A wee bit of photo fun submitted by Kate Dalgleish, pictured here.

If you’ve got a photo or funny mockup you’d like to submit, email insidecbcblog@gmail.com

There’s no money, but a small amount of glory will accrue.

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	Fun Stuff, Personalities, The National	Posted at 6:29 pm (31 Mar 2008)

About a dozen of you emailed to say you were having problems posting comments to the site. It must have been one of the, er, “enhancements” I made on the weekend. ;-)  Should be fixed now. Sorry about the inconvenience.

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	About This Blog, Asides	Posted at 5:35 pm (31 Mar 2008)

You can’t say he’s can’t spot a marketing opportunity when he sees one.

Citytv founder Moses Znaimer has taken advantage of public displeasure over the coming changes for CBC Radio Two and issued a news release promoting his two Toronto classical radio stations.

Titled “Attention CBC Radio 2 classical music listeners!,” the release begins: “Keep calm and carry on - there is an all-classical alternative [and CBC can no longer] claim there is no other source for classical music in English Canada.”

Among the new initiatives he plans to roll out: “The Classical Corps,” a roving team of mobile young reporters who will cover cultural events. Oh, and a classical-music game show just for fun

Media in Canada described the move as a “take-that blow to CBC that smacks of a wannabe duelist slapping an enemy with a glove.” Znaimer bought the stations last year and relaunched them in September

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	Changes to CBC Radio Two	Posted at 1:56 pm (31 Mar 2008)

Over the weekend, I upgraded the blog software and added a few more features to make this site a bit easier to peruse:

• Commenter pictures: You can now have your photo (or almost any image representing yourself) beside any comments you make. Want to get started? Get your own “gravatar” here.
• Integrated Digg.com: Now, if you “digg” one of the stories here on the popular social news site, the famous little Digg button will automatically appear on the story. Here’s an example.
• Wider page: Now, there’s more width to the pages, so that should make reading a bit easier.
• Easier to use categories: Instead of one long list of categories to select from, the list (at the top of the grey sidebar on the right) only displays top-level categories at first. When you click one, it expands.
• More comments shown: Comment summaries shown in the sidebar now have more text to them and there are many more comments displayed.
• Tag cloud: It’s just getting started, but a “tag cloud” exists in the sidebar in case you prefer to do your browsing that way. (The bigger the word, the more posts are about that topic.)

As always, please keep the suggestions coming!

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	About This Blog, Asides	Posted at 1:08 pm (31 Mar 2008)

Justin Beach from the great PublicBroadcasting.ca web site has done a bit of detective work and discovered that some of the most prolific protesters inside CBC groups may not, in fact, exist

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	Changes to CBC Radio Two	Posted at 12:08 am (31 Mar 2008)

CBC Radio Two listeners opposed to the changes to the network, specifically the reduction of classical music, are planning to march on the CBC Vancouver building Tuesday morning.

On Friday morning, a similar group is planning to protest at Maison Radio-Canada, the CBC Montreal building.

“The CBC has been taken over by a group of people dedicated to removing nearly all Classical Music,” the Vancouver group’s description reads. “They feel it is old fashioned and irrelevant to the ‘new demographic’ that they wish to attract. We feel this is misguided at best, suicidal at worst.”

Another group has been started to launch an email campaign campaign.

UPDATE: It is reported that the Music School at UBC is asking faculty to cancel classes and go with their students to the demonstration.

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	CBC Radio 2, Changes to CBC Radio Two, Montreal, Vancouver	Posted at 11:11 pm (30 Mar 2008)

Back aches, eye strain and carpal tunnel syndrome are just a few common work-related injuries. Find out how to set up your work space to avoid these and other injuries.

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	Health and Wellness, Workstations and Desktops	Posted at 4:25 pm (30 Mar 2008)

by Richard Strusberg
Executive Vice President, English Media

Well, there’s certainly been considerable apprehension about what we have in the works for CBC Radio 2. If one was to believe everything written by columnists, bloggers and in letters to the editor, you’d think our national network was killing off classical music and replacing it with pap.

Well, fear not. Classical music will remain alive and well on Radio 2.  However, we also are going to open our airwaves for lovers of other high-quality Canadian music that, scandalously, is largely ignored by private commercial radio.  And not a moment too soon.

People love classical music, yes.  But our listeners, as well as the broader public and musicians across the country, tell us that they also love other kinds of music too, as long as it’s high quality.  They want to hear music that represents the diversity of genres in their country, its people and its regions.  They want a programming that’s relevant to them.

Just consider this: Of the approximately 30,000 pieces of music released each year in Canada, only about 240 receive regular airplay on Canadian radio stations.  We intend to take advantage of this vast body of Canadian music that is otherwise ignored and make the best of it available to our listeners in an intelligent, creative and engaging way.

This, in fact, is the embodiment of our mandate.

Classical music will remain the dominant genre on Radio 2. (In September, we’ll introduce a daily five-hour classical program to be heard weekdays, along with our four-hour classical performance show on Sunday afternoons, and the venerable Saturday Afternoon at the Opera.  We’re working on alternative, high-impact approaches to showcasing emerging classical performers, and were going to continue commissioning new music across the country and providing a showcase for new works.)

But the important point (and the one we’ve been taking the heat on) is that we also are introducing other kinds of music into the classical mix: jazz, contemporary singer/songwriters, roots, world and folk. Much of this will be found in our new morning and afternoon drive programs.  Contrary to the naysayers, none of with will be pap; none of it will be schlock and, most assuredly, none of it will be dumbed down.  By September, we will have increased our overall Canadian content by approximately 20 percent.

Let’s not confuse quality of music with style of music.  CBC is committed to introducing Canadian to quality Canadian music. This is the key value the derives our decision-making.  We’re going to go deeper and exposed a tremendous amount of Canadian talent that deserves to be heard.

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	Changes to CBC Radio Two	Posted at 3:22 pm (30 Mar 2008)

In a report to staff [internal link only], CBC president Hubert Lacriox revealed that he plans to create a “joint programming committee” to focus on content and programming across all platforms and both English and French services. “It will absolutely not be involved in decision making on schedules,” he said. “But it will have a decision-making role on cross-cultural content, programs and projects.”

Lacroix will chair the committee for the first six months, and then the chair will rotate between the heads of both English and French media (Richard Stursberg and Sylvain Lafrance).

Membership has not yet been determined.

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	Programming	Posted at 4:23 pm (28 Mar 2008)

Easy come, easy go. Turns out, CBC board member Mary McNeil of Vancouver quietly stepped down from the Board of Directors before even attending her first Board meeting last week. She has decided instead to run for provincial office. No appointee has been named in her place yet.

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	Asides, Board of Directors	Posted at 4:19 pm (28 Mar 2008)

The CBC and the union representing 5,500 of its workers have settled a three-year-old dispute about outsourcing publicity work.

In 2005, the CBC outsourced much of its publicity and media relations to a private Toronto firm. The Canadian Media Guild challenged whether the CBC had a valid business case to outsource the work.

Under terms of the settlement, the CBC will pay the Guild $100,000 to be distributed to affected employees. In addition, three existing jobs in communications will return to the Guild’s bargaining unit later this year.

Further, the CBC and Guild will discuss other publicity work being handled outside the Corporation for shows like The Hour and The Steven and Chris Show.

In all, the Guild says 33 jobs were eliminated as a result of the outsourcing, mainly in Toronto, Halifax and Vancouver.

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	Labour/CBC Unions, Marketing/Promotion	Posted at 4:12 pm (28 Mar 2008)

A screen-shot from the prehistoric Taleo jobs web site the CBC uses (try opening a couple of job postings in different browser tabs):

See? That’s been the problem all along. As #2 suggests, you should be applying while you’re on the job. Really, it’s silly to be doing these kinds of things on your own time!

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	Fun Stuff, Getting a Job	Posted at 3:56 pm (28 Mar 2008)

Casting has begun for a made-for-TV movie (in two-parts, natch) tentatively titled The Don Cherry Story.

The movie’s author? Cherry’s son, Tim.

The script follows the Coach’s Corner star’s early life in hockey’s minor leagues. It ends, oddly abruptly, when Cherry met the CBC’s Ron MacLean nearly 25 years ago.
“We’re trying to find out if Brad Pitt can play the leading role,” Cherry joked.

(Er, at least I think it was a joke.)

Provided the CBC gives it the green light (and really, why wouldn’t it? Sadly, it will likely be one of the most-watched programs of the year), shooting should start within a few months. It is expected to air during next spring’s Stanley Cup playoffs.

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	Hockey Night in Canada, Personalities	Posted at 3:47 pm (28 Mar 2008)