Listeners Vote Overwhelmingly in Favour
of All-Canadian Radio 3
MONDAY UPDATE: The results are in. Radio 3 listeners have voted 77% to 23% in favor of a 100% all Canadian CBC Radio 3.
For the last few days a debate was raging over at CBC Radio 3 about how much non-Canadian content should be on the “air” at their single surviving station. As John Paolozzi wrote on the Radio 3 blog “Currently we have two separate radio stations. One web. One satellite. Due to budget cuts we will merge the two stations into one on Monday, June 15th.”
The web station currently features a 100% Canadian mix, whereas the satellite feed is an 85% Canadian 15% international mix.
The question is… which path do we follow? Do we include some international music on our web stream, or do we change our satellite station to 100% Canadian?
However as the North by East West blog explains, this isn’t a final decision, but while be taken into consideration by the Radio 3 management.
Wether it’s final decision or not, you have to admire the way they make decisions over there.
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If Radio 3 really wanted to make a relevant change they would move away from having such a pre-programmed playlist style of programming.
So much Canadian music is not heard on Radio 3 that falls outside of “big indie” in Canada because the playlists are pre-programmed by a small group in Vancouver, telling programmers and hosts what should and shouldn’t be played.
Even “The Top 30″ is not based some measurable benchmark, like plays or listener response, it is again just randomly choosen by one guy every week.
If you compare the playlists / charts of Radio 3 compared to campus radio, it is easy to tell Campus Radio is a more relevant example of emerging music in Canada.
On campus radio there are countless examples of independent bands that have charted nationally because radio programmers across the country have genuinely been passionate about the music.
There are lots of examples of bands that do really well on campus radio that never get substantial (or any) airplay on Radio 3, because the playlist is programmed by such a small group in one geographic location.
It is a such a top down CBC style bureaucratic way to promote culture and it is really doesn’t do a good job of truly fulfilling its mandate.
If they changed that model, and became more of hybrid of what they are now with the grassroots style of campus radio, this International vs. Canadian debate wouldn’t be such big issue.
As person that is pretty heavily involved in independent music on a couple of different fronts and a CBCer, it is always pretty frustrating thinking about what Radio 3 could be, but isn’t. Everytime I hear about the background of music programming at CBC, I really cringe, and know there will be no hope for it until 10-20 year vets of the CBC move on and let in new and fresh ideas of thinking.
also, their insufferable chirpiness gives me a migraine.
That’s my biggest issue with 95% of the music played on radio one and three – it’s almost exclusively indie/folk music – there’s soooo much more out there!
I used to wake up every morning to CBC Radio 3 but obviously can’t anymore. I think it has so much potential but needs to change it up a bit. I do love indie music but your right anon, there is so much more out there.
“That’s my biggest issue with 95% of the music played on radio one and three – it’s almost exclusively indie/folk music – there’s soooo much more out there!”
What Radio 3 are you listening to? Exclusively (even almost) indie/folk music? Of course it’s “indie” music, but folk is hardly even close to describing the music I hear on Radio3.
So will this be binding on the insufferably smarmy Q presenter and we can ignore international (read U.S., U.K. etc.) guests from now on?
No. Q is on Radio One.
What is ‘Canadian’ music? Who gives a shit where musicians are from anyways?
Just play some music that you think we might like. Is that so hard?
I adore much Canadian music, but don’t agree with an “all Canadian” service. Music does have its regional and national quirks which should be celebrated, but to only feature one country’s music comes off as a bit “nationalistic” and I’d think creepy to some of those very same mucisians that would love to hear their craft featured alongside international contemporaries. Of course, Radio 3 should be majority Canadian (maybe even 75%), but not 100%.
And yes, there’s some room too to feature a wider array of music on Radio 3 too, particularly electronic music.