I support this petition 100%. There's so much great Canadian music that never makes it to the airwaves and that's what CBC ought to be programming. Show some imagination guys! It's out there!
A healthy diversity of musical content might include a top 40 selection from time to time, but I believe CBC's mandate speaks to far more important criteria for programming of music than "it's what everybody is listening to". There are enough radio stations playing that game already.
I support this petition. Should businesses want music (or musak) to soothe their clientele into a state of passive consumerism or to keep them from squirming in the dentist's chair, they should tune in to one of the numerous radio stations that offer music suited for this purpose. The CBC should follow through with its mandate of supporting Canadian talent with offerings of a distinctively Canadian flavour.
I support this petition. I learnt all about Canada from the CBC - its cultural history, current cultural peculiarities and its quaint moderately functional federal political system. Keep with the program, CBC, or we may as well privatize it and use the cash to buy a new Jeep for the military.
I have been lucky to live outside Canada for several terms in the past few years -- and have missed the CBC every time. Let's not destroy a national treasure.
(Another signer's comment about "Espace musique" is quite valid, as well -- I badly miss "la chaine culturelle".
I support this petition.
First off, the idea of "Canadian content" is a joke, as is the driving philosophy "to be disctinvtively" Canadian". This said, I'd like for CBC radio one to play music of high artistic quality, Canadian or otherwise (preferably most of the time otherwise). No top 40 please.
There is no question that the CBC needs to revamp its programming. BUT, playing more mainstream top40 music is NOT THE WAY TO DO SO. It shows a total lack of imagination on the part of CBC management, and risks loosing what audience the CBC has without contributing anything to the Canadian cultural scene.
I wholly support this petition - madonna IS NOT CANADIAN and the CBC should represent and support canadian artists first and foremost PLUS add an element of canadian culture that is NOT represented on mainstream airwaves. another top 40 station is NOT what this country needs or wants musically, but a place to listen to CANADIAN musical artists, classical OR contemporary, IS! as the petition eloquently states "The talents of many dedicated and world-class Canadian writers, composers, producers, and artists are being further replaced by commercial content that can be found on any number of mass audience radio stations." KEEP THE CBC CANADIAN!
I support this petition.
Do not "dumb-down" CBC. Continue to support Canadian content and Canadian hosts.
Education and impartial news is important. Leave the entertainment of the masses to the mass media.
Stop playing "bloody bits" of pieces. Play the whole piece as it was written and explay to the listener what to listen for or do some other informative introduction. Skip the comical remarks.
James A. Matteoni
Imagine sacrificing all of us for people waiting to have their mouths frozen and their dirty teeth cleaned. Eeek. ("attracting listeners... at...dentist offices")
Of course I support this petition! It's the CBC, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Of course it's primary purpose should be for the dissemination of Canadian material. We're paying for it, it's supposed to be about us and our place in the world at large. Playing pop songs I can hear almost anywhere else on the dial is a needless distraction. If I wanted to listen to that kind of music I'd tune into those stations, wouldn't I?
I support this petition.
I used to be a great fan of the CBC and had the radio going most of the day. But since your dumbing down campaign started silence has become preferable. To bad after enjoying you for over 50 years.
I support this petition with the following qualifications:
First, I am not convinced that CBC radio, at least in Canada’s English-speaking provinces, has ever been the bastion of creative Canadian music that several signatories' comments suggest it to have have been. In my view, there has always been considerable room for the CBC to broaden its programming to feature Canadian voices (musical and otherwise) from a greater variety of social, cultural, gender, and musical backgrounds. That the scope of CBC programming appears to be narrowing even further is indeed cause for great concern.
Second, in calling for “an extensive investigation to determine if CBC Radio One is currently pursuing commercial and not public interests,” I want to be clear about what is meant by “commercial interests” and commercial music (both rather nebulous and, to my mind, problematic terms). I absolutely do not support a CBC ban on “popular” music (an equally nebulous and problematic term). What I object to specifically—and what I take this petition to really be about—is the use of public funds to broadcast music that listeners across Canada have ample opportunity to hear on any number of corporate-controlled, private radio stations—in other words “mainstream popular music...such as Madonna, Elton John, and other Top 40 music” as described in the opening sentence of the petition statement. I feel that this point deserves special emphasis because I don’t want this petition to be misconstrued as an elitist attack on “popular music,” many forms of which are as endemic to Canadian culture(s) and identities as are classical music, experimental music, and jazz, as well as the myriad of non-Western musics that are performed across this country on a daily basis.
I support this petition. Freestyle and the national playlist does nothing but annoy me and I turn off the CBC in order to avoid the mindless babble and empty music. I don't know who the new programming is aimed at but it is not me (age 40). Perhaps I am now too old to catch on but I doubt very much that CBC is attracting a younger audience with this type of programming in any event. A switch cannot happen fast enough.
I support this petition. In fact, I am so tired of the "brainless chatter and music" that has crept into the programming of the CBC over the last few years. Distasteful! I can hear that anywhere else on the radio.
I support this petition.
The CBC is already 'dumbed-down beyond belief. Anymore and it ceases to have an identity different from the rabble on the airwaves.
I support this petition.
I believe it is important to recognize the fact that we all benefit as a society when the government (and its crown corporations) fund cultural programming that would not receive the needed funding to sustain it in private sector. We all become richer and more diverse people through having access to deeper forms of culture.
I support this petition, wholeheartedly.
I am really disturbed to hear the national playlist...it is SO redundant!!!! to be told who to listen to by whom! and the banter is not that enlightening or entertaining. I am also very disappointed not to hear Tatsuro in the afternoons and the reading of Canadian stories....BAD CHOICES Mother Corp.
