I support this petition. I really liked the programming of sad goat, it was far more interesting than the "Freestyle" program that has taken its place.
I support this petition. Speaking as a member of the generation the CBC is trying to attract (under 30) I have started listening to the BBC world service and community radio between the hours of 1 and 3pm. In Toronto, we now get Freestyle in place of a province wide current events show and one of the best phone ins on radio one. Freestyle is insipid, the chatter annoying--I can surf the internet on my own thank you, the music terrible... I have noted many interviews they do I have noticed they poach from other local shows. (recent example "the Knitting Olympics"--first aired on here and now) I have written letters to audience relations and recieved a 'Sheilagh Rogers' post card written in runny magic marker explaining that my views would be passed on to management. It is sad to watch our public institutions be dismantled one by one.
I support this petition. The CBC should be promoting Canadian artists, and should be playing other artists only when it they are relevant to the programming at hand.
I support this petition.
At home more frequently now and must say the afternoon programming has changed! Miss the two hours of Ontario Today and just what is the point of the National Playlist program anyway?
I support this petition. Freestyle and National Playlist have me considering Ottawa private radio. Those familiar with the quality of these products will recognise just how dire a situation this is.
I most definitely support this petition. I used to listen to Radio 1 from morning to night, but now I'm turning it off more and more. Free Style should be taken off the air. If I wan't that kind of programming I could list to a commercial radio station -- Toronto has many of those. I really enjoyed the 2 hour Ontario Today program -- bring it back! Also, let's have the Roundup back! An other automatic turn-off for me is Johnathan Goldstein.
What happened to the poetry that used to be a part of Between the Covers?
The CBC must fulfill its mandate. Let's have in-depth, informative programs. Metro Morning is the leading morning show in Toronto because it is just that.
Wake up management! The way you're taking the CBC, it will be like any other radio station. The Harper government could then drastically reduce the funding.
The CBC is my companion throughout my day. I spend half of my time working from home in front of my computer, and the other half in a small windowless office. My radio is my connection to the outside world and so, programming changes have a strong effect on my day. I was sad to see the Round Up cancelled, But I am used to the CBC cancelling the best and brightest in favour of the bland and unchallenging. I am extremely upset that Ontario Today’s second hour is not broadcast to the Toronto region. I have tried listening to Freestyle, but what is supposed to pass as witty banter sounds to me like insipid and sometimes uninformed filler, and I find the music programming unlistenable –as though the show were trying to emulate the adult contemporary format inadequately. Now I listen to community radio stations CKLN or CIUT. And I believe that I am of the demographic CBC is trying to attract (not a baby boomer I am 32.) I feel like instead of trying to win me back after the interruption of the strike, the CBC is trying to chase me further away.
I feel like I have lost a simultaneously hip and erudite friend. It is rare to have an entertaining and well-informed host like Alan Neal. He has a creative approach to radio I could hear through themed shows, compelling interviews, focus on artists and musicians as well as his firm grasp on the issues of the day. I don’t understand the logic behind making inaccessible a show that informs the public about regional issues in favour of a bland national show that has NOTHING INFORMATIVE WHAT-SO-EVER. I resent the implicit assumption that I can just tune in on the web (I can’t) and the resulting scheduling changes that have happened on Ontario Today, i.e. breaking up the phone-in hour and compressing both segments into the first hour. It is important in a province as large and as varied as Ontario to have unifying programming, and Ontario Today served that function in a manner that was beyond adequate—it was interestin
I support this petition.
Sad Goat is gone???!
Arg! I don't have the structure in my life scheule my listening but I wonder now how many other favourites have quietly disappeared?
I must say I have more than once had to switch to the global TV audio feed to avoid the pop music tsunami.I am dissappointed to learn that CBC may be part of the problem.
You damn right I support this petition. I agree with everyone here that Mothercorp's totally pandering. I kinda like The National Playlist actually, but Freestyle must go! If it wasn't for GO on Radio One and Brave New Waves on Radio Two, I wouldn't be listening at all. I'm still not over the management silencing these shows during the lockout. The crappiest two months of my life! As for Radio One, well, I agree with everything that's been said here, and I'll also add my two cents about Brent Bambury, I only listen to Radio One regularly because of him. He's an entertaining, creative guy, and I think that 90 mins every Saturday morning sure as hell isn't long enough. Give Brent a weekday evening gig on Radio One and let him be himself!!
I support this petition. There are fewer and fewer reasons to listen to Radio One. The Current, Ideas, and The Arts Tonight are the only weekday shows with any meat left on them. The rest of the day is at best dull and more often filled with blather and music so irritating it doesn't even function as tolerable background. Saturday has long been a write-off, with the possible exception of Quirks and Quarks. Sunday gives us Michael Enright and Eleanor Wachtel, and not much else. Please provide us with more programming we can sink our teeth into.
I support this petition.
I have switched to
cbc 2 and really miss the cbc 1 community. The banal chat that replaced the Roundup is not worthy of the cbc. We can get that anywhere.
I support this petition.
Never have my husband and I turned off CBC as much as we have in the past year!! We love the CBC!!!!! WE love intelligent programming as do our children. There are more than enough music/chatty/banal stations on the air. Please bring back the old, informative,investigative ,provocative, best in the world- according to my much travelled, South African husband...and he,s heard a few!!!....CBC. I could not agree with the petition more!!
I support this petition. Is the removal of The Roundup the thin end of the wedge that aims to ignore the mandate of the CBC and turn it into just another business endeavour whose sole interest is the bottom line/
I support this petition FULLY. I listen to CBC because it is an alternative to the popular entertainment options. Let's not sacrifice our cultural heritage for the sake of the bottom line.
I support this petition. Bring back the Roundup!!! Now that CBC is on SAT radio do you realize the missed oppurtunity?? There was no other show like it on North American radio!! I miss my sad goat community! To replace this unique program with a bland vanilla show that can be found all over the dial is a real shame.
I support this petition. All the shows on Radio One play nothing but garbage music, so I no longer listen to any of them. It's an outrageous violation of the CBC's obligation to the Canadian public for it to be wasting our tax dollars on producing inane commercial radio.
I support this petition. I've given Freestyle as much of a try as I can. I have to agree with others' comments here: please make it stop. The only "upside" is that my afternoon is freed up because I no longer feel compelled to listen to the CBC.
I support this petition. I think that I'm supposed to be part of the demographic that CBC thinks it is attracting with its new format. On behalf of the many many people I know in their twenties and early thirties who agree with me on this one, CBC is just plain wrong.
Weekday evenings and Sundays are now the only times I bother to listen to CBC anymore. Okay, fine, I don't expect every host on the CBC to be as insightful as a Michael Enright or Eleanor Wachtel,nor should every segment be "serious" and "informative" programming, but if the CBC insists on catering to a younger and "hipper" (whatever that means)demographic, at least use hosts with some semblance of wit and intelligence (Brent Bambury comes to mind). Sook-Yin Lee's idea of witty banter seems to consist of speaking in a baby voice, and saying "Wow!" and "Cool!" a lot. And Freestyle!! If I wanted to listen to inane chat and even inaner music, I would listen to CFRB.
Just because an audience is under 40 DOES not mean that they are by definition only interested in style over substance.
Okay. Rant over.
As much as I like popular music that's not why I listen to CBC. It's because they don't play top 40. That being said, I like the National Playlist, but please make Freestyle go away!
I support this petition.As it is, there is way too much vacuous pop music on any number of commercial stations. CBC should return to programs of sub-stance and cultural enrichment.
I support this petition.
"Freestyle" is a silly and annoying show that I stopped listening to a long time ago. Where is Bill Richardson when we need him?
I support this petition.
CBC programming should be distinctive, providing (as it used to) content that cannot be found elsewhere. The current policy of dumbing down and attempting to duplicate the content of any number of commercial stations is a suicidal betrayal of principles.
"Freestyle" is mindless, unfocused garbage. It is especially insulting since it replaces the quirky and engaging "Roundup" and, hard as this may be to believe, is produced by some of the same people. Please get rid of "Freestyle", restore the cerebral cotexes of its Vancouver creators, and restore two full hours of "Ontaro Today" to midday listeners here in Toronto.
The attempt to commercialize the CBC undermines its very existence. Stephen Harper has stated publicly that he is philosophically opposed to publicly funded services "for which there is a commercial alternative."
I support this petition. I would like to go back to listening to the CBC. I have started changing the station when Freestyle and the National Playlist comes on. They mean nothing to me or to my generation.
I support this petition. This station is the only vehicle for Canadian content in Canada. My whole reason for supporting the CBC for all my life. I'm sure we will have a fight on our hands anyways if the Conservatives get a majority on Monday. Be who you are and what you are for!
I support this petition. Please bring back quality programming on CBC Radio. The show "Freestyle" is simply terrible, very annoying, and definitely not worthy of the CBC. Shame.
I wholy support this petition in it's attempt to bring quality broadcasting back to CBC radio. CBC radio has always been an audio oasis in a sea of low brow and teenage-oriented chatter that saturates the airwaves. It fills me with dismay to see the quality of CBC radio broadcasting being brought down to the lowest common denominator when it should be as it always has been – the benchmark for what intelligent radio can be.
I support this petition.
I like the National Playlist. As an aging babyboomer, I like to keep up with the music that my son listens to, or is that the music to which he listens? It gives us something to talk about. Moreover, I'm not ready to move into the default mode...Golden Oldies. Gag!
I think the show does a fairly good job of hightlighting new and sometimes talented Canadian music. In that sense, it is distintively Canadian. Nowhere else would I have been introduced to Elliot Brood, Starz, et.al.
Freestyle is something else altogether. Scripted (badly), annoying and if this is what "Canadians will be talking about at the water cooler", we're in big trouble! This is lowest common denominator stuff. I have turned my radio off between 2 and 4 p.m.
Should we start with Madonna and Britney Spears commissioning Gary Kulesha for an oratorio? Or should we get Stevie Wonder to play the piano music of J. Hetu ??? GET SERIOUS.
The CBC is part of Canadian Culture and the American style “dumbing down� of its programming to try an attract new listeners is preposterous. Imagine Quebec separating and then looking at a map and being told that this is now what Canada looks like. That is what Canadian Culture would be like without the CBC.
I support this petition.
I am Anishinaabe. As aboriginal Canadians we are even underrepresented in the field of mainstream pop music, because our music doesn't neatly fit into industry categories. Apart from our own grassroots radio, CBC Radio One & Two have been opening up to us more lately. Canada is not about 'melting pot' culture. Let's keep buiding upon what CBC already does in recognizing the what Canada truly is - culturally and regionally.
I support this petition with the clause that international serious art music is also very important for the education of the Canadian public. Non-commercial music is vital to make a creative difference to transform a "consumer" society into a civilized one. The very fabric of human society depends on cultural interaction of a non-commercial nature. Markets are defined by education, not vice versa. When, seemingly, markets drive education, that means complete collapse and social failure of exactly those elemnts that distinguish humanity from rats.
I support this petition.
i would like to share with everyone and CBC the following: part of my schooling - me, the composer without titles or PHD diplomas - was done in Argentina just BY listening to the National Radio [Radio Nacional]...programs, twice weekly, were devoted to listening and analyzing Mozart Sonata cycles, or Beethoven, or Schumann's Lieder, plus argentine and contemporary music...IN the 1950's!!! Radio commitment, from both the French and the English networks, is absolutely vital for new or old Canadian music. CBC/RC...just DO IT!
I support this petition.
who and what are we? That is the question...Without the strong support of our NATIONAL radio, ( just think of Radio France, the BBC, the German and Scandinavian radios,etc.,we will be condemned to eternal-boring- lukewarm-cheap- middle-class concept of profit oriented musical expression that will lead us straight to HELL !!!
PLEASE, let us STAND FIRMLY as an ORIGINAL and vibrant CULTURE and NOT a sub-product of the WALL-MART roller steamer...
I support this petition.
I don't mind Playlist, but I find Freestyle to be fluff. I miss the Roundup, which was much more interesting, told be more about what other people in Canada were thinking, offered many more opportunities for listeners to become involved in the show and be part of the show, etc. I miss the "hello sad goat" at the beginning of the show. I missed Bill Richardson but Tetsuro did a masterful job of taking over.
I hate Freestyle and I have really tried to like it. I have listened to it on purpose to try to get to like it. I hate it. The hosts are ORDINARY and would be better suited for mainstream radio. Bring back the CBC we knew and loved. If you want to make changes at CBC look to CBC television. The CBC radio was fine and I wish they had left well enough alone. Freestyle sucks big time - if I want that kind of stuff I can listen to other radio stations.
I support this petition. CBC should be striving to be high-brow, with more programs like Ideas, and less 'cultural commentary' from failed pop stars, nor do I tune in to hear a 'heartwarming story' about the trick a listener's dog did a the cottage last year. It is infuriating to tune to CBC in search of insightful commentary on the world around us, and instead be greeted by Sheila Rogers flirting with Gian Ghomeshi while Kelly Klarkson plays in the background. The CBC should serve to lift UP the level of public discourse, not drag us all down to the lowest common denominator.
I support this petition. The CBC's scattershot approach to dumbing down its programing on Radio One (the national flagship) is a desperate attempt to get some amorphous, hip demographic that's already listening to much better campus radio. I like DNTO, Radio Sonic, Global Village, GO, Big City, Small World, etc... BUT putting Promo Grrl Mysteries, the Nat'l Playlist and Freestyle in such prominent timeslots only gives these programs more weight and credibility than they deserve. These kind of "shows" are nothing more than an inconsequential soufflé of nothingness. An homage to the trivial ramblings of their hosts.
I support this petition.
All the two-host chattiness is offensive. I do not want to here chatter I want knowledge, information, analysis by people who have studied the fied under discussion. Interviews, yes, cute co-hosting, nyet
I support this
petition. CBC radio is a MUCH NEEDED alternative to commercial-laden, often obnoxious, often unintelligent commercial radio. Keep CBC radio different, non-commercial, SMART, and Canadian.
