The All-New CBC Radio 2 Is For You
http://torontoist.com/2008/08/the_all-new_cbc_radio_2.php
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Pretty much any press event where we get to pass through a giant synthetic
rolling fog entryway into the guts of the CBC building is alright with us.
But
the mood at the "All-New 2" formal launch party yesterday was kinda sorta
awkwardly sombre, with lots of cross-armed silent protests (not to be
confused
with the not-so-silent protests of months past) emanating from certain
attendees as the network celebrated its two week countdown to the third
and
final phase of its widescale Radio 2 revamp.
While partaking in just the right amount of tiny food objects paid for by
our
tax dollars, we took in the controversial and already well-publicized
changes
hitting the network's daytime programming as of September 2. For those not
keeping up, this notably includes the scaling down of its classical music
programming by about two-thirds and the disbandment of the CBC Orchestra,
all
in hopes of finding a younger audience (maybe the same young audience that
is
signing up in droves to the 16,000 member and counting "Save Classical
Music
At the CBC" Facebook group). But it's cool, according to programming
director
Chris Boyce; the changes are the result of a survey on Canadian arts and
culture and radio listening habits, and it's what the people want. It's
science, you guys.
Anyhow, in place of ye olde "classical" hits they've announced a new
contem****ary schedule which adds four new programs, three new hosts (jazz
singer Molly Johnson, Halifax dynamo Richard "Buck 65" Terfry, and
mezzo-soprano Julie Nesrallah), and four genre-specific online music
channels
(jazz, Canadian songwriters, Canadian composers, and classical) to the
commercial free, newly cross-genre hootenanny.
To avoid reha****ng everything that's been said to death about the
upheaval,
let's just leave it with Ian Morrison, spokesman for the Friends of
Canadian
Broadcasting group:
It's good for CBC radio to be playing a variety of musical genres but
this
is a radical change. It is moving away from something only the public
broadcaster can do to something many private broadcasters already do. And
they
are shoving classical music into the 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. low audience
ghetto.
And he's right. But hey, we got to hear Buck 65 rabble on about his rad
sounding 75% CanCon emerging artists afternoon drive slot, and then
introduce
a performance by the lovely Basia Bulat. If this is the direction we're
headed, maybe Radio 3 lite is the channel for us! Maybe classical purists
just
need to embrace their hipster leanings and the unconvinceables will tune
in
September 2 and realize it's not the end of the world, maybe even not so
bad
after all.
Ha. Who are we kidding. Sweet fog installation though.
Photo by Tanja Tiziana, courtesy of the CBC.
By Ashley Carter in Culture , News | Link | Comments (2) | Recommended
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