Backhoe knocks CBC Iqaluit off the air

Listeners to CBC North in Iqaluit heard nothing but static after about 8:15 on Tuesday morning, with dead air continuing until after the Nunatsiaq News press-time Wedensday afternoon.

That’s because a backhoe operator accidentally dug up and severed the transmission line that runs from the CBC’s transmission building to their antenna, found at the “antennae farm” across from the dump, said Pat Nagle, area manager for CBC North in Nunavut.

The accident only affects the CBC radio service in Iqaluit. Listeners in Nunavut’s communities continued to hear CBC broadcasts as usual, Nagle said.

Workers were on their way up from Ottawa on Wednesday afternoon to fix the severed cable. Nagle said he hoped the problem would be fixed by 5 p.m., after the deadline of Nunatsiaq News this week.

In Iqaluit, the CBC station received plenty of calls from confused listeners, Nagle said.

“It’s hard, when you can’t go on the radio to tell people,” he said.