The other day on Q ( I think), the CBC host was interviewing Dolph Lundgren. I think he played a Soviet boxer opposite Stallone once. Anyway, the subject was some new action movie.
Why doesn't CBC Radio just hire Ben bloody Mulroney and make it official?
Hey, easy on Dolph. He was also The Punisher...
Q is a poor program. Ghomeshi is off on summer vacation, and standing in this week is Jonathan Torrens, who has filled a variety of media roles in his career, most notably J Roc on Trailer Park Boys.
But as an arts and entertainment host he's not sounding all that effective or happy to be in the seat.
I suspect Q's days are numbered. Or maybe that's hope that with the end of the Stursberg era, Radio One will cease and desist programs like Q which are clearly misplaced on a public broadcasting schedule. I don't mind Ghomeshi as much as a loathe the celebrity humping content of the show.
I used to criticize Sounds Like Canada for being a little soft and sweet, but remembering the show now, I can only hope for its return. Shelagh Rogers used to speak to, you know, Canadians who were happy, sick, dying, politicians, activists, with nary an American or international celeb "name" to speak of. SLC was not free advertising for whatever press releases were being issued that week.
Stursberg's departure has been attributed to a conflict with the CBC's next five year plan (cue, or Q, the jokes re. five year plans). I suspect some brainy upper management types got together and have realized that a publically funded broadcaster should probably not chase the same stories and presentation styles as the private sector. Stursberg was, from what I've read, all about "eyeballs" and ratings and implementing metrics from US broadcast consultants.
One thing I noticed most of all about CBC radio's delivery was the incessant self-promoting of CBC programs that were not radio broadcasts. The idea was presumably to use radio's ad-free space to advertise for CBC.ca and CBCtv. Because, to someone like Stursberg, radio's lack of ad revenue negatively affected the ledger; it was almost a waste. So radio, clearly the stronger of the two broadcast operations in terms of content, has been used as a marketing tool for tv and online to make up for its damning lack of revenue possibilities.
Three letters in the Globe this a.m. celebrated the end of Stursberg with the hope for a return to finer programming from the past. The half-hourly promotional was high on the list of current failures. Hell, do you think that perhaps the board has wakened to public perception?
And the Globe informs us today that the CBC will miss next summer's deadline for switching its signal transmitters from analogue to digital. the vp and chief regulatory officer with CBC/Radio-Canada, Steven Guiton, said they "don't have the cash to be doing this kind of invetment." They asked CRTC for a one-year extension. Total cost of conversion: about $50 million.Rogers, CanWest (Global) and CTV expect to be on time with conversion.
I could have told you that. They moved out half of our tower half a decade ago(and piss poor reception ever since). We still have cbc radio one on AM and they have been trying to shut it down for years. We had a huge rally to get our local TV back. Sadly given the harper era, I don't think many would bother...evan soloman was back on P&P today and I felt my blood boil as his shilling for the cons is so grating. Unlike conservative who have cried about bias in the CBC(something now happening in their favour, yet they say it isn't) we on the left have no where to go to get news. They could always go to national post or CTV or global if they hated the cbc. Now that the cbc is on a right bent, where do we go when not online.
GV's wishes become reality:
http://www.cbc.ca/arts/media/story/2010/08/06/richard-stursberg.html
Stursberg (partner of Carol McNeil) is gonzo.
Here's a report that may shed some light on Stursberg's departure:
I'm a big fan of Ouimet, if not what's become of her teamakers website.
Alas, it appears that the teamakersblogspot - started when CBC mangement under Stursberg locked out the CBC employees in 2005 - has come to an end. Too bad. It was one of the very few blogs I read consistently, and at times teamakers was an invaluable resource into the inner workings of the corp, or the corpse as the CBC was often called on teamakers. But of late the blog had been taken over by relentlessly awful gossipy bits about Ghomeshi and Strombo and little else of substance except some funny posts about how the CBC was attempting to use bullshit social media devices to appear more hip and with it.
Au revoir, Ouimet.
OMG, give me the FM dial for eastern ontario, my sportstalk, the FAN590 has swung severely to the right. I'm in a twilight zone, thank gooodness for babble.
I get the impression that CBC Radio, post Stursberg and beginning last week, started taking a more serious turn and that can't just be due to vacation season being over.
Interestingly, to us nerdz, is the ongoing contest to replace Barbara Budd. I listened last night, and some dude named Andrew Moddie was doing the Budd job. His voice definitely caught my attention but his delivery was spotty.
Tonight the dude is nailing it down tight. He's my vote for replacing Budd.
In an odd twist, I gather from his twitter feed that he's more of an actor than journalist. That, apparently, was one knock against Budd near the end, and was used as justification for replacing her. After a summer of journalists, perhaps what's left of the Ceeb management got their shit together long enough to try someone like this in Budd's role.... ie someone like Budd.
I'm curious to see what they do with the Saturday morning line-up. I liked GO and was sad to see it, well, go.
It's about time that Joe Fan had his own show.
[ed.]
And Jackie Farr's The Radio Show was the best Saturday afternoon show ever. Captain Jack should return.
Sure I'm a dreamer; there's no way the mediocrats running the Mother Corporation would allow talent such as that of the Old Fighter back on the air.
Before my time, QaBong.
I couldn't get into Go, Laine. I think Bambury has done a good job on other shows. He's a better host for Q than Ghomeshi.
Hard to say what will fill that hole on Saturdays. I suspect repeat programming of some kind.
Saturday, outside of The House, needs some serious alterations. DNTO is a mess, Go is gone.
I'm torn on the CBC's "food show" The Main Ingredient. I think it's fun, and Khalil Aktar is a good host. But the show is not breaking any new ground, and it certainly isn't a show about agriculture. Food is political and the show is not.
Bambury is keeping the time slot with a new show called "Day Six".
al-Q is right:
The Radio Show with Jack Farr towers over its successors. Thing was, Jack Farr was at ease in his own skin and ran a show that pleased him first and the listeners second. DNTO, in contrast, has always been the geeky kid on the outside of the charmed circle, frantically trying to master the latest cool trends in order to win a chance to ride in the middle of the back seat. A lot of CBC Radio programs seem to do the same thing. The only way to run a proper show is to pick an interesting host, then let them run with the ball, and if that means a solid week of Andean flute music, well, c'est la vie. But for a long time now, the emphasis has been on making the on-air product less dependent on its host. Fine in theory, but it just doesn't work on the most intimate of all media.
What is Bambury's new show about? Does CBC radio ever advertise it's own programs, or bother to intro them to the listeners?
Hmm, interesting observation, Foth-Phipps.
I won't argue that a lot of the non-new and current events shows tend towards lame and middle ground, almost as if they aren't really trying that hard. I do like Tapestry, because I think Mary Hynes is awesome. I can listen to that show and not ever agree with any of the guests.
DNTO wasn't always this shitty. Sure, there was a strong geek and urban trend humping side of the show, but some of the pieces they used to run were fun: little stories and small docs about odd things. And then there was Nora.... Now we get Sook-Yin and seemingly random people talking about whatever pops into their heads. I assume DNTO has become "the voice of the people", a lame replacement for Outfront, which was occasionally a very jarring program.
The six pm newscast has tweaked format, I think. There are fewer stories, but the stories are longer, and there's only one newscaster instead of two.
Moodie did a nice job on AIH last night.
Not that I listen to a lot of CBC radio, but DNTO seems to always coincide with the weekend time slot when the family heads out to do whatever chores and shopping is needed ... It may not be a heavyweight intellectual program, but it's something I can listen to on the way to the grocery store, go in buy the groceries, and return and feel like I haven't missed a whole lot (which I grant is probably not what would normally be considered a "plus" under most other circumstances.)
The best thing about the show is that it talks about simple things that many of us just take for granted ... My wife and daughter are originally from SE Asia, and can have different takes on some of these concepts. They get to understand the North American take on these concepts, and I get a better understanding of how another culture (a culture I have to live with) views these concepts ... DNTO allows us an opportunity to discover these differences and talk to each other about them.
Hopefully there are other mixed culture families, and even same-cultured-but-not-North-American families that listen and find it useful to their understanding of the culture they find themselves living among.
I enjoyed DNTO when Nora Young hosted it - the program was longer and segments more varied. Since then DNTO keeps shrinking on all fronts. I've also noticed that the pool of people interviewed on whatever simple theme they feature is often limited to fellow CBC contributors, hosts and producers. There seem to be less random people on the street interviews or story-telling.
Andrew Moodie seems to be well-suited for AIH, Farmpunk. Nice voice and delivery overall. I also agree with you about Tapestry. I never tire of the show even when I think the topic will bore me to tears. Mary Hynes is great. I found that Inside Track with Robin Brown had a similar effect. I don't follow sports but I was often intrigued by the interviews she presented.
Interesting comments, NoYards. Did you have a particular episode in mind that I could search and listen to online?
There was a CBC summer series, circa 2009, that is occasionally replayed and its all about immigration and the Canadian experience. I simply cannot remember the name of the show... The host was an Indian woman. It was a neat program, because it delved into a lot of second generation Canadians telling their stories and comparing their parents' backgrounds with the new country and kids born into that new country. There was a neat show on mult-ethnic marriage, too, that I found really intriguing, because a very strong percentage of my small town white friends have married first or second generation Canadians.
I agree more with Laine's assessment of DNTO. To each his\her own, though. Sook-Yin has progressed into a decent host. But there's no story to the show anymore.
If I were running the Ceeb, I'd stick Ghomeshi, Sook-Yin, Strombo, Jennifer Hollett, Jann Arden, and whomever else was recruited from MuchMusic and the entertainment field, all on one show replacing DNTO.
Not specifically, but I recall one show about gluttony that evoked some discussion .... being raised SE Asian Buddhist their concept of gluttony was not quite the same as mine (can't recall the specifics of the differences, I just remember that after that show they would joke about my gluttonous habits at the diner table (eat too fast) which for them was not something they would normally associate with their concept of the word, or at least the word they most closely associated with the term in their language.)
I think the point being is that DNTO has a theme each week, and sometimes that theme doesn't always have the same context in other cultures as it does in our own ... DNTO is like North America popular culture 101. Not sure if that's what it is meant to be, but because of the circumstances and timing of the show with our lifestyle, that seems to be how we use it.
Cool. Solid perspective.
Check out "Mashup" hosted by Geeta Nadkarni. I thought that was a neat show. The episodes are still posted online, I believe.
Will have a look, thanks.
Damn, I was away when our local CBC Radio decided to axe Margaux Watt from her position as the host of the drive home afternoon program (Afternoon Edition/Up to Speed - latter being the name that the brain trust came up to sexy up the program). Anyway, the new permanent replacement started this week. I kept thinking he sounded like a country or rock AM Radio DJ.
Sure enough he was part of a "rock/schlock jock" duo that hosted a drive-in morning show on CJOB. He is also an evangelical on-again, off-again preacher who left CJOB to work for the Siloam Mission. WTF?! Are the CBC deluded enough to think they are going to attract audiences that abhor our publicly funded airways?
Some background reading:
http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/life/faith/from_rock_jock_to_pulpit-409...
http://godtalkradioshow.blogspot.com/2009/11/winnipeg-duo-creating-must-...
http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/breakingnews/Updike-leaving--100541234....
In their usual slippery way, management cast it as her decision, wanting to explore other opportunities. But she was axed period.
"Margaux is a solid journalist," Bertrand said. "She's done a great job, but I know she has some other opportunities in the building she wants to explore."
Bertrand had no job for Watt to announce yet, but he said he wants her replacement in front of the microphone in September, when the important fall ratings period begins.
The corporation's union agreement means the position must be posted.
In a staff memo Friday morning, Bertrand cast the decision as Watt's, but sources inside the Portage Avenue plant say this is not the case.
Also it sounds like Larry Updike was recruited specifically for the job based on his own comment re: CBC making him an offer he couldn't refuse.
http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/cbc-replacing-afternoon-radio-sho...
Good post, Laine. Thanks.
Your take? Was Margaux good? The dude replacing her seems, and I can't put this diplomatically, old. Maybe she was tired of hosting the show...
Ha, as soon as I hack the Ceeb for not advertising Bambury's new show, I just heard a promo for Sixth Day which makes it sound neat, a current affairs type show. I just hope the show doesn't steal a tactic from Q and simply follow up on topics that The Current has already covered.
Plus, AIH had a weird thing from Rober Fisher. Apparently the second edition of something he did earlier for the show. Sounded kinda odd to me. But at least the show is trying some news things.
I liked Margaux and she was very good at promoting local musicians and other cultural events. I doubt she was ready for retirement.
I caught the Sixth Day and the jury is still out as far as I'm concerned. Having Monte Solberg on kind of ticked me off. (What's CBC's fixation with him? I was surprised to hear him host Cross-Country check-up last spring.)
And sadly enough, it seems that the Edmonton-based program, The Irrelevants, is a permanent fixture. (I was hoping it was just a summer replacement, oh well.)
Harper lackey thats all you need to know. Just look for the brown nose.
And, Thorin, I figured you'd be all over Solomon hosting Cross Country Check Up. He didn't sound comfortable.
I only caught the last 10 minutes of Cross Country Check-up so I can't fairly assess Solomon's performance. The good thing about that show is that you do get to hear opinions that go against the host's comfort zone and gets them hot under-the-collar. I love it when Rex looses his cool when schooled by someone who has a contrary and well-expressed opinion.
LOL Farmpunk....yeah I thought about a scree but what is the point. I think everyone knows my disgust for the CBC as of late. And yes no surprise his usual smug self gratuitous nature shown through. He even managed to plug his own show. His style is very grating, cuts off people he doesn't agree with and says shit like "I like your answer" You aren't suppose to make that call. You are suppose to be neutral jerk.
Also didn't like him fawning over T-Rex the guy is a consummate ass kisser, might be why I hate him so much. He obviously was out of his depths. Part of that is unlike TV with his goofy fake smile, looks cant cover for incompetance. All you recieve is what comes out of your mouth.
This relates to how Nixon Vs Kennedy(i think) went betwen the radio and TV public having very different views of who won the debate. Though that may also have something of a rural vs urban divide as well.
LL I agree he usually tries to get them off hastily as well.
CCC was poor this week. The guests were in the wrong spots and comments didn't seem to be very diverse. The only thing consistant was the usual weirdo who gets on talking about some completely non related issue.
As a follow up. I don't understand why the CBC has certain people like Evan and Amanda lang everywhere while laying off Brian Stewart(unless he quit given the direction of the ceeb) The canadian talent pool is getting shallower each year. No one is trained or groomed. Just look good and read the teleprompter. Like you mentioned Farmpunk, Soloman sounded uncomfortable. No cue cards to ask questions of MPs means he actually has to try to make an intelligent answer.
Just watch the 2 parts to this old Hot Type interview with chomsky and how he make ES look like a complete noob as both an interviewer and someone talking about the middle east. Evan hasn't learned much in the last 10 years either.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=10rTPSSmOFw
I did laugh at the guy who kept calling him Yvon instead of Evan on CCC...made my day.
What is everones opinion on Afghanida...I feel it is more like propganada than anything else. It is meant to pull your emotions towards the tough job "our soldiers" are doing. Little is progressive in the program, perhaps putting a woman in charge. I am a bit cynical in that is just a way of bringing women into the fold while still giving a soap opera content of we are right they are wrong. The show has its moments but to me is mostly propoganda. I have only heard maybe 5 or 6 of the shows in entirety..does anyone here listen to it often enough for a more informed opinion than mine?
I remember Heph calling "Afghanida" blatant propaganda at EM when this radio drama first started. I've probably listened to a handful of episodes annually and although it sometimes has compelling story lines, and the tone is sort of balanced, I still think its propaganda. More subtle than blatant, but it certainly seems to paint a portrait of our military being very compassionate and committed to an honourable mission. The closest I've seen to a Canadian bad apple is a naive, trigger happy soldier in one episode who gets schooled for nearly screwing things up bad. There might be a few officers that come off as too officious at worst. I'm amazed that it's into its fifth season.
I was thinking that too LL, thats what prompted my post. "now into its 5 season" And I was thinking really? When you consider how many other projects have been ejected that aren't lifers unlike Sunday Edition, As It Happens, Cross Conservative Checkup etc
So my perception isn't wrong at least from your perspective. That is how I felt. Our "boys" were a little too goody too shoes for soldiers. And yeah some of the story lines are interesting, as is the case for any half ass wirten series that runs in serial.
I can't listen to it. Normally Radio One is my constant listening companion at work. When Afghanada comes on, the feed gets muted.
Scott I cant stand the ads for it. It truns my stomach. All good for the actors to earn a living, but man this isn't art its bullshit. Its like all the songs being played to cola or sneakers to sell them to us using emotions instead of facts.
Cosatas Halavrezos retired today.
Costas was born on Boxing Day in Saint John, New Brunswick, where his parents operated "Nick's Coffee Counter". The busy short-order restaurant was the perfect training ground for public broadcasting as Costas got to meet people from all walks of life and read all the latest newspapers, magazines, paperbacks and comic books for free. Costas studied physics at St. Francis Xavier University in Antigonish, Nova Scotia, but after getting a B.Sc., he returned to take a year of Arts courses. If the St. F.X. Jazz Program had been offered back then, he'd probably have ended up playing in a smoky club 'Round Midnight instead of hosting a radio show 'Round Noon.
Costas began freelancing for CBC Radio in the mid-70s and was hired as a producer in Saint John in 1978. In 1982,he began hosting the local 4-6 show. From 1985-87, he worked with CBC Radio in Quebec City. Aside from duties on the daily shows, he wrote and hosted the network program Radio Active, which showcased music and performers of the Francophone world.
http://www.cbc.ca/programguide/personality/costas_halavrezos
ETA: I used to drink coffee at his parents coffee counter when I was in high school.
What's up with Ezra Levant appearing on both "Q" and "Day Six"? More sucking up to the right by the CBC?
Re: Afghanada
Without regard to the show's considerable artistic merit, have you noticed that the radio troops tend to die heroically trading fire with the enemy, as opposed to getting unlucky and stepping on an IED? They're still selling the myth of the warrior, albeit very entertainingly.
I've never listened to an entire episode of Afghanada. There's something in the tone and delivery that turns me off instantly. I would rather those funds be spent on a regular show focussed on our mission, or the NATO mission, in Afghanistan. I also have a philosophical problem with writers who are likely not soldiers - and are likely part of the pompous Canadian literati, puke - presenting their views of "what it's like".
Levant makes for an interesting guest. He's not afraid to talk and he can be entertaining. He skewers left, right and centre. He was burned early in his political career by butting heads with Harper when they were Reformers. I think the progressive movement could use someone like him as a media lightning rod.
Oh, and I simply cannot remember where I read this, but apparently the CBC brass had a presser recently. Insidethecbc.com, maybe. The heads of radio and tv and news said there's going to be a strong emphasis on "content" as part of the "news renewal" that started a year ago and gave us a variety of annoyances, like the new National and Peter Armstrong barking into the mic every morning (to be fair, he is better now).
This dovetails with the departure of Stursberg and I'm left to wonder if Kind Richard really was mucking up the news and radio divisions. The radio people have sounded much more comfortable on air, and the stories have been longer and stronger, more CBC. There still isn't a single reporter or producer doing anything in Hamilton-Kitchener-Guelph and I have no idea when the Ceeb will get around to realizing they are missing the boat in Southern Ontario.
I'm all for "longer and stronger" news stories. The problem over the last few years has seemed to be a distrust of the on-air reporters. Their stories were compressed, filleted, and bracketed by adrenaline-heavy stings. A few 800-lb gorillas got a chance to branch out, but everybody else had to file a story that was often so heavily edited as to be uninformative. To see what could be done, you have no farther to look than Dispatches. On this show, lowly stringers and staffers are given room to breathe and wind up presenting stories that are not only informative, but bring you a sense of the texture of life in foreign countries. I recall brilliant essays on a Touareg gathering in the Sahara, a disputed island in an overfished African lake, and Kenyan drovers feeding their cattle on suburban lawns as they drove them to market.I know there's only so much time in a half-hour newscast, but a more reflective tone and greater trust of the reporters couldn't hurt.
Missed most of Michael Enright, Sunday AM, but woke after midnight to get the bit about a teacher who raised her late daughter-in-law's son, suffering from the ravages of fetal alcohol syndrome, through 15 years of hell, and finally seeing him off to study music at Mohawk College. Inspirational.
Hope I'm in the vicinity of a radio when Radio One gives us "White Coat, Black Art" at 11:30 AM today.
F-Phipps, solid points. It's probably back to management led formatting. The US or private radio style is to have boat loads of short, punchy, stories, lots of promos and teasers. The big Ceeb casts - World at Six, World this Weekend - work best when they flow smoothly. So when the reporters are told to chase a certain story, in a certain way, they don't really have a lot of choice.
That's what I think has changed - the length. Cudmore has filed some long pieces lately, and there's been a lot of nearly two minute peices being played.
I'm not sure the Dispatches style would work for daily news. Those are heavily vetted stories, carefully chosen and edited, crafted. That kind of detail can't be accomplished daily - it'd be like writing a short story every day.
Dispatches varies. Occasionally I get the idea that a lot of MA grads spend four months dreaming up an idea of where to go outside of Canada to get on Dispatches. The romance of the foreign correspondent and all that. Then it comes across in the dispatch - hey, things are different outside Canada! Still, when Jennifer Westaway or Germain or any of the pros tie into a good story, it's very hard to beat.
F-Phipps, solid points. It's probably back to management led formatting. The US or private radio style is to have boat loads of short, punchy, stories, lots of promos and teasers. The big Ceeb casts - World at Six, World this Weekend - work best when they flow smoothly. So when the reporters are told to chase a certain story, in a certain way, they don't really have a lot of choice.
That's what I think has changed - the length. Cudmore has filed some long pieces lately, and there's been a lot of nearly two minute peices being played.
I'm not sure the Dispatches style would work for daily news. Those are heavily vetted stories, carefully chosen and edited, crafted. That kind of detail can't be accomplished daily - it'd be like writing a short story every day.
Dispatches varies. Occasionally I get the idea that a lot of MA grads spend four months dreaming up an idea of where to go outside of Canada to get on Dispatches. The romance of the foreign correspondent and all that. Then it comes across in the dispatch - hey, things are different outside Canada! Still, when Jennifer Westaway or Germain or any of the pros tie into a good story, it's very hard to beat.
Missed most of Michael Enright, Sunday AM, but woke after midnight to get the bit about a teacher who raised her late daughter-in-law's son, suffering from the ravages of fetal alcohol syndrome, through 15 years of hell, and finally seeing him off to study music at Mohawk College. Inspirational.
Hope I'm in the vicinity of a radio when Radio One gives us "White Coat, Black Art" at 11:30 AM today.
That segment was a follow-up of Lynn Cunningham's excellent piece published in The Walrus last year. She's a journalism prof at Ryerson. Here is a link to the 4-page article:
http://www.walrusmagazine.com/articles/2009.10-memoir-cause-and-effect/
I'm looking forward to catching a new season of "White Coat, Black Art".
Yeah its pretty good. Goldman does a nice job of revealing a few things his fellow practitioners might not want you to see.
Can someone tell me what I am missing on wiretap. I have listened to it a number of times, its OK but I am not sure how its been on air for so long when other shows have been given the boot. I guess howards shenanigans are interesting, but the show is like seinfeld, though not nearly as funny. A show about nothing. Though to its credit it follows propaganada, so for that alone I guess it should get a pass for still being on the air since the other one is for 5 seasons..
I really like it.
OK LL so what is the appeal? That is what I am asking. Am I not listening often enough to get some in jokes or maybe it just isn't appropriate for my sense fo humour?
Some episodes are far better than others but I'll try to stumble through with an explanation. His series of re-telling of bible stories is both funny and tragic. He builds up the story, describing so many character nuances that you can't help but hang on for the ride.
The first episode I ever heard (caught the end of it), he was reading from letters a character he created had written. They were very funny and believable and then they took this bittersweet direction. I guess I often find myself laughing and crying. There is an incredible touch of humanity to his performances.
Plus he introduced me to Heather O'Neill who told her story about a kid named Jesus. Her novel, Lullaby for Little Criminals, is a brilliant piece of work.
