The changes to CBC Radio continue. CBC will remove Sound Advice from the schedule and replace it with a second hour of Inside the Music, starting April 5.
As part of that change, Sound Advice host Rick Phillips will be leaving the CBC, after 30 years with us. His last day will be March 29.
Rick Phillips began his career as a freelance music program producer at CBC Montreal in the late 1970s. That first gig led to subsequent assignments in Edmonton, Calgary and finally Toronto with such programs as RSVP, A Little Night Music, Stereo Morning and Arts National. As the area executive producer in Toronto, Phillips was intimately involved in the planning and design of the Canadian Broadcasting Centre, including Glenn Gould Studio. Since 1994, he has been the host and producer of the popular Sound Advice.
Phillips plans to become more involved in teaching, writing, webcasts and hosting tours in the growing field of adult and continuing education.
|
Email This Post |
| Changes to CBC Radio Two, Personalities, Sound Advice |
About time - that was probably one of the most negative programming i’ve ever heard.
Classy and smart and a great guy. Five stars.
Best of luck Rick and if you want to hook up and make some magic outside the corps, drop me line !
-robert ouimet in vancouver
I’ll miss Sound Advice, and Rick Phillips. He’s been both entertaining and instructive.
And another great CBC2 show bites the dust… this is all sad news coming from our national broadcaster. Soon public radio will bite the dust as our only source of classical music will be coming from satellite radio. Is this really what the people in Corporate CBC want???
Gaaah! So many changes… all too fast.
I have to express some concern for the fact that the cancellation of Sound Advice comes during a wave of cuts to classical music programming on the CBC. For Calgarians such as myself there is no alternative classical music station: it’s the CBC or nothing. The classical music industry as a whole faces significant difficulties in attracting new listeners as it is. When those who are not already classical music lovers are unable to easily access classical music, how will they be inspired to attend live performances? How much harder will it become for Alberta’s orchestras, choirs and chamber ensembles to attract patrons when those potential patrons do not have a means of coming to know and love classical music?
This is distressing. The continuing gut and dumbing down of CBC. As faithful listener for many years… one more reason to NOT listen to CBC.
CBC is slowly cutting all the radio shows I actually listen to. What use is a government run radio/tv network if it doesn’t help to promote/preserve a countries culture? What is CBC’s mandate anyways?
All the best to Rick!
But surely this doesn’t mean that you will be decreasing classical music offered on the CBC - tell me it isn’t so. Do your homework — there is a new generation coming with very diverse tastes. Don’t patronize them by thinking that they don’t ‘get’ the classics.
Why, oh why are you cancelling Sound Advice? I listen to Rick’s program faithfully, then decide which cds I’m going to buy to add to my collection. He brings my attention to music I didn’t know was out there. If you continue with all your programming changes, we’ll never learn where the real music is being made.
Not exactly a surprise.
Best of luck to CBC Radio 2 in their continuing transition to an easy listening format. Hope you actually find an audience to replace the one you’ve alienated.
Guess I’d better run out and buy that $300 web radio, so I can get my classical music fix elsewhere.
Just a sign of the downward spiral of the CBC. This was the only show where a Canadian classical artist can be reviewed nationally. It is tragic.
Save Classical Music at the CBC!
So sorry to see so much of the quality programming of Radio Two disappear and the extraordinarily knowlegeable hosts gone from the air waves. Thanks for many years of loyal service….and CBC…what are you thinking?
I learned so much from your commentary Rick on the merits of various recordings. I often followed your guidance and will miss that very much.
Rick,
I’m sorry to see you leave but I certainly can understand after so many years….I’m a recent (within the last 3 or 4 years)
convert to your program and found it enlightening, entertaining, and educational…Thanks for helping add excellent music to my CD collection and I wish you much success in your future endeavors. Council Cargle
I love this show. I don’t understand why CBC is dropping all the shows we have left of good classical music. Do Canadians not want classical music anymore? I play in a Canadian Orchestra and find great pleasure in listening to these great classical shows!
Rick Phillips heaped praises when he felt it was warranted and likewise didn’t spare his disdain for lesser recordings. It wouldn’t be fun to be on the receiving end, but the role of the critic is to challenge, educate, and sometimes contest.
Though I didn’t always agree with him, I appreciated the insight he tried to bring to evaluating the overwhelming selection of music recordings out there. If that doesn’t fit the mandate of a national public broadcaster, then I don’t know what does.
A real shame to see the program go.
Good luck Rick. This show was one of the best shows going, and its departure, along with the several other shows being cut, is disturbing. May I just ask, as a twentysomething listener, to what imaginary demographic the CBC is attempting to appeal? And why? Who wants to hear a CanCon Songwriter show? Or watered-down world beat hip-hop? If I wanted that, I’d listen to Jian Ghomeshi. Do the head honchos at CBC think that young people will tune in to that? Why would they stop listening to the top-end drivel on top 40 stations for second rate drivel on CBC? Where else are we going to hear classical music? And I’m not talking Eine Kleine Nachtmusik, how about Shostakovich’s centenary celebration? I think Tom Allen’s show that day was one of the best programmes I’ve ever heard. How are young people like me going to be exposed to that sort of thing? I was brought up on the Rolling Stones and Bob Dylan; I listen to anything from Ornette Coleman to Sufjan Stevens to Toots and the Maytals; I love hearing new music. My point is: I am not some classical music student. I just don’t need the CBC to pander to what they imagine to be my tastes. Classical music may appeal to a small portion of the population compared to Kanye West, but its cultural value is enormous. Next would you have us throw out Shakespeare just because some Ipsos Reid poll tells you that the young people prefer Lost?
Yet another nail in the coffin of what was once a great radio station. Rick presented his opinions on classical music in a clear, intelligent, articulate and entertaining manner. So what if you didn’t always agree with him?
Keep this excellent program please!!!!!
I am deeply saddened to see the amount of quality classical music programming at the CBC that is set to be axed in the near future. Weekday mornings without Tom Allen don’t bear thinking about, and losing Jurgen Goth and Rick Phillips will be a tragic loss to listeners everywhere. Please, PLEASE, I urge the CBC to replace these excellent shows with new *classical* music programming that we *classical* music lovers can continue to enjoy!
It saddens me that content is being sacrificed for popularity, that quality is being substituted with the noisy dribble on other radio stations. Classical music is not just a type of music, but an atmosphere, a values, a respect for the pursuit of music and the promotion of today’s struggling musicians. All classical music fans understand this, CBC has been our home for so long. These recent program cuts are nothing more than the byproduct of an arbitrary program for profit to increase viewers instead of retaining loyal listeners. CBC is not just a station, it’s a community and I feel that the current direction that "our" community is taking has been poorly decided.
Your ever faithful musician,
James Devine
Please, please, PLEASE: no cuts to the classical music on Radio 2!!! I am a 23 year old student, and I don’t think I’d differ much from my peers by saying that I would much rather hear the classical programming than the proposed contemporary programming. And not only do we need this unique, beautiful music, but we also need INFORMED hosts to enlighten our listening. Please take our pleas into consideration.
Keep this and all the classical music programming at CBC. Changes don’t have to be cuts and removals! Revamp without dumbing down.
Canada’s orchestras and classical musicians (and music schools) need the CBC to help their careers and share their music. With very few large art music markets nationally (perhaps relegated to one or two centres / province ) we risk damaging our ability to share our new or astounding talent without the interruption and interpretation of record companies.
Keep it Canadian. Leave our classical programming!
Please, please, please listen when we as the listeners are telling you that we appreciate Classical Music on CBC and want it to stay.
There used to be one radio station to listen to in Canada and soon there will be none. What is CBC thinking? They are ruining their offering by withdrawing shows like Music for a While, Studio Sparks and Sound Advice. We will simply stop listneing and no one will replace us. It is pure and simple dumbing down when the experience of classical music stations around the world in the past 20 years has shown that the opposite trend is what works. Shame on the CBC
I’m a teenager and I have listened to classical music all my life. I’m also a lover of folk music and many other styles. I’m appalled at the quality of most radio stations’ music programming and I wish that CBC wasn’t so quick to fall…
WHAT!?? They’re cutting sound advice? That’s such a good program, I always listen to that before Saturday afternoon at the opera, and it’s really useful for people like me who buy classical music recordings. Stop cutting the classical programming, or I’ll stop listening.
CBC has always been synonymous with class and culture. Please don’t ruin years of wonderful cultural legacy, please let our children have a chance to be brought up with good taste and elegance.
Goodbye Radio 2…you’ve lost me forever.
It began with the loss of Radio 3 on Saturday nights, then Brave New Waves, then Music for a While. I fully expect Saturday Afternoon at the Opera to disappear next. This bland, MOR pablum of programming that is put in the place of quality shows is unlistenable to me. The only show I listen to in the week is Music and Company, and now it’s going. I have a job, so I can’t listen to classical music between 10 and 3.
So sad to see a great institution brought down so far.
I want to make it clear to the "big Brass" at the CBC that they are making yet another very poor decision. The technological world around us is changing, and the radio is on its way into the history books. But instead of fighting for and promoting intelligent and stimulating programming in the new mediums that are presenting themselves in the wake of radio, the CBC would rather roll over and suffer a slow agonizing death. How wonderfully pitiful! We might as well start writing its eulogy this very moment. Good riddance!
I’m extremely disappointed to hear of all the cuts to CBC Radio programming. I listen to CBC Radio mainly for its classical music programming and the intelligent commentary. Already over the past few years, it’s distressed me that CBC has turned to some very unusual contemporary music in the late evenings. There has to be a place where classical music lovers can turn for their fix of music genre and CBC Radio was always that place. I’m disappointed with the recent decisions to do away with so many great programs.
Rick’s show was a vital tool for classical music education in Canada, demonstrating the wide spectrum of choice and taste available in the field, and how Canadian artists measure up. It encouraged people to listen more closely to the rest of Radio 2’s programming, and it undoubtedly sold CDs and lots of them. Its demise is a clear signal that the CBC is no longer interested in the future of classical music in Canada, and would rather promote other genres, like… ooh, light contemporary. That could really use a boost about now.
The CBC needs to defend its well-earned position as a serious broadcaster. If it does not in this case, and cuts to music broadcasting are allowed to continue, I would suggest that Glenn Gould’s statue be moved to a more worthy position - outside Roy Thomson Hall, perhaps.
I don’t like all the sudden changes in programming. The axing of quality programs like, "Sound Advice" and the increasing of Radio Two’s desire to be poppier leaves the intellectual listener in the dust.
Radio 2 wakes me up in the morning and is on all day (until Tonic comes on) while I study and work on papers. Please don’t take away my only source of classical music on the radio! First Emmerdale is taken away from me, and now this. CBC seems to be a constant source of disappointment these days.
As a child, there was not a moment when our house wasn’t filled with either the classical music of CBC FM or live classical music, as all three of us children pursued the piano as our primary instrument. We grew up on such wonderful programs as Disc Drive, Howard Dyck’s Sunday morning broadcasts and Sound Advice. I am one of those who is part of your youthful demographic. I am saddened and dismayed to learn that your future programming goals do not appear to reflect your previous standards of intelligent, thoughtful, cultured programming. I feel strongly that the savvy and sophisticated programs I grew up hearing contributed to my overall development as a classical musician. As a musician, I strive daily to create interest for an art form that is so important for the development of humanity but that increasingly finds less and less of an audience. A choice to dumb down your radio programs deprives Canadians everywhere of listening opportunities that could well shape their lives as they did mine. I am now an occasionally featured artist on those CBC programs that I once enjoyed. I hope that you will consider the very real impact your choices are making on millions of listeners.
This is tragic! CBC is just going downhill faster and faster. CBC used to be something that made me happy to be Canadian, with cultured, interesting programming and commitment to the Canadian arts community, but now all I see is one more profit hound just like any other media network. For shame!
My question is, how does offering substandard "alternative and contemporary" programming appeal to a wider audience than does interesting and diverse classical music coupled with intelligent commentary?
Well, I’m glad to see the comments have been reopened, and a deadline for comment posted. It was quite dismaying yesterday to find that at only 36 comments you already thought you had a reasonable sampling. I can’t imagine what is possessing you folks with the wholesale gutting of classical programming on Radio2. You are the only Canadian source for this type of programming, you have a loyal following, both here and abroad. It just doesn’t make sense. I won’t repeat what other posters have said, but certainly do agree with them as to the educational value and the care of soul. I am shocked, appalled, disheartened, dismayed…
@fran: Thanks. Yep, poor choice of words on my part. I blame switching to decaf.
However, if you want to guarantee your comments about CBC Radio Two will be heard by senior management, you are probably posting in the wrong place.
It’s more effective to send your feedback through http://www.cbc.ca/contact/ since that’s where the executives’ weekly audience-reaction report comes from.
Adding my voice to those who are distressed by the so-called "gutting" of classical music offerings on CBC2. I don’t think that I have the words to express how disturbing I believe this trend to be, and how frustrated I am that CBC seems to believe that classical music is inaccessible, narrow, singular, unvaried, uninteresting, out of touch etc when so much of the current fantastic programming has done so much to alleviate that reputation.
For shame.
I just found out about the changes in the works for CBC Two and I couldn’t be more disappointed!
I have always relied on CBC Two to be there with fantastic classical music, jazz and blues. The hosts are intelligent and engaging to listen to, and they often bring some amazing music to the forefront where it might not otherwise be heard.
Don’t take away the last bastion of culture on the airwaves!
Also, I think for the CBC to say the show is to "sign off" is disingenuous. They canned it. Have the courage of your misguided convictions and say, "We canned it".
I am also very concerned about the recent decision to move away from classical and towards pop music at the CBC. I have always listened to the CBC because it is the only place to find quality classical and choral music in Vancouver. Moreover, I have always taken great national pride in having a media outlet like CBC has continued to provide quality programming in the face of the "dumbing down" of popular culture. I am horrified to see that my faith has been misplaced.
We had a tradition at my parents house. When Sound Advice would come on the air, someone would turn to someone else and say "It’s your turn", which would put on them the chore of walking over to the radio to turn it off.
CBC Radio was pervasive in our house, but this was one exception we all agreed was not to be listened to.
I am so disheartened to hear of cuts to programming on CBC Radio2. I could always depend on CBC for intelligent, cultured and engaging broadcasting but with all the changes that continue, I am not so sure. This is very disappointing and an absolute shame.
I feel that upcoming changes in CBC Radio 2 programing go against their mandate and against the Broadcast Act. I urge all people with the power to make such decisions to reconsider.
It is extremely disappointing that CBC continues to gut itself. There are very few alternatives left for anyone that wants to listen to music that is far more intelligent and passionate than the usual Top 40 and Lite Rock garbage that permeates the airwaves. What is CBC’s mandate these days? It’s difficult to know what to expect, as a national government-run station cuts local programming, news, and its main form of music. What will be left?
I’m 35 and have listened to CBC for the past 20 years. I haven’t listened to CBC2 since Brave New Waves was cancelled and that was the only show I listened to.
I can understand how the classical/jazz fans feel about the changes on CBC2 but I don’t care. Go to the library and borrow a CD.
My solution: shut down CBC2, simulcast all local CBC AM stations on FM and use the Sheilagh/Gomeshi timeslots for pop/jazz/classical whatevever.
The CBC doesn’t have to be all things to all people 24×7. Enough pandering to 5% of the listeners 100% of the time.
The CBC Ombudsman has a higher opinion of your blog than you do, Tod! Asked whether his office could help open a line of communication between disgruntled listeners and seemingly unaccountable Radio2 management, he snidely assured me that it "seems rather obvious that Inside the CBC provides a direct method of
making views known to CBC management." So they are hanging on your every word!
The radio waves that permeate the air in Vancouver are filled with dozens of stations showcasing dozens of musical styles. But the one thing that unifies them is that they are all commercially viable - that is they cater to the demand of the market, which is also known as the lowest common denominator. As far as I understand the mission of CBC - and all government sponsored broadcasting - is to create a space safe from the swaying tide of popular market pressures - a place where music that replaces broad commercial appeal with cultural significance can thrive. After all, if we judged all art on it’s mass appeal, I doubt that we would have much place in our lives for the majority of the cultural repertoire that has served our civilization for centuries. How many people read Homer and appreciate Titian?
Yes, soft jazz, adult pop and a sprinkling of easy-listening classical (heaven forbid someone has to suffer through Shostakovich or Mahler) makes for a great station. and I am sure there are people out there who would enjoy this. The trouble is that there are plenty of stations out there that indulge in such folly. And there are none that have the kind of programming that CBC2 does. Why leave a valuable niche to enter an already diluted market? Why abandon a loyal audience to pursue some pie-in-the-sky demographic who is already well-catered?
Believe it or not, there are people out there who enjoy classical and jazz, outside of the boundaries of Diana Krall and Ode to Joy. And not all these people are confined to geriatric homes. The changes to CBC are made to cater to a new demographic. What sort? There "Save Classical Music at CBC2" is one of the fastest growing Facebook groups. Is such support not enough to show that the 20-30 demographic cares about CBC2 as it is?
I’m concerned and saddened to hear of the recent cuts to quality programming at CBC Radio 2. Like many others, I rely upon CBC for an alternative to the parade of mainstream stations that permeate the airwaves, each so disturbingly similar to the next. I love CBC for its variety and daring. These cuts diminish the CBC, alienating a large, loyal audience in the process.
@MikeI’d like to know where you see the requirement to play 18 hours of classical music a day in the CBC mandate? If anything, the mandate to be "distinctively Canadian" and to "reflect the multicultural and multiracial nature of Canada" would seem to call for more rather than less diversity. I don’t know that the changes at Radio 2 will make it perfect, but I don’t see how an all-classical music station (with other genres ghettoized in late-night spots) meets the spirit of the mandate.The 1991 Broadcasting Act states that…"…the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, as the national public broadcaster, should provide radio and television services incorporating a wide range of programming that informs, enlightens and entertains;…the programming provided by the Corporation should:be predominantly and distinctively Canadian,reflect Canada and its regions to national and regional audiences, while serving the special needs of those regions,actively contribute to the flow and exchange of cultural expression,be in English and in French, reflecting the different needs and circumstances of each official language community, including the particular needs and circumstances of English and French linguistic minorities,strive to be of equivalent quality in English and French,contribute to shared national consciousness and identity,be made available throughout Canada by the most appropriate and efficient means and as resources become available for the purpose, andreflect the multicultural and multiracial nature of Canada."
I love the Rick Phillips program!!!!!
I cannot believe what the CBC is doing. I’m trying to find ways to improve the signal I receive from WNED (NPR in the US). If there was a way of cutting off my tax dollars that goes to the CBC so that I could redirect it to NPR I would gladly do it.
To those responsible for the changes sweeping through CBC radio, hang your heads in shame. I am so completely irate, I don’t feel I can adequately express myself in a polite manner. Be assured that every critical comment that I feel I need to make has been so done by others in, what would be more eloquent words than mine, here:
http://www.insidethecbc.com/category/platforms/radio2CBC radio has always been the bastion of intellect on Canadian airwaves, a place for music lovers to escape the monotonous programming and endless advertising presented by the majority of radio stations broadcasting in Canada. The proposed changes will leave the entire current audience of CBC radio programming sour and cause them to seek alternative stations. Congratulations, CBC, on the complete alienation of your audience, and enjoy your seemingly desired low ratings.
I’m genuinely confused as to why the CBC has decided to axe its classical music programming. Without shows such as Studio Sparks, how can Canadian artists gain visibility and expand their audiences? I continue to tune in from abroad in an effort to stay in touch with the Canadian arts community (and to listen to some fantastic music), and assure you that my interest in this same community was stimulated in large part by the CBC. You provide a vital service, and I can’t tell you how upset the thought of losing these programmes makes me. I’m certainly curious to know how such decisions uphold the CBC’s commitment to both artists and audiences across the country - and, indeed, the many individuals who tune in from abroad to benefit from the unique and refreshing support that the CBC has traditionally provided to classical music. I’m a 24 year old male, and assure you that I know many others twenty-somethings who tune into CBC Radio 2 on a regular basis. The market for these shows isn’t dying, but if you cut them and reduce access to quality programming, I fear you may have a deleterious effect upon the future of Canadian culture - in all the glory of its conceptual ambiguity.
I am terribly saddened by the loss of such fine programming on Radio 2. I’m an 18 year old male, and Disc Drive and Studio Sparks were two of the few programs I’d listen to regularly. It’s a shame to lose them.
The CBC was for me, a new immigrant to Canada from the US, yet another improvement in my ‘quality of life’. Instead of the increasingly dumbed-down yammering of NPR (punctuated with endless ‘pledge drives) and ’snob radio’ of light classics and baroque wallpaper from the odd commercial classical station, I could brag to my friends back in the US about how intelligent, challenging and interesting the programming on CBC2 was.
In particular, ‘Music and Company’ with Tom Allen, from 6 to 9, was a highlight of both waking up and my morning commute.
I say all of this in the past tense. Whoever has taken over this institution does not get it, and I fear, never will. For many of us, our lives are enriched and made more vivid by music that is not a throwaway commodity, like a paper cup. I cannot and will not now continue as a listener if you take away the one thing I came to you for. As of Labor Day, I will have to switch to Satellite radio (which hardly looks as good as what you used to be), Internet radio, and my own collection.
I will do what I can to save CBC2, but I’m planning for the day when it withers away, which is coming all too soon. Unless you reconsider.
I am, for sure, will be cutting CBC.
G. Low
So now we will have nothing but mediocrity….so nouveau….so
mundane…so full of s–t -for-brains mentality by the CBC
decision-making fraternity. Fire the G-D individuals who are
wrecking what has made the CBC a distinctly Canadian product.
Shame on you !
I enjoyed this show on occasion. But frankly it’s a mystery why it wasn’t the first show to get cut when the classical hammer came down. A whole show dedicated to "building a classical library"? Huh?
I too am horrified at the CBC’s attitude regarding airing classical music. Why alienate a huge part of your audience just because some demographer says we gray heads are going to die soon, therefore all out effort must be made to get rid of us, and bring in the ‘youngsters’. ‘There are many ‘youngsters’ out there who appreciate classical music just as we grey heads do.
What happened to CBC’s cultural responsibility as laid down tin the Broadcasting Act and the CBC mandate?
Jennifer - what are you thinking of? Who are you trying to please? No-one?
You’ve lost me and a host of my friends. We’re saddened that our beloved CBC has sunk to this.
Good luck Rick.
This is all too sad for words. I can’t understand why CBC has been dismantling its good programming over the past few changes. We do not need a national easy music listening station. We do need a national network that supports the arts in Canada. We do need programs like Sound Advice, which helps educate people in ‘classical’ music and showcases recordings of Canadian performers and composers. We do need a national Arts Report, live concerts form various concert halls across the country. We do need to hear what is happening in orchestras, and choirs across the country. We do need interviews with Canadian ‘classical’ artists and composers. We do need a comprehensive national news on the same network as well. Removing news from Radio 2 is an insult to the intelligence of the listeners. ‘Classical’ music is loved by many in ALL age groups. With out the CBC championing ‘Classical’ music, the younger generation really won’t have a chance to learn and appreciate the wonderful repertoire out there. The 5 hours of ‘easy listening’ classical in midday is most definitely an insult to serious music lovers. I don’t want to hear such a narrow range of ‘classic’ music.
The CBC should get back to basics, and learn why they were incorporated in the first place, and get back to the core mandate.
Goodby Rick Phillips, we will miss you and the CBC.
What a pity. I really enjoyed this show and found it educational. Plus discovered some cds I really enjoy.
What a mistake.
I am continually disappointed with programming decisions made by the CBC brass. If I wanted to listen to the stuff they are planning to program, or watch the drivel they put on TV, I would watch and listen to the real thing, not a bureaucratized version of good pop, good tv, good jazz.
If the CBC isn’t going to give Canada something more than watered down versions of commercial programming, then shut it down!
I have been a supporter of the CBC for thirty years and I can’t believe I just wrote that.
For me, I’m moving to digital cable TV and satellite radio. There is good programming out there. Unfortunately, none of it is on the CBC.
I liked Sound Advice. I learned something about classical music every time I listened to it.
This is outrageous: Studio Sparks, Disc Drive, Music & Company, and Sound Advice all being cancelled. I can’t believe this is Canada. We’ve already lost Music for a While, Two New Hours, Onstage, In Performance, Singer and the Song, Symphony Hall, Northern Lights and Brave New Waves. A dire sign of the dumbing down of the airwaves. I’m disgusted. I reject the CBC position on this. Why not cut the salaries of some these radio celebrities? How about axing the people who made these horrible decisions? Get rid of them. They’re destroying any semblance of quality that the CBC represented.
Dear CBC - I am very upset by this change. Sound Advice has been a regular part of our Saturday - an intelligent and educational approach to music that helped us compare different interpretations, whether or not we agreed. I agree with the other Peter - an internet radio can bring good music from the UK and from Australia when CBC 2 offers none, but it is a sad day that sees the CBC backing out of this role in our lives. Rick - thanks for a great show.
If the CBC wants to appeal to young, hip people, why did they cut Brave New Waves? That was a great show. Personally, I liked being able to listen to Rick Phillips and Tom Allen in the daytime, and Patty Schmidt at night. Now we’ll have neither: just the sort of fence-sitting programming that the CBC has embraced in the last couple of years.
Maybe us disappointed CBC listeners should start our own radio station.
The best way to give equal time to the many cultures that form the modern Canada is not to blow up, Parthenon-style, the foundations of European culture, which include classical music, a form, I may add, highly valued by many, many non-Europeans.
This program met to a high degree what was once the CBC’s mandate: to entertain and educate. The abdication of this approach continues apace, as does the disassembly of the very elements that made the English network distinct, and distinctly Canadian. The demise of Sound Advice on CBC is yet another marker of this race to the bottom, this throwing of sops to what an evidently isolated and entrenched managerial class at the CBC considers "popular culture".
A news flash: You don’t do it very well, and when you do have the occasional bit of programming that is innovative and cheap to produce, like "ZeD", you cancel it. The fact that you fail to realize that your audience can appreciate "ZeD", and "Sound Advice" and voices like the late Lister Sinclair’s, and amusing, polysyllable blowhards like Rex Murphy, and your current affairs programming illustrates the institutional folly of catering to demographics that do not even know you exist, their Pablum needs being ably served by fleeter-footed junk culture distributors.
May a horde of Hun-like Tories scythe your expense accounts to zero, you well-meaning Philistines.
Ha ha! That last one is a good one. See, I swing back and forth between jaded amusement and heartbroken despair. I’d forgotten about ZeD: another casualty of your incomprehension of real culture.
This is all so frustrating, for CBC 2 is all about disappointment.
I am not yet one of those “old folks” that CBC doesn’t seem to mind losing with the loss of classical broadcasting such as Studio Sparks, Disc Drive, Music & Company, and Sound Advice.
I’m one of those “younger folks” that CBC will certainly lose with the loss of important classical broadcasting programs. The loss of SOUND ADVICE is just another reason for me to head over to NPR radio over the ‘net , and is also incentive for me to let my MP know that CBC does not seem to care about my desire for a strong public broadcasting presence in Canada, and ask that my tax dollars go elsewhere - maybe as internation investment to NPR in the States.
…their Pablum needs being ably served by fleeter-footed junk culture distributors…
It must be so simple to live in a world where your only choice is between Beethoven and Britney.
What stupid person at CBC is responsible for cutting ANY of the programs on CBC 2. We live in an area which is popular with tourists…and the first thing they say on arrival is THANK GOD for CBC 2. They believe that we Canadians are fortunate to have such programming. The only time we listen to CBC 1 is for Information Morning to get the latest weather and local news…and then CBC 2 is on for the rest of the day. Life will be unbearable without Studio Sparks and Jurgen Goethe for our drive home….and what is all of this nonsense about these programs being “all classical”. Both of them play a great selection of classical music and really good jazz and the hosts are delightful to listen to… The Canadian Broadcasting Company..(at least it was until now)…the glue that held this country together. Why is it that the Liberal Government supported CBC and culture in general and we just see a lot of cutting with this present government. No-one will want to buy our radio.
Rick Phillips offers informed, intelligent programming. Where else would recordings be compared to show different (better or worse?) interpretations of the same composition. It had an impact on sales; just go to try to buy a cd praised on the show. Another bad choice by management.
wow… the guys running the CBC really are clueless… I guess this is why they aren’t employed by the private sector. The solution to R2’s woes are to incorporate MORE classical music, not less. This is a market niche that is sorely needed in most areas. The LAST thing we need is another dumbed-down, easy-listening radio station. You will become ONE of MANY, and will be lost in the crowd. I’ll be embarassed to have that crappy station programmed on my car radio.
Since the CBC has undemocratically closed postings to the main thread on changes to Radio2 programming I will use this forum to express my extreme displeasure about losing Tom Allen and Music & Company. There are lots of radio stations across the country that play soft pop accompanied by inane comments in the morning. There is only one Tom Allen.
The CBC has decided to give the people what they say they want, according to surveys. What they want appears to be what they already have and know. How do we find out about the things we don’t know, the things that enlarge our understanding and experience? I can buy CDs of Mozart and Beethoven, but without intelligent commentary by people like Rick Phillips, I won’t hear the new performers, the new composers. Children coming home from school will not have Jurgen Gothe playing on the family radio so that they can hear Beethoven or interesting jazz for the first time. My Latin teacher used to say that the Romans died with their feet under the table. They were given bread and circuses, kept amused. Give us somthing to chew on other than bubble gum for the ears! Help us to rise above the mindless drivel. Don’t drive away your loyal audience and your future listeners.
In years past, I wrote the occassional supporting (of CBC) letter when government funding cutbacks to CBC were threatened. Now I would reverse my position. If CBC is going the ‘mass market route’, let CBC raise its own funding. If this means ads on air, I really don’t care, as I’ll no longer be listening.
A shame about the loss of "Sound Advice’ - it was a great program!
In years past, I wrote the occassional supporting (of CBC) letter when government funding cutbacks to CBC were threatened. Now I would reverse my position. If CBC is going the ‘mass market route’, let CBC raise its own funding. If this means ads on air, I really don’t care, as I’ll no longer be listening. A shame about the loss of "Sound Advice’ - it was a great program!
Thanks to Rick Phillips for many years of intelligent radio programming. His expertise in all aspects of classicial music (a broad category if there ever was one) will be sorely missed. Radio 2 was once the place to turn to for quality broadcasting but no longer. Both Rick and his many listeners deserve better.
I enjoyed Sound Advice. I’m pretty sure that I’ll survive its cancellation though. I know Canadians expect the government to do everything for them, but Sirius channels 80 and 85 are the bomb!
"The CBC has decided to give the people what they say they want, according to surveys."
What are these surveys, and how come I didn’t get to participate in them? Grrr…
I’m not entirely sure what demographic the CBC is trying to appeal to. I’m sixteen myself, and the classical music portion of my drive to and from school is often one of the most enjoyable parts of my day, and classical in the late afternoon makes homework, dare I say it, bearable. Admittedly, I’m in the minority among my friends in my musical tastes, and few of my friends listen to classical. But there are fewer still who would willingly listen to “light contemporary” or any other differentiations of banal pop drivel that are set to engulf a bastion of cultural improvement. Diana Krall and Joni Mitchell already pervade every other station on the dial, but no were else could you (sorry, I should change that to ‘can you’) listen to the musical history of the world, illuminated and made accessible to all. Music and Company and Sound Advice are without a doubt the best radio shows out there. I’m sure that listening to them as a young child was what got me hooked on classical in the first place. They’ve always been places of discovery for me as well, opening my eyes to more esoteric classical pieces that I wholly enjoyed, but would never have discovered without Jurgen Goethe or Rick Phillips. I will sorely miss Goethe’s charming and diverting anecdotes, and Phillips’s educated and illuminating commentary. Is CBC radio trying to make itself completely meaningless? To dumb itself down with utterly middle-of-the-road , utterly pabulum-esque sound (not music, but mere sound) directed at a mysterious phantom demographic? Or is Jennifer McGuire simply on a power trip, desperate to make some misguided and ruinous (but admittedly long lasting) impression on a once great station? It’s a sad day in Canada when our national network prefers pop trivialities over enlightening and not-always-popular music.
The thing is, you are putting easy listening on during the driving time. That is exactly when I want soothing beautiful music!
There is lots and lots of easy listening already! What are you thinking!?
Please increase classical programming or force your audience to literally switch off.
To all the people who have contributed such eloquent comments on this and a previous blog – thank you! You speak for me. There must be hundreds of people who want to speak out against the changes but for various reasons cannot. CBC programmers, it seems, will run right over all of its faithful listeners without a backward glance. I came from the UK (and the BBC) in 1973 and found solace in many good programs on Canada’s public broadcaster. I learned about classical music from CBC, and I learned about the new country I had moved to. And guess what, my children have grown up and have turned into the CBC’s new audience. So you see, there’s no need to cast off your long-time audience – just when you are needed the most to fill days with more hours of leisure in them. Sure, we can turn to the internet, but it’s hardly convenient and not everyone has embraced a computer. Make a few changes, why not, but what’s with the wholesale tossing of popular programs? I’ll miss Sound Advice on Saturdays and (I infer) I Hear Music with Robert Harris. I miss Music for a While - the best show on the air waves. And so on……
I understand the sense of loss of classical music fans on CBC, but I really do think there is a lot of piling on here…and in particular by Russell Smith in the Globe. The fact of the matter is that as CBC’s music service, Radio Two should meet the needs of a broad range of tastes. A public broadcaster should cater to fans of many genres of music. The arguments against losing blocks of classical programming boil down to :
1. Classical music is superior to ___ . (Fill the music genre you don’t listen to. Since you don’t listen to it, obviously it’s not worth anyone listening to.)
2. Non-classical music is readily available on commercial stations.
Argument 1 is snooty and is self serving.
Argument 2 is not informed by the facts. Commercial radio repeats a limited playlist that in no way reflects the ambitious and diverse output of independent contemporary artists in jazz, roots, world, singer-songwriter… There is tons of great non classical music that is never played on commercial radio (which is, by the way, increasingly programmed by computers and sounds the same everywhere in North America.)
I’m a Canadian taxpayer. I’m delighted that Radio 2 will be offering more music I might listen to.
What is happening to the C.B.C. radio 2 is truly a huge tragedy. I have been a faithful listener all my life and I am truly saddened that my favourite programs like Sound Advice, Disk Drive, Studio Sparks, Choral Concert are to be canned. What can you be thinking of? I am saddened to losing contact with my dear friends Eric, Rick, Jurgen, Howard, Catherine and others. I am also a fan of N.P.R. and no doubt will turn to it for solace and good music . A pox on you and your house.
This is just one more nail in the Radio2 coffin. Sound Advice was an excellent program. What I want I want to listen to people knowledgeable in music who present classical or jazz music with informative introductions. I want to listen to complete classical works, ie all movements. I want at least one program that compares new and old versions of the same work. I want classical and jazz concerts played by Canadian orchestras and groups. I want programs dedicated either to classical or to jazz. I can tolerate hourly news bulletins. I want this programming especially in the evenings. What I don’t want I don’t want a mix of classical, jazz and pop. I don’t want ‘easy listening’. I don’t want presenters wasting air time with mindless prattle unrelated to the music. I don’t want a copy of the commercial stations.From a formerly dedicated CBC Radio 2 listener
I don’t think the CBC will be around much longer if it just becomes another bland MOR station. What is the point of having a public broadcaster. Public radio in other counties is doing much better. Even the USA has NPR
Another dumb decision. You think we older people (I am 62) are dying off so you try to appeal to a younger audience. I will have you know that both my parents are 94 and still alive and I plan on being around for another 30+ years. But it looks like I will have to get an antenna so I can pick up WNED from Buffalo, because there is nothing left on Radio 2.
I am truly saddened to see Rick Phillip’s show cancelled. It was bad enough when he was moved from Sunday evening to Saturday afernoon, but we were at least able to tape him and replay at the ‘right’ time. Now what do we do with our Sunday evenings?
The whole trend in CBC programminmg is to get rid of regular, loyal listeners. Why don’t we have a say? We pay the bill!
Noodle, the CBC should kill successful, well-received programming, just to put on something you "might" like? Not only do you cast in doubt the wisdom of even having a public broadcaster, you represent much that is wrong with this country.