US citizen moved to Canada because of CBC Radio, feels betrayed
August 16, 2008
I’ll confess that the experience of listening to CBC Radio while
driving across Canada a few times in the mid-90s inspired me
to move to Canada and become a Canadian citizen. Back then,
CBC Radio presented the cutting edge of a range of cultures
including Inuit. I still find it difficult to verbalize the
revelatory combination of challenging music with the supreme
intelligence of the natural landscape— all day every day for
weeks on end.
Mr. Richard Stursberg
Executive Vice President
CBC English Services
PO Box 500, Station A
Toronto, Ontario
M5W 1E6
August 11, 2008
Dear Mr. Stursberg,
Thank you for your response. At first glance, your logic appears
impenetrable,
and achingly familiar to me from my years in the states. Nonetheless I
found
myself inspired to write you again, as I am puzzled by your arguments.
In rural areas where television channels are few and fuzzy, where
high-speed
internet may not exist, where cable or satellite are a significant
expense,
and where other cultural distractions don’t exist, the strong signal of
CBC
Radio becomes essential to the local culture. Yet the CBC “extensive Arts
&
Culture Study” focused on six Canadian cities?
Why has the board of directors concluded that the CBC programming must be
redesigned to “primarily reach an audience within the 24 to 35 years age
group”?
According to Statistics Canada, the population of Canada is rapidly aging;
the
2006 Census shows the median age is now 39.5. Although we live in an
increasingly urban country, 1/5 of us live in deep rural isolation, where
the
population is aging at a faster clip than in the cities (with the
exception of
the far north).
The economic and cultural im****tance of rural areas must be emphasized and
clarified. Over the decades, the challenging nature of the music formerly
presented by the CBC has created a truly unusual situation (yet one taken
for
granted by Canadians) in establi****ng a common intellectual foundation
between
our urban and rural populations. This has enabled a higher degree of
cultural
and economic exchange between urban and rural populations, which has made
Canada culturally and economically stronger than our neighbor to the
south.
City folks are far more comfortable about keeping a place in the country,
or
becoming involved in rural communities on at least a part time basis, and
rural folks are less intimidated by urban culture. It would be difficult
to
prove that Canadian life offers a greater cultural exchange between rural
and
urban areas than America, yet in my experience I know this to be true.
How does the CBC management actually know how many people listen to CBC 2
on a
regular basis, and how old they are and where they live?
Everyone I know from Vancouver to Victoria to Salt Spring to the Queen
Charlottes listens to CBC religiously. None of us would hover over our
computers to download “serious” music. Downloading requires up to date
computer equipment, internet subscription, and there can be additional
charges
for bandwidth—all of which are expensive for those on limited incomes.
Downloading is not only not free—it’s not private. There’s a lot to be
said
for the mystery of what songs I listened to when, and how they influenced
my
thought, spirit, and actions.
On this more personal note, I’ll confess that the experience of listening
to
CBC Radio while driving across Canada a few times in the mid-90s inspired
me
to move to Canada and become a Canadian citizen. Back then, CBC Radio
presented the cutting edge of a range of cultures including Inuit. I still
find it difficult to verbalize the revelatory combination of challenging
music
with the supreme intelligence of the natural landscape— all day every day
for
weeks on end. I doubt I would have made such a life-altering decision in
order
to have free access to “very listenable material” with the option of
downloading “serious music.” However, the new policies of the CBC will
have
the perhaps desirable effect of discouraging cultural workers like me from
immigrating to Canada.
If the age group of 24-35 is deemed to be the most culturally significant
group in Canada, the future leaders of our country, why has the CBC
determined
that they should be intellectually nourished by “very listenable material”
(“extended pop concerts, jazz and folk festival material”)?
How could the CBC assume that pop concerts translate to the medium of
radio?
Pop music concerts attract crowds for myriad reasons beyond the music. On
a
silent dark night in the woods alone, or in a stuffy and lonely city
apartment, pop concert music tends to fall far short of what it might
sound
like in the midst of a cheering dancing crowd.
CBC Radio 2, in pandering to what it perceives to be the young public
taste,
will fall by the wayside, as it already has with regard to news and public
discussion. Should CBC Radio fall by the wayside, you will find yourself
living in—the equivalent of the states. For the CBC is the only
significant
cultural element that consistently distinguishes Canadian culture from
rampant, subservient, and ignorant commercialism. Why break our hearts to
offer the public what no Canadian in their right mind would demand from
the
CBC: easy listening catering to the 24 to 35 demographic?
Please do share this letter with your colleagues at CBC and with the 40
anonymous “cultural leaders” who have sold us all down this particular
river.
It may help to encourage a perspective that others find difficult to
articulate. I’ll be sharing this letter with a few people myself.
My very best regards,
Tina Dicke
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http://www.earsay.
com/standonguardforcbc/2008/08/16/us-citizen-moved-to-canada-because-of-cbc-ra
dio-feels-betrayed/
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