Destruction of CBC

Cafe Society
1

When I moved to Canada about 41 years ago, listening to CBC-FM was one of the joys of living here. Even five years ago it was still a delight (now called CBC-2 since the AM station has moved to FM and is called CBC-1. The weekday programming started with Daybreak with intelligent and interesting host Tom Allen who combined mostly light classical music with interesting news snippets (often science news since that interested him and was typically not reported on other news broadcasts), stories of his hockey team (the Predators) and whatever interested him. Thiw was followed by a 3 hour (IIRC) request show and it wasw mostly classical music requested). From noon to 3 we got one of the most intelligent clawsical music broadcasts imaginable with host Eric Friesen. He would play music of course, but also discuss it and interview musicians. This included a long running series of interviews with National Arts Orchestra director Immanuel Ax, under the rubric, “The world according to Manny”. This was followed by a three hour potpourri of music and commentary by Jurgen Gothe, always a pleasure to list to. There was a two hour classical program 8 to 10, followed by two hours of jazz. I would go to bed around 10, read and set by radio to go off at midnight.

That was the programming until about three years ago. Five years ago a new right-wing Conservative Party took over the government. This was not the center-right Progressive-Conservative party of yesteryear, but essentially a bunch of Albertans. Not for nothing is Alberta called Texas-North. For two years CBC-2 continued its traditional programming. Until…

Before I continue, I must make it clear that there have been no explantions of the changes and all motives I attribute come from my imagination.

The first thing that happened was that the morning show stopped playing classical music. Although Tom Allen continued as host (until a couple weeks ago, actually), we no longer got those interesting snippets. We don’t even know what happened to the Predators. Later on, some of the snippets did return. The programming has changed continuously, so that no one can lock on to their favorite progams. Eric Friesen and Jurgen Gothe are gone. I place is a four hour classical program hosted by an opera singerJulie Nesrallah who is good, but no comparison with Eric Friessen. This is followed by a strange program, hosted by Tom Allen, called shift that starts out as light classical and ends up as a lead-in to an utterly dreadful program till 6,

The rest of the day, except for two hours of jazz 8-10, is more of the same.

Here is my take on what has happened. The govenment believes that the old CBC was “elitist”. This is not incorrect, but a classical music fan has not other source. If you want popular and rock, there are a dozen stations to choose from. So this has apparently been done in the name democratising the CBC, making its progrqamming conform to popular taste. But the upshot is that they have lost much of their old audience without adding any new. If you are rock fan, why would you listed to CBC, only a third of whose prgramming will likely please you?

In addition to all of the above, they have added commercials. They are read by a guy who sounds like an unemployed used car salesman. He breaks into the programming every quarter or half hour with the inane comment, “CBC, radio 2, wherever music takes you. Commercial-free [sic] radio all day.” He then occasionally talks about some interesting program later in the day, an annoucement that could readily be given by the host. I can assume only that his real purpose it to further drive away the audience.

I really think that at some time in the near future, we will get an announcement that the audience for CBC-2 has so shrunk, despite the government’s best efforts to enhance it that there is no alternative but to close it down. And I think this has been the purpose all along in making all these changes.

2

Where in Canada are you? Large Canadian cities, such as Toronto, have independent classical music stations.

BTW, calling the Conservative Party “no longer center right” is highly amusing. For the edification of Americans, the Canadian Conservative party’s politic stances are roughly the same as Hillary Clinton’s.

3

That’s not a paid commercial. That’s a “bumper,” a station ID (required at certain intervals); and, as long as they’re at it, a promotion for an upcoming program. It may be advertising the upcoming program, but it’s not paid advertising. Thus, it’s not a commercial, and the station can claim to be “commercial-free.”

The problem with having a taxpayer-supported broadcaster is that it must account to the taxpayers. If only a few taxpayers like what they’re getting, while the rest appear to be demanding value for money by voting with their radio dials, then you’re going to see a change.

4

Moved from MPSIMS to Cafe Society.

5

I feel the same way about changes made to Radio 1, which is what I used to listen to from the moment I woke to falling asleep in bed at night. I understand that Peter Gzowski is never coming back, and the same with other old (still alive!) favourites, but the quality of CBC Radio 1 is not the same. It’s sad.

6

some added info. My wife informs me that Pinchas Zuckerman is the director of the National Arts Center Orchestra and the series was the world according to Pinchas.

She also objects to my saying that Julie Nesrallah is not as good as Eric Friesen. JJulie is a musician and her knowledge of music is greater than Eric’s.

As to whether “Promo Guy” (as one announcer called him) is giving a commercial or not, it is clearly a commercial and sounds like one. It is not paid, but it is a commercial. He is certainly not giving station information; each CBC station gives that, as far as I know, once a day. He is not making any announcements that the hosts are incapable of making. His inanity has to be heard to be appresicated.

Montreal does have one classical music station, CJPX, but it is in French only and while that might not seem important it means all the annoucements, news, etc. are in French.

Now I come to my most important point that I did not make earler. It is the same government that has allowed the radio dial to become a wasteland, using, no doubt, the excuse that if you don’t like, there was always the CBC. Except there isn’t any more, not really. And I would expect it to disappear in the future as the market share really goes down the tubes.

Yes, the old Progressive-Conservatives were only slightly to the right of the Clintons, but that is not true of the current crop. They would not of course abolish medicare (that would be politicval suicide), but if it wre a new proposal I would not expect them to support it. Although off-topic, I cannot refrain from mentioning that they are in the process of destroying the scientific research (from which I have, to be sure, benefitted over the past 41 years) by diverting from a program that supports a great many reseachers mostly modestly to one that supports a small number of researchers extremely generously. I know two researchers in theortical comp sci, frequent collaborators, who applied a year ago. They had both been receiving modest grants before. This time around, one got $50K and the other 0. I think the latter was at least as good. This is how a Conservative government thinks.

7

Hari, as much as the conservatives hate the CBC (although not I, an Albertan Conservative) I think that the CBC managed to do this to themselves entirely on their own, even if this is even more painful to contemplate. At the time the changes were pushed through, it was all about how only old and rich people like classical music, and that there’s more to [ironic quote] good music [/ironic quote] than classical. It was in the everlasting quest to broaden the audience / sink to a lower more common denominator, especially in the drive to and from work time slots. They kept the classical programming during the day, when valuable people are at work, to try to minimize the number of grannies who would write their MPs.

Now, if you want to blame Conservative budget cuts for something, then you can blame them for all the cuts in Radio 1, such as the elimination of shows like "the point’ and “in the key of Charles”

I’m not sure who is to blame for shortening the morning news “World Report” from 12.5 minutes to 10, and the inclusion of all these fluffy “human interest” pieces though. That person I’d like to slap with a dead fish… :frowning:

8

So? You’ve lived in Montreal for 41 years. Are announcements in French on the radio still too much for you to tolerate?

9

As much as I dislike the Conservative government, I don’t think they can be blamed for the changes you take issue with. The CBC has been trying to attract broader/younger audiences for years. Which makes sense because, as mentioned up-thread, it is accountable to taxpayers–all taxpayers.

If you were to bitch about the changes to Radio 1 this fall because of the non-renewal of funding by the Conservatives, THAT I can get behind.

And seriously, you can’t stand listening to announcements and news in French?

10

I don’t understand why the CBC has to “broaden its appeal”. As someone else pointed out, I can find 22 stations in my market that have broad appeal. I want my old CBC. CBC radio should not be competing with mass-market commercial radio. It’s supposed to be different.

I also hate the new shorter, “casual” World Report. Grr.

11

Well, as a Canadian taxpayer, the radio you described in your OP sounds truly horrible to me, and if less of my tax money is paying for it, I’m just a little bit happier.

12

I agree that the formerly magnificent CBC is now a pandering generic server of “Canadian Urban Cowboy” music. Medium beat: Boom-thwap, Boom-thwap, Boom-thwap, Boom-thwap.

The Promo Guy with his phony breathless deliver is fingernails-on-blackboard irritating.

Julie Nesrallah is ok.

Although I like all kinds of music, I rarely listen to the CBC anymore. I do listen to SRC (french CBC) even though I don’t understand french. Their music is Quebecois pop, Jazz (really good jazz actually) and classical. And no Country.

13

Cat Whisperer - I’m sorry you feel that way about it. For me, growing up outside of Brandon, Manitoba, CBC was as influential as some of my school teachers.

I have work to get done, so I just set the timer for ten minutes. It won’t be enough, but I’ll make a start on some of the special things about CBC, AM and FM networks, in the old days.

Programs like the Texaco Opera Broadcast, which was where I heard my first operas. RSVP and Gilmour’s Albums - I can’t begin to count the number of pieces I heard for the first time off the radio. Dr. Bandolo’s Travelling Medicine Show, the Royal Canadian Air Farce and Inside from the Outside all taught me our country’s proud heritage of political satire. Morningside, with Don Harron, then later with Peter Gzowsky, Sheilagh Rogers with Sounds like Canada. I remember driving from Brandon to Banff to study at the Banff School of Fine Arts, and the last leg of the trip to Saskatoon was Don Harron’s last day. I remember hearing the Rime of the Ancient Mariner, and the reading was so strong and powerful that my Mum, Dad and I stayed in the car to listen to the end, even though we’d arrived at the farm about ten minutes into it. Augusta LaPaix and ‘Brave New Waves’ brought me my first taste of musicians like Laurie Anderson, David Van Tieghem, Shriekback, XTC, and I fondly remember listening way into the night for music that you would not hear anywhere else. Two New Hours and all of its strange innovation. CBC taught me that great musicians can come from places like Hochfeld, Manitoba; Dawson Creek, BC; Timmins, Ontario. I remember hearing Oscar Peterson’s ‘Canadiana Suite’; I remember hearing Don Thompson, Jerry Fuller, Ed Bickert, Phil Nimmons on the jazz shows. I remember the delight of Eclectic Circus (“Good night, vacuumland.”)

Told I wouldn’t even scratch the surface in ten minutes.

And now, I tune in when Julie is on in the mornings. The rest of the time, I’ll give CBC 2 a check and hear something like Neil Young singing ‘Four Strong Winds’ or something from Joni Mitchell’s ‘The River’. That’s okay, I guess, except it isn’t to my taste and it’s not like I couldn’t hear it anywhere else.

Something truly wonderful is dying of neglect, and I don’t see any of the political parties stepping up to the plate to save it. It’s the ‘Death of a Thousand Cuts’…

And on that melancholy note, I have to practice…

14

Yes, but do you remember “Promo Girl” from a year or three ago? That was annoying. *She *was annoying. Beyond annoying, into realms I have no vocabulary for. And she even had her own little radio drama mystery, uh, “thing”. I hated, loathed and despised “promo girl”. And it was very disconcerting to hear her doing commercials for Sears, etc. on commercial radio on those occasions I switched stations.

By the way, keep it up (or down), CBC, and I’ll be switching stations more often. After all, if you’re going to be aping commercial radio, what’s the point in listening?

Anyway, Promo Girl. Gone, thank god. It made hearing Barbara Budd narrate a documentary, well, pleasant, by comparison. Oh, I thank the gods of the former greats of CBC Radio that Promo Girl is gone, gone, gone.

15

It’s not just the music on CBC radio that I tuned in for, and turned my radio on for. It was the ideas–literally, and Ideas, 9:00 p.m. weeknights, 9:30 in Newfoundland.

I remember Brave New Waves. I remember hearing people whose records and CDs I would avidly purchase. But more than the music, even, were the discussions, the talk, the ideas, the debates, the way the world and Canada was brought to life over my radio.

16

Eh, different strokes for different folks.

17

Yes, but if rock is what you want, there is plenty of it on air and you are not going to listen to CBC anyway. If you wanted to hear something else, the CBC was the only choice in most markets. And then there is promo guy, seemingly calculated to turn everybody off–or to a different station.

Ministre de au-dela, I can only second what you said.

18

Well, technically I don’t listen to any radio, so I listen to as much CBC as anything else. :slight_smile:

19

Re your comments about CBC’s PromoMan:
“…a guy who sounds like an unemployed used car salesman…(who)… breaks into the programming every quarter or half hour with the inane comment, “CBC, radio 2, wherever music takes you…” He then occasionally talks about some interesting program later in the day, an announcement that could readily be given by the host. I can assume only that his real purpose it to further drive away the audience.”
“…his inanity has to be heard to be appreciated.”
“The Promo Guy with his phony breathless delivery is fingernails-on-blackboard irritating.”

Thank you, thank you, thank you!! I thought I was the only one. When he was first inflicted on us I thought for sure that he would last only a few months. There will be such a storm of protest, I thought, that this artificially enthusiastic, mealy-mouthed mama’s boy will be transferred to a filing cabinet. But no, here he remains still, 24 hours a day.

I was so driven to distraction by this…this…person, AND by the removal of most of the programs of interest to me, that I finally bought an internet radio. Life is too short, I thought; the CBC administration can go to Hades; I will get my classical music from round the world. And so I did. And so I do. It was a steep learning curve, but I finally figured it out, and what’s more I get national and international podcasts and “on demand” broadcasts as well. The radio is by my bedside, and when I can’t sleep at 2 a.m. I tune it to stations that I’ve previously “saved”. When I do tune in to the CBC (for, say, Writers & Company and those few programmes that remain of interest), I am able to listen in any time zone in Canada.

Can’t get rid of him though. PromoMoron relentlessly pollutes every CBC portal, even (and especially) the Podcasts.
Among the many examples I could give of his sickeningly synthetic and mangled pronunciation of the English language, he pronounces “day” like “die” - and I pray for his demise, I really do, or at least his removal from any role in which the public is forced to hear him.

Thank you for letting me express this. I have been bottling it up for a long time!

20

A couple of weeks ago, a rock went through my windshield. That never happened once when the liberals were in power. I can only assume that the evil Conservatives have been mining the roadways with rocks. Probably in cahoots with the windshield lobby.

And I have to point out that Justin Bieber was no one when the liberals were in power. Now he’s a superstar. Coincidence? Or a Conservative plot? You know those nasty Albertans, what with their stupidity and their dislike for classical music and all that.

Today I was almost late for an appointment because a guy was driving really slowly in front of me. The way I see it, it was probably a Conservative thinking about new ways to squeeze the poor, and he was driving too slowly because all those conservatives come from the farm and city driving is just too complicated for them.

And people tell me I’m crazy or bigoted, but it’s not true… I’m just very observant. If you look hard enough, you can see what the dastardly Conservatives are really up to!

It all starts with them changing the music programming at the CBC.