The popular technology show Search Engine has not been renewed by CBC Radio. The host, Jesse Brown, will appear on other CBC Radio and TV programs talking about the same kinds of stories. The show’s blog and podcast will continue but, after I asked him for comment, as Jesse wrote: “Will be very different, since I will no longer be making the show with a team.”
“Since announcing this news, the passionate response from Search Engine listeners has been incredibly heartening. From the blogs to Facebook to the Globe and Mail, people we never even knew were listening have stepped up to let us know how much they care about the show.”
“But,” Jesse said, “Mixed in with the appreciation is a certain amount of anger towards the CBC..”
“Search Engine listeners are killer smart, and many have pointed out that whatever new shape the show takes, it’s losing a lot of resources. I won’t pretend that I can single-handedly make up for the loss of my capable and creative producers. The Search Engine that listeners know- the crafted half-hour newsmagazine - is gone. But in its place I’m hoping to bring our thousands of subscribers something new, something a bit more off-the-cuff and raw. And I hope, through my appearances on other shows, I’ll be able to bring some much-needed mainstream attention to the online issues our listeners care passionately about.”
CBC Radio’s other national technology program is Spark, hosted by Nora Young.
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LOVE Search Engine, but I never listened to it on radio, just as the Podcast. Sorry to hear that Jesse will be on a skeleton crew, but I’ll keep subscribing to the podcast & listening!
This sounds an awful lot like the short-lived suggestion that Brave New Waves was going to live on as a podcast.
How can something “live on” if you dump the staff and cut all the money?
I’m not impressed with the CBC because of this decision. Search Engine was a great show.
this is a bad decision..
Search engine was a great show and it even got some friends of mine who never listened to CBC to do so.
This always happens.. CBC starts to gain traction with the younger and/or techsavvy audience and them dumps them out on the street.
I’m still reeling from this decision. In what universe does it make sense to turn “award-winning” and “most popular” into a cancellation? Isn’t every broadcaster’s dream to find a show that has both of these qualities?
This is the only CBC show my wife and I make an effort to listen to (we’re 22 and 26). It was a very relevent show that succesfully mirrored the internet’s mix of absurd quirk and appropriate concern. I have friends who never knew that copyright legislation and net neutrality were issues at all until they listened to Search Engine. Get rid of it and I’m forced to rejoin the ranks of those who view CBC as an anachronistic tax dollar sinkhole.
The only explanations for this decision are stupidity or conspiracy. If cash is really the issue, dump Tapestry or the whole TV thing (unless it goes all Canadian).
So WHO exactly made the decision to break apart CBC Search Engine?… Name and number please :p
Long live the Luddite’s,
What a drag. Search Engine is great. Prentice’s revenge perhaps (kidding)?
I’m extremely unhappy to hear this news.
For those interested in trying to save the show, or at least direct their dissatisfaction to the CBC, there’s a Facebook group dedicated to it, and here [http://kempton.wordpress.com/2008/06/19/cbc-search-engine-cancelled/] is a page with some helpful advice on making your views known to CBC.
I hope in good faith the CBC will revise this truly awful decision.
This is nonsense, of course, and they said the same thing about _Movin’ On_. Seen a lot of crip stories on the Corpse since then? I didn’t think so.
The difference is that “the Internet” is more important, so they’ll wheel the tall, affable Jesse Brown out from time to time (maybe he’ll wear the linen suit) to give some gloss of propriety to canning the show. But if there were really enough room in the general service to cover the Internet (or disabled people or any other topic), then we wouldn’t have shows just on those topics. QED.
This show was a gem and I introduced many international friends (in the US and Europe) to it who became addicted. In the case of some of the US friends, they claimed to have even changed their attitude about the concept of publicly-funded radio to a more positive view as a result of Search Engine. The inevitable decrease in quality with reduced resources may reverse all of that.
I seem to recall at one point that Search Engine was the most popular of the CBC podcasts with US subscribers, which didn’t surprise me at all.
I expect more from the CBC - like relevant programming. And when the the CBC gets it right — I expect them not to kill good ideas. Remember Venture?
Ratings are irrelevant. Give us something no one else does — otherwise we’ll all be listening to NPR… ever heard the Bryan Park Project? Hint hint.
I don’t understand the decision, but then I’m just a listener, and probably in the wrong demographic subgroup. Sigh.
Leave it to the CBC to ignore the global social revolution that is the internet. So much for trying to be “relevant”!
I suppose I can see how there was a certain degree of perceived duplication of programming re: Search Engine and Spark…but I do wonder if this was the best solution.
I never heard Search Engine on the radio either (I’m 99% CBC podcasts now). CBC should make Search Engine a weekly podcast show…
Make it the flagship show for the Canadian Podcasting Corporation!
Search Engine must live!
I just don’t get it. Have the bean-counters who have spent so much time ruining private radio now moved on to the CBC? Rule #1 is: You can’t get something for nothing. Now Jesse has to “do it all” by himself? The CBC has officially relegated him to the status of “guy with a blog.”
http://www.librarianactivist.org summed things up best: “CBC’s radio show Search Engine is the most downloaded show on the CBC website in the News and Current Affairs section. It has won awards in the US and has a large following on Facebook and on their own website. It’s covered issues like Net Neutrality and Copyright, with the last show covering an interview with Minister of Industry Jim Prentice on Bill C-61.
What does the CBC do in the face of such success?
They cancel the show.”
Good call, when something works dump it. One less reason to listen to the CBC, not that I listened much before. Back to the Guardian iTunes page for tech podcasts for me.
Search Engine was flawed but it had a lot going for it.
The problem is that CBC Radio seems to understand itself less and less these days, and has lost sight of what it’s primary function is to Canadians. It’s become a mosaic of expensive mini-shows thrown against the wall to see what sticks, instead of simply extending the basic format that everyone enjoys - 5 hours or more of whatever interests Shelahg Rogers, such as talking with Jesse Brown. You don’t need ten different hosts in a day, just one good one.
As an American fan of Search Engine, I’m really sad to see it go.
Jesse Brown presents the best radio tech coverage that I’ve ever heard. Period.
I don’t get the CBC creating all these new shows only to cancel them after less than a season. Why put all that money and time into developing something only to cut it before it has a chance to establish itself? I’m thinking a bit of jPod here (which was silly but I still liked it). But Search Engine was pretty popular as a podcast, wasn’t it? Downloaded tons. And it was only going to get *more* popular, so why cut it off?
The CBC depresses me these days.
Since Search Engine and Spark seemed to have pretty much the same mandate, why not just combine them into one great one hour show replacing Go?
John W has a great point. I would love to see Spark and Search Engine combined into one hour of technology related programming.
Interesting new CBC-speak:
“[yourshowname] to live on, but not as a scheduled show”
Is that in the new style guide ?
um, isn’t it easier (and truthful) to say ‘cancelled’ ?
-robert, living on in Vancouver
It’s a shame to hear Search Engine will be disappearing from the air waves. I first heard it a little over a month ago while working from home with R1 streaming. I was surprised at hear the depth of conversation covered and have enjoyed listening to it since - especially the coverage of Minister Prentice’s shenanigans with C-61. I can only hope CBC will broaden its discussion of socio-techno-economic issues in other programs to fill the gap.
Matthew - Vancouver, BC.
Very sad to see CBC canceled Search Engine.
I know Jesse will try his best. But no matter how hard he tries, he is not super human and Jesse alone can’t possibly replace the team of researchers and reporters that work diligently and collectively on making a great show every week.
I have blogged about this tragedy for our digital democracy. The Saving CBC’s Search Engine Facebook group has now ~700 members and growing. Some listeners are calling the CBC audience relations, and some even call the Director of programming (radio) to express our views and sadness (and deep disappointment).
If we love the show, sometime we have to fight the (almost) impossible fight. Good luck to us all.
P.S. Now, no one thought the Berlin wall would fall the way it did, right?