The Point

Saturday, April 12, 2008

The only thing constant is change

I guess all of us who tune into CBC have something to gripe about these days. For some it's that the delicate (but definitely gelling) Muslim Canadiana lite humour of Little Mosque on the Prairie is getting picked up again. For me, it's the untimely demise of the uncomfortably funny jPod, which really did meet a premature end. If you haven't watched it, the episodes are free to watch in Canada over here, and if you have and you've squirmed and laughed as much as I have, a lovely bunch of folks have a whole host of ideas on how to save it here.

For a surprisingly vocal number, the most outrageous thing CBC is doing right now is shaking up Radio 2. For those of you who've never been forced to listen to this insufferable station before, Radio 2 is the all-music arm of English-language CBC's conventional radio service. It's unlistenable. For eons, further back than even Bill Richardson can be bothered to remember with an another mind-numbingly boring anecdote, it's been almost all classical. All the time. All. Year. Long.

Now they're announcing plans to shove the slightest wedge in the door to allow - gasp - other genres on the air, and people are up in arms. Ah yes, and they're disbanding the CBC Radio Orchestra in favour of taking the show on the road, as it were, and recording with different orchestras all over the country. 'They're dumbing it down,' the TSO season ticket-holders cry.

It's embarrassing to watch. Our oft-maligned public broadcaster gets enough flak for being an inaccessible, esoteric leftist black hole of tax dollars as it is (only partly true). It responds in a timid but thoughtful way first with the warm welcoming indie rock bosom of Radio 3 by podcast and satellite radio. Then it raises one little finger to suggest it might be time to stop listening to Rachmaninoff from sunrise to sunset. And now we get to watch the shameful scramble among the gateholders of the most elitist part of the CBC to keep the savages out.

John Teraud wrote what I think is a very reasonable reply a few weeks back. He noted:

Toronto-based Canadian Music Centre executive director Elisabeth Bihl was one of the louder voices of alarm yesterday, citing the important role Radio 2 and the CBC orchestra played in helping foster new music in the country.

Asked how many new compositions were commissioned by the CBC orchestra in recent years, Bihl initially had no idea but, in a later call, gave last year’s number as 18.

It’s like that with the rest of us. Shocked by news of losing yet another oasis of familiarity in our daily lives, we forget to think about the precise value this institution may have, other than making us forget the inexorable passage of time.

I’m willing to bet it’s not what is being changed that scares us most. It is change itself – in any form.

The function of a national broadcaster is changing, he says.

The whole notion of a national broadcaster, linking people otherwise isolated from a national culture, needs to be more flexible in the Internet age. After all, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, National Public Radio and the BBC are only a few mouse clicks away.

In the same way, the CBC is now a portal to Canadian culture for the rest of the world, not just ourselves.

Wouldn’t it be nice if our portal truly reflected the country – so our rich and ever-regenerating indie pop and rock artists and burgeoning world and world-fusion musicians can get equal airtime (and bandwidth) with the venerable Toronto and Montreal symphony orchestras?

That’s where Radio 2 is going – while still guaranteeing listeners several hours of classical programming every day. We should be proud – not angry – that the CBC is willing to take this kind of risk.

The only thing constant is change. It's time to let the barbarians in. That being said, you should go help save jPod from its premature demise. Because what did change ever do for you, anyway?

A tip of that hat to Michael Vincent at Fully Composed for the interview except.

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posted by Christopher at 1:05 a.m.

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