Please add my voice to the chorus of protest against the impending loss of morning classical music on CBC radio, which adds to other recent damage.I enjoy many forms of music, but in the morning and evening, classical music (broadly defined) has a particularly enriching effect. Here in Toronto, the one other radio option has a repetitive playlist, annoying ads, and, in the morning, inane chatter from a pair of hosts. Many parts of the country lack even that option. Kindly reconsider.I fear that CBC radio is falling into the same trap as Eaton’s, who forgot who they and their customers were. Recognizing that it is difficult to back away completely from a public decision, why not give two days to classical, two to whatever else you have in mind and one to a mix. That way you can test the waters for a year or so and relatively easily move in the direction that seems appropriate. Better yet, though, stay with classical in the morning and bring it back in the evening. Among other things, CBC radio is a refuge. Please preserve it.-- Alan Davis
Along with the disappearing classical programming on CBC you will find a disappearing listener. After more than 40 years of musical inspiration and education via CBC I will be turning the radio off, but I am very, very sad!
All the programs you plan to cut are valuable and enriching to many lives. As a taxpayer, I am appalled by your decision and by the fact that you did not consider your listening public at all (or if you did, none of us was made aware of your plans). I have been listening to this station for years. CBC2 is representative of the cultural fabric of our country.
The announcements of “classical” CBC programs that we are soon to be losing is depressing, as Russell Smith says. I can’t think that CBC executives have any idea how strong is the relationship between many radio listeners and this station. You are messing with a large part of the fabric of our lives! So many of us, I am sure, are so woven through with the threads of this programming, and the hosts, that it will be like losing family members or attending final rites for those we love. How many radios throughout the country know only this one station! Are never or hardly ever tuned in anywhere else. They will die of boredom or starvation with only easy listening for a steady diet. When we go south on holidays we will no longer breathe a sigh of relief to cross the border into our own blessed, enlightened “classical” land. A plague upon you for closing off this large part of our cultural heritage! You are seriously out-of-touch with our reality – those of us for whom CBC Radio 2 has been our uniter and our sustainer. Never mind live streaming from the Internet, our country here and now will be all the poorer for losing it. Morgana Graham598 Niagara St.Winnipeg, MB R3N OV8(204) 489-3574
Classical music was a lifeline to me growing up in Wpg, teaching in Manitoba, acting in Victoria, Calgary, Edmonton and Toronto - touring northern Ontario would have been horrible without access to CBC Radio 2. We need this station and its original mandate.
unbelievably stupid and pointless changes. our family ranging from 25 to 67 all listen. Now that some of us have moved from Toronto to a more isolated area (PEI where there is NO other classical radio at all) we are appalled with the shortsighted decision of the CBC - again they have pissed off their audience of devoted listeners to CANADIAN music without the public having any input - it's OUR taxes which support you.
To cut Rick Phillips program is the height of inanity. Here was a program that was lucid in its explanation of classical music; even I could understand his utterances. Such a mature program.
Conservatives have been arguing for years that CBC shouldn't receive public funding. If these changes proceed and make CBC more like what is already commercially available elsewhere, I'm not sure there will be case to disagree with them. Changes are inevitable of course -- but not these changes!!
Although I'm all for supporting Canadian artists on our airwaves, odds are that popular music - even of the Canadian variety - can be found on at least one other station at any given time. Why must more of it REPLACE what is (for most of us) the last remaining realistic source of one of its alternatives? Over the years I spent listening to Radio Two, I learned an immense amount about classical music and music-history; I find the thought of the station's classical programs being terminated profoundly sad.
I fail to see how CBC's constant fiddling with already excellent programmes will gain the Corp. any new listeners. The loyalty of existing fans is not to be tampered with. All the NEW stuff...the
Light pop and jazz? What a sorry step for a radio network that once dared to offer intelligent, provocative, and culturally enriching programming, even at the risk of a small market share. Ironically, of course, there are lots of faithful CBC listeners in all parts of Canada--especially in smaller centres where the listening choices are already pretty slim. While I'm saddened by the downward spiral of CBC's commitment to thoughtful classical broadcasting since the glory days of Leon Cole and Bob Kerr, I am most saddned by the cultural short-sightedness that means that Canadian performers and composers will no longer have any forum for their work to be heard. Sure, I can find an Internet radio station that can provide me with all the Baroque music I want, but the only way I could have heard--or will ever hear--the work of Harry Somers, R Murray Schafer, Murray Adaskin, Malcolm Forsyth,and other brilliant musical minds is on the CBC (the composers I mentioned are all people whose work I first heard on the CBC--and would never have heard otherwise). Light pop and jazz are easy enough to get elsewhere--and I'm certain anyone who wants to hear more Diana Krall can do so pretty easily on some Internet or sattelite radio. But no one is likely to play a lot of homegrown Canadian music (and I'm not talking about Nickelback or Feist!). Isn't that what the CBC should be for? To be the guardian of Canadian culture in all its forms? I don't expect NPR or the BBC to do it, and neither should you.
We've suffered many cutbacks and quality reductions for the last 20 years...we CBC fans and supporters demand better programming and input into the changes planned.
CBC always manages to screw up its successes - first television and now radio. Unfortunately, its bureaucracy has always been too large and unwieldy - headed by people from the wrong backgrounds. Hence the strange, misguided decision-making.
Radio 2 is a last sanctuary of music and culture in Canada; not yet succumbing to the crushing commercial weight of ClearStream-controlled airwaves. It has consistently engaged me from childhood to expand my appreciation and understanding of that great equalizer that is music. What could possibly possess the CBC to destroy one of the few bastions that rescues us from a sea of commercial radio drek.
Government funded radio is precisely about providing what commercial radio cannot afford to: access to those parts of our culture which engage our highest selves, rather than pander to our lowest.
I am TOTALLY opposed to the proposed changes to CBC II programming. I live in Ohio and listen to Canadian programming exclusively BECAUSE of its wonderful hosts and muscical selection. I am deeply disappointed at this restructuring.
What motivated this change? Who is responsible for determining that CBC listeners should not be consulted? CBC has been pluralistic/pop resistant since its inception,an icon of Art, what happened?
I believe the main reason for the success of CBC Radio 2 is that it offers programming that is unique (classical music) and to diminish that would be a serious blow to the CBC.
Why does public radio exist? To imitate commercial stations? to play easy listening, jazz, pop and rock? These are valid music forms, but public radio must be reserved for classical music, providing what commercial stations do not. Wake up! Restore the cuts!
We would like to know how the decisions were reached - were any tests conducted so the CBC could receive feedback or this this jsut an arbitrary decision. Perhaps funding should now be cut back.
My husband and I add our voices to the protest over what you are doing to our beloved Radio 2....we are not cranky or creaky stick-in-the-muds (although we believe that they too are a legitimate segment of the Radio 2 audience.) We attend live concerts from many musical genres, but classical music is the one that is vastly under-represented on commercial radio. Because we have to earn a living during the week, our main listening times are on the weekend, and we have come to rely on Radio 2 to provide us with interesting and varied classical programming. PLEASE heed your loyal audience; the mandate of a public broadcaster is to give its audience something they want that they cannot receive from a for-profit station.
Is the CBC trying by cutting out the classical music hoping to drive regular listeners to the private station, thus providing an excuse for eliminating the CBC?
CBC Radio is the only decent station one can hear classical music, and I have listened to it for years. How can you do this? It is a travesty, and heartbreaking.
I do not want easy listening or more pop junk music on CBC Radio. I want classical music and in-depth documentaries Please restore the Young Performers' Competition also. I am very upset about the proposed cancellations and changes and vehemently oppose them.
