CBC Radio Nerdz VI...
December 7, 2009 - 8:39pm
Just listened to a good interview on As It Happens, with the winner of the Young Farmer award. Neat interview. The dude did a good job of explaining the farmer perspective. Worth a listen, since I believe AIH posts online.
White Coat Black Art was good today, as well. The medical side disucssing end of life. I don't listen to the show often and was glad I did today.
The "new" CBC news hasn't really changed the radio format in a big way, from what my ears hear. Peter Armstrong was awful at first but he's getting into it now. The Current and AIH have had some good shows.
At work last week a colleague and I - we've both been listening to CBC since we were kids - were lamenting the decline of the Mother Corporation, especially the local 4:00 to 6:00 afternoon program. We agreed that the hosts are high on ditz and low on general knowledge.
She told me how her 18-year old daughter, who's been exposed to little but the CBC since a child (her mother told her their car radio couldn't pick up any of the music stations the other kids knew about), once asked if it was "just her, or did the CBC sound worse than it used to?" My colleague said ithe network did indeed sound worse, but this was probably a consequence of the CBC trying to appeal to a younger audience.
Her daughter replied, "We're young, not stupid."
Heard the interview with the young farmer, Fp (age 32 I believe). He has doubled his prairie acreage to 13,000 since taking over from dad at age 23? He truly believes it is his mission to feed people, he's test growing a new oat with the food value of rice (I think it was protein ...watch the Scots go now) and sounds like he would not easily sell out to corporations. Impressive fellow. The other winner was out in PEI, I believe?
Can't remember the other winner, GV.
The interview was good. The dude is working with 13 thousand acres, but he emphasized the regional and local differences inherent in the business. In other words, 13 thousand acres is a boat load of land, period, but out West it's what he's working with. I work a much, much smaller parcel of land but it's a different style of farming. I thought the farmer explained it all quite succinctly.
I posted a response to ALQ but it's not there anymore. WTF? Anyhow, it was mainly a rant on how awful I think Ontario Morning the show is. I don't care if they are underfunded, working on a shoe string budget... get Wei Chen off the air, immediately. She speaks to listeners like they're slightly hard of hearing old people with comprehension difficulties. In my experience, she's probably the worst CBC radio host after Strombo.
There are a lot of new programs on CBC 1, especially in the afternoon. I haven't listened to them and I'm not sure why they haven't been promoted. I hear more promos for CBC TV on radio than I do what's actually going to be on the radio. I heard Robin Brown, formerly of Inside Track, doing an hour long show the other day, but I can't remember the name. It sucked. She was talking to some foreign dudes and I could not grasp the point. Made me long for "The Point."
I guess there's a documentary series being played irregularly. But I've yet to hear a really good doc on it, yet. David Gutnick's radio docs aren't very good, and he's the host.
My Radio 2 Daily Dream Team (Classical Format):
08h00 to 12h00: Tom Allen
12h00 to 16h00: Peter Togni
16h00 to 20h00: Andrew Craig
Repeat as desired.
Harris returns, Sunday morning, with the origins of Christmas music (I think). And Michael Enright always has something up his sleeve.
Robert Harris was great in his interpreting, as always. But Louis Armstrong reciting "Twas the Night Before Christmas", grates. Wish he coulda' done it with music.
Radio 2's "Tempo" was without its regular host this morning, as Julie Nesrallah was stuck in Washington DC due to the weekend storm.
And who filled in for her? Another fine classical host, or even one of the regular substitutes? No, it was one of her producers, someone whose knowledge far outstripped her radio presence, with all due respect to her.
Cutbacks are one thing, sabotage is another. Radio 2's hostless classical music channel is sounding better (and more often, at my place) all the time.
A lump of coal to the parties (Grits and Tories) ultimately responsible.
Yay, The Age of Persusian is back!
11:30 am Monday in your time zone.
Wish Andrea Ratouski(sp) still had her show on radio 1. Northern Lights was nice to fall asleep to. Her voice was rich as well.
Has the CBC website been hacked? I'm getting "Harmful website blocked" from my ISP provided anti-virus software in regard to the CBC site.
I just accessed it without incident, N. Beltov.
I had to change my anti-virus settings in order to access the site. Weird.
ScottP, I actually think Age has run its course. Unless he breaks into something beyond advertising, marketing and spin, I'm starting to feel the show is repetitious. An excellent radio show, but I'd like to see them tackle something else.
Haven't had any Ceeb problems online. However, I think their choice of media player is bordering on criminally stupid. Why not use a youtube style player for video?? All I can get is semi-high speed out here and the stream breaks up, but never loads the player, so it's not as if I can go back after it fully loads the player then get a smooth playback. Dial-up users wouldn't get anything, I bet.
I've tried to listen as much as possible to news and current affairs shows and... I'm not really happy with the poor prorogue coverage. Ontario Morning has had Kady O'Malley on (which I missed) but not a single politician. And they're coverage area means they can draw from NDP, Libs, and a big swath of Cons, and not one on air?
Did I miss anything? As It Happens interviewed one of the CAPP facebook group leaders tonight.
Has anyone heard Shelagh Rogers' show? I haven't, but spoke with a long time CBC radio nerd, and he thinks she's being wasted. Maybe by choice? Sounds Like Canada kicks the ass off Q so much that there's really no comparison. She did a better interview per day than Gomeshi does in a year.
I'm not a fan of Rogers and Q can be hit or miss. Morning weekday radio on CBC has not been very good since the demise of peter Gzowski.
Shania Twain will be hosting The Current tomorrow.
Currently listening to a replay of Tremonti introducing tomorrow's host and doing an interview.
Trying to assimilate.
I'm not a fan of Rogers and Q can be hit or miss. Morning weekday radio on CBC has not been very good since the demise of peter Gzowski.
To be fair, who could have replaced Gzowski? I may be biased, though; I even liked his late night TV talk show.
I heard "Q" a few times over the Xmas break. I'm not impressed. It's a shallow fluffball entertainment show, and certainly no "Camp, Kierans and Barrett."
She wants to talk about her plan to help underprivileged children who have been hurt by cutbacks to education and other programs. Maybe she could explain why she moved to Switzerland to avoid paying the considerable Canadian taxes that could have funded those programs.
Twain's interview with Tremonti was okay, but it felt like a Q thing, to me. Let Twain host Q.
I do have a soft spot for Twain. When she hosted the Gemini awards, she was moving through the assembled and seated Canadian artists. She was standing right in front of the band Swollen Memebers. She asked the one dude in the band - "Do you mind if I sit on your lap? I've never sat on a swollen member before."
It was one of the funniest things I've ever watched on tv. At the time she was wearing a Calgary Flames jersey (or some Cdn NHL team kit) fashioned into a dress.
Maybe she'll do a good job on The Current. Perhaps the CBC will create a show for her. It would follow the trends of finding well known Canadians to host shows. It's certainly not a trend I'm in favour of. Maybe Shania will replace Mansbridge.... she would be more effective on tv, I assume.
But Rafe Mair used to host the Current from time to time. As did Brown, from Calgary. And Newman is probably availible. How about a Friday edition of the Current, hosted by Newman, about the prorogue, the economy, politics, etc?
She'd be a tougher interviewer.
She'd be a tougher interviewer.
No kidding.
Speaking of Q, Judy Rebick's going to be on today, discussing the range of opinion in Canadian media with John Cruickshank and Margaret Wente!
It's at 10:30 Eastern, not sure when it's on in the rest of the country, but you can listen online here.
I listened to the last five minutes. Sounded like a calm, reasonable discussion. I'll be downloading the podcast, or trying to listen in later tonight for the replay.
Anyone listen in to either Shania or Q with Rebick?
Yeah, listened to Q. It was excellent, and Judy eviscerated Margaret Wente. My favourite part of it was when Wente was whining about how views like hers are never aired on the CBC. Judy cut in saying that they were being aired right now! On the CBC! :D :D
And she also demolished Wente's tired refrains about the Montreal Massacre commemorations, too.
I'm somewhat biased, of course. :D I love Judy, and can't stand Wente's columns (don't know her in person, so I don't know what she's like otherwise).
I also listened to Shania Twain - she wasn't too bad. As others were saying, she's not a hard-hitting reporter or anything, but she's fine for a lighter episode of a human interest/current affairs show.
Yay, The Age of Persusian is back!
11:30 am Monday in your time zone.
I heard it at 10:00 today (Saturday morning).
As a student of rhetoric, I find this one of the most interesting media offerings out there. Besides, where else do you get a show that explains the origin of of the term "bandwagon"?
I just heard Wiebo Ludwig tear Pollyanna Tremonti a new one, while indicting the media for producing "junk food" instead of discussing real issues.
Pollyanna then made his point by going on to her next interview, in which she spoke to a guy who wrote a book on the bombing of those oil and gas installations in Peace River.
It's all about the boom-boom and big explosions.
Maybe Anna-Maria is English for René-Charles?
Yeah, I heard that too this morning. I kind of laughed at her roundabout question: "Do you know who set the bomb?" And then her follow up question: "You know that the real question is, did YOU set the bomb." Well, if that was the real question, why didn't you just ask it to begin with?
Some yahoo called into Cross Country Checkup's program on airport security yesterday to inform Canadians that radical Muslims are the problem and they won't be happy until they've taken over the world and killed us all. Ratface Rex just nodded (I could see him) and said he agreed.
I wanted to call in a 'phone bomb (aeroplane terrorism is, like, so 2001), but the show was almost over by then, and I'd be playing into their racial stereotype anyway.
Michael Enright did a nice job of exposing America's role in the destruction of Haitian society this morning in interviewing a Haitian poet/psychiatrist (a Governor-General's award winner) about the history of his country. I had heard of America's role in defending U.S. capitalist hegemony in Haiti between 1915 and 1934, sending in the troops on the excuse of defending it against possible German intervention in the First World War. This fellow (whose name escapes me, but who is in like Flynn with our governor general) spelled it out. But then, why does her excellency not tell the U.S. ambassador that he is only the modern expression of long-ostanding imperialist aggression? And pass it on to Steve while she's on the subject? No, I understand her grief as a human being, but not her comprador co-optation.
CBC Regina is playing a concert by local chanteuse Anique Granger right now.
She moved to Québec long ago, but hasn't made the "big time" yet. Her brother told me it's because the Quebéc music industry is biased against francophones from hors de Québec. She really ought to be more well-known.
Anyway, her French accent seems more pronounced than it used to be, which is doubly weird since neither of her parents has a French accent.
Greg Mortenson was a guest of Michael Enright on Sunday morning, and I'm lined up at the library to read his Three Cups of Tea and the newest, Stones into Schools. He presents the education of girls in Afghanistan as a revolutionary force. His explanation of how to advance the cause of education for girls there begins with requiring a deep knowledge of tribal custom and understanding the importance of the elder (and the mothers of those kids... ). Reminds one of Rory Stewart's travels in The Places in Between.
Mortenson himself is a shy, guilless guy who is consumed with finding the schoolrooms and teachers for the world's 120,000,000 children who are now going without. This is a guy who almost got to the top of K-2, and who can explain why he has been able to stay alive in the hill country of Afghanistan and Pakistan.
I've been leaning on As It Happens lately. I skip the six pm newscast and plan my suppertime cooking\wine drinking\decompresion around AIH.
It's difficult to pinpoint favourite segments of the show. Last night they interviewed a southern US doctor who studied healthy living clinics in Iran, and now that doctor is attempting to bring similar projects to the States through legislation. Really interesting interview and ideas.
I really wish the AIH Friday night political panel would re-convene. I listened to it religiously for until it was disbanded, for unstated reasons and never brought back. Thinking of that panel now, my mind turns to the spin doctor extraordinare - Peter Donolo, who's presence as the defender of the Jean Chretien legacy was simply amazing to hear.
On the flip side, my disgust with my local regional morning show - the only current affairs programming availible for nearly a million people in Ontario - is growing. The show simply does not do political coverage of any sort beyond calling up a poly-sci prof here and there and asking them general questions. It's insulting to the audience to not even attempt to contact a variety of MPs to get their opinions. No Green Energy coverage. No municipal coverage.
I know that Ontario Morning is short of resources, or so I've been informed. But this is fucking radio. Call every MP in the listening range and see if they'll talk about prorogation. And if they don't answer or won't be on the show, let the listeners know, a la the Current and AIH, which regularly say they've been turned down for interviews. The Current was keeping track of how many times it ws refused.
I wonder if the CBC is reluctant to empower Ontario Morning with more resources, because then it might compete with Metro Morning.
What did you think of Peter Gzowski, Fp? (I enjoyed his triumverate of politicians, once weekly). There was a deeper understanding of politics at work then...certainly not the animosity of the neo-con crowd that Dalton Camp warned us about, eh? Is there any VOCAL remnant of red-Toryism in rural Ontariio today?
I started listening to CBC morning programming immediately following the retirement of Gzwoski. He was, from what I understand, the glue that held the show together.
I don't see a lot of Red Torys in my part of SWOnt. Certainly not a lot of federal Red Tories. The closest would be Ed Holder in London, but he's more of a Conservative with a wide array of interests than a redened tory.
If you're talking red tories as in the general populace.... yeah, plenty of people who don't give a shit if you smoke pot or are gay and want to get married, coupled with a distrust of high government spending in areas outside health care. The closest spokesperson I can think of in that area is MPP Randy Hillier. Not a big fan of Hillier myself, but he has a following and he's unafraid of speaking his mind.
But I thought Hillier was a social conservative too.
Because it came up:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Tory
In BC we are stuck with "Homer" Cluff. The only time he sounds like he knows anything on a subject is when it involves sports. He is possibly the person with the least amount of general knowledge ever to have hosted a show on the CBC.
They always do a lets talk to someone with a "problem" and then after he attack their views in the interview with every MSM cliche around they get on a right wing spokesperson who has listened to the first interview and he lobs them soft questions to give them the opportunity to score points that cannot be rebutted since the original interviewee has been hung up on to go to the second interview.
Remove Homer and Send Him Back to Sports
Michelle, Hillier was probably a bad example. I'm not entirely sure of his conservative social views. I don't think he wants to institutionalize\legislate social behaviour. I've listened to him speak on several occasions, pre-MPP status and post. He's quite good at poking holes in the government-big business monopolies and some of the more blatant money wasting that goes on in provincial politics. I think he's a union supporter, or at the very least a supporter of tradespeople.
Hillier is certainly more well known in the south than any other northern or central PC MPP. Ernie Hardeman in Oxford, whom I used to consider an utter dunce, is a hard working MPP with solid agricultural ideas. Not sure about his red-ness. Toby Barrett is my MPP, and he's just a caretaker.
I won't bring up Garth Turner, haha.
Krop51. Well, I suppose it's nice to know CBC radio isn't perfect elsewhere.
I'll be blunt: I think there's a lot of old school, long term CBC people working in jobs they probably think are beneath them - aka Ontario Morning - and they just don't give all that much thought to their listening audience. It's really hard to produce a daily current affairs show about the area outside Toronto, from Toronto, with a Toronto host and a bunch of Toronto producers. Ontario Morning has JC Kenney report news stories from Kingston and she also puts together the weekly Kingston Report. She's good. Janice Lee in London is not worth mentioning. She's a producer who never plays interviews. She'll have a QandA with Wei Chen where she mentions "I spoke to so and so" or "I was talking with this person" but she never plays a fucking clip! It's amazing, really. Radio with no audio. If I pay attention to the London Free Press headlines leading up to Lee's "London Report" I can predict within 90% what she's going to talk about. Jack Rowe in Peterborough is okay but suffers from the same syndrome where it's just him chatting with Wei Chen. Put a fucking story together, please.
I can't remember the last time I heard a provincial, federal, or municipal politician on Ontario Morning. But whatever second rate writer or musician is handy in Toronto, bang, immediate air time for them.
This is about CBC.ca I went to the website and opened the recent article on Kadr. What I found odd was the huge number of rightwing comments with thumbs up. Not just thumbs up but ones I apparently agree with. How is it that I am late to the party on the article but I have already agreed to comments that I don't agree with.
Someone is either playing games at CBC or they had their email list hacked to hijack articles by conbots.
This is very serious. If our very tiny voice of only being able to say something on an online article is being subverted where the hell are we going? Getting scary in this country.
I know I wouldn't agree to stuff like "Kadr deserves to be tortured" So why did it show my status as such. Is this something I should put forward to the ombudsman.
Thorin, what are you actually seeing? On the CBC site, the "thumbs" represent total votes. If you vote in favour of a post, you get a message underneath it saying: "You AGREE with this post", and it bumps up the number of "thumbs up" by one. Likewise if you vote against. If you have not yet voted, you should see this:
Weird story, Thorin and Unionist. Any follow ups? I never post on cbc.ca, but on the rare occasion I read the comments, they're generally just like a lot of other news sites that allow elongated discussions: it's usually not about the topic at hand, and if it's politics, the same rote comments always pop up. And since it's a cbc site, there's generally a "messed up lefties\commies" backlash alongside the same people saying the cbc is a tool of the same.
Anyhow, back to radio.
Andy Barrie is retiring in a month, to be replaced on March 1st by a new host, as of yet to be named.
I'll put it out to the Toronto crowd, since I don't listen to Metro Morning: who should replace Barrie?
My outsider vote goes to Matt Galloway, the host of Here and Now, which is broadcast into the hinterland of Ontario to cover the fact that the CBC is too braindead - or broke - to fund a quality afternoon program for everyone outside of Toronto. Luckily, Here and Now is a good show, that I listen to almost daily. Galloway is a good host, and clearly know the Toronto scene. I'm not sure who else is in the running. Robin Brown, maybe.
Please CBC - do not allow Kevin Slyvester to mount a comeback of any sort beyond the occasional fill-in. My memories of how he spend a summer hosting Sounds Like Canada are too fresh in my memory. I got a little annoyed when he would not stop talking about, and shamelessly promoting, some fucking kid's book he was illustrating and writing.
Ah, Sounds like Canada.... It was replaced by Q. I think Q should replace DNTO on Saturday afternoons and Sounds Like Canada should be reincarnated. Q's celebrity humping is painful to my ears.
For Metro Morning, I think there is no question that Matt Galloway is being groomed. He's been an able fill-in for Barrie on Fridays and when he was attending to his wife.
I think that Maureen Taylor would be a good choice if she wanted to come back to radio. She did the morning news for several years (in the unlamented Matt Maychak era) and hosted Radio Noon before that was felled by the budget axe.
Karen Horseman and Jane Hawton frequently fill in for Barrie, but I don't know if either of them would want to make the 3:00 am wake-up call a regular feature of their lives.
I imagine Galloway is first choice. I like Horseman's voice but I'm not familiar with her beyond her rather lame "Parenting" radio columns.
I have trouble imaginging this role being filled by someone not currently employed by the CBC.
Stayin' up late has meant another chance to hear the newest sounds out of Quebec on A Propo. Really wide-ranging choral work (out of Brittany) out of the past, and even a Leonard Cohen sorta sound-alike. Wish we had more history here in Upper Canada.
Matt Galloway is the new host of Metro Morning. They announced it on air this morning.
Who will be the new host of Here and Now? Let the speculation begin.
Good for Galloway. He seems to have the well rounded skills and interests that will make him a good host of Metro Morning. I always liked his Here and Now work.
Here and Now, eh? Hmmm. It's so hard to even make a guess. I don't know who is on the sidelines. I imagine the same people we brought up earlier would apply here: Horseman, Hawton. I can see Robin Brown, too.
I think Here and Now would be a very attractive job for a lot of CBCers. Afternoons, general interest, lots of time taken up with Fisher's newscasts and business\sports chat.
I wonder if Here and Now will do something like the great host challenge that put Carol Off into the seat on AIH? I loved hearing all the different voices.
Ah, which brings me to Helen Mann. Love her.
Matt Galloway has taken over. Thoughts Metro Morning listeners?
Has there been a paralell announcement for Here and Now? I believe Hawton was on yesterday.
Galloway will certainly appeal to sports enthusiasts. Does he have Andy's depth? Not yet, but we'll see... when he first interviews Mayor Miller.
Bollocks. I don't listen to Here and Now all that regularly, but Galloway has definitely interviewed all GTA heavyweights... including Miller. With Galloway at the helm, HandN was one of the better current affairs shows on my dial.
I'll probably start listening to Metro Morning specifically because of Galloway.
Your sports influence comment - does that come out his Olympic updates?
The "sports influence comment" comes out of the fact that Andy admitted he wasn't the best in sports reporting. But he certainly demonstrated a deep understanding of history and development of Toronto as a city. Must admit I didn't listen to Galloway's afternoon interviews very often. I'll be listening to see if Galloway goes beyond earnestness and an attempt at "balance"...you know, the usual?
Do you guys out east have to have Jian Ghomeshi on line? I'm allergic. I want CBC, not entertainment commentary.
Hey now. Don't be blaming us easterners for Jian and Q.
I used to think Sounds like Canada and Shelagh Rogers was a little light. But SLC was replaced by Q. And now I can only sound like a crusty old CBC listener and say "I wish it was like the old days!" That show told me about people and places in Canada. It hasn't been replaced, and certainly Q is no replacement.
Q would be a good replacement for DNTO. Or combine the shows, and hosts, into a national afternoon show - one hour. That's about as much time and resources the CBC should be investing in that type of programming.
GV, Galloway can talk Leafs, soccer, baseball. I'm listening to him do it right now.
I'll leave it up to you to decide if he has the TO roots\chops to properly host the show.
On a related note, the BBC is cutting it's online presence and scaling back some of its "digital" programming, due to pressure from private broadcasters and a looming expansion of the conservative party in the next election.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/03/business/media/03bbc.html
Galloway will certainly appeal to sports enthusiasts. Does he have Andy's depth? Not yet, but we'll see... when he first interviews Mayor Miller.
Your invitation for "comments" prompted this response, Fp. Then it got complicated. Listening to Galloway this morning I'm impressed with the way he demanded the interviewee say how change would affect those in poverty. Damned good start for me. Knowledgeable about music, too, apparently (and don't ask me where or how I came to "know " music myself. I turned off pop music a few years after the Fab Four came on the scene, but a few moons before that I caught Oscar Peterson a couple of times for the price of a drink at the old Town Tavern. :D
Q would be a good replacement for DNTO. Or combine the shows, and hosts, into a national afternoon show - one hour. That's about as much time and resources the CBC should be investing in that type of programming.
I'm always shocked to learn that people actually seem to like jian and Q. For me the problem is that more often than not it seems to have no greater desire than to regurgitate the most widespread and generic sentiments of the country as a whole. I actually think they do a good job of this, it's just a boring thing to do. I disagree about investing less time on arts, culture and entertainment programming, just because the CBC is not very good at it does not mean it shouldn't be done.
I don't get Q, either. It sounds like a satelite radio show to me.
I'm definitely for arts and culture and good pop culture shows.
But in times of really tight budgets, and given the lack of detailed reporting in daily broadcast news, I think CBC radio should focus its priorities. I don't like trading an hour of Ontario Today for an afternoon of patchwork programming including Your DNTO, for instance (that's the name of the show, I believe).
I'd like to hear a wider variety of arts and culture programs. Lots of half hour shows.
DNTO worked for me out on the wet coast. Murphy was one of my favorite swear-words; ie Jay Zues Effin' Muuurphy!
Robin Brown was one of the few that could make 'sports' work for me, I miss tapestry too.
Tapestry is still a show... isn't it? I think Tapestry is consistently one of the best shows on CBC radio. I don't really miss The Inside Track but I do like Robin Brown.
DNTO had a run where a lot of neat stories, pop culture docs, were being put to air. Then Sook Yin came along and the show has lacked a focus since then. I think it's now trying some kind of slightly weird first person storytelling format, more like the Sad Goat show that used to run in the weekday afternoons.
Michael Enright provided three hours of history of the women's movement this a.m., including taped extracts of Nellie McClung speaking in 1938 (her Group of Five now enshrined on Parliament Hill ) ; the move that shut down Parliament proceedings in 1970 led by 17 women travelling east in three cars from Vancouver area, demanding rights to abortion and ;putting P.E.T. on the spot (and now we know from John English's bio on him that he was a staunch Catholic); The Voice of Women from 1960, beginning a strong peace movement at a time when a RCMP mole, quoted on CBC Radio, called them communists and a threat to Canada.
Hilariously, "the left" at the time reportedly thought the movement for abortion on demand interferred with the main task of revolution or gaining ascendancy through the ballot box. I do not recall mention of the successful move to entrench women's status in the constitution through the Charter (section 28)
I didn't hear the entire three hours, but the documentary segment about the Abortion Caravan was terrific radio. It's not up yet, but it should eventually be posted here for anyone wanting to listen. A great way to mark IWD. Worth it just for the audio of the meeting between PET and the Vancouver Womens' Caucus.
I normally don't care for the Sunday Edition, but this week they really hit it out of the park.
Karen Wells' documentaries are usually very good. I heard most of Abortion Caravan doc this morning and I loved it.
Anyone listening to Canada Reads on Q? I'm catching the evening replays all week, hopefully.
I've listened to CR since it began in 2002. I remember that year's winner quite clearly because Ondaatje's In The Skin of A Lion won. I thought that book was vastly superior to The English Patient.
The mix of books championed is effective. I think popular, or better known, books are punished. Oryx and Crake and Barney's Version were really good books. This year I suspect Jade Peony and Fall On Your Knees will suffer the same fate.
As long as Generation X does not win, I'll be happy.
I'm enjoying Saturday Night Blues with Holger Petersen these days.
quote:
"As long as Generation X does not win, I'll be happy. " Joy to you, it didn't.
Glad to hear that, GV. I missed the show entirely yesterday.
Next on my own personal To Be Knocked Off the list is Fall On Your Knees. A decent read but it felt so contrived to me and it's not a book I imagine I'll ever re-read (one of my personal watermarks for good lit is the urge to re-read it at some point).
I suspect at this point that Jade Peony (no spoilers, please; I'm catching the re-broadcast tonight) will take the win.
In GenX's defense. One of the panelists who said she didn't like the book, allowed that it did make her laugh out loud in places. I agree with that. And I think Coupland is a clever writer. His style and subject matter simply does not engage me beyond mild annoyance.
Micheal Turner is a contemporary of Coupland's, and has written much stronger and more diverse works. I'd like to see Hard Core Logo championed (I think Steven Page brought it up at one point).
Taking a mild tangent.... Bill Richardson used to host Canada Reads. Does he still work for the CBC? I remember long afternoons working a tractor, listening to Sad Goat. When it was cancelled and replaced with a still wavering and weird mix of shows, he used to fill in host. Unlike Ghomeshi, Richardson clearly read widely and could prod the conversation along without resorting to snide Jian-isms.
And it was good to hear James Cudmore break the Liberal's connection to Afghan detainees. Notably, none of the former Libs involved have responded to interviews.
Mystery fans might enjoy P.D. James interview on Q
http://www.cbc.ca/podcasting/pastpodcasts.html?42#ref42
I'm enjoying Saturday Night Blues with Holger Petersen these days.
Parka Patrol was better.
A colleague of mine told me how, while discussing the decline of CBC Radio over the weekend with a neighbour, she suggested that the guy give community radio a chance.
Now this is where the story gits weird...
The guy said he does listen to community radio, especially Sunday nights, when his favourite programme's on. He likes it so much he has made reel-to-reel recordings of 95% of the shows since it first aired back in 1996. My colleague told him, "I know a guy who has a Sunday night show - good ol' al-Q." The guy looked at her in amazement and said, "You know al-Q?" in what my colleague said was the same tone that he could have used to say "You know Mick Jagger?"
I had no idea...
"al-Q" Looks like I had better start getting it right. And congrats. Can't imagine what it would feel like to know someone's intentionally dialing in with anticipation. Heady. Have raised a scotch in celebration...and will follow it wi' a wee dram or two more.
I'll play "Scotchin' With the Soda" just for you next show, George.
Sweet deal, QaBong. You've suggested I tune in before and this gives me the reminder to finally do so.
Check out this blog. The dude is a Prof and a former radio pro with some solid credentials. Read the third and fourth posts on his blog for his opinion of CBC 1-2-3's musical programming. I never check out R3, rarely R2, so I'll offer no opinions re. musical based shows.
Hmm, mebbe I'll play "You'se a Viper" for you, Farmpunk. Could you put down a link, man?
Solid.
[Hey, I'm getting into character...]
D'oh! Forgot the link:
http://nowthedetails.blogspot.com/
Did anybody catch Michael Enright's archival program on Friday afternoon? I think it's called Rewind. It featured a program from 1958 called "A Walk in New York" which gave snapshots of the city through the eyes of a young actor named...(drumroll) Leslie Nielsen. Some of the voice-over seemed a little stagey in the portentous manner of the time, but the live segments crackled with immediacy and gave a compelling portrait of a great city. It's hard to imagine a TV program of the same era having that sort of freshness. I think that's why radio survives. The most intimate of the arts is also extremely durable.
CBC shoud give us a heads-up for all Rewind broadcasts. They are all a marvelous lesson/reminder of our history and changing worldview.
Michael Enright crosses Canada by rail this morning (starting now)
I'll be firing up my musical time machine in about 5 1/2 hours.
What's the link again?
Saskatoon Community Radio
The German Show is on now, followed by the Italian, Romanian, and Ukrainian programmes. Mine's after that. If you hear a radio play, or something that sounds really gay, (no, really) you're late.
The listen live function doesn't function for me. Probably need to disable something.
Darn. When you click on the link, Windows Media Player should start. I don'tknow if that helps at all.
Long-time CBC radio personality Gary Mittelholtz died of a heart attack Saturday while cross-country skiing near Sussex, N.B. He was 55.
Mittelholtz, an outdoors enthusiast, was skiing with a friend.
He started his radio career at the CBC in Toronto in the summer of 1976, working as a technician. A decade later he moved to Saint John, where he worked the remainder of his 32-year career.
Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/new-brunswick/story/2010/03/14/nb-gary-mittelholtz-obit-342.html#ixzz0iFHFJlru
The listen live function doesn't function for me. Probably need to disable something.
Well, whether you tuned in or not, I mentioned "Farmpunk" and "George Victor" on the air and played those tunes for yuz.
Thanks, QaBong.
Back to As It Happens. Anyone listening this week while Barbara Budd took the week off? Instead of the usual male fill ins, they're trying out a woman. I cannot catch or remember her name, but she's better than the men. Still, a rough set of shoes to fill - Budd is simply a master.
I have not listened to Rewind. I think it's a great idea. And I agree that radio is tiimeless.
I only watch CBC News Network when I'm at the gym. What is the point of the afternoon? Where are the stories? Today they actually broadcast a story about Octomom's housing problems, the deadly danger of accupuncture, Sarah Palin's proposed reality show plus a little chitchat about her potential salary, which at 1 million\episode, had the Ceebers chuckling.
It's weird and pointless filler, heavy on death, headline stuff, with a good dose of US celebrity coverage updates. Makes radio sound a lot better.
As It Happens has been doing a daily bit on an urban farming mega-project in Detriot. AIH generally does a good job of hightlighting food and agricultural issues, as does the Current. I often disagree violently with the story - usually an interviewee - but at least I'm getting the story to start with. The Current introduced me to Micheal Pollan, for example. AIH has always followed ag stories that I wouldn't have heard otherwise.
DNTO is a disaster. And Strombo's Radio2 show.... Can I see a show of hands for QaBong taking that slot?
Listening to Budd saying she's leaving As It Happens!
As It Happens hasn't been the same since Harry Brown left.
I don't listen to As It Happens much any more. When I was a kid I listened to it while I did dishes every night. Dishes didn't seem like such a bad job then. A couple of my favourite memories of the show were the Babs Frum-Harold Ballard interview (then Frum's solo reply, especially how she called herself a broadcaster) and Frum's interview with Charles Manson family member Sandra Good after Squeaky Fromme tried to kill Gerald Ford.
I saw a promo for "The Hour" recently. "Pop culture junk" is about all I have to say about the show.
I never liked DNTO. It replaced Jack Farr's The Radio Show, which was purt'near the best thing on the air. Me on Radio2? I dunno, sure, as long as CBC management doesn't mind a guy who says things such as requesting that the CF artillery detachment in Dundurn use new urban-sprawly McSubdivisions as target practice, as I am wont to do on community radio.
Your AIH listening days outnumber mine. I started with Budd and Finlay. I wasn't keen on Carol Off and I'm still ambivalent.
I never watch the Hour. I do listen the the Strombo Show on Sundays, on occasion. He playes some good tunes but the show is awful. I'd welcome QaBong's direct attacks.
Q is turning into a very strange show. There's this veneer of Canadian content and then Ghomeshi nearly comes in his pants to interview Usher. It's turned into a pathetic celebrity humping show.
I notice that Robin Brown has a show of her own now. Something to do with Canadians telling their own stories or something.
State media is always boring. Now if Canada only had a public broadcaster.
Is this even state media at this point?
Q is driving me insane! It's a freaking Hollywood humping mainstream pop culture show and nothing else. It could be produced in LA or New York by anyone for all the relevant Canadian content it showcases.
And for fuck's sake, Q, get the slobs you currently have producing the show to stop cribbing stories from The Current. Unreal. Two months ago the Current did a long piece on narco-corrido music in Mexico. That same week The Current had a long interview and discussion about Thomas The Train.
Today Q did a narco-corrido piece and later this week it will be discussing Thomas the Train.
Q has no point and Ghomeshi isn't helping things by literally licking the ass of every big name guest on the show. Put Q in DNTO's slot and find *something* to put in Q's slot, using Q's resources. Rabble podcasts are vastly superior and relevant than anything Q has put forth lately, Judy Rebick's presence on that media panel notwithstanding.
I believe the current state ideology is that we are the junior partner and the best neighbour to the great empire. That is why when they put everything into an American centric lens I think they are acting as our state media.
Gosh, I wonder if CBC is succumbing to Conservative heat, knows the game is up for public broadcasting if the Cons get a majority?
Oh well, Michael Enright is still doing the right thing, and I thought that Robert Harris filled in very nicely on AIH. And who knows, maybe the bastards won't get that majority, the executive offices will be swept clean and we return to Canadian programming. Hey, one can dream, eh?
Ask the Liberals what they thought of Carole Taylor as President and then fantasize about ever getting back to public broadcasting. The problems at the CBC did not start with the Conservative government. Martin and Cretien started the process of turning it into an image of the MSM so it could "compete."
Like the Libs 90s efforts to lower taxes in the face of the western populist threat, it was part of an attempt to stay in power. Not that that scenario left one in much doubt about the differences between Tweedledee and Tweedledum, but at this moment, it is definitely a threat from right field. And I don't think the Libs would shut things down. I think that Fowler told them what they were succumbing to, and they are about to find spine. We'll see. Sure hope the Great Malleable read between the lines of the ubiquitous Con literature left in the mailboxes, meantime.
I agree, Kropotkin. The Cons have maintained the CBC'd buget, whereas the Libs lobbed off big chunks.
The Harper\Cons do clearly hate CBC radio, which still has some real journalists working on the ground and airwaves. They simply don't have any support and the management is heinous. There isn't a single reporter in Hamilton, a city of over 500 thousand people! A 45 minute trip to Toronto yields a massive building full of CBC employees (and contractors) and yet there's no enough money kicking around to have a newsperson covering Hamilton, Kitchener, Guelph?
And the Cons have not been downsizing it since 1006, including the most recent Con-inspited CRTC decision to NOT fund CBC like the other networks? You mustn't be listening to CBC news. Or you've found a causal factor that would explain such neo-con oversight of the enemy. Surreptitious garroting is overlooked even by CBC nerds? :D
George check out this blog:
http://nowthedetails.blogspot.com/
The CBC already gets significant public funding. I have no doubt the Cons will not go out of their way to help the CBC. But the CBC still gets a fair chunk of money from the public. The Cons have maintained the levels they inherited, more or less.
Simply, the Cons are not going to reinstate any new funds for the CBC.
The Cons would never attempt to lean on the CRTC to help the CBC. I'm a little puzzeled to find people surprised by this, including the CBC, because I have been listening, GV.
I listened to AIH the day of the decision, and a Ceeb exec suggested withholding their tv signals in protest, essentially going off air.
Anyhow, the CBC has some issues to deal with as per its role. And that's probably why I'm a CBC Radio Nerd, not a CBC Nerd.
If you really wanted good public TV, Fp, you'd have to ante up about six times (I think it is) the per capita take, bringing you to BBC level. Course, CBCers might not know what to do with it all, but they have said that restoration of local programming would take a bit. That would mean moe information for an uninformed citizenry. And they would have to go for BBC training to elarn what to do with cameras in any dramatic takes. ...Ah well, I still think the news is more dependable than Global or CTV.
As for drama...well, of course, the CBC executive had to say somethin' about being kept away from the gifting to the chaps who will say what a nice person you are at election time...or not.
p.s. That blog sits somewhere to the right of Vlad the Impaler. The $1 billion serves a vast piece of realestate and even programs in several FN voices across the north. And it is a lesser amount each year.
GV, CBC TV is an entire thread of its own. I don't watch enough of it to come up with a solid commentary. I know, like radio, the tv shows are good in places and poor in others. I watch CBC News Network most and it's probably better left off air.
Don't let your perception of Dvorkin's political leanings colour your reading glasses, GV. Dvorkin's strongest comments are directed towards the mangement decisions consciously taken by the CBC itself to mimic private networks. So now the Ceeb is stuck: it gets direct public funding and competes for ad revenue in TV and on the net. It doesn't *look* like a public broadcaster; it really is a publically funded private broadcaster.
CBC Radio is separate in my mind. It's certainly more cost effective than TV production, and possibly more effective, period, in maintaining the CBC's mandate across a large country.
In a stroke of journalistic serendipity, the CBC sent AMT to broadcoast The Current from Moscow. She ended up covering the subway bombings.
In other news, the CBC is denying that its a conflict of interest for reporter Krista Erickson to cover the federal government while its covering her travel as the "designated traveller" for Conservative MP Lee Richardson.
Yep. It was given to us by a desperate Conservative gov't in mid-depression as a means of bringing a common understanding of the national position(s) and our history. Probably FDR's fireside chats looked like a useful proselytizing tool.
I just tremble at the thought of thuggish neocon slugs destroying that national voice and leaving the citizenry even more in the dark than they are now (thanks to the propensity to watch U.S. programming). I have little faith in the average Canadian's understanding of the importance of this... except at the time of international hockey tournaments. :D
"In the story, the president of the Canadian Association of Journalists and a spokesman for the Canadian Taxpayers Federation both said the designation suggests Erickson is in a conflict of interest."
Embedded is given new meaning. Thanks Scott.
Yeah, ScottP, The Current really did a fine job on that story at the very last minute.
If Erikson was covering any other beat, probably not an issue. And I'm not sure I like the implication that a journalist can't do his\her job without letting the personal life interfere. I wonder if Erikson grabs attention because, well, she grabs attention (lose the tanning bed, Krista).
There are other clear conflicts of interest within the CBC. Carol MacNeil is married to Stursberg and gets a prime time job. Carol Off is in a similar relationship. There are rumours that Strombo is involved with a TV exec.
Off radio, again, but whatever.
This is a strong take on CBC News Network.
http://hlbtoo.wordpress.com/2010/03/29/time-to-lose-all-news/
During a programme on Canadian involvement in the US imperialist enterprise in Afghanistan on Cross Country Check-Up today, Ratface Rex managed to pull his nose out of the rectum of a US military vet long enough to say "Thanks for gracing the program with your call."
Rex is just another tiny cog in the larger US military's propaganda machine:
On February 12 of this year, U.S. forces entered a village in the Paktia Province in Afghanistan and, after surrounding a home where a celebration of a new birth was taking place, shot dead two male civilians (government officials) who exited the house in order to inquire why they had been surrounded. The Pentagon then issued a statement claiming that (a) the dead were all "insurgents" or terrorists, (b) the bodies of three women had been found bound and gagged inside the home (including two pregnant women, one a mother of 10 children and the other a mother of six children, and a teenage girl), and (c) suggested that the women had already been killed by the time the U.S. had arrived, likely the victim of "honor killings" by the Taliban militants killed in the attack.
Although numerous witnesses on the scene as well as local investigators vehemently disputed the Pentagon's version, and insisted that all of the dead (including the women) were civilians and were killed by U.S. forces, the American media largely adopted the Pentagon's version, often without any questions. But enough evidence has now emerged disproving those claims such that the Pentagon was forced yesterday to admit that their original version was totally false and that it was U.S. troops who killed the women
How Americans Are Propagandized About Afghanistan
Listening to Budd saying she's leaving As It Happens!
Apparently, it's not a voluntary departure. They want to replace her because they have a new corporate policy to "replace announcers with journalists." (like Alan Maitland, Budd is just the voice of AIH, while Off and her predecessors do the interviews).
If the CBC really wanted to "replace announcers with journalists", they'd be putting Peter Mansbridge out to pasture (since he was "discovered" when making an announcement over the Churchill airport PA system).
The Dvorkin blog has a good commentary on the Budd situation.
I think there are a number of factors in Budd's departure. They could even be her own, though it doesn't seem that way, and certainly didn't *sound* that way that night. She's been there 17 years. In broadcast, that's a long time.
I wasn't aware of anyone who thought Budd was a "journalist". She was a voice on the show, the one who had to read the often tongue twisting editorials that were often the highlights of the show. Maybe she wrote some herself, or all of them, doesn't matter - she was good at it.
Being ruthless, I can see why they're doing the announcer thing. The Ceeb wants to train its TV people to both sound and look good. Radio grooms tomorrow's talking head. And I assume CBC TV has a backlog of such journalists.
Mansbridge is a perfect case of a dude who needs to be Budded.
I understand the same announcer vs journalist fight is taking place during the news at six, with Bernie taking a backseat to Allison. She's better than him, IMO.
Then can you explain how evan soloman is in charge of a political show. Talking head disn't derogatory enough for him.
Why do I have to explain that?
I don't watch Power and Politics. I did watch Solomon speak once, and he was good. Glib, smart, prepared.
The inevitable facebook group opposing Budd's departure has formed. I think I may join it, if only because apparently people are bashing Ghomeshi.
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