Hello. It is June 2 and it happens to be my 48th birthday, but that’s not why I’m posting today. Since yesterday, Weatheradio Canada has begun the transformation, from the old AVIPAD’s software, to i-Notify. In fact, here is the message as it had played during the RWT on the Winnipeg WXR last Wednesday. https://youtu.be/G0rptFhv9Bs
I’ve told you about both AVIPAD’s and i-Notify (As I understood them) in past posts and last Wednesday during the RWT message, it was advertised as a gentle reminder, rather than inserting it into the sequence as a public service announcement. From that, I was initially excited and so were others, because we would Potentially get to hear a bunch of new voices and if you are a long time reader, you know all four voices as I had described them in a post from August 2018.
As of yesterday I had learned that only two voices would be used, which has thrown away all potential, to make the broadcast more interesting and varied. In short, it’s an all male cast of characters and I found this out, because the Montreal WXR was switched over, at some point during yesterday, along with the rest of Quebec. Initially, I was excited to listen to the entire broadcast cycle in both languages and when I did, I realized that The females had been shut out. I live in Toronto and had heard the Montreal WXR as a live stream, from one of the weather apps I have inserted into the newsletter posts. Anyway, I digress.
Okay, I agree that the most important thing is to get Weather information out to the listeners but, you also want to keep listeners interested in what you are doing and what has happened, goes completely against that. Simply put, Weatheradio Canada sounds as boring and robotic as it did, before the switch and I will explain why I am very unhappy with this change.
First, let’s remember that we had four voices which were used in testing and we had two male voices and two female voices, which are all available for download if you have an Apple device. As a review they are: Tom, Nicholas, Ava and Chantal. It’s the first two voices which are what we hear now, with the ladies being left out. Why is that? Partly because of a survey which was conducted in August 2019, to see what people thought of all four voices. I will grant that some people didn’t like Ava, because of another radio service which makes her sound very muffled. Thankfully, we learned that on Weatheradio Canada, there was no such problem and she sounded Great, with no volume degradation. Unfortunately, it was the Announcement of the potential decommissioning of the 48 stations which had revealed this. With Chantal, there was no such problem and back in 2016, she was the French voice that was released as a sample, to a select bunch of people, along with Tom. Sadly, both her and Ava have been overlooked.
Another reason for the exclusion of the women is because of me. Okay, I should review something I had confessed in the last issue of the Weather Radio Listeners Newsletter. I had been asked which voices would be good to use for the station ID’s. I had suggested Tom and Nicolas, not knowing that they would be used for the launch of i-Notify and not just for WXR’s which had just been upgraded. The reason I had suggested the two male voices is because in the past, it was Tom and Chantal, which were used to announce the survey’s in 2018 and I felt and still feel, that if you are going to have 2 voices saying the same thing in 2 different languages, they should both be the same gender. Now that i-Notify is launching, I hope that at some point this year, we can change the ID’s to include Ava and Chantal, in order to include all 4 voices in the broadcast somehow. I didn’t mean for this to happen and I hope that the lady’s will be allowed to say a few words, during the cycle.
If you need a refresher on what all 4 voices sound like, here is a test cycle from 2017 and it features all 4 of them, as a part of it. https://youtu.be/Ihm5bNBD-4g
Now, let’s contrast that with how i-Notify has rolled out in Quebec and likely, throughout all of Canada in the comming months. https://youtu.be/gKGDn0UPFwU
Do you notice how boring the latter is, compared to the test cycle on the Winnipeg transmitter? Never mind the sound quality, never mind how awful the French sounds and think about how dull the broadcast is right now, because of the use of only two male voices, as opposed to using both male and female voices to perform various functions. For the most part, I had hoped that what we heard in the test message would be a part of the broadcast and there was some potential there, to make Weatheradio Canada sound interesting again. Unfortunately, the powers that be, had decided to make it as unlistenable as possible, essentially copying what NWR has done since 2016, with one English-speaking voice and one Spanish-speaking voice. In this case, the English speaker is male and the Spanish speaker is female, as opposed to having two males and two female voices on the broadcast. Like most people, I don’t like how NWR sounds either at this time and now, Weatheradio Canada has decided to stay as it was, rather than use everything they have been given, to make the broadcast interesting.
On the other hand, I love the time announcements at the end of the station ID’s and it saves me having to check my phone, when I need to know what time it is. I’ve mentioned this before but, I sleep with my WX radio on at night and I like to know what time it is, when I wake up and if I wake up, before my alarm goes off. I don’t like having to get up to check the time, only to find out that I have hours to go, before I have to get up.
Otherwise, i-Notify has let me down but, I feel this can change. If management are willing to hear me out and listen to what I think it should sound like in the future, there is potential to make it better and more engaging, while also saving lives and giving us the information we need, in order to plan our day. I don’t say what I have said, with any glee, because I love the service and I’m a volunteer, as well as a Long time listener. I’ve gone through the period when humans would read out the forecast, weather conditions, marine forecast and any watches or warnings issued, along with the synopsis. What made it exciting for me was to hear new voices, every so often and with AVIPAD’s, that has changed. Because of the limitations in the language, I had let it go. However, with i-Notify, it’s great to have much more flexibility, with the potential for watches, warnings and advisory statements being on the broadcast again. However, having only two voices in the broadcast is not enough and unfortunately, that’s why most people don’t listen to NWR as much as they used to, because of the lack of variety in the speaking voices. Also, no Tom and Donna either. Having only males is boring and I hope that some day, the ladies will get a turn to say something, besides any occasional announcements. Why not have them doing the marine forecast? After all, Donna did them on NWR, while Tom was the male voice. I also believe that the females should be doing the ID message, as opposed to the males doing everything. It would add more variety and let’s face it, a female voice is much more soothing and, they don’t have to be the bringer of bad news when simply giving the station ID. Besides, they’d provide more of a marker and if you hear them breaking up the monotony in the broadcast, you would hear them and depending on what their function would be, you would know how long it would take to hear the information you need to hear. For example: if the females did the station IDs, you would realize that it would be a transition from English to French. Or, if they were to do the marine forecasts and marine reports, you can look forward to what is next. With an only male cast, there is nothing interesting about the broadcast and no voice marker, except that the station ID is a sign of going from English to French. If it was only female voices on the broadcast, I would be saying much as I have said here, for the same reasons. I have always liked bands with more than one singer and that’s why I like a band such as Queen, or The Beatles. Even if all of the musicians provide their own distinctive voice to their instruments, along with an equally unique frontman, I like them. That’s where a band like Tool would come in. Anyway, I digress.
Do I hope that i-Notify becomes a failure? No! Do I wish for AVIPAD’s to stay on the network? No! Do I wish that all 4 voices were allowed to perform various functions, within the broadcast cycle on Weatheradio Canada? Yes! Will the broadcast as it is, grow on me? No, because of what I have said above and will say again.
I’m happy to have Tom back on Weatheradio but, he shouldn’t be the only English speaker on Weatheradio Canada. Just take a few listens to the test cycle from 2017 and you will see why I have posted here today. I also hope that the folks at Weatheradio Canada are listening and reading this and realize, that this comes from a long time listener, who knows all 4 voices well and knows what they are saying. I use either Tom or Ava, to speak various things on my iPhone and I enjoy going from one to the other, a apposed to having one voice reading out everything on the screen. After all, that could be why Apple had created a setting called “Activities” in the Accessibility settings and, for VoiceOver users on iPhones and iPads. If you have an Apple device, you can learn about what VoiceOver is and how it has helped myself and others who are blind and visually impaired navigate something with nothing but a screen.
To end off this post, let’s hope that by the time i-Notify has been installed across Canada by the end of 2021, that it sounds much better and with more voices on the broadcast. If it stays as it is now, I would rather keep AVIPAD’s and let it eventually die. Again, I don’t say this lightly and remember, this is coming from someone who has been loyal to Weatheradio Canada and has been looking forward, to i-Notify since I was given 2 voice samples in 2015.