Comments for Stand On Guard For CBC Coalition

Comment on CBC Radio widens its net – Globe and Mail by when did CBC radio get cool? « RickMcCharles.com

when did CBC radio get cool? « RickMcCharles.com — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 06:04:41 +0000

[...] Radio One and Radio Two have been much improved in recent months. Modernized. Much more hip. “Chasing a younger audience” (age-35+), some [...]

Comment on Humour & Wisdom by Wit - a new poem by Sandra Bruneau | Stand On Guard For CBC

Wit - a new poem by Sandra Bruneau | Stand On Guard For CBC — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 00:31:17 +0000

[...] ActionWeb CrawlResourcesChronology of cutsRules and RegulatorsDig DeeperSister SitesHumour & WisdomBlogAbout the BlogBlog Top ReadsBlog [...]

Comment on New non-profit dedicated to quality non-pop programming by John Oliver

John Oliver — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 20:08:41 +0000

It’s important to visit this web site to understand what is actually being proposed. There are some very good recommendations on their web site with regards to public broadcasting and support for classical, art music, and contemporary “serious” music.

Points number 3, 4, and 6 are particularly pertinent.

I personally disagree with a number of issues being framed in points 1, 2, and 5. Particularly problematic for me is the notion of “repudiating cultural relativism.” I would think that the core of the problem is that cultural relativism has been replaced by an international pop music industry drone. Cultural relativism needs to be strengthened to fight the greyness proposed by big music business.

Comment on Loyal CBC listeners would object to ads by Jim Porter

Jim Porter — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 23:44:33 +0000

As a child of the Great Depression, I would not be surprised if I died in the second Great Depression. As the situation is extremely serious I believe that measures for more drastic measures than you suggest are necessary in order to save CBC radio from commercial adds. Since I retired 18 years ago listening to CBC radio has given me considerable please and interest. Unfortunately the quality of programming has been reduced in that period. More programs have been re-broadcast, the changing of CBC 2 away from classical music and the cancellation of the CBC Radio Orchestra was a bad, money saving move.

————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————

“CBC Radio is a national treasure. CBC management should not even contemplate allowing ads on CBC Radio. Please make sure that this bad idea is stopped in its tracks and let me know what you are personally prepared to do to make sure this abomination does not happen.

As far as my wife and I, are concerned, the best thing to do would be to shut down CBC TV altogether, and free up the funds to return CBC radio to the add free good quality radio which it was before the recent cuts were made. It should obvious that the problems affect all commercial TV stations in Canada that there are already too many for the country support. In addition to providing a high quality “add free” service on CBC Radio it also reduce the financial problems of the remain commercial TV stations”

Comment on Tune in to geography? by allythatjazz

allythatjazz — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 04:25:00 +0000

So they want Obama to Hum like a Canadian. Not even funny.
We need to appreciate our own culture, I don’t think he is so inclined. Lets stopn grovelling and looking for a pat on the head from the Yanks.
We Are Unique.

Comment on Let’s Make Those Radio 2 comments public! by mjyeo

mjyeo — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 23:56:06 +0000

We recently returned to Canada from many years overseas. One of our fondest memories of Canada was listening to CBC radio and we were looking forward to having the opportunity to do this again. Our recollections were of distinctive programs broadcast by knowledgeable, articulate, entertaining people. No Saturday was complete without the Radio Show with Jackie Farr, Billie Kasselman, Joy Fielding et al, Basic Black with Arthur Black, Finkelman’s 45s with Danny Finkelman, Quirks and Quarks with Jay Ingram, and as much classical music as we wanted. CBC radio was always on in our house.

We were therefore disappointed to find the watered down English language programming on offer today. The reduction in classical music in favour of more commercial music on Radio 2 is particularly disappointing, especially considering the volume of commercial radio already available. The changes have evidently cost the CBC a large measure of its distinctiveness (not to mention its dedicated Radio 2 listeners whose views were apparently not a factor in the decision to change). The attempt to attract new listeners to Radio 2 by spending money on advertising appears to be a desperate measure to recover from a bad initial decision.

For us, disappointment with CBC English programming was partly offset by our discovery of CBC French programming, which continues to offer a rich program of classical music and jazz. We have therefore abandoned CBC English programming in favour of French (which, as a side benefit also offers a daily opportunity to improve French language skills). We very much hope the management of CBC French programming is not considering a similar dilution of its offerings to that followed by its English language counterparts.

Comment on Star critic names Radio 2 makeover one of 5 worst events of 2008 by eliza

eliza — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 01:44:14 +0000

I appreciate the listing of this cbc 2 makeover as one of the worst musical of 2008 (or perhaps of all time), but that afternoon drive show is still absolutely horrible.

Comment on Pop made your numbers go down by eliza

eliza — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 01:38:28 +0000

Got to agree with Marie; radio 2 is still #1 on my stereo remote, but I haven’t hit that button since Sept 2, and have basically forgotton it exists. Thanks to Russell Smith for an excellent article.

Comment on On possible cuts to CBC by CBrewer

CBrewer — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 19:59:48 +0000

I agree competely with this artice.
For many of us in this up-to-now great country CBC was the main source of access to “Classical” music and exposure to our own great performing artist in this field. We do not all live in Toronto, Montreal, Calgary, Vancouver, etc. with the great concert halls and large populations to support live concerts of the type heretofore broadcast on CBC2.
Although there is access to selected concerts in Concerts on Demand, these are dominated, it seems, by music which is not of interest to me nor to most of the people I know. Even if “my music” were extensively available on COD, there is the inconvenience of access – I and most other adults are much of the time not necessarly in places where it is convenient to “internet”.
The CBC has had a great heritage of educating several generations of Canadians in the rich classical literature. It is a shame to see this disappear in favour of “stuff” which, at best, has appeal to only small pockets of our society on any given evening.
I could go on for pages, but will let my boiling blood cool for a while.

Comment on Pop made your numbers go down by marieprins

marieprins — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 19:41:03 +0000

Obviously intelligent people are still writing about the demise of Radio 2, but, unfortunately, not running the CBC. Did the CBC Brass really expect the 18-39s to tune in to Radio 2? Of course they use their increasingly more & more sophisticated iPods…their brains are wired for them! As a matter of fact, since September, many boomers, myself included, are becoming quite savvy about iPods & internet classical programs (quite different than mindless streaming) & digital radios, etc. While I like Neil Young & a certain selection of rock music, I too prefer to carefully select these tunes & access them on my iPod or CD player when I’m in the mood to hear them. But thanks to the changes on CBC radio, my classical music world has expanded far beyond Canada’s borders. Computer speakers allow me to listen to some very excellent classical programming from the US & Europe. Radio 2 will certainly never be the same again…it might go extinct. Even though my fingers sometimes unconsciously reach to turn on the Radio, much to my surprise, I’ve concluded that I, like my kids, don’t really need it.