Changes to CBC Radio 2
CBC Radio 2 will be adjusting its schedule early next month. Here are the details:
- Bill Richardson will host Saturday Afternoon at the Opera (Saturdays 1:00-6:00pm) and Sunday Afternoon in Concert (Sundays 1:00-5:00pm)
- Patti Schmidt will host a new music and ideas program called Inside the Music. It will be a highly produced show that features one-off and limited series documentaries about music (Sundays 12:00-1:00pm).
- Andre Alexis and Skylarking move to Sundays at 5:00pm.
- Pianist Gregory Charles hosts a new show called In The Key of Charles. He is a well-known personality in Quebec as a broadcaster, choral director, and performer, and he will be hosting the show sitting at his piano. (Sundays 10:00am-12:00pm)
- Canada Live will no longer have a national host. The nine regional hosts will host the show when it comes from their locations.
- More hourly newscasts will be added to the schedule. National news and regional weather forecasts will air at 6:00, 7:00, 8:00, 9:00, 12:00, 15:00, 16:00, and 17:00. The newscasts will expand to 5 minutes in length.
- Jowi Taylor will host Nightstream, the overnight music program.
- The Sunday schedule on Radio One will change as follows:
- o Inside the Music (8-9pm)
- o In The Key of Charles (9-11pm)
- o Tonic (11pm-1am)
- The following programs will be cancelled: Symphony Hall, The Singer and The Song, and Fuse will be moved off of Radio Two
So… what do you think?
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Very sad to hear that “the singer and the song” is going. I still miss Northern Lights and think that generally, Radio 2 has lost a lot of quality. I do NOT want to hear popular music. I want Medieval, Renaissance, Baroque, Classical, and 20th and 21st century classical music. Radio 2 used to be good at delivering that. I hate the new ‘pop’ presentation and content.
Too bad about Canada Live losing Matt Galloway – I think he’s great and I’ve sorely missed hearing him since moving to Vancouver. But I guess having the regional hosts do it makes good sense.
I think the news addition is good; I’m glad they’ve kept it out of the core day hours (other than noon), though. I listen to Radio 2 in the day primarily because it doesn’t distract from work too much but it makes a nice addition to the day.
Here’s something that’s been bugging me – the awful Tonic promos… I find many of them cheesy and cringe-worthy, though I like the show.
Dang! Fuse just moved to Radio Two in the spring. Now it’s going back to Radio One and mono?
@bob: perhaps to radio 3.
The whole “regional hosts” thing is a bit of a pretense, since exactly none of Canada Live is actually “Live”.
Plus it will make the show a lot less consistent, although really their programming isn’t all that consistent anyway.
@Josh: I’ve mentioned this before, but I’m still peeved at the promos happening between songs. The ones for “The Signal” during “Music and Company” also seems misplaced, if not for the big time difference between them, but for the intended audiences of both programs.
“Inside the Music” sounds interesting, but I’ve been a fan of Patti going back to “Brave New Waves”. Hopefully, it takes broad strokes in terms of genres and periods, and possibly importing similar docs from NPR or BBC, if such exist, I’m not sure.
@Ruth: Yes, I probably miss Northern Lights more than anything else. Be nice if they could at least move Nightstream up to the 11:00 p.m. slot.
I’ve barely listened to Radio 2 at all since they messed it all up last spring. Sorry, but almost all of it is utter trash (save perhaps Music and Company and Studio Sparks, but I’m rarely around at that time of day to hear them). It doesn’t look like these changes will make much of a difference.
I am very sad that Symphony Hall is going off the air. It was one of the last CBC radio music shows that I liked. It seems that all of the CBC Radio 2 music shows that I liked have gone off the air, one by one.
I now only listen to CBC Radio 1 and other, non-CBC, radio stations.
Radio 2 continues to be gutted and dumbed down to where it sounds like any regional rock/smooth jazz station, complete with stupid liners: “CBC Radio 2 where ever the music takes you,” oh please, tell me also that the clock on the wall tells me the time.
Radio France has the “FIP” channel, which I guess CBC 2 will become, given a few more months of schedule slashing and idiotic programming decisions.
Clearly the management at CBC has taken leave of their senses and they actually think they are making a good network, when they already had one before.
Rick: agreed, those promos on ‘the current’ are most distracting and definitely out of place. i’m not against promos as an idea, but somehow it just doesn’t work, and there must be another way of doing it. the show rocks though. i love it!
can we have Brave New Waves back now please?
You have not mentioned that OnStage has also been cancelled
Agreed. I miss Brave New Waves too.
I’m still missing ‘Two New Hours’ tremendously. And I’ve tried giving CBC 1′s new directions in arts journalism a fair shake, but Jian Ghomeshi’s interview with Peter Greenaway last week on ‘Q’ was utterly abysmal, and my final straw with this show. Who is the CBC trying to reach with these changes? I’m a media professional in my early 30s, presumably within a demographic of interest for the Mother Corp, but I become increasingly nervous with every schedule and program change: I anticipate Randy Bachman to take over the hosting of ‘Ideas’ any day now.
Two New Hours was one of my favourite radio shows.
It was after that show was cancelled that I never listened to CBC Radio 2 again.
Radio 2 is my favourite radio station but I get slightly put off when a news reader (Amy Whittingham – hope that’s spelled correctly) cannot pronounce the NUCLEAR. It’s pronounced “new clear” not “new cular”. Our national voice needs to be more careful!!!!!!!
Keep up the rest of the good work.
Robert
I think that Radio 2 has taken a step backwards. If I want to hear “pop” or “rap” music there are plenty of commercial statons which I can turn in to. Today, Wednesday Sept 26, 2007 is probably the worst I have heard. I thing that Joey Taylor should seek a job at a more commercial radio station.
Why we’re playing pop music overnight is beyond me. Is this even in our mandate? You can find this stuff anywhere.
We used to put the wee hours to good use, playing interesting, challenging music from around the world. This was a little-heard slot that was put to good use. Now what? Now we play “middle of the road” crap that you can find elsewhere on the dial.
WHY?
i wonder if it is possible for some form of collective action to stop the great dumbing down of radio two. perhaps people inside radio two are making their concerns heard – but from what i hear of the environment of fear and loathing inside the cbc, i can’t imagine too many brave souls risking their jobs? or is that what happened to ms. solmes who disappearance from two resembled that of those those arctic ice shelves – boom! gone.
a boycott hardly seems possible besides the evening ratings are dropping.
a petition – perhaps? on this sight.
or are there just too many more pressing issues – health care, education, making a living – to be concerned with.
ideas?
frankly a test pattern would be cheaper and better overnight programing than what’s on now.
Michael, many of us wrote to the CBC last spring to air our concerns; we were told that our ears didn’t matter, that age demographic studies were more important! And a Radio2 blogger had the nerve to post puffy “essays” on the programming changes, stating that “great cultural experiences require risk on all sides” – an outrageous spin, and rather condescending to faithful CBC listeners….of course, now you can find that courageous defender of culture spinning today’s lite rock favourites on the all night show…
I just heard that one of my favourite shows of the we week – in the only remaining block of ‘good’, ‘proper’ classical music – has been gutted. Rick Philips has become the only critical announcer left in classical music essentially in Ontario listening range.
His programme mixed good, and related classical music with insightful comment. (I guess by CBC-manager educational standards that his themes were too hard to follow and their attention span is too short to remember where we are after 20 minutes on the same theme?) So, the answer? Drop it. First the Sunday repeat that I often listened to, now 30 minutes, soon, it will be gone altogether.
The Sat opera also was an excellent programme, but not of the intellectual and interest of Sound Advice, because mostly it was the show. But now we’ve lost 30 minutes of that. And, sorry, while the talking from the participants is interesting, when the classical music represents such a small fraction of R2 – we can save the talk for another show.
The dumbing down of Radio 2 – even the music choice in mornings is clearly the dumber of the classical choices – often I turn it off – is quite obvious. I now listen to Internet radio to be able to keep the level of music where is was on the CBC 5 or more years ago.
Believe it or not, NPR’s opera show is now on a par with sat opera – and we all know the problems NPR has, yet it is a very nice show from opera houses across the US.
No, these are the death throws of the old R2 – the classical and late night new music listeners will leave and then who is left? Truly nobody. The other audience will not be committed.
A disastrous future for classical music in Canada.
I find I am listening ever more to the new Radio 2. The diversity of musical styles is refreshing, and always presented with quality and charm. The additional news bulletins won’t hurt a bit. Dumbing down is not an issue; increasing an audience with quality programming, and potentially leading them to other musical forms, is a goal. I think Radio 2 is on the right track.
“Tonic” is not what the doctor ordered…. “Music for A While” is needed for relaxing at the end of a busy day. Cholral Concert Sunday mornings started my week with contemplation and relaxation. There is far too much pop, jazz and rap for my liking. I have stopped listening to many time slots and retreated to my CD collection.
I distinctly remember Jowi Taylor swearing he’d never work with the cbc again… oh well.
I didn’t see the words “Brave New Waves” anywhere in that post, so why should I care?
If you’re making changes to the schedule, why not restore Weekender to its original format? I’m up early during the week, and having Peter on at 4:00 gave me positive encouragement to get up early on the weekends too. Now with Nightstream, it feels more like elevator music and far less enjoyable. Weekender with Peter felt more personal, almost as if we were sharing the time together. I enjoyed the banter he had with whomever was in the control room (and sometimes out of the control room). The music selections were perfect for early weekend mornings. And Peter’s introductions and little stories were just as interesting as any other hosts.
Now it feels as if Peter isn’t even allowed to talk or mention the control booth, the coal-fired cappacino machine, oatcakes, or Panda. There’s almost no conversation with the listener anymore. It’s all just DJ talk and play. And the program is over almost before it even gets started. Other programs during the week have been able to keep their programming style, so why has Weekender been decimated?
So where exactly has Danielle Charbonneau landed – and when can we have her back?
Mercifully, her stint on Nightstream was short — talk about polar opposites between host and programming! She is capable of far more than that.
Danielle in my opinion has the best voice and approach in radio, when she is matched with programming that fits. Can we please re-establish some credibility among serious music lovers again?
I remain hopeful….
Bryan
I think the changes to radio two are worse than dreadful. Canada needs a quality concert music vehicle. Radio two used to be it. I think the changes that started earlier this year have been a significant downgrade over the programming that previously existed. Why? Who thought that these changes were in the public interest? Who canvassed CBC’s listeners to assess what they thought of the proposed changes prior to making them? Where was the public input into our public radio stations? What must be done to bring back quality programming on our arts and culture?
I am so disappointed with the ‘mush’ that is now available on radio 2.
I have been a great fan of Danielle Charbonneau. Where can she now be heard?
It’s time to create a CBC 3 along the lines of BBC 3. CBC 2 can provide folk, jazz, pop and light classics. CBC 3 can provide serious classical music.
please kill Nightstream-or-whatever-its-called and bring back Brave New Waves. I have no idea why this sort of crap is on CBC.
There is/was a CBC 3. It used to be played on CBC Radio 2. I think it’s online now.
I anticipate Randy Bachman to take over the hosting of ‘Ideas’ any day now.
rofl, bite your tongue!!
Subdividing into CBC-3 is an indication that CBC Radio is being used as a Public Relations Fall-guy. Maybe they’ll get it when CBC-101 hits the err-waves. Most likely not. ‘The Signal’ and ‘Ideas’ are my last chances to not turn CBC off altogether. Once you develop an audience, it’s rude, wrong, and stupid to dump them. Podcasting serious music blogs the eardrums. The Canadian Broadcast Industry is now free to eliminate Rabbit Ear Television because they argued that they can’t manage on Media they can’t lease to us. Will radio broadcasting suffer the same fate? Danger… Dark Age Ahead. (Jane Jacobs)
I’m surprised to see Gregory Charles in the schedule. He’s even lower down than Randy Bachman on the “lame pop culture” scale, at least inside Quebec.
TOO BAD SYMPHONY HALL HAS TO BE CANCELLED AND REPLACED WITH THE TYPICAL MIND NUMBING JUNK.
NOW I SUPPOSE THERE ARE NO PROGRAMS TO SHOWCASE CANADIAN ORCHESTRAS.
My Conspiracy Theory:
The apparent purpose of all of 2007′s changes to Radio 2 programming is to attract more and dumber listeners. But this is just a cover. The real purpose is to dumb down the *existing* listeners, and ultimately reduce our brains to jelly. I know that whenever I hear one of those horribly intrusive and annoying promos, I can feel my mind moving one step closer to the gibbering-idiot stage.
And now, although it’s not mentioned in “Here are the details”, Sound Advice is being cut from 90 minutes down to an hour. It’s the only program left on Radio 2 that I actually try to listen to every week.
I’ve already tuned my main radio to a different station. If Radio 2 goes through another one more round of changes like these recent ones, I’ll have no reason left to listen to it at all.
WHERE THE HELL IS BRAVE NEW WAVES..!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Those of you despairing about the loss of classical music on Radio 2 might want to tune in at 1pm (1:30 you know where) this Sunday (Oct 7) for the debut of SUNDAY AFTERNOON IN CONCERT with Bill Richardson. It’s a 4-hour weekly showcase of high-quality performances. The first program features highlights from the past 10 days of Glenn Gould concerts (Louis Lortie, Andre LaPlante & Marc-Andre Hamelin play works by Marcello, Mozart, Wagner, Shostakovich, Prokofiev et al) and the CBC Radio Orchestra recorded in, of all places, Iqaluit.
The way I see it:
Once upon a time, there was a good radio station that played lots of classical music. There were some great shows, like In Performance, Music for a While, Two New Hours, OnStage, Choral Concert, Northern Lights, Symphony Hall, The Singer and the Song, and Brave New Waves (well Brave New Waves was not really classical but I’m including it here because it’s a good show that got canceled.)
Then some people at the station said, “We can’t have all this classical stuff, our listeners probably wouldn’t like it. Let’s get rid of the good shows.” So, they got rid of Two New Hours, Northern Lights, Brave new Waves, and Music for a While.
BUT…maybe a month ago (I’m guessing), the programmers realized, to their horror, that they’d accidentally left some good music shows on CBC Radio 2 on the weekends! “We can’t have that!” they said. “The audience that we want to attract doesn’t like these shows!” So they axed Choral Concert and Symphony Hall and the others that were on Sundays, and replaced it with pop music junk.
Well, we knew these week-end changes were coming but I had hoped that somebody had learned from the outcry following the changes to the night schedule. Apart from the extended News coverage things are only getting worse.
I wish Bill Richardson well with his new Sunday show but I would rather not have it at the expense of “Symphony Hall” & “The Singer and the Song”. There are very few programmes that attract my interest any longer. I now listen on the web to ABC Classic FM in Australia, and BBC Radio 3 from London. And that reminds me. Why not put all these new scheduled programmes on Radio 3; allow it more access and then allow Radio 2 to revert to it’s old, tried and true format, minus all those dreadful promos and all those mindless pop-like and folk-like items that have ruined “Weekender”; “Disc Drive” & “Studio Sparks”. And please, please bring back “Music for a While” with Danielle.
First, you’re all going to have to accept less classical on Radio 2. It’s inevitable. There’s simply too small a demand for this sort of thing to justify a taxpayer-funded specialty classical network.
However, I don’t see why exactly Rad2 has gone the direction it’s gone in. Pop music? Really crummy MOR jazz? I’m dying for some Piazolla or some preservation hall; I’m dying to hear something good, I don’t care what genre it is.
So I have no trouble with less classical; that audience is shrinking. But geez, replace it with something worthwhile.
As for Radio One, boy oh boy. The Saturday schedule has been due for a re-org for nearly a decade. When’s it going to happen? It’s a mess. And, outside of Quirks, there’s a real big stink of lameness on it.
6 p.m. and Radio turns off. There is a good reason why jazz audiences are sparse and many of the performances date back fifty years. Most of us don’t want to listen to it. The loss of Danielle Charbonneau (or equivalent) ruins the dinner hour.
CBC is dumbing down. The conspiracy is to eliminate serious music entirely from Canadian culture.
Sorry Nancy. The audience for classical music is not shrinking. Just take a look at the crowds that line up for concerts all over the world. It’s a vast audience. it is, however, a small audience when compared to other styles in music. It always has been. So a national radio broadcaster, such as the CBC has a duty to cater to this audience. If the network gets only 5% of any given audience, then so be it. It will never fall lower than that. 5% is about par all over the world. So let’s settle for that small percentage and do what other countries do. That is, support a classical music network and let it get on with the job of really catering to that audience. Never ever let it be said, Nancy, that the audience is shrinking. With the support of good radio it may even grow !
Is the audience for classical music really shrinking? Not only really old people listen to it, you know. How about these recent featured selections on The Signal: unplugged electronic music, music for chopsticks and Legos, and mallets, too. Is the taxpayer-funded audience for musical chopsticks growing?
however “vast” the audience for classical might be, the subsidies for it are incredibly lopsided, cbc recording fees and airplay royalties included. It’s time for a little more balance.
Well, I know that everyone reacts differently to change, and certainly it’s taken me some time to figure out the new line-up. But I have to tell you – and I recognize I’m in a minority among posters here – but I’m loving R2 more than ever. The dinnertime jazz is much more engaging and is a better soundtrack to the busy comings and going in our young household. All respect to Danielle C, but honestly, Music for Awhile felt like it was trying to shepherd me into Shady Acres Rest Home a few decades too early. gaaahh. I adore classical music, and love especially being introduced to compositions or artists I’ve not heard before, but I also love music in general – so the broadening of R2′s offering is welcome. I probably wouldn’t tune in to listen specifically to this artist or that genre, but through R2, I am introduced to new ideas and sounds – and I can make up my own mind about them. Open my mind to different music = opening my mind to new ideas. Can’t think of a nobler impact of broadcasting than that!
So this is how the taxpayer funded CBC determines it’s programming now, by age demographics and the cost of royalties and fees? Not by how well the programs are received? Maybe we should dismantle this sucker; it all sounds too commercially driven to me.
I have been increasingly distressed by the disappearance of my favourite programs: Danielle Charbonneau, where are thou? My husband and I so looked forward to her programme while cooking dinner and eating it. She is so well informed and pleasant. Tom Allen is very amusing and I like the music in the morning, Eric Friesen also mostly plays music I will gladly listen to. But please, get rid of all that jazz on CBC.2. One radio should play classical music. It is good for the soul. And don’t say, ever again: Whereever music takes you. It is annoying.
To Gregory Charles – great show last night!! Loved the eclectic nature of all your selections. Listened in the car on the way back from cottage country. And please count me in as another huge fan of Harry Nilsson’s “A Little Touch of Schmilsson in the Night”. Discovered it in the ’80′s in (I think) Australia. Am now on my way out to find it in the stores here in Toronto. It’s available online via amazon.com, but not sure i can wait that long to be reminded of what a fabulous album it was. Had it on tape – which i now realize was sold in a garage sale on the May 24 weekend with all the other tapes from a house i’m selling. Apparently the new version has some additional tracks. And amazon gives it 5 out of 5 stars. Love your show!!
Marion
play some yann tiersen . also why can,t you play something more appropiate for morning wakeup music ? I don,t much care for music that sounds like what the natzis probably played while they were invading poland .you don,t really seem to be trying to attract listners or keep them when they do tune in . you seem to be more focused on being boorish and irritating . just my thoughts ,don,t take it too hard
The Key of Charles is the latest example of CBC personality programming, where wide ranging musical selections, for example, jazz to operetta to Bulgarian folk tunes, are somehow brought together by the personal anecdotes and observations of Charles, Jurgen, Peter, Tom, Andre, or Bill. Listeners who enjoy this format invariably respond with posts like, “I love his voice on rainy days in my cottage,” or, “Thank you (host) for introducing this music to me.” Specialized programming, like The Singer and the Song, or Symphony Hall, has been absorbed into an impossibly long afternoon show, which, the promos reassure us, is hosted by a personality with warmth and wit. How long will the distinctive Choral Concert program continue on CBC2? This personality format is why many long time listeners feel that CBC2 has been “dumbed down.”
I ONLY listen to Radio 2 (ever since CJRT started having advertisements).
However, between 6:00 pm and 7:30 pm tonight my wife asked me pointedly a couple of times “What IS that music you are playing?” in the tone of voice that forced me switch over to 96.3 FM and its appalling adverts.
Radio 2 is supposed to be for serious music listeners – anytime it begins to start sounding anything remotely like RAP, we know that you have “lost the plot”, completely.
Please restore the quality. Thanks, Ivan, Oakville.
It’s so funny to read these posts. To all the CBCers who denigrate RAP ‘music’. The CBC is the arbitrator of all things politically correct in this country. If you weren’t died-in-the-wool lefties, you’d all be in a race to call the posters bigots and racists. What a laugh!!!!
May I add my voice to the others who are not enamoured of the changes to Radio 2. I began listening to Radio 2 when it used to be CBC FM – back in the ’70′s. I was a young stay-at-home mom then. I learned a lot about classical music from the hosts of the day. I think the CBC is doing a disservice to the current generation of young people by programming stuff they can hear anywhere. I am quite sure there are young people like I was then – hungry to listen and learn.
Now, I am older. I like to listen to the radio at in bed at night to relax. So, what is on at 10:00? The Signal!!! Ok…sometimes the music is relaxing and Laurie Brown’s voice is lovely and quiet. But, I am sorry to say that sampling and spoken word “music” is NOT relaxing. The nights that Ms. Brown does the show are! usually ok. But Friday night is usually not listenable! CBC people – who do you think is listening to this show on Friday nights??? The young are out partying. The people listening to you on Friday nights are people like me…older folk.
As for Mike, who thinks that we are bigots or racists because we don’t like RAP…there is a place for RAP. It is on the commercial stations. It may be on Radio 1. It most certainly is NOT on Radio 2.
BRING BACK BRAVE NEW WAVES!!!! When o when will the suits in charge at Mothercorp admit they were so very wrong in cancelling Brave New Waves and replacing it with the pablum programmed on Nightstreams?
I have to agree with the first part of poster Cindy’s statement – Radio 2 should not be programmed with music available anywhere else. Brave New Waves was an exemplar of this, consistently playing music no other radio program I know of in the world had the guts to air. In the 20+ years I was an avid listener of Brave New Waves, it was the first place in Canada I was able to hear artists like Public Enemy, Nirvana, Godspeed! You Black Emperor, The Arcade Fire, Wire – the list could go on for ages.
The CBC did a huge disservice to Canadian audiences and to Canadian artists by cancelling Brave New Waves. It’s time they recognized their mistake and returned it to the airwaves.
Too much TALK is creeping in! I have been a listener since Max broadcast from Halifax.
I stopped listening to Radio 2 this year, what’s the point really when there is so much incredible music on the internet. The musical traditions that go under the rubric “classical” are so deep that I automatically gravitate to where I can continue to enjoy and learn simultaneously, especially via so many internet channels.
So, last week I listened to half a dozen programs just to see if anything had changed over the last few months. What mediocre programming!! Appealing to all yet to no-one, CBC 2 has become the ultimate wallpaper music provider. Why bother? I found myself continually bored as very smart people (Eric Friessen for one) are forced to mumble trivialities and everyone has to play every kind of music. Some of the new programs are so trivial as to wonder why anyone would listen. There are only three words to describe this programing, boring, boring, boring.
I just stumbled on this, but I’ve been railing about the CBC for months on my own blog. What the gang at the Mother Corp doesn’t seem to realize is that when an all classical music station competes with CBC 2 or Radio Canada’s Espace musique (where the changes came two years ago,) the classical music station has a larger audience share than the CBC/Radio Can station, whose audience share doesn’t improve or even declines.
We need the CBC/RAdio Can to give us what we can’t get anywhere else–serious music (particularly serious music by Canada’s own stellar and emerging performers) couple with intelligent comment. The only good sign is that, after dumping Howard Dyck from Saturday AFternoon at the Opera, the CBC appears to have backtracked, and returned to more or less the status quo ante when it comes to comment and the opera quiz. Sunday Afternoon in Concert also isn’t bad.
As for Jian Gomeshi: sorry, he just doesn’t have enough depth. Several of the half hour programs (like AEIOU and Sometimes Y) as well Afghanada on Radio 1 are all right, though.
Mary
My posts:
http://marysoderstrom.blogspot.com/2007/09/give-us-saturday-afternoon-at-opera-not.html
and
http://marysoderstrom.blogspot.com/2007_11_01_archive.html
and
http:marysoderstrom.blogspot.com/2007/08/its-august-but-cbc-needs-some-letters.html
I too am listening to Radio Two less and less. This mixture of pop and classics is deadly and there is no classical programming, as defined by Mary – serious music coupled with intelligent comment- after three pm.
Most weeknights I listen to Radio Canada – Espace Musique – and on weekend mornings as well.
CBC programmers think that only old retired people listened to the Radio Two. So classical music is marginalized, morning and early afternoon – if you work it’s impossible to listen to radio in this time period – filling the primetime broadcasts with a range of pop and light fare on Canada live. In Performance was a fine programme much missed by me, as is After Hours.
I also hate the constant programming advertisements; intrusions that imply that CBC management believes I am stupid; that I can’t remember the schedule for 7 daily programmes and that I need these poorly written, clichéd-driven announcements every fifteen minutes, delivered by a voice – let’s call him bob – with such genuine insincerity and phoniness. What
mediocre and boring programming.
R.I.P In Performance, Two New Hours, Symphony Hall.
As I have mentioned before, I stopped listening to CBC Radio 2 when they changed the format.
So I switched to an American station I’d recently discovered, called VPR. They had lots of good classical music on, both recordings and concert programs. But now they have no more classical music.
Nowadays I find that my music listening experiences are mostly limited to attending live performances. I am fortunate to live in Montreal, a city that has many good concerts. What about classical-music-loving people who don’t live in or near cities that put on a lot of classical concerts?
I am furious at what is happening at Radio2. I want to hear beautiful classics, the kind your executive feels is ‘high-brow’ and appreciated by only those with graying hair.I think it is time you scanned the audiences at the symphony,the Opera, the freebie noon hour concerts at the Opera House and the wonderful young people at the Faculty of Music. You are doing these people a great disservice, not to mention the loyal listeners who have supported Radio 2 over the past years.
There is no other radio station in our area that caters to this audience. You could have had the opportunity, given an executive with vision, to create a station such as BBC Radio 3 or WNED’s public radio station. Instead you are trying to appeal to everyone and will end up appealing to no one.
I have never begrudged my tax dollars funding the CBC, but until an executive with vison appears on the scene, I will harbour this resentment.
Everywhere that music takes you? – Bah humug!
Thank you Stella. You have brought up the true responsibility of the CBC. That iis, amongst other things, to cater to Canada’s younger generation and to help nurture a love of truly great classical music. It is these young people who will make up the audiences of the future. Many thanks.
Will someone PLEASE get rid of the idiot who manages to ruin EVERY programme with his intrusive and nauseating promos. He sounds like a very bad used car salesman and his insistence on calling Radio 2 “Radio Tiew” is as irritationg as his “Everywhere music takes you”. The trouble is that Radio 2′s music does not take me anywhere. Not any more. “Canada Live” is a series of usyually very second-rate concerts with almost no classical content and programmes like “Weekender” (never very rewarding despite the best efforts of Peter) and “Studio Sparks” now seem to include a never-ending list of usually vary bad jazz singers and pseudo-folk people who do nothing to encourage an audience who wants to hear good classical music. Everything is beginning to sound like “Disc Drive”. Heaven help us. As for “In the Key of Charles”, well the less said the better. Oh how I miss “Symphony Hall” !
There is also too much talk. Last Sunday’s afternoon “Classical” concert programme made us wait ten minutes before hearing any music at all ! We got, instead, a series of never-ending drum rolls!. Why ?
Does anyone from the C.B.C> ever read these comments ?
Now available at a computer near you: classical music from Radio Canada!
Radio Canada’s Espace musique—the equivalent of CBC’s Radio 2—has begun promoting a new service on the Radio Can website called Espace classique which is billed as an alternative to Espace musique’s new, varied musical programming which, everyone agrees, shortchanges classical music.
Supposedly all you have to do is go to the Radio Can website, follow the links, and you’ll end up with a choice of three kinds of programming, called Zen, Vitamine, and Noël. At least that was what France Davoine, the programming director, told the press this week, but I was unable to get any further than a rather nice Deutche Grammaphon recording of Beethoven’s Fifth. Perhaps this is just a temporary glitch: the site was launched last September, but wasn’t publicized. The current media attention here is supposed to draw attention to a new feature: the site now offers the chance to download works recorded for Radio Can, beginning a free one of pianist Louis Lortie playing Liszt
But, as Christopher Huss notes in the Le Devoir, Espace musique is broadcasting less and less classical music. Is this an adequate substitute? I really don’t think so, either for listeners or for Canada’s fantastic serious music world.
Don’t be surprised if Radio 2 begins a similar service though. The dumbing down of music programming was first tried out at Radio Canada 18 months before the big changes last spring at CBC’s Radio 2.
Cheers
Mary
One of the greatest joys of living in Canada was the fine classical programming on Radio 2 – from early morning until late at night. I don’t need an alarm clock anymore, I just turn on Tom Allen’s silliness in the morning and flee the bedroom!! Pleasant dinner music in the evening??? With few exceptions the great announcers of the past must be turning in their graves at the “new and improved” Radio 2 line-up. Thank goodness for the internet and Radio NZ’s Concert program and BBC 3.
Is there anyone in the CBC management who has the intelligence to understand and change the disasterous 2007 CBC demise??
The “changes” at CBC2 came to the forefront again this weekend, as Canada’s contribution to the 12 hour live EuroRadio Christmas celebration turned out to be a pre-taped, smooth jazz fiasco. Read the mostly negative comments on the radio blog/promo page at cbc.ca. Radio2 continues to abuse what’s left of it’s faithful audience, who, contrary to age demographic studies, aren’t dead yet. Does management read this blog? if so, please bring back programs that have a purpose, shows that delve into a chosen topic with depth and expertise. Chatty hosts playing music at random is not a substitute for quality programming.
Another day tuning out CBC Radio2. When the changes were first announced it was going to be “more music, less talk”. Whatever happened to that idea? Not only are there more interviews and just palin talking but the non stop promos with the “voice” are driving me up the wall. As soon as that starts I turn off the radio. In the “key of Charles” is a venue for someome who thinks that the world cares about his thoughts. Does anyone? Sundays are now the time to enjoy CDs as most of Radio 2 is irritating i.e. Charles or boring 12 – 1.00. Didn’t we already hear Emmanuel Ax at least twice on Eric Friesen’s show? Again – more talk. I also fail to understand why you think that someone who likes classical music will want to hear it interspersed with rock and roll, country and/or pop music. And vice versa for fans of those genres. In the end no one is happy and we all turn off. Unfortunately we do not have access to other classical stations and so are listening more nad more to our CD collection. My more fortunate friends in the Toronto area have already moved to other stations. I do wonder if you gained as many new listeners as you undoubtedly lost.
I am a classical/jazz afficianado that finds myself completely in sync with the general comments here. Prior to the new changes, the programming was good and the timing of the shows well placed (except for radio3 – what audience is that geared towards???). I cannot begin to express the negatives with the changes – the introduction of “Tonic” and the cancellation of “music for a while” – wasn’t “After hours” already well placed in the schedule? Going from Disc Drive to Tonic was initially a bit jarring, but the programming on disc drive has been watered down from what it once was so unfortunately it is less so now. At least Jurgen carries the program. Could “Tonic” be moved to a more appropriate, later hour in conjunction with “After Hours”? While some of “Tonic” hits the mark, going from acoustic or correctly recorded jazz to anything with the bass boost (60-120 hz or so) is also jarring. One of the best things on “Tonic” so far is a rerun of a tribute to Oscar Peterson produced over a decade ago. Losing “Symphony Hall” is a travesty, and “Key of Charles”, although occasionally somewhat entertaining, does nothing for my sundays where “Choral concert” once was – moving “Choral” earlier means that few will hear it, and we’re stuck with a stream-of-consciousness program instead. I enjoyed the concerto according to … series since the listener could actually learn something, but now these are on rerun status – where is new educational material for the novice and intellectual listener? “Canada live” alienates most of the classical audience you once had, and caters to the status quo more than I can stand. There are so many things to say that I can only sum it up this way – the less I listen to the CBC2 the more I like my CD player – with all the great CD’s that I have purchased over the years thanks to great programming in days gone by.
I am using more and more the classical music available via my cable TV – “Galaxie” and “Maxtrax” because of the dumbing down of Radio 2 that so many have referred to. The current set up of Radio 2 is not at all new – it reminds me of the old BBC “light programme” which of course was abandoned a long time ago. Please oh please get rid of that sickly sweet, inarticulate promo guy. In television, the policy is to have channels that are more and more directed to select audiences. If that makes sense, why is CBC Radio 2 trying to appeal to everyone and evidently pleasing almost no-one.
I like Beethoven, Sibelius, Sinatra, New Orleans Jazz and Latin American Dance but not all together.
And yes please bring back Danielle Charboneau – we misss her.
Hey, how come this great theory of diversity in music programming doesn’t work both ways? I’m still waiting for Tonic to play the Elmer Iseler Singers, or Radio3 to feature Bruckner’s 7th! The most repeated comments on the CBC2 blogsite are requests for podcasts of new programs. The new audience you are trying to cater to won’t sit down next to a radio! CBC2 was a ratings success before last March; why not restore it, and serve your new listeners in new ways?
An on-line petition of protest to changes to Radio Two can be found at http://www.radio2forum.ca, and has 1,053 signatories as of Jan. 9, 2008. Letters to CBC management and responses are posted. PUT YOUR OBJECTIONS DIRECT TO THOSE IN CHARGE! New interim executive director in charge of English programming (Radio Two) is now Jennifer McGuire, jennifer_mcguire@cbc.ca, who was a member of the team who decided Radio Two needed a face lift. Apparently their “study” which supposedly suveyed audience opinon only tapped just over 2,000 people, totally at random, not targeting the real Radio Two audience at all! In a response to my correspondence, she seems to be hanging tough behind the “findings” of the team. Letters of objection to her should go to CBC, Box 500, Station A, Toronto M5W 1E6, and should be copied to new President and CEO Hubert Lacroix, hubert_lacroix@cbc.ca, and to Board of Directors Chair Timothy Casgrain, both at the CBC Ottawa address: CBC, Box 3220, Station C, Ottawa K1Y 1E4. A list of the Board of Directors is on the CBC corporate website found at http://www.cbc.ca, link at the bottom of page one.
there’s much to complain about in the new schedule. (eg: Brave New Waves replaced by what’s essentially muzak?? what the hell??)
But those of you who are complaining that there isn’t enough classical, you should know that management is simply tuning you out. One of the main motivations behind the schedule change was to have less classical programming. It’s simply too niche to justify an entire network anymore.
here’s a place to collectively lodge dissent against the programming decisions at radio two. whether you hate the loss of a fabulous service to pop music, the pretentiousness of the intrusive and stupid commercials – there’s a host of reasons – go to this sight and sign a petition. Stop the pop on radio TWO:
http://www.radio2forum.ca
Who says, amanda? Ratings were consistently strong…and if you miss Brave New Waves, you know CBC2 wasn’t exclusively classical anyway. Let’s hope the new CBC President Lacroix will sit down with interim programming director McGuire and have a little chat…
more praise for radio two. this time in the literary review of canada, from w.j keith – prof. emeritus of English – U. of Toronto in an excveptional review of a book about Robert Weaver’s contribution to canadian lit and the cbc.
"…when this book arrived, i was listeneing to classical music on CBC’s officially commercial-free Radio Two. As I was leafing through the book… the program was interrupted by a plug for one of its later features that day that ranked with the most nauseating ads on local pop stations. Now, alas, this is a regular occurrence.
There was a time when the CBC saw its function to be the education and elevation of public taste. Not any more; now it seems all too eager to adapt itself to the more vulgar elements in its audience. This trend has gotten decidely worse since its new policies were instituted some nine months ago."