Holiday: CBC Sounds of the Season 2009

CBC Metro Morning host Andy Barrie at left looked on as business reporter Michael Hlinka showed off his Santa tie during the Sounds of the Season broadcast on 4-December-2009

TORONTO, ONTARIO - This year's Sounds of the Season fundraiser for the Daily Bread Food Bank took place at the CBC headquarters building in Toronto, Ontario today. Since last year I had gone to see the live broadcast of the afternoon drive program Here and Now, this year I decided to get up much earlier than usual in order to get to the Glenn Gould studio in time to watch the morning drive program Metro Morning.


News reporter Jill Dempsey, sports reporter Scott Regehr, and traffic reporter Jim Curran prepared to deliver summaries after the 6 am edition of World Report on 4-December-2009

As Metro Morning is the show that I have been waking up to each weekday for more than three years, one of the attractions of going to the taping was the chance to see the people behind all those familiar voices. In addition to host Andy Barrie and the regular set of reporters including Jill Dempsey, Scott Regehr, Jim Curran, and Mary Weins, other CBC personalities dropped by including new World Report anchor Peter Armstrong and former Toronto weekend reporter Colin Butler.


Andy Barrie chatted with singer Matt Dusk during a news report as director Sonia Arab looked on during the Sounds of the Season broadcast on 4-December-2009

The draw for many people to come to Sounds of the Season is the musical performances. The headliner to many for Metro Morning this year was "crooner" Matt Dusk. Personally, though, I was more impressed with the native duo Digging Roots and Argentinian-Scot singer Alejandra Ribera, who not only were impressive artists but also symbolized the modern Toronto that Metro Morning claims to be trying to reflect.


Digging Roots performed during the Sounds of the Season broadcast of Metro Morning in Toronto on 4-December-2009

The whole point of the day was to raise money for the Daily Bread Food Bank. Several times during the program, Executive Director Gail Nyberg came out and read the latest value of funds raised off her hand. As of the last update issued in the afternoon, the Sounds of the Season had raised $115,000 for the Daily Bread Food Bank.


Daily Bread Food Bank Executive Director Gail Nyberg provided a fund-raising update during the CBC's Sounds of the Season on 4-December-2009

More photos from the Sounds of the Season will be presented in a future update to my photo site.