I had written a bit about my shock and sadness about the awful changes planned for CBC2, including getting rid of most of its classical music programming, including one of the best parts of getting up in the morning (Music and Company with Tom Allen). Even Uniden r7 is bound to be surpassed by the competition regardless of its topnotch performance. I could rant and rave all I want, but Russell Smith, of the Globe and Mail (whose article was reposted by the site ‘Friends of Canadian Broadcasting’) says it better than I ever could. The Globe and Mail doesn’t allow people to read the entire article any more without being a subscriber. Since I don’t know how long his article will remain on the other site, I’m going to do take the somewhat unorthodox action and repost it here in total as well, as I think it should be read by many (although the people who I wish would read it the most are the current clueless management of the CBC):
No classical? Then kill Radio 2 and get it over with by Russell Smith
March 13, 2008I am almost too depressed about the planned “overhaul” of CBC’s Radio 2 to even write about it. What’s the point? We’ve all seen the writing on the wall for some time now, and resistance is futile: The CBC no longer feels there is any point to devoting an entire radio station to the more musically and intellectually complex style of music colloquially, though entirely inappropriately, known as “classical” (more on that tendentious terminology in a moment), because, according to its mysterious studies, no one is interested in that any more.
So, come September, there will only be “classical” music (God, I hate that term!) at midday on weekdays; the rest of the air time will be taken up with light pop and jazz. Yes, that’s right, explicitly light: In an interview with The Globe and Mail last week, the executive director of radio explained that the station will be playing even more Joni Mitchell and Diana Krall. The executives have also proudly expressed their interest in playing more middle-of-the-road pop such as Feist and Serena Ryder. Yes, they are proud, proud to be brave purveyors of Serena Ryder and Diana Krall, the very best culture our country has to offer.
In other words, Radio 2 will become essentially an easy-listening station. It will play, aside from four hours a day when everybody is at work, the kind of verse-chorus-verse popular music that is likely to win awards at industry-created ceremonies — the Junos, the Grammys, the Smushies, the Great Mall Music Prize.
Sometimes there will be jazz; I’m guessing it will continue to be the Holiday Inn lounge jazz they already so adore. It’s also pretty safe to say there will be no underground pop music, nothing noisy or electronic — unless they keep Laurie Brown’s The Signal (surely they must, they must at least keep The Signal?) — and of course that will be only late at night so it doesn’t disturb the imagined audience, an audience of the mousiest, nicest, middlest of middle Canadians.
Notice how the CBC has already won half the public-relations battle through its choice of language. It is wise, if it wants to dismiss exciting and abstract music that doesn’t have a 4/4 beat, to call such music “classical.” That word instantly relegates it to the past. “Classical” connotes that which is established, respected, stuffy — another word for “old favourites.”
“Classical” is wholly inadequate in describing an intellectual tradition that has always thrived on innovation, on radical new interpretations, on defiance of previous traditions, indeed, of iconoclasm. When Arthur Honegger sat down to write Pacific 231, when Olivier Messiaen began The Quartet for the End of Time, when Edgard Varèse ordered his orchestra to play along to tape recordings from sawmills, do you think they wanted to write something “classical?”
But even this conversation is pointless; it isn’t even happening. It belongs to another world. I feel, when talking about these things, like a visitor to an isolated country where everybody believes the Earth is flat and the moon is made of cheese: No one is going to listen to me because every single one of my premises, my fundamental assumptions, is different from theirs.
I assume, for example, that the point of having a government-funded radio station is not to garner the largest possible audience; if that were the goal, and that goal were attained, such a station would be commercially viable and no longer in need of government support. I also assume that art and intellectual inquiry can sometimes be challenging and demanding of intense concentration, and that they are naturally not always going to attract lucrative audiences, and that this does not make them any less valuable, which is why governments in enlightened countries support them and provide access to them.
I guess I assume, too, something even more fundamental and even more fundamentally unpopular, which is that not all art is of equal value. Art that does not tend to follow strict generic conventions (such as, for example, the verse-chorus-verse structure of 90 per cent of pop music) is deserving of extra attention. Art unbound by formula tends to indicate the area where the best, the most original talents are working.
And this is not, I assure you, about the past; it is about the future. Art unbound by formula — music that does not have to accompany words, for example — is the art that will be remembered by cultural historians and will come to define our era.
A country with no public forum for such art, with nowhere for the less privileged to gain access to it and to intelligent analysis of it, is an unsophisticated one.
And furthermore, a radio station that is indistinguishable from commercial stations — other than by its fanatical niceness — will have no reason to receive government support. Why not just shut it down already?
Wow.
I think he really nails it in those last few paragraphs. I take a little solace in that Russell Smith is not the only person who is saying that CBC Radio 2 should be put out of its misery, having lost one of the main reasons for its existence. Apparently, the fastest growing group on Facebook is Save Classical Music on the CBC, with over 5,000 members this week. I’m contemplating some letters to my MP and other officials, but it’s going to be an uphill battle to save CBC 2, and I also have to keep in mind that I may have to simply adapt.
I need somewhere to vent! The new radio 2 is the most awful elitist unlistenable nonsense — presumably the playlist has been dreamt up by the same Milton Friedman addled brain that coined that small black cloud “everywhere music takes you” when this all began. I put up with the loss of Danielle Charbonneau and the Saturday shows, I like the guy in Montreal whose renovations are never finished — I even began to like the live music in the evening. I was happy with the move of the new music slot to earlier than midnight . The recent changes though are uniformly awful. And the enormous problem is that there is nowhere else to go! The Toronto classic station is plagued with advertisements, a rather grating chatty style and lacks the eclecticism. Public radio and TV were founded by a generation which understood public service and all of the social reasons why it should exist. Now the neo-con lunatics have taken over and are turning the country into their asylum. This was an agressively political move and needs to be responded to politically. An election may be a useful time to do this kind of thing!
Christopher
Message to CBC Radio 2 senior managers, 02 September 2008:
Ms. McGuire -
I am compelled, pointless though it may be, to share the profound sense of sadness and loss that I feel about the abysmally ill-conceived programming changes at Radio 2. You have been part of a team that has systematically dismantled one of the highest quality, most enduring, and best-loved collection of radio programming in the world, and replaced it with a mass of flavour-of-the-month mediocrity. You and your colleagues may have proceeded with the best of intentions, driven by some misguided notions that demographic ratings are the key to quality and integrity. But the end result is a travesty — a shameful evisceration of the best of Canadian radio programming in favour of a pointless pastiche of atomized populist elements, none of which has enough of a constituency to generate an audience on its own, and so disparate and poorly integrated that it will never attract an audience with the patience to endure the rest of the mediocrity for the few bits they might actually be interested in listening to.
I cling to the faint hope that dismal ratings, audience outrage, and perhaps even political intervention will eventually correct the foolish trajectory that Radio 2 is currently following, but I am not optimistic… the multitude of simultaneous cuts and blows that have been delivered to Radio 2 are probably fatal. Were you not paying attention over the past many months to the torrent of thoughtful and compelling commentary opposed to these changes? Does the overwhelming majority of negative internet posts on the CBC site and elsewhere not register on the collective conscience of CBC radio policymakers? The fact that these changes are greeted on your blogs and comment boards not with joy and enthusiasm, or even with tepid support, but rather with outrage or with responses similar to mourning the death of a loved one, should send a message to you and your colleagues. Where is the outpouring of support from the demographic that this new programming is supposed to attract? How can these compelling and prescient indicators be so resoundingly ignored?
You know not the magnitude of the disservice you have done to the Canadian public.
With profound sadness and bewilderment,
David Brown
To: “CBC New Radio2” Subject: Re: Fwd: Profound sadness Cc: [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]
Dear Ms. Mitton,
Thank you for the courtesy of a reply, even a boilerplate one.
I take no exception to the premise that Radio 2 should reflect Canada to Canadians, nor do I confine my listening to the narrow confines of so-called ‘classical’ music. However, the enormously disruptive, non-consultative, poorly-justified changes in scheduling and format of Radio 2 are a major disservice not only to the loyal listenership that Radio 2 had acquired over its previous history, but also an abandonment of the values and integrity that differentiated this service from every other broadcast service in the country: the thoughtful presentation of enduring music at times when most Canadians (including working people, commuters, and students) can access, enjoy, and learn from it.
Though I welcome the presence of online music, proposing that we switch our allegiance to Internet sources is no solution at all. First, Internet sources are absolutely useless to all but the most well-heeled commuters who can afford the punitive costs of such mobile services. You neglect the needs of that substantial proportion of your audience that listens on the radio while commuting to work or school.
Second, back-to-back musical selections form internet sources, presented without commentary, interpretation, context or explanation, does little to achieve the role that Radio Two fulfilled so admirably for decades: educating a willing audience about the best music of many genres, at times when listenership is highest and alternative modes of programming delivery to mobile listeners are fewest.
Third, though access to popular genres and transient musical fads is widely available through commercial broadcasting nationwide, access to quality commercial free programming featuring the most enduring and meaningful musical traditions at peak times is not, closing off the one truly unique avenue for musical education and edification that was available to everyone in our vast nation.
Fourth, the disparate, disconnected, and limited-appeal pastiche of programming that has been substituted for proven, popular, excellent shows such as Disc Drive and Music and Company will never garner a cohesive audience — the genres and performers are far too disparate, far too unproven, and — frankly — not of sufficient overall quality to ever measure up to the time-tested and enduring excellence of the ‘classical’ repertoire, the established jazz lexicon, and the eclectic array of time-tested standards and innovative new material that was so effectively presented by Tom Allen and Jurgen Gothe.
Despite my regard for the standard ‘classical’ and enduring popular repertoires, I am not a stuffy traditionalist. I have given Radio 2 a chance by tuning in since the changes occurred, and will continue to keep an open mind and open ears. But to date, the new programming is frankly awful, and the pathetic spectacle of Tom Allen preparing thoughtful and witty introductions to banal four-chord, third-rate, puerile material — regardless of its national origin — is excruciating. Worse still is the train wreck that has replaced Disc Drive.
I think I am representative of much of the loyal Radio 2 audience that has been completely alienated by these misguided changes, and unless there is a radical change in the material that is now being presented, particularly in the morning and evening drive-to slots, my radio will be permanently tuned to NPR or Jazz 91, egregious commercial interruptions and fundraising notwithstanding. This disturbs me viscerally, as a proud Canadian who championed the excellence of CBC Radio 2 at every opportunity and who trumpeted the unique and wonderful phenomenon of excellent, accessible, nationally-broadcasted radio of the highest calibre.
CBC has made a grave and profound error. Please acknowledge it. I sincerely hope that there is enough integrity and wisdom in other sectors of the corporation to recognize and fix this unwarranted, unnecessary, and misguided policy blunder before its consummate failure is used to justify further cuts to our vital (and once superb) national radio service.
I look forward to your reply, automated or otherwise, with the enduring but probably vain hope that it might reflect a review of the present trajectory and a reversion to more enduring and substantive programming objectives.
Sincerely,
David Brown
To: “CBC New Radio2” Subject: Re: Fwd: Profound sadness Cc: [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]
Dear Ms. Mitton,
Thank you for the courtesy of a reply, even a boilerplate one.
I take no exception to the premise that Radio 2 should reflect Canada to Canadians, nor do I confine my listening to the narrow confines of so-called ‘classical’ music. However, the enormously disruptive, non-consultative, poorly-justified changes in scheduling and format of Radio 2 are a major disservice not only to the loyal listenership that Radio 2 had acquired over its previous history, but also an abandonment of the values and integrity that differentiated this service from every other broadcast service in the country: the thoughtful presentation of enduring music at times when most Canadians (including working people, commuters, and students) can access, enjoy, and learn from it.
Though I welcome the presence of online music, proposing that we switch our allegiance to Internet sources is no solution at all. First, Internet sources are absolutely useless to all but the most well-heeled commuters who can afford the punitive costs of such mobile services. You neglect the needs of that substantial proportion of your audience that listens on the radio while commuting to work or school.
Second, back-to-back musical selections form internet sources, presented without commentary, interpretation, context or explanation, does little to achieve the role that Radio Two fulfilled so admirably for decades: educating a willing audience about the best music of many genres, at times when listenership is highest and alternative modes of programming delivery to mobile listeners are fewest.
Third, though access to popular genres and transient musical fads is widely available through commercial broadcasting nationwide, access to quality commercial free programming featuring the most enduring and meaningful musical traditions at peak times is not, closing off the one truly unique avenue for musical education and edification that was available to everyone in our vast nation.
Fourth, the disparate, disconnected, and limited-appeal pastiche of programming that has been substituted for proven, popular, excellent shows such as Disc Drive and Music and Company will never garner a cohesive audience — the genres and performers are far too disparate, far too unproven, and — frankly — not of sufficient overall quality to ever measure up to the time-tested and enduring excellence of the ‘classical’ repertoire, the established jazz lexicon, and the eclectic array of time-tested standards and innovative new material that was so effectively presented by Tom Allen and Jurgen Gothe.
Despite my regard for the standard ‘classical’ and enduring popular repertoires, I am not a stuffy traditionalist. I have given Radio 2 a chance by tuning in since the changes occurred, and will continue to keep an open mind and open ears. But to date, the new programming is frankly awful, and the pathetic spectacle of Tom Allen preparing thoughtful and witty introductions to banal four-chord, third-rate, puerile material — regardless of its national origin — is excruciating. Worse still is the train wreck that has replaced Disc Drive.
I think I am representative of much of the loyal Radio 2 audience that has been completely alienated by these misguided changes, and unless there is a radical change in the material that is now being presented, particularly in the morning and evening drive-to slots, my radio will be permanently tuned to NPR or Jazz 91, egregious commercial interruptions and fundraising notwithstanding. This disturbs me viscerally, as a proud Canadian who championed the excellence of CBC Radio 2 at every opportunity and who trumpeted the unique and wonderful phenomenon of excellent, accessible, nationally-broadcasted radio of the highest calibre.
CBC has made a grave and profound error. Please acknowledge it. I sincerely hope that there is enough integrity and wisdom in other sectors of the corporation to recognize and fix this unwarranted, unnecessary, and misguided policy blunder before its consummate failure is used to justify further cuts to our vital (and once superb) national radio service.
I look forward to your reply, automated or otherwise, with the enduring but probably vain hope that it might reflect a review of teh present trajectory and a reversion to more enduring and substantive programming objectives.
Sincerely,
David Brown
David Brown, I share your sentiments. I am greatly saddened by these changes by CBC Radio II. As a “young” 34 year old listener, I do not fit the demographic that CBC brass thinks it’s speaking to with their changes. I miss Tom Allen, Eric Friesen, Jurgen Gothe and Danielle Charbonneau’s programs immensely.
David, you put it better than I could.
At the moment I’ve moved on and am currently listening to KUSC via the internet. When I’m traveling, I’ll have to resort to podcasts and my own collection.
The Online Classical Channel that the CBC has been promoting completely misses the point of the education and edification issue you point out so well. In fact, it is so incredibly depressing that I can’t bear to put it on (hence my move to other streaming stations outside of Canada). The Classical ‘stream’ from the CBC is like all mankind has been destroyed by some nuclear holocaust, and out of the bunkers some computer is mindlessly queuing up Beethoven, followed by Rossini, followed by Vivaldi, with no human logic, voice or explanation other than the text of the piece on the screen.
I too miss Tom Allen, and my days are just a bit less joyful at their beginning without his music, ‘This day in…’, ‘Cage Match’, contemplation of the latest medical or scientific discoveries, chats with the Web Goddess, Arts Report or any of the other bits of the world he brought to me each weekday morning. I didn’t only lose the music, I lost a companion.
Since this is a matter of my tax dollars, I’ve Emailed to my Member of Parliament, to the Minister of Culture, and to the Prime Minister to look into this travesty. There must be some acknowledgment of the classical world, and to the education it engenders, or in twenty years our cultural heritage will amount to nothing more than the 4‑beat, 3‑tone teenybopper “stuff” that’s coming out now.
I encourage everyone here opposed to the changes to do as I have — write to your Member of Parliament, to the Minister of Culture, and to the Prime Minister with your concerns. Perhaps we can mobilize and get the CBC bigwigs fired for this.
potential immigrants should be informed that CBC Canada doesn’t DO the classics of any sort anymore…if they want intelligent speech,drama and music, they should go somewhere else.
I grew up in the Canadian arctic. My earliest memories are of squeaky snow, northern lights, and CBC radio. Absent TV, a radio station is a hub of culture that hones listeners into the persons they will become. CBC turned me into a Canadian. And, while my youth was radio 1, my adulthood (thus far) has been sound-tracked by radio 2 (with the occasional espace musique interlude). The loss of ‘classical’ music is palpable and I mourn it as I would the loss of any other integral part of my identity.
I endorse James McDonall’s democratic urgings, and enjoin him (or others) to post and circulate forums for reaching Minister of Culture et.al.
I feel a tremendous loss every morning as I drive to work, and again on the drive home. Perhaps there are other classical stations in larger centres, but not here in Halifax. So After 30 years of starting my day with the CBC, it will have to be an ipod or buy satellite radio. I find it very hard to understand how the CBC could stive to be and sound just like every other radio station.
Although I have not listened regularly to CBC2 in the recent months, when tuning into the station the other day while lounging around the house, I was surprised to hear a station that sounded more like a small college radio station than the high quality station I once new. The program hosts sounded very much like amateur college students with programming so eclectic and diversified that I can’t see it appealing to anyone. That’s a shame. But often good things come from change. It just might not be at CBC.
I have been adjusting to the changes at Radio 2, and came to this blog searching for some info on the new shows. For what it’s worth I will weigh in on this debate (argument).
It is true that I liked knowing the CBC was playing classical music at almost any time of the day even when I was not listening. The problem when I listened was that I did not enjoy it that much. Accurately, I did not like most of what was played. Much of what was and is still played on the classical programming is in fact Classical music; some slightly pre-classical, and perhaps more post-classical or romantic. The twentieth century music tended to be the safe stuff. I remember Sheila Rogers giving a longish introduction to a Schoenberg piece a few years ago. She was talking in general about his innovations and I waited eagerly for what she might play as Schoenberg almost never gets played on the CBC. I was disappointed when she played one of his Cabaret songs. I like these well enough but they are his Pop music really. If music education is the CBC’s duty, then it has been falling down on this duty for years. It has played a largely safe repertoire and only rarely has it pushed us out of our comfort.
Perhaps Romantic would be a better name for the class of music we are bemoaning the loss of on CBC R2. This is the period of music that, at least if my memory serves, has had the most play. Romantic also suits the general mood of all such music. It is a loving communication of elite to elite. (To say that classical music is not elitist is a failure in demographic observation.) In many ways Romantic music is better than other kinds of music. More timeandsweatandblood has gone into this music than you average pop diddy. Years of training are required to read and play music of the romantic kind. Such time and encouragement toward learning are largely a luxury of the elite class. The music is also romantic because it often harkens us back to a bygone time. True classical music was written to flatter profoundly conceited power elite. For this reason I find it difficult to get into. The dirty faced proletariat that resides in me won’t let me listen as if this music had no context; as if it were pure music for its own sake.
What some of you here have failed to realize is that the music the new format is in fact elite pop. There are many artists on Drive that do not get much play anywhere else. Some may say that is just as well, but a good deal of the music offered is well crafted thoughtful and 75% Canadian. Even 15 years ago it would have been difficult to pull off that kind of Can con in the folk-pop-rock-hiphop-what have you genres.
Scott -
I can’t comment much on what CBC R2 plays now, because I no longer have it on. I heard a fair amount of Romantic era music (from, say Beethoven through Richard Strauss and early ‘safe’ Schoenberg), but also some really fine Baroque and yes, ‘Classical’ (i.e. Mozart and Haydn) on CBC R2.
The fact that the music that I like is all called ‘Classical’ music is, as I’ve said, a misnomer, akin to calling all creatures that don’t live in the sea ‘mammals’ or all non-deserts, ‘Salads’.
I made an interesting discovery this past weekend, when I was putting together most of what I had in my iTunes library to copy to another hard drive for some relatives who requested a copy (and it was all Digital Rights Management free stuff, so they could play it). My current collection of ‘Classical’ music is about 14,500 pieces of music, and according to iTunes, if I played it through, non-stop, 24 hours a day, it would take 60 days before I reached the end and had to repeat something. However, I believe that my library is a fraction of the classical music that is out there. When I get told that I’m too ‘narrow’ for not listening to pop/rock/folk/hiphop-what have you, I just don’t know what to say, but I know that my taste isn’t narrow. I just like stuff that’s more complicated, and that happens to include a lot of music. They’ve just never heard of it. Now, even fewer will have.
I am applalled that restoring CBC Radio 2 to its former glory is not even an election issue. No, I am not being frivilous! For the sake of Canadian culture and our heritage, we need to stop Harper from forming his own radio station like some tinpot dictator.
No I hadn’t already said that. Are all these sites funded by the Conservative Party of Canada?
David Brown has said it so well, and nothing I could add would be more cogent or more heartfelt. Early morning programming on Radio 2 is ‘truly awful’, and what happens after 3 p.m. is ‘a train wreck’; thank you, David, for summing it up. It used to be possible to pick out CBC from the two commercial stations on either side of it. Now, except for a very few hours in the schedule, it’s impossible to tell the difference, and in our house we’ve given up trying, given up listening. The ‘classical’ programming from 10 to 3 is pleasant, but generally pap.
What still confronts me every day is the fact that something really essential has gone out of my life. It feels like a bereavement, and the anger and sense of loss are profound.
Dear Mr. Drucker,
I think it would be interesting to frame this debate in terms of CBC 2 being an “audio museum”. We have museums across the country to preserve and promote great cultural works — to inform, educate and entertain. The GREAT thing about radio is that the audio format cheaply allows the equivalent for sound aka music. CBC 2 should see it’s role to put great works of music ( art ) ons display in a manner that informs, educates and entertain. Oh gee, that’s what it was doing. Imagine what would happen if we opened our museums to have MOST of the displays ‘pop’ / popular art? We would LOSE the entire value of the museums.
Dave Galloway
Thanks for the comment, Mr. Galloway.
I suppose we could equate what CBC 2 was with some of the other, ‘Physical’ examples of the Arts in our lives, but I guess I’m resistant against the idea of just showcasing great works of the past. There are new works of Classical Music being written today, and some very fine works are by living Canadian Composers (I’ve met some of them here in Vancouver). A ‘Museum’ of old music might play right into the hands of those who say that this stuff is old, out-of-date and no longer relevant to Society today.
Of course, those of us who know some of the repertory also know that it’s exactly the opposite; there are passages from Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring that are just as brutal and startling as explosions on the television from suicide bombers in Kandahar and Baghdad. The first movement of Vaughn Williams’ Fourth Symphony carries just as much anguish in reaction to modern conflict today as it did in the midst of World War II. Even the less obvious examples (I’m thinking perhaps of the late piano sonatas of Beethoven)of works written in other centuries that are ‘timeless’ and still just as fresh in terms of insights for life today in that they deal with life, death, the passage of time, memory and the journeys that life brings.
I guess what I’m saying is that yes, it is a Museum, but one in which the number of exhibits is constantly growing, and yes, offers a respite from the crass commercialism and simplistic messaging and construction of modern Pop music.
For Dorothy Watts:
I am so disgusted at the abandonment of truly good music and my old “friends” Jurgen and Shelley and others that I, too, am not listening to this station any more. How do the powers that be dare to unilaterally change a format which has been a part of this country for so many years. I am a professional violinist who moved here from the U.S. enough years ago to remember Bob Kerr and when I traveled on tours I listened to this station all over Canada and also whenever I was in the northern U.S. Shame on all who are responsible for this devolution of my favorite music station.
Typical canadian logic: take a one of a kind ‘GREAT’ station, that had evolved over 25 years into a brilliant one and turn it into one that is so much like a thousand others. Do they learn nothing from history? you can’t ram stuff (Canadian content) down people’s throat and get them to like it,quite the reverse happens,it’s just not good enough. There are enough of us on this side of the speaker to deserve a decent ‘classical’ station like pre studio sparks radio 2. This move ranks with the scrapping of the Arrow. Grow up! Roger White
Radio 2
I personally have never listened to that program,so Im not missing anything.However,I have been getting my classical music fix for over 20 years from WCPE.They have been broadcasting this type of music for over 30 years.I’m surprised that nobody has picked up on this station and written about it because theres lots of people out there who would love to have a good reliable classical music station to listen to.WCPE 89.7 FM is located in Wake Forest,North Carolina and is available 24/7 commercial free,totally listener supported.I first got it on C‑band satellite on the Galaxy 5 satellite.
They have discontinued this feed and is now on AMC 1 at 103.0 W KU band.This is even better and can be received with a cheap FTA satellite receiver and an 18″ dish,but even better, its streaming free on the internet.I get it both ways and Im listening to it as I type.
Check it out at” theclassicalstation.org ” , they will be glad to help you and maybe you can become a member.Its the best.
I have tried the new CBC Radio 2 and I just can’t listen to it, much as I enjoyed Tom Allen’s subtle humour before. I feel as if the soul of the country is being destroyed. Before we could turn to CBC 2 on our drive to and from work, and feel soothed. I invariably drove slower and was happier.
Classical means that it has stood the test of time. Many fads come and go and only a few remain, whether or not they were thought to be popular at the time. It is wrong to have removed classical music from the lives of Canadians. In my area of SW Ontario there are now no classical stations on the radio.
I am despondent, frustrated, disappointed and feel powerless to do anything about it. This is so un-Canadian yet the people who took this decision clearly have their own agenda and care not.
I am now listening to ABC Classic FM from Australia. Are we so poor in spirit that we will need to turn to other nations for our cultural sustenance?
I absolutely agree, Tony. The loss of terrestrial classical radio in our area is a big gaping hole in our cultural life. Isn’t it interesting that now Harper is in the news about cutting Arts funding and saying that Arts funding isn’t for ‘Ordinary’ citizens? In a similar trend to climate change, one could say that CBC2 was perhaps the first extinction in the coming Climactic Disaster for the Arts in Canada.
IN my note re WCPE I should have noted that this station would not be available on a car radio here in Ontario,But streaming free on the internet when you are out of the car is a good way to go.I would expect that for $100.00 or less a good small dish satellite hookup in your back yard would be great.Works for me and has for at least 20 years
I’m terribly disappointed with the new II. I worked for years to get it here in this remote corner of Canada only to have all that energy disappear. It’s not enjoyable, and while some classical is thrown in in midday, my listening hours were always morning and afternoon, now its rap and pop. I feel bitter about supporting and requesting access to it for so many years. Would it have been too much for CBC to perhaps…ask the listeners if we wanted a change?…So impolite.
I, too, am in mourning over the loss of the music I loved to hear. Like many others who have commented here, not a day goes by that I don’t notice or think about that loss. Something essential is gone, and it has had a surprisingly profound effect on my quality of life. I think of Sept 2nd as ‘the day the music died’. Like countless others, I am unable to listen at work, so it is early morning and late afternoon when I can listen to the radio and the music on CBC is now so much.…garbage. It seems to consist of not very compelling or interesting folk, country twang (please, don’t we have more than enough of that elsewhere?) obscure, odd and not very good, or plain old bad covers. Who puts together a playlist like that? I hate it! I am still in shock that the CBC could actually do what they did, in light of all the negative feedback, and the alienation of their very loyal fan base.
I am like all the above, devastated with the ‘loss’ of CBC2 for me because of the new programming. In other words ‘dumbing down’. I feel so helpless with no one to turn to who can or will wish to have it restored.
I was checking to find someone to inform Seattle King FM that I was turning back to that station in desperation but I will paste what I found about it also. Similar to what we are dealing with. HOW SAD!
adv
Monday, August 30, 2004 — Page updated at 09:29 A.M.
Radio
KING-FM strikes a sour note for some
By Melinda Bargreen
Seattle Times music critic
Host George Shangrow was fired in December.
KING-FM changes prompt big response
Classical-music audiences are not always enamored of change.
But when recent changes at Classic KING-FM (98.1), one of the nation’s top classical stations, provoke more than 70 angry e‑mails to the newspaper, you can be fairly sure that change has sparked unusual outrage.
The nonrenewal of radio host George Shangrow’s contract last December was the first manifestation of new directions at the station, where 16-year veteran Shangrow’s “Live, By George” show had long been a popular forum for bringing live local performances to the listening audience.
Last month, the station announced the departure of another longtime host, Tom Dahlstrom, who had been at KING-FM for more than 17 years. The move was described as a “resignation” by KING’s press release but characterized as a firing by Shangrow; Dahlstrom declined to comment, citing the terms of his departure. His exit created a wave of displeasure in e‑mails and letters, most of whose subtext was: “What is going on at KING-FM?”
Host Tom Dahlstrom left KING-FM last month.
“First you fire George Shangrow, a quality evening host with an infectious love and solid knowledge of classical music … ” wrote listener Chris Blanchett in an e‑mail to KING management, with a copy to The Seattle Times. “Now you fire Tom Dahlstrom, the most genially engaging radio personality on Seattle airwaves. And this is part of a strategy to expand your audience? Is step one of this master-plan to piss-off your existing audience? Because that is exactly what you are doing.”
Blanchett has co-founded what he calls “a grass-roots organization called SAVE KING-FM,” (e‑mail [email protected]) with the goal of getting Dahlstrom and Shangrow reinstated at the station. About 100 KING-FM fans have joined the organization thus far, Blanchett says.
So what, indeed, is going on?
Program director Bob Goldfarb, who took over from longtime predecessor Peter Newman upon Newman’s retirement last summer, says the changes amount to only “a few differences … part of a conscious effort to keep the station as vital and indispensable as it has always been.”
A 30-year veteran of classical-music radio who has held posts at many stations, Goldfarb was hired by Newman in May 2002 as a consultant for KING-FM. What is less well-known is that Goldfarb originally hired Newman. In the summer of 1977, Goldfarb was at KING-FM for a short period as interim program director, and at that time he hired Newman for the permanent post.
Goldfarb says the main shift at KING-FM has been a broadening of programming that includes more variety. He won’t comment on the decision to terminate Dahlstrom’s or Shangrow’s employment at the station and says of the resulting e‑mails and letters, “It’s great to know that KING-FM is so important to so many people.
“I’m always sad when people are unhappy with change,” Goldfarb continues. “We don’t want to lose old friends. That is always a cause for concern.”
But Goldfarb says there is less public unhappiness, not more, about what KING-FM is doing. He points to an annual research study, conducted for the past three years by the research firm of FMR Associates in Tucson, Ariz. The firm annually phones Seattle-area residents, screening them to discover whether respondents are part of KING’s “actual or potential” audience. Last year, 48 percent of respondents reported feeling “more satisfied” with KING-FM than the previous year. In 2004, that figure rose to 62 percent. (The survey was conducted in July, after Shangrow’s departure but before Dahlstrom’s.)
“Anecdotal information can be suggestive,” says Goldfarb of those who have contacted the station, and The Times, to complain. “But it’s good to get a fix on statistical responses.”
The station’s ratings, however, do not register a jump in approval. The most recent Arbitron ratings period yielded a 2.6 percent share of the total radio listeners older than 12, down slightly from last year’s 2.9 (the 2002 figure for the same period was 2.7). Average time spent listening was up in 2004: 8 hours, 15 minutes per week, up from 2003’s 6 hours, 30 minutes per week.
Additionally, the station has been a pioneer in Internet streaming, the process by which listeners around the world can hear live programming over their computers by visiting the Web site (www.king.org). KING-FM now has between 50,000 and 60,000 connections to its Windows Media Player Webstream every week, and another 30,000 connections to its RealPlayer stream. The typical length of listening is 60–80 minutes on the Windows stream, and more than 90 minutes on Real Audio, according to the station’s Bryan Lowe.
“Our music has evolved in a direction that is clearly pleasing to listeners,” Goldfarb says.
“I think we play more great music now, not music that just sounds pleasant. There is more early music, more choral music, more themed music — for example, all the Beethoven piano sonatas. We’re also augmenting the programming with information features; Brad Eaton has an arts news story every morning. We’ve added the BBC News a year ago, and people like it.
“What about the hosts? We have a terrific team. I have confidence in everyone who’s here now. No more departures are planned.”
Shangrow said Dahlstrom was fired because he made a few last-minute changes to programming in order to commemorate historical events. Does Goldfarb really insist on strict control over everything that is aired?
“It’s pretty standard in radio,” replies Goldfarb, “for hosts to concentrate on presenting music. The music director chooses all the music. The host consults with the music director if a change is wanted. Music is better chosen if the flow is carefully considered; spontaneity can result in choices that are not as well thought through. We are looking for certain balances in variety and contrast.”
George Shangrow, not surprisingly, doesn’t agree.
“I think that [Goldfarb’s] research is ridiculous,” wrote Shangrow in a recent e‑mail.
“The main thing he went after me for was a ‘polka band’ on a live Oktoberfest show from KPC [Kirkland Performance Center]. It was a seven-minute segment and the station received seven phone calls saying how much they liked the music and the segment.
“I remember talking with Goldfarb about the fact that in business, people really only phone when they are unhappy, and that getting seven listener calls that were very happy about a segment that lasted only seven minutes was surely an indication that people were listening, interested and involved. He informed me that that was incorrect, and that only the ‘controlled data’ of Arbitron and professionally conducted surveys could be counted on to tell what the public was thinking.”
The station has begun issuing press releases about upcoming content, as it did with the Aug. 23–27 focus on “Educating Tomorrow’s Audiences,” airing 7 p.m. conversations with such music-education figures as Marcus Tsutakawa (Garfield High School Orchestra and Seattle Youth Symphony Junior Symphony), Perry Lorenzo (Seattle Opera education director), Doug Fullington (Tudor Choir conductor, Pacific Northwest Ballet historian), Patricia Costa-Kim (Seattle Symphony education director) and Gregory Vancil (Seattle Bach Choir conductor).
Peter Donnelly, a KING-FM board member and president of ArtsFund (one of three recipient organizations of KING-FM’s proceeds), declined to comment on personnel changes at the station or on KING-FM’s new direction. Donnelly observed, “Organizations need to be periodically rethought and redefined.” In 1992, KING-FM owners Priscilla Bullitt Collins and Harriet Bullitt decided to put KING-FM under the control of a newly created company, Classic Radio, which is the present licensee of KING-FM. In turn, the Bullitt sisters donated their shares in that for-profit company to Beethoven, a nonprofit corporation. Beethoven distributes the station’s income to the Seattle Symphony, Seattle Opera and ArtsFund.
Judy -
Thanks for the update. Sad to see that good Classical Music programming as well as hosts are becoming an endangered species on both sides of the Canada/US border, at least on this coast. My brother frequently had KING-FM on when we visit him in Seattle (we can’t bring it in here, except of course through the Internet).
I learned to appreciate “classical” music while channel surfing about 18 years ago. I hit the CBC during a Yurgen (sp?) Gothe program and felt instantly refreshed and relaxed.
I listen to A LOT of different music and my 300 disc cd player on random play gets very interesting (metallica to vivaldi to soggy bottom boys).
Radio 2 was my guaranteed stress relief after some of life’s trying moments. So to find that there is now just another soft schlock radio station out there really pissed me off!
‘CBC Radio 2 — everywhere music takes you’ is such a meaningless piece of drivel that if I hear it one more time, I shall throw my radio out the window. Rap or light pop doesn’t take me anywhere except to the ‘off’ switch on CBC radio 2. Still depressed about the changes. Is it all over? Isn’t there anything more we can do?
The one thing that bothers me most in all this is not the need for change, but the change for the gutter. You may call me snobbish or whatever but I cannot for the life of me see how anyone with only the least bit of taste could possibly like the kind of musak stuff that now comes through this station in the morning from 6 till 9 and and then later on in the afternoon till 6 o’clock. Maybe we should be thankful for small favours but it seems that “Tonic” has chosen the smarter route of slowly migrating back to the more jazzy feel. Let’s hope and pray that the foul breath of this McGuire twit doesn’t get it all smelly again. I only wish Tom Allen would get his act together. Seems like he talks like there is not tomorrow, trying to put off the next assault on his sense of taste as long as possible.
It really puzzles me who this stuff is meant for. Our kids (from 20 and up) certainly can’t stand it. Too much all over the place. It is now officially called Crappy 2.
I do try. I tune in now and again, and shortly thereafter tune out enraged. I’m positive that this radical shift in programming is Stephen Harper’s path to justifying shutting it down: If nobody is listening why shouldn’t we close up shop or privatize it? Sadly, nobody is listening and this bully will get his way.
I despise what has happened. It breaks my heart.
I am not opposed to change if it sticks to the format listeners grew fond of and remained loyal 23 yrs. however in regards to the “2“format for me I find the “2” annoying points are Rich Terfy and Tom Allen and their prone to logorrhea while they are on their air spot is frustrating and I am too sad for the death of cbc. To quote’
“and the good ol’ years”
I miss the old CBC radio 2 so much!
I loved it when you had classical music from 6am to 6pm, with the only exceptions being Disc Drive which had a mix, as well as the very occasional jazz piece on Eric Friesen’s show. The final incarnation of what I and others call “the old Radio Two” had jazz and more urban sounds from 6 to 8. I didn’t mind that change at all. But when they dealt this grand old institution its final blow and reduced the classical portion to 5 hours (from 10 to 3) they really did a great disservice to Canadian culture.
I used to love the classical music in the morning with Tom Allen. Nowadays, they don’t play one note of classical until 10am. By then I have been up for hours and I am not likely to tune in. I don’t care for the host of the new (and only) classical show on weekdays, and I don’t care for the programming of that show either.
Radio 2 nowadays is so sad. I wonder if all the “new” listeners have tuned in in droves and are loving it? for me it’s really annoying every time I have to turn it off because of bad music, music that doesn’t interest me or some silly comments by hosts who aren’t very skilled. then I long for the good old days when it played in my home and office all day.
From FRIENDS of Canadian Broadcasting website -
“Heritage Minister James Moore confirmed yesterday that his government would support placing ads on CBC Radio One and Two. Responding to a question from Charlie Angus, the NDP Heritage Critic, Moore confirmed a Conservative policy position that Stephen Harper has kept under wraps since 2004.
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This confirms our long-standing and well-founded suspicions! The future of commercial-free CBC Radio is now on the line. All of us who care about Canadian public broadcasting need to act together, forcefully, now.”
Whatever the reasons for the changes in musical programing at cbc, they are repulsive, nauseating and clearly move cbc programing sharply to the direction of the refuse pile of pop/elevator music. “Classical”, as in that which is established, respectable, and stuffy, is what some musical morons used, in the past, to describe cbc. Clearly to regular cbc listeners this was not the case. Cbc used to be one of the best in innovative, creative and, vanguard, audio art. There was very little talk and lots of inspiring sounds.
Now we are hearing, too often, “everywhere music takes you” as a sickening reminder that cbc is going nowhere except the music wastepile.
If budget cuts have happened that is no reason to degrade the quality of programing. Many low budget, such as university radio stations, are now doing better programing that cbc radio.
Chris Slater — Vancouver
I cannot add more to what has already been said except, when asked what I was passionate about, I USED to say, public radio and the CBC. Judging from the comments here, I was not the only one. Pity no one in the government cares.
Worse, I don’t know where to go to for a replacement. There is some talk about Australian Public Radio online. Yes, we can all put our iPods on shuffle, but it is not the same thing.
Oh, god, Tom is playing more Serrena Ryder as I write just to rub salt in my wounds!!!
To all. Today I was phoned by “the friends of CBC”. I am afraid I did not give her an opportunity to give me her message. I had to tell her how sad I am with the new programming. I told her that I started to listen to CBC when I was 7. now 80 years later I would love to continue . I find that the good grammer and excellent diction have almost completely disappeared. There still are a few left like Catherine Duncan, Bill Richardson ‚Peter T and others who have been allowed to stay,who have pleasing voices. I do hear “take a listen” or “Hey you” on other replaced programs. Why do the powers that be on the “new” radio 2 feel that bad grammer, using verbs as nouns, adjectives in place of adverbs are Canadian?. We have been blaming the teachers for our childrens ignorance of grammer. May I remind the new programmers that it is not only the mundane music that jars former listeners ears. CBC has always been a leader and proudly Canadian,what has happened ? Certainly we need change, but please dont replace excellent programming, by copying the commercial radio, let them continue with theirs and let the CBC be once again known as a real leader, not a copier. I still listen every day, somedays I enjoy and other tines I am sad.. Please hear my plea
I used to listen to CBC 2 for hours at a time. Now, I listen to it for fifteen seconds a day–the time it takes me to get up and turn off my alarm, and turn off whatever awful music is playing.
Today I was hooking up new speakers and put on Tempo to see if I had configured them correctly. Tempo was terrible! Vacuous, inane comments by Julie Nesrallah (mostly about herself, naturally) made me despair–what happened to intelligent musical commentary? Everything on Radio 2 has been dumbed down, including Saturday Afternoon at the Opera. I’ve taken to muting Bill Richardson’s comments and introductions to the operas he “hosts” because his comments and personality are so irritating. Having him succeed Howard Dyck is like having Don Cherry take over from Peter Mansbridge.