CBC Radio is "a national treasure" and audiences across the country will be listening carefully for any changes following the announcement of CBC's integration plans, a Canadian broadcasting watchdog said on Friday.
The public broadcaster announced on Thursday the amalgamation of its English-language platforms — including CBC.ca, CBC-TV and CBC Radio — under Richard Stursberg, promoted from his previous post as TV chief. The move comes two years after CBC's French-language services were integrated under Radio-Canada executive Sylvain Lafrance.
"We do have some concerns about [the decision], notwithstanding fact that it happened on the French-language side," Ian Morrison, spokesman for Friends of Canadian Broadcasting, told CBCNews.ca Arts on Friday.
According to the watchdog group, CBC Radio holds the attention of about 13 per cent of the total radio listening audience across the country. This audience includes elite groups such as executives and supreme court judges, Morrison said.
"CBC Radio is what it is because it is so distinct," Morrison said. "Subsuming it underneath and part of the much larger English television network raises a number of troubling questions."
Media-watchers, Morrison included, criticized Stursberg for a recent Globe and Mail interview in which he discussed the CBC-TV winter schedule and suggested that the network needed to be more like the populist coffee chain Tim Hortons and less like its more upscale competitor, Starbucks.
"Do Canadians want CBC Radio to be a Tim Hortons rather than a Starbucks?" Morrison asked.
"If I understand the intent of this silly metaphor, it is to downscale — the French use the word vulgariser for popularize — to take down to the lowest common denominator the programming. That type of programming is very well supplied today by the other 87 per cent of radio listening in Canada, the 600 private radio stations. CBC Radio is a national treasure because it's an alternative to that."
Morrison acknowledged that he doesn't consider the integration plans "the end of the world," but noted that both fans and critics of CBC will have their ears perked up for any sort of change.
"A lot of those people will be listening with a very sharp ear for anything that suggests that [radio] will be moving towards the silly metaphor," Morrison said.
Related
Internal Links
More Media Headlines »
- Queen Elizabeth launches Royal Channel on YouTube
- Queen Elizabeth has set up her own channel on the video-sharing website YouTube and will be posting her annual Christmas Day message on the site this year.
- Dr. McDreamy Dempsey named Star of the Year by People magazine
- It's a McDreamy year for actor Patrick Dempsey, anointed People magazine's "Star of the Year."
- Police didn't follow procedures in Mel Gibson arrest: report
- Three members of the sheriff's department in Malibu, Calif., have been disciplined for their handling of the 2006 arrest of actor Mel Gibson for drunk driving.
- Woman slaps rapper Remy Ma with $20M lawsuit
- Rapper Remy Ma is being sued for $20 million US by a woman who alleges the rapper shot her twice in a dispute over money.
- CanWest Global cleared to buy Alliance Atlantis
- CanWest Global Communications' $2.3-billion takeover of Alliance Atlantis has been approved by the CRTC.
More Arts Headlines »
- Canadian jazz great Oscar Peterson dies
- The jazz odyssey is over for Oscar Peterson: the Canadian known globally as one of the most spectacularly talented musicians ever to play jazz piano has died at age 82.
- Tributes pour in for 'giant in music' Peterson
- Tributes are pouring in for Canadian jazz musician Oscar Peterson, who died Sunday at age 82.
- Broadway, Hollywood choreographer Michael Kidd dies
- American choreographer Michael Kidd, who created dance for the stage musical Finian's Rainbow and the movie Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, has died.
- German avant-garde composer Hans Otte dies
- German avant-garde composer and pianist Hans Otte has died, his former employer Radio Bremen said Wednesday. He was 81.
- Bangladesh cancels Paris exhibit after statues stolen
- Bangladesh has cancelled a cultural exhibition in Paris after centuries-old artifacts were stolen en route to France.
Arts Features
Blog Watch
Most Blogged about CBC.ca Articles
Note: CBC does not endorse and is not responsible for the content of external sites - link will open in new window