WEBVTT

00:00:01.689 --> 00:00:05.009
They're shutting down a literal lifeline, right?

00:00:05.150 --> 00:00:09.490
As the world is getting more fragile, not less.

00:00:11.910 --> 00:00:14.490
Canada is about to pull the plug on its national

00:00:14.490 --> 00:00:20.070
VHF weather radio service. And, you know, if

00:00:20.070 --> 00:00:23.870
that sentence doesn't bother you, it probably

00:00:23.870 --> 00:00:26.850
means your power hasn't been out long enough

00:00:26.850 --> 00:00:36.229
lately. So here's the here's the basic setup

00:00:36.229 --> 00:00:41.130
for this one. Canada has its own. You know, it

00:00:41.130 --> 00:00:45.390
has this system called Weather Radio Canada.

00:00:46.390 --> 00:00:49.710
It's their version of NOAA Weather Radio here

00:00:49.710 --> 00:00:53.990
in the United States, about 225 VHF transmitters

00:00:53.990 --> 00:00:55.869
scattered around the country, blasting weather

00:00:55.869 --> 00:01:02.090
forecasts and alerts on those familiar 162 megahertz

00:01:02.090 --> 00:01:09.000
channels. Think about it, 162 .4, 162 .55, the

00:01:09.000 --> 00:01:11.760
same neighborhood as the US stuff. Your cheap

00:01:11.760 --> 00:01:14.319
little weather radio from Walgreens can scan

00:01:14.319 --> 00:01:19.040
through. It's been around since the 1970s. It

00:01:19.040 --> 00:01:22.659
added the... The same tones just like we did

00:01:22.659 --> 00:01:26.560
back in the early 2000s and it sits there 24

00:01:26.560 --> 00:01:29.739
-7 quietly doing its thing while nobody thinks

00:01:29.739 --> 00:01:33.099
about it unless the sky turns that weird green

00:01:33.099 --> 00:01:38.540
color. And now Environment and Climate Change

00:01:38.540 --> 00:01:41.700
Canada has decided that they are done with it.

00:01:42.459 --> 00:01:45.299
They're shutting off the Weather Radio Canada

00:01:45.299 --> 00:01:49.840
service and they're also killing the Hello Weather

00:01:49.840 --> 00:01:53.359
phone line. It's an old school number you could

00:01:53.359 --> 00:01:58.939
call to hear an actual forecast with an official

00:01:58.939 --> 00:02:03.180
shutdown date of March 16th, which it's not that

00:02:03.180 --> 00:02:07.099
far away. The transmitters and the infrastructure,

00:02:07.099 --> 00:02:10.759
they don't vanish that day, but they're slated

00:02:10.759 --> 00:02:13.300
to be fully decommissioned over the next couple

00:02:13.300 --> 00:02:20.500
years. The justification for all this? is, well,

00:02:21.039 --> 00:02:25.560
predictable. Rising maintenance cost, age and

00:02:25.560 --> 00:02:31.900
equipment, and quote, more modern and widely

00:02:31.900 --> 00:02:37.379
available technologies unquote. Like apps, websites,

00:02:38.139 --> 00:02:41.360
and the alert -ready system on phones and TV.

00:02:42.099 --> 00:02:47.939
On paper, that sounds logical, right? On the

00:02:47.939 --> 00:02:53.099
ground, in bad weather, it sounds like wishful

00:02:53.099 --> 00:02:57.520
thinking. Let me anchor this down into what's

00:02:57.520 --> 00:03:02.020
happening here in Wisconsin this weekend. We're

00:03:02.020 --> 00:03:04.919
staring down another big winter storm. That's,

00:03:04.919 --> 00:03:09.639
you know, pretty normal for us. But the pattern

00:03:09.639 --> 00:03:12.680
isn't. We're going to have big swings. We're

00:03:12.680 --> 00:03:14.419
going to have ice. We're going to have wet, heavy

00:03:14.419 --> 00:03:18.860
snow, wind. Power crews already tired from the

00:03:18.860 --> 00:03:22.039
last one you start mentally tracing the failure

00:03:22.039 --> 00:03:29.340
tree We got power goes down cell backup You know

00:03:29.340 --> 00:03:32.360
the backhaul goes down or the backup goes, you

00:03:32.360 --> 00:03:34.620
know the backhaul. That's what I mean the cell

00:03:34.620 --> 00:03:39.159
backhaul hiccups a couple towers Lose their UPS

00:03:39.159 --> 00:03:41.639
or their generator. Don't come back online after

00:03:41.639 --> 00:03:45.719
the power is out. Maybe fiber goes down above

00:03:45.719 --> 00:03:48.599
ground fiber runs get taken out by a tree branch

00:03:48.599 --> 00:03:52.500
and Suddenly the point is this you know suddenly

00:03:52.500 --> 00:03:57.699
all those modern and widely available technologies

00:03:57.699 --> 00:04:04.159
start looking a little less robust when you work

00:04:04.159 --> 00:04:07.419
an RF or broadcast like I have for as long as

00:04:07.419 --> 00:04:11.159
I have you see how quickly the shiny stuff falls

00:04:11.159 --> 00:04:19.139
apart once The power flickers a few times. A

00:04:19.139 --> 00:04:24.040
weather website is one power strip away from

00:04:24.040 --> 00:04:29.120
being useless. A push notification is one overloaded

00:04:29.120 --> 00:04:33.139
LTE sector away from never arriving. A mobile

00:04:33.139 --> 00:04:37.220
app is one dead phone battery away from, ah,

00:04:37.480 --> 00:04:42.139
I guess we just look outside then. Meanwhile,

00:04:42.509 --> 00:04:45.170
You can pick up a $30 weather radio and a pair

00:04:45.170 --> 00:04:50.449
of AA batteries and they'll happily sit in the

00:04:50.449 --> 00:04:55.730
kitchen. They'll sit in that kitchen drawer for

00:04:55.730 --> 00:04:58.069
five years and then scream at you when the same

00:04:58.069 --> 00:05:02.069
header hits. That's the difference though with

00:05:02.069 --> 00:05:06.110
that weather radio and the pair of AA batteries

00:05:06.110 --> 00:05:08.410
sitting over there quietly in the corner in the

00:05:08.410 --> 00:05:12.209
kitchen or in that drawer wherever. It'll alert

00:05:12.209 --> 00:05:16.750
you if something is on the way. That is the difference

00:05:16.750 --> 00:05:22.689
the Canadian government is basically saying we

00:05:22.689 --> 00:05:26.529
have alert ready now we have the apps we have

00:05:26.529 --> 00:05:30.290
the web we don't need this old RF dinosaur even

00:05:30.290 --> 00:05:34.269
though Cell phones are also using RF, but I guess

00:05:34.269 --> 00:05:38.589
we won't get into that right now and sure alert

00:05:38.589 --> 00:05:42.379
ready is a good thing It shoves emergency alerts

00:05:42.379 --> 00:05:45.579
on the phones and into broadcast programming

00:05:45.579 --> 00:05:50.480
up in Canada, but it is not the same kind of

00:05:50.480 --> 00:05:53.500
resilience as a dumb VHF carrier coming from

00:05:53.500 --> 00:05:58.860
a hilltop often with backup power and a lot less

00:05:58.860 --> 00:06:06.560
dependencies. One is a layered stack of vendors,

00:06:06.839 --> 00:06:10.689
backhaul software and Power budgets the other

00:06:10.689 --> 00:06:15.209
is a transmitter an antenna generator Maybe a

00:06:15.209 --> 00:06:17.009
little computer system or even a mic if you want

00:06:17.009 --> 00:06:22.069
to get a real human involved and go Guess which

00:06:22.069 --> 00:06:25.949
one I trust in a blizzard or a tornado or a hurricane

00:06:25.949 --> 00:06:31.589
Let's talk about who actually loses here it's

00:06:31.589 --> 00:06:36.610
easy to frame this as Royal or remote or the

00:06:36.610 --> 00:06:42.649
north and yes folks in the territories and way

00:06:42.649 --> 00:06:45.250
up in northern communities get hit the hardest

00:06:45.250 --> 00:06:49.449
out of all this. They're the ones who have the

00:06:49.449 --> 00:06:53.329
least reliable connectivity, the longest power

00:06:53.329 --> 00:06:56.009
restoration times and the most to lose from missing

00:06:56.009 --> 00:07:01.069
a storm or a blizzard warning or whatever Canada's

00:07:01.069 --> 00:07:06.360
equivalent is. But it's not just them. There

00:07:06.360 --> 00:07:09.720
are people in cities who rely on this thing and

00:07:09.720 --> 00:07:14.139
don't realize it think older folks who bought

00:07:14.139 --> 00:07:18.379
a same capable weather radio years ago and just

00:07:18.379 --> 00:07:22.560
expect it to Shriek make that noise when something

00:07:22.560 --> 00:07:29.519
is wrong farmers truckers fishers and People

00:07:29.519 --> 00:07:34.199
on the road who keep a radio in the cab A lot

00:07:34.199 --> 00:07:37.899
of CB radios and ham radios and GMRS radios have

00:07:37.899 --> 00:07:40.259
weather bands built into them for that kind of

00:07:40.259 --> 00:07:44.000
stuff. Small community stations, local services,

00:07:44.399 --> 00:07:48.519
even volunteer fire or SAR groups that quietly

00:07:48.519 --> 00:07:53.459
treat weather radio as a backup feed. Those pockets

00:07:53.459 --> 00:07:56.920
still exist regardless of what the Canadian government

00:07:56.920 --> 00:08:02.100
thinks otherwise. And the whole point of a national

00:08:02.100 --> 00:08:06.420
public safety network is that you don't find

00:08:06.420 --> 00:08:09.740
out who depended on it by turning it off and

00:08:09.740 --> 00:08:15.620
seeing who gets hurt. The argument from the government

00:08:15.620 --> 00:08:19.860
is basically the coverage. It's patchy. The system

00:08:19.860 --> 00:08:23.019
is old and the number of listeners is low compared

00:08:23.019 --> 00:08:27.120
to the population with smartphones. All true.

00:08:28.519 --> 00:08:35.269
Probably. You know that logic misses why this

00:08:35.269 --> 00:08:37.730
stuff exists in the first place. Redundancy is

00:08:37.730 --> 00:08:43.950
not supposed to win a popularity contest against

00:08:43.950 --> 00:08:46.809
the cell carriers. It's supposed to be there

00:08:46.809 --> 00:08:54.429
when the popular option fails. You can't stare

00:08:54.429 --> 00:08:57.830
at a graph that says 90 % of people get the mobile

00:08:57.830 --> 00:09:01.309
alert. and call it a day, say, ah, we're done

00:09:01.309 --> 00:09:06.610
here. You have to care about the other 10%. Because

00:09:06.610 --> 00:09:09.730
if we're going to be honest, it's often the most

00:09:09.730 --> 00:09:14.929
vulnerable geographically and economically who

00:09:14.929 --> 00:09:20.750
fall in that gap. There's also this weird cultural

00:09:20.750 --> 00:09:24.769
blind spot we have now. If something isn't shiny,

00:09:25.029 --> 00:09:29.200
app -driven and analytics friendly, It gets treated

00:09:29.200 --> 00:09:33.460
as obsolete, and I'm sick and tired of it. VHF

00:09:33.460 --> 00:09:38.320
weather radio? It's not sexy, obviously. There's

00:09:38.320 --> 00:09:42.340
no growth curve. No monthly active user slide.

00:09:43.120 --> 00:09:48.600
No engagement to show a minister and a deck.

00:09:49.000 --> 00:09:54.620
It's just RF. It's a... Flip a switch broadcast

00:09:54.620 --> 00:09:58.019
to everybody in a huge range. No subscription.

00:09:58.179 --> 00:10:01.720
No targeting no logins and Somewhere along the

00:10:01.720 --> 00:10:07.200
way we decided this model is old -fashioned instead

00:10:07.200 --> 00:10:11.679
of realizing it's one of the only communication

00:10:11.679 --> 00:10:17.340
tools we have that doesn't collapse under load

00:10:17.340 --> 00:10:24.820
I Think about it all the time You know and You

00:10:24.820 --> 00:10:27.820
also, you know, I think about all the work we

00:10:27.820 --> 00:10:32.100
do in Broadcasting here on this side of the border

00:10:32.100 --> 00:10:35.899
in the United States To keep signals up under

00:10:35.899 --> 00:10:41.460
terrible conditions backup generators fuel contracts

00:10:41.460 --> 00:10:46.840
battery banks redundant STL paths and then watch

00:10:46.840 --> 00:10:50.480
a county voluntarily walk away from a network

00:10:50.759 --> 00:10:54.379
that has those properties in favor of pushing

00:10:54.379 --> 00:10:57.559
alerts through infrastructure that inherently

00:10:57.559 --> 00:11:05.340
it has proven more fragile. It's insane. Especially

00:11:05.340 --> 00:11:10.100
in 2026, when we're talking more and more about

00:11:10.100 --> 00:11:16.659
climate change, extreme weather, wildfire smoke,

00:11:17.700 --> 00:11:21.230
atmospheric rivers, Whatever new term we're inventing

00:11:21.230 --> 00:11:25.690
this week to explain why it rained a lot, it

00:11:25.690 --> 00:11:28.750
doesn't feel dramatic enough. You'd think, hey,

00:11:28.769 --> 00:11:33.990
maybe don't decommission resilient national weather

00:11:33.990 --> 00:11:39.230
warning systems right now. Would be the low hanging

00:11:39.230 --> 00:11:46.210
fruit of climate adaption. Apparently not. The

00:11:46.210 --> 00:11:52.500
other piece of this. that bugs me is how invisible

00:11:52.500 --> 00:11:57.460
the decision is to normal people. The shutdown

00:11:57.460 --> 00:11:59.740
is documented, but it's not like there's a big

00:11:59.740 --> 00:12:02.879
red banner over every weather forecast in Canada

00:12:02.879 --> 00:12:06.460
saying, hey, by the way, your weather radio is

00:12:06.460 --> 00:12:08.600
going to stop working soon. Here's what we're

00:12:08.600 --> 00:12:11.659
doing instead. For a lot of folks, this is probably

00:12:11.659 --> 00:12:15.679
going to be a silent failure. One day the radio

00:12:15.679 --> 00:12:18.399
stops updating. or the voice disappears or the

00:12:18.399 --> 00:12:22.419
thing that starts you know the thing starts looping

00:12:22.419 --> 00:12:25.639
old messages and nobody's really sure whether

00:12:25.639 --> 00:12:30.220
it died or the system did and the erosion of

00:12:30.220 --> 00:12:35.580
trust that that still matters right because once

00:12:35.580 --> 00:12:38.139
people assume this doesn't work anymore they

00:12:38.139 --> 00:12:40.500
stop checking it they stop buying the hardware

00:12:40.500 --> 00:12:42.820
and then the next time a public service tries

00:12:42.820 --> 00:12:46.200
to build on top of rf There's no installed base

00:12:46.200 --> 00:12:49.840
left to talk to, nobody will care. Contrast that

00:12:49.840 --> 00:12:51.679
to the NOAA weather radio service here in the

00:12:51.679 --> 00:12:54.159
states, it has its own issues, gaps, and budget

00:12:54.159 --> 00:12:57.120
fights, but it's still considered part of the

00:12:57.120 --> 00:13:01.100
backbone. When we talk about the emergency alert

00:13:01.100 --> 00:13:03.850
system, weather alerts, or even that Annoying

00:13:03.850 --> 00:13:07.129
weekly test Noah is still in the conversation

00:13:07.129 --> 00:13:11.429
Canada is basically stepping out of that game

00:13:11.429 --> 00:13:14.690
and betting everything on IP and cell networks

00:13:14.690 --> 00:13:27.190
Me personally I'm not taking that bet So what

00:13:27.190 --> 00:13:31.830
do we do with all this Other than shake our heads

00:13:31.830 --> 00:13:36.190
I guess For me the big takeaway is this if you

00:13:36.190 --> 00:13:40.529
care about resilience real physical boring old

00:13:40.529 --> 00:13:46.769
resilience tech people the engineers Media folks

00:13:46.769 --> 00:13:49.389
you can't assume policy is going to protect it

00:13:49.389 --> 00:13:52.009
for you now. We have to be the annoying ones

00:13:52.009 --> 00:13:56.549
in the room saying hey Okay, but what happens

00:13:56.549 --> 00:14:01.039
when the power is out for three days? What if

00:14:01.039 --> 00:14:05.320
the fiber backhaul goes away? Who still gets

00:14:05.320 --> 00:14:09.980
the message then? Hmm? And if the answer is,

00:14:10.100 --> 00:14:14.200
well, technically nobody? That's not acceptable

00:14:14.200 --> 00:14:16.500
just because the spreadsheet says maintaining

00:14:16.500 --> 00:14:20.220
the old system was a little more expensive. I'm

00:14:20.220 --> 00:14:23.700
not Canadian. I don't have a say in their budget

00:14:23.700 --> 00:14:27.440
or what happens over there. And I know every

00:14:27.440 --> 00:14:31.230
system has to evolve. But watching a country

00:14:31.230 --> 00:14:36.070
shut down a working nationwide RF weather radio

00:14:36.070 --> 00:14:41.529
network in the middle of more chaotic climate

00:14:41.529 --> 00:14:45.990
eras, you know, it just feels like we learned

00:14:45.990 --> 00:14:51.330
the wrong lessons from the last decade. If I

00:14:51.330 --> 00:14:55.970
ever do a longer episode on this, I'd love to

00:14:55.970 --> 00:15:00.120
get maybe someone from the environment. Canada,

00:15:00.460 --> 00:15:03.220
someone from broadcast and someone from emergency

00:15:03.220 --> 00:15:06.799
management, all in the same conversation and

00:15:06.799 --> 00:15:10.200
just ask, hey, what do you think redundancy actually

00:15:10.200 --> 00:15:17.799
means in 2026? Because from where I'm sitting,

00:15:19.220 --> 00:15:21.820
staring at the radar, checking generator fuel

00:15:21.820 --> 00:15:25.860
for this weekend, wondering which link will die

00:15:25.860 --> 00:15:30.399
first in the next storm. redundancy still looks

00:15:30.399 --> 00:15:35.320
a lot like an unfancy transmitter on a hill humming

00:15:35.320 --> 00:15:43.059
along when everything else has gone quiet I'm

00:15:43.059 --> 00:15:45.940
Tyler you can follow me on Instagram and threads

00:15:45.940 --> 00:15:49.879
at Tyler Woodward dot me also Tyler Woodward

00:15:49.879 --> 00:15:52.320
dot me you can also head over there to get the

00:15:52.320 --> 00:15:55.679
latest episodes subscribe like the show wherever

00:15:55.679 --> 00:15:58.350
you're listening 5 -star review helps, or so

00:15:58.350 --> 00:16:03.429
I'm told. And yeah, I'll catch you next time.

00:16:06.450 --> 00:16:08.309
Make sure your weather radio is charged and got

00:16:08.309 --> 00:16:08.990
fresh batteries.