It’s been quite a year, with me starting out settling down into being retired only to have that blow up in March when the Saskatchewan Government announced it was going to shut down SCN where I worked for 20 years before I retired in April of ‘09. A lot of people were quite annoyed at this idea so the government decided to try to sell the station instead and I got pulled into the Bluepoint Investment corporation by their promises to spend real money every year on Saskatchewan programming produced by the independent production sector if they bought the station.

On June 30th, Bluepoint took over the assets of SCN, and began running the station on behalf of the government, using the old broadcasting licence until the CRTC could deal with our application to transfer it to Bluepoint with some changes in the Conditions of Licence (COL’s). On Thursday, Dec 23rd, the CRTC granted Bluepoint the licence to take over and operate SCN, which is pretty exciting stuff.

I told the Bluepoint folks right from the start that I wasn’t looking for a full time job or a new career and they’ve been very good at respecting this – mostly. Sometimes it’s been very busy but other times it hasn’t.
Better yet, they took my suggestion to make Joanne McDonald the station manager and she’s been doing a fabulous job. Best of all, she keeps coming to my office and sending me home to nap or off to play golf!

I could go on and on about the Bluepoint/SCN stuff, but that starts sounding a lot like work which is not what I had planned for today. Let’s just saying it’s pretty interesting though, becoming a private broadcaster.

I’ve also managed to squeeze in a couple of adventures, including a great trip to Seattle and Vancouver last August. I’d had a very busy spring with the SCN/bluepoint project and was glad to be able to take a little time off in August to go out to the west coast and catch up with friends.

Richard at the helm

My adventures began in Seattle where I spent a couple of days with an old high school chum who just bought a half share in a brand new custom built 43′ Tartan sailboat. They have some pretty ambitious travel plans for the boat, but right now they are just getting used to it, so we got to play for a day on Puget sound. They also introduced me to a lovely Japanese garden on what I believe is the grounds of the University of Washington.

Japanese Garden

And then it was off to Vancouver where I got to visit with lots of friends and enjoy some fabulous weather. My adventures really started with a trip to the top of Mount Seymour to try to see some Perseid meteors on what was supposed to be the peak night for the meteor shower – we did see some some but we weren’t overwhelmed. Then it was off to the Burnaby Blues and Roots festival where they had a fabulous line-up including Taj Mahol, Little Miss Higgins and Serena Ryder

Serena Ryder at the Burnaby Blues and Roots festival, 2010

I did a whole bunch of other cool stuff on that trip and have lots of pictures, but if I try to put everything in I’ll never get this finished so you’ll have to take my word for it or go to my flikr page (Richard in Regina :http://www.flickr.com/) to see more.

18th hole at Moon Lake

I also got to spend time and play golf with friends around the province this year, and with my limited Bluepoint schedule I was even able to spend some time driving out in the country. That’s where the Oh Lucky man part comes from, because I realize this is a great place to be and I have been very fortunate in how things have worked out so far, or maybe it’s just that I figure any day I wake up is already a pretty good day.

2010 has been a pretty interesting year, and I expect 2011 to be more of the same.

As many of you already know, the CRTC has “gazetted” the Bluepoint Investment Corporation’s application to transfer and make some changes to the broadcast licence for SCN.

In March, the Government of Saskatchewan announced as part of the new provincial budget that it intended to shut down SCN, the province’s educational television broadcaster. Many people were quite upset about this and made enough noise that the government decided to try to sell the station instead. At the end of a very intense process, the Bluepoint Investment Corporation of Oakville Ontario bought and took over the operation of SCN at the end of June. Because the government of Saskatchewan has made it very clear that they will not provide any funding to run SCN, Bluepoint has asked the CRTC to change SCN’s broadcast licence so that it can air commercials, and commercial friendly programming in the evening portion of the schedule. Bluepoint intends to maintain the focus on educational, community and children’s programming during the day.

Had Bluepoint not stepped in, SCN would have been shut down at the end of June, and any benefit to the province and the province’s film and video production community would have been lost. Instead, Bluepoint has promised to spend, on average $1.75 million a year with Saskatchewan producers on Saskatchewan productions, and an additional on average $1.0 million per year in the Saskatchewan production community on “digital elements” (stuff for the web, mobile and other evolving digital mediums). In addition, Bluepoint has committed to use SCN’s CMF (Canadian Media Fund) envelope of almost $1.0 million per year to support Saskatchewan programming.

While I understand that some people are not happy with the idea of SCN becoming a commercial broadcaster in prime time, I believe that this is the best possible outcome given the government’s decision. As I see it, this outcome brings three separate benefits to Saskatchewan that would otherwise be lost were SCN to go dark.

The Bluepoint commitment over a seven year licence term would have a direct value to the Saskatchewan film, television and digital media community of over $25 million (provided SCN’s CMF envelope remains at a similar level to what it is now). This does not take into consideration additional leverage values such as tax credits, sponsorships and other broadcaster licenses.

The Bluepoint purchase of SCN means that 15 to 20 jobs will be created/maintained in Saskatchewan in the operation of the station.

Finally, Bluepoint’s commitment to maintain SCN will mean that Saskatchewan will have a broadcaster that is accessible to local and regional producers with a commitment to acquire and air local and regional programming.

However, in order for all this to happen, Bluepoint must get the CRTC’s approval for it’s licence application. This application is a matter of public record and the public has the opportunity to review and comment on the application until Oct 27th. The application is available for public review at SCN’s offices in the CBC building in Regina at 2440 Broad Street, and on line on the CRTC’s website (www.crtc.gc.ca)(CRTC application 2010-1379-7)

I would urge you all to participate in the public process and let the CRTC know that you support Bluepoint’s SCN application. In order for your letter to count, you must send a copy to both the CRTC and to SCN/Bluepoint by Oct 27th. Your letter must include the application number CRTC Application 2010-1379-7, and you must indicate in your opening paragraph if you support or oppose the application. SCN has posted more information on how to write and submit an ‘intervention” (your letter) on its web site (www.scn.ca), and I hope you will take a few minutes to go through the information and then let the CRTC know how you feel about this matter.

If you have any questions about Bluepoint’s SCN application, you can contact either Joanne McDonald or myself at SCN (306 787 0002) or by email: joanne.mcdonald@scn.ca or richard.gustin@scn.ca.

Thank you

Richard Gustin
SCN/Bluepoint Project Manager

Hand drawn SCN logo

Bluepoint’s founder and CEO, Bruce Claassen was in Regina in July for a press conference, a tour of SCN, and a chance to start to meet with Saskatchewan government and industry leaders. (you can find more information on Claassen’s visit at SCN’s website: www.scn.ca)

Bruce Claassen, owner of Bluepoint Investments speaks to the press in Regina

Claassen was accompanied by Marcus Gurske, who is handling SCN/Bluepoint’s communications and community engagement, and Karen Shack, Bluepoint’s CFO who is responsible for overseeing the integration of SCN and Bluepoint and ensuring the station is is set up and running in a proper businesslike fashion.

Right now, SCN is being run by 4 people, all former SCN employees. Joanne McDonald is the acting station manager, Dallas Brown is running Master Control, Christa Huntley is handling traffic and Bradd Rap is in charge of technology, networks and computers. We have been helped out by Jim Johns who came in to deal with some computer network and telephone issues, and by Dave Stanchuk and our friends at SaskTel.

It’s great hearing from all our friends and supporters out there, but until we go through the CRTC licensing process we are unable to accept proposals, buy anything (including pre-liceses) or make commitments with SCN’s CMF envelope.

Bluepoint has submitted an application to, and is dialoguing with the CRTC regarding the potential transfer SCN’s broadcast licence to Bluepoint. We are requesting some changes, such as be allowed to run commercials in prime time (like ACCESS Alberta and Tele Quebec do) so that we have a cash flow to keep the station running and work with the local production community. We hope that our application will posted on the Commission’s web site soon along with information on how to submit letters of support or opposition (”interventions”), and time lines for a possible hearing.

I get a sense that the CRTC is working hard to fit SCN into an already very busy fall schedule and am hopeful that we can get past this waiting phase and start to make some stuff happen. It was just this past spring that we all thought SCN was dead, so Bluepoint and the Commission are both still scrambling to get all the pieces in place to try to make this work. Normally a deal like this takes something like 18 – 24 months to pull together and get licenced, so we all should appreciate the effort the CRTC is making to expedite this.

Once the application becomes a public document and the hearing process is announced, we will let you know and will be much better able to share information and talk with you all about the new SCN.

In the meantime, thanks for you patience and support.

Richard Gustin
Project Manager
SCN/Bluepoint

SCN logo

To members of SCN Matters

July 9, 2010

Week one SCN update

Hi there

I know you all want to know what is happening with SCN and Bluepoint so here is a first week update.

The Bluepoint Investment Corporation of Oakville Ontario closed the deal with the Government of Saskatchewan and took control of SCN the afternoon of June 30th. Until the CRTC can deal with Bluepoint’s application to transfer SCN’s Broadcast Licence, Bluepoint will be operating SCN on contract to the outgoing SCN Board of Directors and the Government of Saskatchewan.

I am very pleased to announce that Joanne McDonald has joined the SCN/Bluepoint team as the interim station manager. As well, Bluepoint has contracted several other previous SCN employees to help operate SCN during the interim period. This interim crew has been operating SCN for over a week now and is pleased to report that there have been no operational problems during this period

Until the CRTC deals with the Bluepoint licence transfer application, Bluepoint can make no changes to SCN’s on-air look and cannot acquire any new programming or make any commitments to producers for new productions. In the coming weeks we will be holding meetings and trying to talk with as many of you as possible about our plans for the new SCN and for the Saskatchewan production community.

Anyone who has a project underway that has a signed contract with the old SCN should refer to the SaskFilm News Release of June 30th which confirms that SaskFilm will be responsible for fulfilling all of SCN’s financial and business obligations as per the SCN contracts with producers. SCN/Bluepoint will broadcast all completed and technically accepted productions and ensure that broadcast obligations for things like the CTF and CAVCO will be met.

As mentioned earlier, Bluepoint looks forward to meeting with as many of you as possible and will be seeking your support for our licence application. I know many of you are frustrated with the events at SCN these past few months, and want this matter resolved so that SCN continues to be a part of the community and we can get back to work. We hope the CRTC will see fit to address our application in a timely fashion and interested parties may want to let the CRTC know that members of the Saskatchewan production community and others would appreciate an expeditious resolution to this matter.

We look forward to meeting and working with you, and want to thank you all for your patience and good wishes.

Richard Gustin
SCN Project Manager
Bluepoint Investment Corporation

Hand drawn SCN logo

I want to start by thanking all of you for working so hard to let everyone know how important SCN has been to our community. Thank you for saying the metrics used to justify the closing of the service were wrong and thank you to the audience who appreciated what SCN was trying to do.

I have been lured out of retirement by a private company that has the balls to believe in, and be willing to invest in Saskatchewan productions. SCN Matters has been saying that telling local and regional stories is important so I have teamed up with people who think a viable business can be built doing exactly that. We are committed to maintaining a Saskatchewan spend of at least the average of what SCN spent on local programming for the past several years and to continue to use the majority of SCN’s CMF envelope on Saskatchewan content. We are committed to trying to maintain as much of the essence of SCN as possible.

However, the money to do all this, and keep SCN on the air, has to come from somewhere so it is Bluepoint’s intention to commercialize portions of SCN’s schedule. We would love to do this with Saskatchewan produced content but this may not always be possible. It will be up to the local production community to show that they are up to the challenge of proving that local programming isn’t just “crap”, in the words of Alberta’s Minister of Culture. It will be up to local audiences to come to SCN in sufficient numbers to bring the advertising to support our efforts, and it is up to the management and staff of the new SCN to build a schedule that is true to what we believe SCN is about.

SCN has not been saved – Bluepoint Investments has given us the chance to work to save SCN. Now the really hard part begins, and we look forward to working with you to make this happen. We are just putting our local team in place but over the next little while we want to start a dialogue with you on how to we can make this work in all of our interests.

Richard Gustin
SCN Project Manger
Bluepoint Investments Inc.

It’s been a frantic week or so here in Saskatchewan as a result of the provincial government shutting down SCN, our provincial public educational television service. I will be posting a longer piece on this shortly, but for the sake of this post, let me just say that although I retired from SCN last April, the announcement has caused me a great flurry of activity, meetings, phone calls, emails, and so forth.

Spring on Wascana Creek

It was very apparent to me that I needed to take a break and since it was a lovely afternoon I decided to go for a walk. As I started to get ready I noticed that I hadn’t charged my blackberry in a couple of days and it was getting close to needing to be charged. At first I thought that I’d have to remember to charge it when I got back but then I thought “Why not charge it while I’m out for my walk?”

I was planning to walk briskly for an hour or so and cover several km, so the decision to leave the device at home meant I’d be out of the loop for the last working hour of the day in Ottawa and Toronto where a lot of my message traffic was coming from. At first I felt a little guilty but then a voice in my head said “hey dummy, you’re retired – no one is paying you to be available all the time” so I set out without it. The only technology I took with me was a little digital point and shoot camera which I take everywhere.

At the end of our block is a wonderful park that has a creek running through it which is big enough that it can be broken up in a number of different ways for walking. I’d been cooped up indoors in meetings or on the phone and computer most of the week and was pretty eager to get out and enjoy the nice weather. But when I got to the park, out in the open I became very aware of my lack of connectivity. Not only could no one contact me, but I also couldn’t contact anyone, and I found this some what uncomfortable.

For much of my life I seem to have gravitated to activities which involved me spending a lot of time on my own without the benefit of instant access so I thought I was used to it. I guess that was because I’d never had the sort of connectivity I got used to at SCN so I didn’t know what I was missing. In 2001 SCN got a new CEO from Toronto (David Debono), who had the first Blackberry I’d ever seen, and who decided that I should have one too (so he could keep tabs on me I suspect). And ever since “blackie” has been my constant companion.

I had a taste of being off line a couple of years ago when I spent a month in New Zealand where my old blackberry didn’t work. I ended up buying a cheap prepaid cell phone so at least I could send and receive text messages and emergency phone calls. But now here I was in the midst of a “crisis” without my Blackberry – what was I supposed to do?

I went for my long walk, took some pictures, and discovered that the world seems to work just fine even if I didn’t have my blackberry. Thank you world.

Spring sky in Regina

Ruth Gustin, 96, Middletown, Connecticut

Mom had always been pretty independent and had gone out to live on her own after finishing school. She worked as a medical secretary at one of the first “modern” mental health hospitals prior to marrying dad around 1939. After dad died in 1986 she lived quite happily in Florida by herself for 15 years until a fall and a broken arm convinced her to move back to New England where two of my sisters lived.

My sisters were great and mom did not want for care, company or friends. We could see the end coming so I was able to go down and spend time with her in December. We had a good time visiting and talking, and continued to talk on the phone every day after I came back to Saskatchewan for Christmas. All in all, I couldn’t have asked for a better exit for her, and for this I am extraordinarily grateful. What did surprise me was that in spite of my thinking that I was prepared for her death, how her last couple of months just took over and became the focus of my world, to the point of other things just falling to the wayside until this was finished.

Now she is gone, and my world is returning to normal. although I am keenly aware of the void that exists where the idea of mom used to be. This changes my whole sense of family. I’m not alone, as several of my friends are going through, or have recently gone through their own version of this drama. My three sisters live in the eastern United States, so they are not as close as I would sometimes like, but I’m pleased because of how other “families” show up in our lives as required.

It’s interesting how we become connected to the people in our lives. Sometimes you can see it coming or want it to happen, but there are other times when you find that someone you just sort of collected on the way becomes more and more important or special. For me one of these people is Magorie Towstego from Saskatoon.

Margorie Towstego and Richard Gustin

Isn’t it strange and interesting and wonderful that we can invent these new families. Tomorrow we celebrate spring with our annual easter feast, and expect around 20 people to show up to eat and drink and enjoy each other’s company. They are all our friends, but may not see each other except at the three times a year we do something like this. And thus we become each others cousins and aunts and uncles

I hope you all are enjoying your families, both the ones you are stuck with, and the ones you make up.

Applause for SCN

A sad day – Today was the last day for most of the staff at SCN, which for almost 20 years was Saskatchewan’s educational public broadcaster. Between 250 and 300 people came down to the SCN offices in Regina’s CBC building to show their support and say thank you to the staff of SCN.

What was most galling to the crowd was the way that the deed was done, with no consultation and apparently very little planning that seems to have involved any knowledge or understanding of how the broadcasting system works or is regulated. The government claims it wants to sell SCN and its licence but they seem to be intent on beating it to death first, and just as quickly as possible. However in their haste the government appears to have cut several regulatory corners and is now in danger of being called to the carpet by the CRTC.

Brett Bell tells it like it is

The regulations are very clear that a province can only run any kind of a broadcasting system through a corporation with an independent board of directors, free from government control. The government went about planning and implementing the shutdown without the knowledge or approval of the old board, and then replaced them all with a new board chaired by the Deputy Minister of Tourism, Parks, Culture and Recreation who does not qualify as independent.

There is lots of crashing and banging going on right now, but there’s no way we can bring SCN back. We can hope the government gets their knuckles rapped and with a little luck perhaps we can arrange for something newer which will serve our needs better. I’m crossing my fingers.

Why does this stuff keep finding me?

In spite of not being in the market for a 4×5 camera (I already had, and still have, a perfectly functional Crown Graphic) about two years ago I got a call from a guy who was trying to give away a Linhof studio camera stand. I immediately got my hopes up that it might be a tall pedestal and went to look. It wasn’t, and ended up being a low studio stand with a kidney shaped tool tray. I really didn’t have any use for it but the guy said if I didn’t take it he was just gonna throw it out, and once I agreed I’d take it he produces the camera system that went on it – A complete Linhof monorail studio camera with both 4×5 and 5×7 bellows and rear standards so it could be used as either a 4×5 or 5×7 camera. It isn’t in the best of condition but somehow he convinced it was worth the $40 I gave him for it.

Linhof and stand

It didn’t have a lens and although I have a very nice 90mm Angulon on the Crown Graphic, it wasn’t what the new camera needed, and since then I’d been looking in a somewhat lethargic fashion for a lens in the 160 – 250 mm range. My search speeded up a while ago when I stumbled over an Omega D-5 XL Chromega colour enlarger and power supply with 3 lenses, 6 neg carriers, easels and a set of tanks and hangers for processing 4×5 film all of which needed rescuing.

This meant that the only missing link to getting the Linhof working was a lens so last week I broke down and bought a good lens, a 210mm f5.6 Symmar S that I had originally bought new in about 1983 when I had a photography studio. When the studio closed in 1986, the lens was one of the secured assets which was liquidated. I’ve known where it was ever since and that it had been kept clean and properly stored, so when it was offered back to me at a fair price I knew it was time to give the Linhof a chance, or at least the potential of a chance.

But the big problem is that this stuff keeps finding me. But that’s another story, or at least part of the story. So if you behave, perhaps I’ll tell you more about my adventures trying to tame the junk in the studio.

Buddha ponders life's journey as exemplified by the long suffering ball

As I get older, it seems more and more people I know are turning to golf as a way of pretending that they are going out and exercising. Over the past several years I’ve watched many people set out to play a relaxing round of golf only to be reduced to a naked ball of quivering frustration and anger, and I must admit here that I have been one of those on one or two occasions.

So when I read about Tiger’s Buddhism at his media event on Friday, it struck me that this might be a way to golf salvation. Close your eyes and Imagine if you will, your favorite golf course inhabited by mellow foursomes of brightly robed happy Buddhist golfers enjoying the game for what it is and not what they want it to be. Now imagine yourself as a member of one of these foursomes and being able to enjoy every moment of the game and the day.

So the first step towards playing Buddhist golf is to remain calm and play the game as it comes, not as you want.

The following evening I came across a documentary on one of the HiDef channels about a Buddhist monastery in Thailand that has 17 tigers living among the monks and the other animals. According to the show, man is not the only animal that can reach enlightenment – Buddhists believe that horses, cows, water buffalo, elephants and tigers can also attain this state and so are spiritual fellow travelers who deserve to live and wander around the monastery.

So eventually, to play truly enlightened golf, we’d need a course which we could share with some of the other spirit traveling animals, and perhaps have little places to meditate at each tee before our tee shots. As I ponder this a bit more, I start to realise that perhaps what is required to make this happen is the establishment of a Buddhist Golf Association (BGA), and as a first step in this direction I am thinking about starting the Saskatchewan Branch of the Buddhist Golf Association (SBGA). The trouble is that I keep getting sidetracked into thinking about what Buddhist golf apparel would look like.

Therefore I need to take a time out and think about this – perhaps it will keep me occupied until spring comes and I can play outdoors. But if you’re still really bored and need something to ponder, what would the little meditation stations look like?