hamilton will be unlike any other CBC location in Canada, based in a building with a 120-year past.

Along the front face of the building -- above the three 7-foot-five-inch by 7-foot windows -- sits a remarkable panel of restored beveled glass.

The panel was an unexpected find when the building underwent major restoration a couple of years ago.

In the early 1970s, the building's brick front and windows were covered over with white aluminum siding.

But in 2010, when workers peeled back the corrugated metal they uncovered a 20-metre stretch of decorative glass from the 1920s. The 900 glass panes were black from the passage of time. It took 400 hours of work by local craftsmen to bring the glass back to life.

In a recent story by The Spectator's Mark McNeil, glass restoration expert Larry Taylor explained the painstaking work.

"We took each panel down, wrapped it up in cellophane, numbered and documented it," Taylor told the Spec.

Taylor and his wife, Carolyn also took each panel apart, replaced the metal and scrubbed each piece of salvageable glass.

Maple floor dates back 120 years

The floor inside the 2,200-square-foot CBC office is even older than the glass above the front windows. The rough cut boards date back 120 years to the time the building was built. The wood is maple.

"It's an odd cut. Those cuts are not available anymore because the old growth forests are gone," says Bill Curran, one of the building owners and Principal of TCA Architects.

The floor bears the signature of the industrial era before concrete floors were used and you can see evidence of the movement of metal wheels and carts across it.

But if scarred wood is a sign of the building's connection to Hamilton's industrial history, the high tin ceiling is a link to the city's commercial boom years. Curran thinks the ceiling was probably part of a 1924 renovation.

"The ceiling is a sign of affluence, says Curran, whose 10-member team occupies the third floor of the building.

"At the time a tin ceiling was very expensive. Dominion Furniture was a high-end furniture store. It was a successful and long running store. They sold fine furniture to a well-heeled crowd."

The word "Toronto" stenciled in blue on the back sides of a few pieces indicates where the tiles were made.

The pressed tin has an ornate pattern and carefully considered Cornish trim.

"It showed affluence and a love of quality. There was a pride in creating a venerable business and showing it off," says Curran.

Another piece of the building's history is literally seared into the tin. A fire in the boiler room on the north side of the building many years ago was so hot many of the grey tin pieces turned bronze in the blaze.

The white paint on the ceiling tiles is being removed and another piece of the history of 118 James Street North will be displayed when CBC Hamilton opens its doors this spring.

Roger Gillespie is the executive producer of CBC Hamilton.

Inside a CBC Hamilton brainstorm

Thu, 23 Feb 2012 11:58:41 -0500

There is nothing new about the wisdom of crowds. If you want to build something original and also innovate, you bring together a diverse, smart group of people and invite them to take on the challenge.

So when some of the best minds at CBC got together for a one-day session to talk about Hamilton's new digital service, they came prepared. Ipads, laptops and modelling clay.

Yes, modelling clay. While the conversations went on, more than one leader decided to listen AND create art.

Rachel Nixon, Director of Digital Media for CBC News, used her plasticine to spell out the characters #HamOnt -- Twitter shorthand for anyone who tweets about Hamilton.

The art work aside, the big question of the day was: how can CBC best serve Hamilton with its new digital service?

We waded through the work of site developers, assessed the competition, sliced and diced research on what people in Hamilton say they want in a new service and traded views on the values that inform the work.

Everyone marvelled at the goals we have to meet -- to be brave and innovate -- and to make it happen fast.

It was also a day to pause and appreciate what the online team building the service had actually accomplished in a short time -- something ingenious and indescribably creative.

It was tiring and hard work, but everyone laughed a lot. Building a brand-new, never-been tried-before digital service means you figure something new out every hour.

The day ended with a few simple words to guide the work: innovate in news delivery, help build the online community and give people information that will help them through their day.

Not a bad list.

Roger Gillespie is the executive producer of CBC Hamilton.

CBC's first peek at 118 James Street North

Fri, 17 Feb 2012 10:50:22 -0500

Sanda Porteous, CBC News Deputy Managing Editor for Ontario and Roger Gillespie, CBC Hamilton Executive Producer, at CBC Hamilton headquarters. (Sheryl Nadler/CBC)

The Year of the Dragon was about to begin when many of the people working on the Hamilton digital service got their first look at the future home of the CBC in the city.

Perhaps it was a good omen, because the dragon is an auspicious symbol to the Chinese. It signifies success and happiness.

So what better time to launch a new digital service, the first of its kind for the CBC?

And what better place than in downtown Hamilton, in a restored building more than 120 years old?

We gathered over coffee on the third floor of 118 James Street North for a design charrette - a workshop led by architect Bill Curran.

We talked about a lot of things, things like mission and goals for the service, doorways and light.

There was consensus on one thing: the folks who will work at CBC Hamilton won the lottery. They will be the team that gets to get to call this office their own.

The CBC Toronto folks who were at the charrette like their home at the Broadcast Centre on Front Street near the Rogers Centre.

But everyone loves 118 James Street North.

CBC's home base in Hamilton

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 10:26:09 -0500

In a statement Feb. 8, CBC proudly announced its new Hamilton digital service will be located at 118 James Street North.

Today, CBC officially announced the location of its soon to be launched, Hamilton local digital service. Located at 118 James Street North, a street that is helping to lead the revival of downtown Hamilton, the new location will be home to CBC's next generation of local digital services, and be a centre of innovation for local services to come from the national public broadcaster.

"We're absolutely thrilled to have found such a remarkable home at the centre of Hamilton's growing arts, entertainment and design scene", said Susan Marjetti, Managing Director Toronto Region, CBC English services. "Being at the very heart of Hamilton has been our goal since we announced we'd be coming to the city, not only in the news and information we'll be providing but also in our deep desire to be an active part of this community. Having our bureau on James St. puts CBC where the action is and will only help us to cover the city when and how Hamiltonians want."

From its location in the former Dominion Furniture Store building, the new Hamilton service will provide an up to the minute, as well as a "look ahead", view, of local news, weather, events and other "need to know" information. It will connect Hamiltonians to their community at large and it will all be accessible through smartphones, desktop/laptop computers and tablet devices. The new service will launch this spring.