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Ledra
Palace, Nicosia
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In September 1989, Roberts and a former Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) reporter were sent to Cyprus to visit the 1st Battalion, The Royal Canadian Regiment. This Canadian infantry unit had just be posted to Nicosia, and the buffer zone between the Greek and Turkish Cypriot lines east and south of the city. They were taking part in Operation Snowgoose '52 and were tasked with trying to keep the peace for the duration of their six-month tour. Roberts was sent to document their activities and produced a series of television news stories of the challenges.
Prior to leaving for Cyprus, Roberts contacted a producer at CBC and asked if the network would be interested in a series of Christmas Greetings from Canadian soldiers to their families. The producer said no! At the end of their interview Roberts invited the soldier to record a Christmas Greetings to their family, he told them that he would try to market them when he returned to Canada. The day he returned to his day job at Ontario Hydro in Toronto, Roberts called the same producer at CBC. Before he had finished introducing himself, the producer said, "Oh, you're back from Cyprus, do you have the Christmas Greetings?" CBC used six soldiers. After checking his shotlist, Roberts noted that there were three soldiers from the Barrie area, some 50 kilometres north of Toronto. So he called the assignment editor at the local television station CKVR-TV, and was invited to drop by. The station aired the greetings 20 times over a four day period. Further check showed that there were six soldiers from the Niagara Falls, Hamilton and Toronto area. Roberts called television station CHCH-TV in Hamilton and was invited to visit. After viewing the tapes the producer said he would like to use the clips but could not because there was nobody in the video edit suite to transfer the scenes. Roberts said he that could do that and sat down at the console. CHCH-TV broadcast the segment at the end of their news broadcast on Christmas Eve. In all cases Roberts asked the television broadcaster to provide him with the air dates and times that the Greetings would be shown so he could let the soldier's families know.
During the deployment, Roberts also arranged for a telephone interview between two soldiers and television news anchor, Max Keeping of CJOH-TV, in Ottawa. The technique is called a "double-ender", when it is broadcast, to the viewer in Canada it looks like a live interview. During the interview, the soldiers look at the camera as if they are looking at the reporter, and they have a conversation. After he returned to Canada, the videotape was delivered to the television station. The segment, which was recorded in Cyprus on October 16, was aired on Remembrance Day, during a live a broadcast from the National Cenotaph. Roberts also recorded scenes for Toronto station CFTO-TV of a soldier who would be away from his family at Christmas time. The station then interviewed the soldier's parents for a 7 minute 21 second story that was broadcast on Boxing Day.
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CJOH-TV Ottawa - Remembrance Day
Broadcast on Saturday 11 November 1989
Private Bert DeBruijn & Corporal Wilfred Stewart
Double-ender interview broadcast during live coverage from the National Cenotaph
Run time - 4 min 52 sec
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Click
here for the audio track of the CJOH-TV double-ender interview
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CBC Midday - "Christmas Greeting"
Broadcast on Wednesday 18 December 1989
Corporal Simmons, 1Bn The Royal Canadian Regiment
Run time - 56 sec
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Click
here for an audio track of the CBC Midday Christmas Greetings
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CKVR-TV Barrie - "Christmas Greetings"
Broadcast on 23, 24, 25 & 26 December 1989
Master Corporal Darryl Birch, The Grey & Simcoe Foresters
Run time - 14 sec
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Click
here for the audio track of MCpl Birch's Christmas Greetings
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CHCH-TV Hamilton
Broadcast on Sunday 24 December 1989
Captain Jeff Caines, The Lincoln & Welland Regiment
Run time - 2 min 00sec
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Click
here for an audio track of the CHCH-TV Christmas Greetings
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CFTO-TV Toronto - "World Beat News" Heartbeat Segment
Broadcast on Tuesday 26 December 1989
Lieutenant Chris Donald, The Queen's Own Rifles
Run time - 1 min 50 sec
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Click
here for the audio track of the CFTO-TV report
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LCol Norris Pettis, Commanding Officer 1st Battalion The Royal Canadian Regiment being interviewed by Allan Bonner |
After returning from Cyprus, Roberts produced eight-video stories on the 1Bn The Royal Canadian Regiments Peacekeeping operations. A transcript of the 19 interviews with soldiers, and the 11 stand-ups had to be transcribed. Betacam footage with the time-code burnt-in was to be transferred to 3/4" tape for off-line editing. Then all those tapes had to be viewed, shot listed so that the scenes were catalogued, and each interview and stand-up segment could be located when required. Next story lines had to be developed. Each interview had to read and reread for quotes that would support each of the eight stories to be produced. Next the narration for each story had to be scripted and read as a voice-over. Then the off-line editing could begin, and any continuity problems resolved. All transition (edit) points on the off-line edit had to be documented. Once the off-line editing was finished, the draft project had to be approved by the Chief of Staff for Land Force Central Area Headquarters. Then an editing time had to be booked in a commercial Betacam edit suite to produce the finished product. After all that, copies of the edited master tape had to be made for distribution to the target broadcasters.
The following video news releases were provided to televisions in across southern Ontario:
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Story
titles
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Run
time
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Click
below to listen to the audio of the video news releases
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| Reserves | 2 min 54 sec |
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| Getting to Cyprus | 2 min 04 sec |
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| Not a Vacation | 3 min 07 sec |
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| Section House | 2 min 26 sec |
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| French Embassy | 2 min 17 sec |
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| Buffer Zone | 3 min 37 sec |
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| Peacekeeping | 4 min 47 sec |
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| Observation Posts and Patrols | 4 min 06 sec |
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Click
here to hear Christmas Greetings
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