Students missing the dulcet tones of Andy Barrie when they turn on their radios first thing in the morning will be able to hear the CBC radio host on campus airwaves starting next week.

Barrie and a team of CBC producers and technicians from radio, television, and the cbc.ca website will be working with U of T’s CIUT 89.5 FM to produce and air a two-hour daily local morning program called Toronto Unlocked starting September 5 from 6 to 8 a.m. The program is expected to continue daily throughout the ongoing CBC lockout.

The public broadcaster locked out 5,500 employees belonging to the Canadian Media Guild on August 15 after negotiations for a new contract broke down. CMG members have been walking the picket line since, and some employees have started blogs and podcasts while CBC television and radio gets by on reruns and patched-together broadcasts.

Barrie, host of CBC Radio’s Metro Morning, Toronto’s top-rated morning show, will be joined by program regulars Jim Curran (traffic), Kevin Sylvester (sports), Jill Dempsey (news), and Here and Now’s Matt Galloway (entertainment) on Toronto Unlocked.

“The hundreds of thousands of people who depend on us every morning aren’t getting the show they deserve, since the CBC has locked us out. We miss our microphones and our listeners, and thank CIUT for letting us volunteer our services to do what we love best,” Barrie said in a statement.

The unique partnership with CIUT is being hailed as a new lease on life for CBC employees left dormant by the lockout. The collaboration is also beneficial for CIUT, as the community radio station may very well find itself in the position of having the top morning show in the city if enough of Metro Morning’s usual listeners tune in.

“CBC’s local morning programming had a huge audience and, to the credit of all involved, served a great public good. During this dispute, this audience is not being satisfied and the need for local information programming is not being met. Both CIUT and the CBC occupy public airwaves, so we are pleased that some CBC producers and technicians have volunteered to continue to provide local programming for listeners in Toronto on CIUT,” said CIUT station manager Brian Burchell.

The CBC and CMG resumed negotiations yesterday, but the two sides still have a long way to go before reaching an agreement, said CBC management spokesperson Jason MacDonald, explaining that about 40 key parts of the union’s contract with the broadcaster still need to be negotiated. The main issue at stake is job security.

MacDonald said CBC management has no issues with its employees working alongside CIUT during the lockout.

“Clearly our journalists all have a deep commitment to what they do… If they want to do those sorts of things while they’re locked out, they’re entitled to. But the focus needs to be on working towards an agreement… and getting back to doing the things we do (at CBC),” he said.

Canadian Media Guild spokesperson Arnold Amber is more effusive about the project, saying that similar partnerships are currently under way in Calgary and other cities across Canada. “When the CBC locked out 5,500 employees, it locked out an incredible number of talented people who love to broadcast, and it unleashed all this incredible energy and power, and we believe that it’s all to the good,” Amber said last night.

“If you’re a public broadcaster, you want to keep the voice of public broadcasting alive. We’re very happy and excited that they’re doing it.”

Toronto Unlocked begins airing on CIUT 89.5 FM Monday (Sept. 5) morning at 6 a.m. Stay tuned to The Varsity for an upcoming feature about your campus station and its newfound programming.