Every month, I receive an email from BC Hydro. Here it is.
I can:
Make a payment (from your bank account by entering transit number, instituion number, and account number — essentially paying by cheque, in 2022 … but, okay)
See my payment options (Online banking, direct withdrawal, pre-authorized payments, equal payment plan, credit card, by mail, at a Service BC location (outside the Lower Mainland), Electronic Funds Transfer — fair enough, but I have never used any of these; I just want to see the bill, get the amount, and pay via my bank’s site)
View your detailed bill — yes, please! I mean, can’t you just attach it to the email? Thanks.
View your electricity use — this would, presumably, be on my bill
Join Team Power Smart. Um, what?
Set up pre-authorized payments — fair enough
Phone scam info. Okay, but you sent me an email
Payment options for my bill (again?)
Move or cancel account
How to read my detailed bill — well, if I had the bill I’d be able to follow along, right?
Get help. I feel I need it at this point. But probably not the kind of help they have in mind
I want to view my bill — I don’t care so much how “detailed” it is, and wish they’d just attached it to the email, but I click or tap the button. This is what I see, after signing in:
Keep in mind that I clicked/tapped a button in the email that said “View your detailed bill”. I kind of expect that I might, you know, see my bill. But no. I won’t bother to inventory the absolute mess of information that is irrelevant to my task here. Here is what I have to scan to find, every month:
Question: How is “View my bill” distinct from the original “View your detailed bill”? Where along the way did I lose the detail? What detail? Is it important? Okay, well, I guess I’ll settle for my dumbed-down bill: remember, all I really want is the amount so I can … oh yeah, pay the bill.
So I click/tap the teensy little button that BC Hydro apparently does not want me to see — for reasons I can’t guess. Don’t they want my money? Why is “Starting a Challenge” or “Joining the Team” (is this the Electricity Olympics?), or contests, or consumption — only the last 7 days, mind you; is this a teaser for the “detail” initially mentioned … why are any of these things and more, more important than what I was initially promised? Wait, what was that? Oh yeah, my bill. So, the microscopic button leads here:
This is only the content that fits on my 5K display. But once again, I’ve been sold a false promise: “View my bill” actually should read “Display yet another messy page of crap that really has nothing to do with your bill or anything else you might be interested in” — but maybe that (a) didn’t fit in the button; and (b) would have been too large a target, distracting from the truly important information on the page, like kWh and the projected cost of my next bill.
It seems that a once-a-month task provides just enough time to forget exactly where the thing I was looking might be located on the page (as far as I recall, this mess hasn’t changed in years; the incompetent consultants who put this together may have long-since retired to a tropical isle). But oh yeah, there it is!
Recall: I have been offered:
“View your detailed bill” (email)
“View my bill” (after authentication … also, why has “your” changed to “my”?)
“View PDF bill”
So clicking/tapping the link, will I see my/your detailed/not-detailed/summary bill? It’s a mystery but at last I have reached my destination.
Dear BC Hydro: Just Attach My (Your?) Fucking Bill To The Email, OK?
There doesn’t seem to be a lot of information available on how to access CBC content using Siri on HomePod and HomePod mini, so I decided to put together a guide based on my experience and research. Last updated April 2025.
For several years after this page was first published, there were numerous monthly improvements and regressions. As of spring 2025, there have been few changes for several months. It seems like whoever was working on these issues — at Apple, TuneIn, or CBC — has stopped. I will continue to update the page monthly.
I bought my first HomePod in June 2018. I listen mostly to Apple Music, along with some podcasts — and CBC news and radio. More than half of my interaction with HomePod is via voice.
Someone, somewhere — CBC, TuneIn, and/or Apple — seems regularly to be tweaking many of these commands, as there are changes every month. But there tend to be as many regressions as improvements.
Here’s a review of the commands provided on those pages, and their current status.
Page (above)
“Hey Siri …”
Result
1
“… play CBC Radio.”
Failure: “Okay, The World This Hour now playing. Sorry, there was a problem with Apple Podcasts.”
1
“… play the latest news from CBC.”
Failure: “Here’s the latest news. Sorry, there was a problem with Apple Podcasts.”
2, 3
“… play CBC Radio news.”
Failure: As of January 2025 plays CBC Radio One Toronto. For a number of months previous, had been playing Apple Music tracks apparently with the word “news” in the title.
2, 3
“… play CBC Radio 1.”
Success, starting in May 2024, for the first time in a while. Plays CBC Radio One Vancouver for me (my location).
2
“… play CBC Radio Music.”
Failure: Tries to play The World This Hour, then says “Sorry, there was a problem with Apple Music.”
On the 2018 page (3), there is a video with Piya Chattopadhyay demonstrating the “play CBC Radio One” command. The video ends by promoting a url, cbc.ca/smart, which as of this writing only has instructions for Amazon Alexa.
Page (2) states “We will continue to work on our Apple implementation of the voice experience and will announce late in 2019 when it’s ready to go. Stay tuned!” Page (3) says “New experiences are coming in 2019.”
Communications with CBC
I wrote to CBC in June 2019, and received the following from CBC Audience Services:
“CBC Radio One is limited to the Ottawa feed on HomePod. CBC Music is not officially supported on HomePod either. All a work in progress and changing constantly. We are continually working on improvements and upgrades on all digital platforms.”
There is a lot more CBC content Siri on HomePod can access besides Ottawa Radio One (see below). But since that message, CBC had stopped responding to emails or tweets on the subject until, quite unexpectedly, an email arrived July 11, 2022, which stated in part:
“This is a known issue which we are currently investigating. Please read the following CBC Help Centre article referring to this issue: NEW Issues connection to CBC Radio networks on internet devices [apparently updated in early 2023, though it doesn’t appear there were changes]. We do apologize for any inconvenience.”
It’s also unclear who has responsibility for ensuring that Siri can be used to access CBC content. The page sent to me above says to “reach out to the software support team for your device or service and ask them to contact CBC directly.” But is this TuneIn (the service that provides radio to Apple Music and hence via HomePod)? Apple? I replied with all of these questions, but in a response sent July 19, 2022, only got back “As the article link from our help centre says:” with the first and third paragraphs of the above page quoted, and “That’s all I can give you for the moment.”
It’s not clear whether by “this” they were referring to issues with HomePod in general — every time I email or tweet CBC I include a link to this page, but have no way of knowing whether they’ve looked at it — or some specific issue, perhaps the recent problem with CBC Music Vancouver.
I followed up with an email on July 2, 2024, but as of January 2 2025 had not received a reply.
Siri Command Reference
Particularly with the introduction of the HomePod mini, not to mention the second-generation full-size HomePod, these issues would seem to be a significant oversight on the part of CBC. But in the meantime, I’ve discovered through trial and error that there are other commands that work, over and above the few documented on the original web pages from 2018-20. I also looked at the TuneIn pages for CBC stations and music. The following is my analysis of what plays based on various commands. It’s worth noting that some results may be affected by my location, Vancouver; thanks to ThiefClashRoyale for doing some tests from Ottawa in March 2023. (I have omitted podcasts, since they can be asked for directly; some generic commands like “play the CBC news” happen to redirect to podcasts.)
“Siri…” or “Hey Siri…”
Result
Notes
“… switch to CBC news.”
Failure
“Sorry, I can’t play that right now.” Worked when tested in both September and November 2023, but not in October. September 2023 was the first time it had worked in months or years of being broken, but this is a new error as of February 2024.
Making this request is supposed to play The World This Hour when you ask “…what’s my update?”
“… play the CBC news.”
Failure
“Here’s the latest news. Sorry, there was a problem with Apple Podcasts.” Had been fixed as of September 2023 — played The World This Hour. It had played The World at Six podcast for a couple of months until the November 2022 update, when it started playing Quirks and Quarks, then switched to Front Burner in June 2023.
“… play CBC Music.”
Failure
Tries to play The World This Hour podcast, then says “Sorry, there was a problem with Apple Podcasts.”
“… play CBC Music Vancouver.”
Success
As of January 2025, works for the first time in quite a while.
“… play CBC Music Halifax.”
Success
Had failed in August 2024 for the first time in a couple of years: “Okay. Here’s CBC Radio” which plays random tracks of podcasts. Once got back “Okay. Sorry, something’s up. Please try again in a little while.” But working again as of September 2024.
This is no longer listed on TuneIn’s Stream CBC page.
“… play CBC Music Edmonton.”
Success
Fixed as of February 2025. In previous months, had been trying to play The World This Hour podcast, then says “Sorry, there was a problem with Apple Podcasts.”
This is only one of three CBC Music stations, along with Vancouver and Toronto, remaining on TuneIn’s Stream CBC as of August 2024.
“… play CBC Music Winnipeg.”
Success
Fixed as of January 2025, though it is no longer listed on TuneIn’s Stream CBC page.
“… play CBC Music Toronto.”
Failure
“I couldn’t find CBC Music Toronto in your Apple Music library.”
“… play CBC Radio One.”
Success
Working in May 2024 for the first time in a while. Plays CBC Radio One Vancouver, my location.
“… play CBC Radio One Vancouver.”
Success
“… play CBC Radio One St. John’s.”
Success
St. John’s, Newfoundland.
“… play CBC Radio One Saint John.”
Success
Saint John, New Brunswick.
“… play CBC Radio One Kelowna.”
Success
“… play CBC Radio One Toronto.”
Success
Station artwork is, for some reason, the 1974–1992 CBC logo rather than the CBC Radio One logo that all the other stations use.
“… play CBC Radio One London.”
Success
Had stopped working in August 2024: “Now playing [indistinguishable] station.” Some kind of EDM. But working again in September.
“… play CBC Radio One Kitchener-Waterloo.”
Success
“… play CBC Radio One Halifax.”
Success
Had stopped working as of August 2024: “Okay, here’s CBC Radio.” Plays random stuff. Back in September 2024.
“… play CBC Radio One Moncton.”
Success
“… play CBC Radio One Edmonton.”
Success
Had not been working as of August 2024: played random stuff. Working again as of September.
Had been playing music for some months; fixed as of January 2025.
“… play CBC Radio One Charlottetown.”
Success
Had stopped working in August 2024; played “Gospel Station.” Back in August.
“… play CBC Radio One Regina.”
Success
“… play CBC Radio One Fredericton.”
Success
“… play CBC Radio One Thunder Bay.”
Success
“… play CBC Radio One Goose Bay”
Success
In September 2022, I checked TuneIn’s Stream CBC page for the first time in a few months, and discovered this station had been added. Bonus! As of October 2023 it’s no longer listed, but still works.
“… play CBC Radio One Barrie”
Success
Added to TuneIn circa September 2022, but Siri wasn’t able to find it until the February 2023 update. As of October 2023 it’s no longer listed, but still works.
“… play CBC Radio One Kingston”
Failure
April 2025, Khalid. March 2025, Steppenwolf. February 2025, Lady Gaga. January 2025, back to Bruno Mars. December 2024 played Nicki Minaj. November 2024, played “The Lazy Song” by Bruno Mars. October 2024, played “The Zane Lowe Show.” September 2024, a track by Bruno Mars. August 2024, a track by Sean Paul. July 2024, “In the Air Tonight” by Phil Collins. As of May 2024, was playing Apple Music One. As of October 2023 it was no longer listed on TuneIn’s Stream CBC page.
“… play CBC Radio One Peterborough”
Success
In October 2022, I checked TuneIn’s Stream CBC page, and discovered this station had been added — it resulted in an error until the November 2022 update. As of October 2023 it’s no longer listed, but still works.
“… play CBC Radio One Saskatoon”
Success
Added some time in September 2022. As of October 2023 it was no longer listed, but was added back by May 2024. It worked the whole time. Odd.
“… play CBC Radio One Sydney.”
Success
In April 2023, I checked TuneIn’s Stream CBC page, and discovered this station had been added.
“… play CBC Radio One Windsor.”
Success
In April 2023, I checked TuneIn’s Stream CBC page, and discovered this station had been added. As of October 2023 it’s no longer listed, but still works.
“… play CBC Radio One Calgary.”
Success
In April 2023, I checked TuneIn’s Stream CBC page, and discovered this station had been added. Interestingly, in June 2023 I was testing all the channels and my HomePods were playing Windsor above; I asked for Calgary and on the first try it said it couldn’t find CBC Radio One Windsor-Calgary. Same happened in March 2024.
“… play CBC North Iqaluit”
Success
In July 2023, I checked TuneIn’s Stream CBC page, and discovered this station had been added. But as of December of that year it had been removed, even though the command still worked.
Interestingly, “… play CBC Radio One North Iqaluit” doesn’t seem to work.
There’s clearly some room for improvement here. CBC should at least fix the incorrect mappings. It’s unclear to me what the relationship is between an entity like CBC and Apple, but there’s a blurb and link on Apple’s Siri for Developers page for integration of a streaming service with HomePod (I don’t currently have an Apple Developer account, so I can’t view the page).
Please let me know if you have any updates or other information, and I will try to keep this page current.
