When Allan Waters bought Toronto’s CHUM-AM radio station in 1954, it was a money-losing 1,000-watt sun-up-to-sundown operation serving mainly as a marketing tool for its owner, pharmaceutical manufacturer Jack Q’Part. Waters was a salesman for Part at the time, and though he was unfamiliar with the radio business, his desire to run his own company overrode any misgivings he may have had.

The disappearance of Perspective Canada from the Toronto International Film Festival may mark the end of an era, but as far as the programming of Canadian short films is concerned, not much has changed. TIFF 2004’s Short Cuts Canada program will feature 38 Canuck shorts (films shorter than 50 minutes) chosen from 435 submissions, with programming criteria remaining the same.