Gregory Oh

Dear CBC

Harsh words have been spoken since you announced plans to radically alter your programming strategy, including a significant reduction in classical music play. The requisite facegroup is already thriving, and people are talking smack about you. I wanted to let you know that I don\’t think that cutting classical music is necessarily a bad thing, and that it\’s not all your fault. Baby, we can still make this work.

Since even before the Chretien years, your budget has been hacked and slashed to bits. As taxpayers and voters, my friends and I are partly culpable here. More recently, we let Bev Oda and Josee Vernier (are they puppet cabinet ministers or are they just grossly incompetent?) bitch about your lack of accountability and relevance without coming to your defense. Bill C-10 is symptomatic of the Harper government\’s unwillingness to engage the arts in good faith. I know you would be less inclined to throw around words like \”ratings\” if you didn\’t have an unsympathetic government holding a gun to your head.

As others have pointed out, classical music is not the only provocative and sophisticated music thriving in Canada, and your programming should reflect this. In the Globe and Mail you argued that \”only a tiny fraction – 0.8 per cent – of new Canadian songs get commercial radio play and that the Radio 2 changes will allow for much more Canadian music to be heard.\” It really hurt me when you went on to name Joni Mitchell, Feist and Diana Krall as your new interests.

I think you are finding solutions to the wrong questions. You asked \”How can we increase market share in the 31-49 group?\”, and now are trying to fight the soft rock battle of the 401, which at best is a war of attrition. What you should have asked was, \”What can we do better than anyone else that an iPod can\’t?\” That\’s the biggest problem with the programming changes – I know you want me to listen, but Joni will always be better on my Touch.

Oh CBC – I just wish that instead of Feist, you would have said (Christine)Fellows. You\’re the smart geeky kid, and you\’re trying to be a cool preppy. You\’ll never be hip as long as you need consultants to define the concept; by the time they write their report, it\’s already so six months ago.

While acknowledging that change always meets opposition, Jennifer McGuire, executive director of radio, said that overall ratings haven\’t dropped as significantly as anticipated, as some listeners tune out and new ones tune in.

My sneaking suspicion is that you\’re not being completely honest with me. If you had something good going on, you\’d be throwing it in my face. By the way, change doesn\’t always meet opposition, and change isn\’t always good. Nevertheless, I can read the writing – we\’ll see each other now and then, but the thrill is gone. I should have seen it coming months ago – you don\’t bring me flowers anymore…

BTW – don\’t bother playing it for me – it\’s already on my iPod.

(Link to a previous letter to the CBC in September 2007)

Dear CBC

Harsh words have been spoken since you announced plans to radically alter your programming strategy, including a significant reduction in classical music play. The requisite facegroup is already thriving, and people are talking smack about you. I wanted to let you know that I don\’t think that cutting classical music is necessarily a bad thing, and that it\’s not all your fault. Baby, we can still make this work.

Since even before the Chretien years, your budget has been hacked and slashed to bits. As taxpayers and voters, my friends and I are partly culpable here. More recently, we let Bev Oda and Josee Vernier (are they puppet cabinet ministers or are they just grossly incompetent?) bitch about your lack of accountability and relevance without coming to your defense. Bill C-10 is symptomatic of the Harper government\’s unwillingness to engage the arts in good faith. I know you would be less inclined to throw around words like \”ratings\” if you didn\’t have an unsympathetic government holding a gun to your head.

As others have pointed out, classical music is not the only provocative and sophisticated music thriving in Canada, and your programming should reflect this. In the Globe and Mail you argued that \”only a tiny fraction – 0.8 per cent – of new Canadian songs get commercial radio play and that the Radio 2 changes will allow for much more Canadian music to be heard.\” It really hurt me when you went on to name Joni Mitchell, Feist and Diana Krall as your new interests.

I think you are finding solutions to the wrong questions. You asked \”How can we increase market share in the 31-49 group?\”, and now are trying to fight the soft rock battle of the 401, which at best is a war of attrition. What you should have asked was, \”What can we do better than anyone else that an iPod can\’t?\” That\’s the biggest problem with the programming changes – I know you want me to listen, but Joni will always be better on my Touch.

Oh CBC – I just wish that instead of Feist, you would have said (Christine)Fellows. You\’re the smart geeky kid, and you\’re trying to be a cool preppy. You\’ll never be hip as long as you need consultants to define the concept; by the time they write their report, it\’s already so six months ago.

While acknowledging that change always meets opposition, Jennifer McGuire, executive director of radio, said that overall ratings haven\’t dropped as significantly as anticipated, as some listeners tune out and new ones tune in.

My sneaking suspicion is that you\’re not being completely honest with me. If you had something good going on, you\’d be throwing it in my face. By the way, change doesn\’t always meet opposition, and change isn\’t always good. Nevertheless, I can read the writing – we\’ll see each other now and then, but the thrill is gone. I should have seen it coming months ago – you don\’t bring me flowers anymore…

BTW – don\’t bother playing it for me – it\’s already on my iPod.

(Link to a previous letter to the CBC in September 2007)

The Powers That Be
250 Front Street West
P.O. Box 500, Station A
Toronto, Ontario M5W 1E6

An Open Letter to The Powers That Be

As a faithful CBC listener of some twenty-three years (full disclosure – I am thirty-three), I wish to write you and explain to you why my radio has been somewhat silent as of late.

I have tried to listen to the new programming. I really have. In the spirit of embracing change, I felt it only fair to go along for the ride, and open myself up to new ways of thinking. Please take me at my word when I tell you that I did not reject the changes out of hand.

Sadly, for me, I cannot derive any enjoyment or commensurate value from listening to The Signal in its current format. I miss the Arts Report and Two New Hours, and I worry about the direction the CBC is taking. And I cringe when words like ratings and demographics and relevance get thrown around.

Don’t get me wrong – I love listening to mainstream music. I do play in a number of “pop” bands and I do own a fair-sized “pop” CD collection. The problem is that I’ve always had the ability to access this music on the airwaves, and I still do. I will never turn to the CBC to fulfill this need because, quite frankly, you don’t do it very well. Your efforts at being “current” bend more towards “tired” or “cliché”, and most obviously come across as being “efforts” instead of being “it”.

What you used to do so well, so much better than anyone else, is intelligent programming – programming that grips and stimulates and challenges, as opposed to “soothes” or “helps to pass the time stuck in a traffic jam” or “eases the wounds that she left when she tore out her talons with pieces of my heart still stuck underneath her nails and went off with that jet-setting executive from 102.1 The Edge”.

That’s the CBC I listened to for over two decades, and that’s the CBC that I can’t find anymore.

Please, reconsider your actions, and find a way to once again feed and nurture my brain. My radio has not been turned on, literally, in over a month.

Sincerely

Gregory Oh

This letter was sent to The Powers that Be at the CBC:

Robert Rabinovitch
Jane Chalmers
Jennifer McGuire
Mark Steinmetz
Timothy Casgrain