CBC Radio taglines not everyone’s favourites
In case you’ve missed it, CBC Radio is using a new series of taglines to promote its regional programming. But the phrases like Totally Toronto and Very Vancouver aren’t ringing well with some people. (Montreal bucks the alliteration trend with So Montreal. I guess Mostly Montreal wasn’t quite right.)
On this blog, the taglines have received a bit of heat from listeners:
I have a problem with CBC Montreal always using that nauseating phrase, “So Montreal.” The word “Montreal” is not an adjective. I wish they would stop using it as such.
After a week of “Totally Toronto” and I want to take a hammer to my radio and smash it! Like, that’s so, like, really annoying to, like, listen to all the time! Like totally!!
Wow, I feel sorry for you Toronto people. I thought “So Montreal” was annoying. “Totally Toronto” is not only using a noun as an adjective, it’s unnecessarily alliterative too! I imagine it must be totally annoying to keep hearing that phrase. Why don’t they just come up with original (and grammatically correct) slogans for the different CBC regional stations?
A letter to the Hamilton Spectator newspaper says:
For the last 10 days CBC Radio 1 from Toronto has been constantly playing the tag line “Totally Toronto.” If CBC Radio 1 out of Toronto is “Totally Toronto” it clearly has nothing to do with the Greater Hamilton area.
Hmmm… good point.
(There are worse taglines, for the record. When I was a 20-year-old reporter for KBS Radio in the Kootenays, the network’s tagline was “It’s great to be in the Kootenays.” We had to say that every time we answered the phone.)
So, if you were picking a tagline for your own local CBC station, what would it say?
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“Byline: Bytown and the Outaouaias”?
Its ‘Completely Calgary’ in…well you know where.
the totoally toronto tagline has a dramatic pause in front of it, “(pause, pause, pause) totally toronto”. i want promo girl back and a tagline for the paris repeater: “practically paris.”
yah the Toronto one really hurts outside the GTA. It reminds listeners in Kitchener Waterloo, London, Hamilton, Barrie etc that radio doesn’t cover them (in case the Toronto traffic didn’t clue you in). Although Wickedly Waterloo has a ring to it. Basically Barrie…although Hardly Hamilton would be appropriate
The “so” is a popular. Out here it’s “So Newfoundland and Labrador”. They’re using it after all the frequency IDs. I am not sure having promo dude reading the local frequencies is a great idea. It does the opposite of what they are trying to do. Promo guy doesn’t sound local, he sounds national, so when he tells me you’re listening to CBC Radio one at 89.5 in Happy Valley Goose Bay it just sounds funny, it should be the popular local hosts who do those. Adding “So Newfoundland and Labrador” doesn’t make it sound like he’s in my community.
Thank you for explaining where that very annoying “very vancouver” came from. Although it is probably more accurate than some of the others given that many things happen here that could not happen elsewhere.
“Here’s so-and-so with your Very Vancouver traffic”… Very Annoying. Totally. Completely.
Elegantly Edmonton?
Capitalistically Calgary?
Don’t Worry, Be Happy Valley Goose Bay?
Sounds like CBC has gone Valley….
“Its totally ToronNo….dude.”
“Like…Whatever! Edmonton.”
“gag me with a spoon Hamilton”
“Grody to the max Calgary!”
“Fer shur Newfoundland and Labrador”
“Totally Radical, Vancouver!”
“Like, oh my God Moosejaw!”
[...] to CBC Radio (I oblige myself to do so at least once a year — besides, it’s “So Montreal” according to the marketing bureaucrats in [...]
In Winnipeg they now use the nauseating phrase, “Completely Winnipeg”. I just wanna upchuck all over the idiot that thought up that one. Never mind the people listening across the province.
I’m OK with my local CBC’s tagline “Everything Edmonton” and “Completely Calgary”.
And really, instead of the CBC focusing on marketing ploys, they should come up with MORE regional programming to go along with those marketing ploys.
Verily Vancouver?
Vacillatingly Vancouver?
Vacuously Vancouver?
Anything but what they’re using now?
“Very Vancouver”? Wow, I think that’s even worse than the “So Montreal” that I have to put up with.
As for new taglines…
how about “Cruddily CBC”? They could use that one all over the country and not have to think of a separate nauseating tagline for each regional station.
Almost Amherst
Turns out the closest CBC transmitter cannot reach us. Therefore we have to either listen to Prince Edward Island or New Brunswick broadcasts.
This is a weak branding exercise.
CBC-Radio Manitoba is confined mainly to Winnipeg and about as many people live outside of Winnipeg as live inside its Perimeter. With Southeast Manitoba’s exploding population and growth, they should stick a storefront reporter in Morden or Winkler like they did in Southwest Manitoba’s Brandon decades ago. With Swan River being the only blind spot in the Provincial radio network coverage… CBC Radio enjoys a huge tune-ship province-wide. I think CBC-Radio Manitoba should cast further into the Rural Landscapes of the Province where issues and happenings are often missed.
Sorry, I can’t suggest a tagline for my community, since I moved to Fort Erie, I cannot listen to CBC radio (boo hoo) I am not even familiar with the tag lines, but thanks for Inside CBC anyway…
Being a radio junkie, can you imagine what it’s like to have lost the ONLY radio station that I’ve listened to “CBC” after 30 years…
g
By the way, nobody’s mentioned what the tagline is for Ottawa.
How about “Utterly Ottawa”? Or “It Oughta be Ottawa.”
Yeah, I know, those are pretty bad. But so are the taglines in real use.
In NB, it’s “Everything New Brunswick”. Which, when you’re listening to ‘Q’, ain’t correct.
honestly I never worry about these things because they NEVER EVER last. Consistency doesn’t seem to be a priority at the ceeb.
I’m sure all the 1:00pm “living” shows on cbc TV aren’t going to last long either.
Hey Gaia,
There’s a cbc transmitter at Crystal Beach!
90.5 FM
Here’s an idea to those image folks who did “Totally Toronto”.
I associate myself as a Southern Ontario resident, so why couldn’t they just try “So Southern Ontario”?
And if Hamilton gets their own slogan, why not Niagara? “Nauseating Niagara”.
You can see why Totally Toronto doesn’t totally work.
Thanks William, I’m trying! There’s about 5 other stations coming in on that dial, with just a hairline difference in space between the stations, I’ll keep trying.
And here in the Yukon its “Truly North” – hmmmm.
Living in Waterloo, over 100km from Toronto, I find the “Totally Toronto” tagline not only stupid, but also exclusionary and arrogant. After a few days of annoyance I started hunting for an alternative, found the BBC World Service over the Internet, and have been listening to that in the evenings instead. Much more pleasant, and very informative.
I guess the CBC is trying to attract the younger set, at the expense of others.
We have to put up with “CBC Radio Soooooooo Nova Scotia,” usually delivered in a flat, unconvincing tone.
Why does CBC feel we have to be pandered to? Just give us good content and we’ll work out what is sooo Nova Scotia or Totally Toronto, K?
I agree with gdm – I’m in waterloo (having finally escaped the Centre of the Universe) and every time I hear ‘totally toronto’ it makes me grind my teeth. Most of the time I just end up telling the radio to shut up, which doesn’t work, but maybe with enough negative reinforcement it will stop.
for our repeater, I say “Wackily Waterloo” or “Kompletely Kitchener”
Most of the time when I start to hear a tagline for “So Montreal”, I actually turn my radio off and then turn it back on again so I won’t have to hear that.
Tim says that the tagline for the Yukon is “Truly North.” How about using, “The true North strong and free?”
[...] out that this typist is not alone in being irritated by the new CBC radio taglines. Even the CBC’s own insider blog is quoting listeners who are being driven to distraction by the following cutesy little [...]
Very Vancouver you say? And what about New Westminster, Burnaby, Coquitlam, Port Coquitlam, Port Moody, Langley, Maple Ridge and yes, Surrey along with all the other places up and down the Lower Mainland and Fraser Valley?
Isn’t it enough that Vancouver is the centre of the of the province. A mini-TO if you read our newspapers. All transit leads to Vancouver but do we have to have it rubbed in our ears every morning? I don’t live in Vancouver, I don’t work in Vancouver and I visit it as seldom as possible.
So promo people, grab another pot of coffee and get back to work. Maybe Peggy from Mad Men can come up with something clever.
Enough of this Totally Tortuous Toronto Twaddle!
“Very Vancouver”… Please make it stop! The smarmy/superior/ultra-condifential tone of voice has me bracing for a wave of nausea every time. It’s obnoxious, and it doesn’t even mean anything! Why not “Vaguely Vancouver” (so we can include all Lower Mainland listeners)? “Vapidly Vancouver” would reflect the inspiration behind this annoying campaign. “Lamely Lower Mainland” for the local shows, and “Biliously British Columbia” to offend the entire province. Are you getting it yet?
Totally Toronto is very quickly becoming boring and disliked.
Whose “bad” idea was this ?
Another example of how our tax dollars fund people and “research” that should be thrown out. Enough!
Whoa!
What Kateb and Sal said. Smarmy indeed. Goes right along with Radio One’s new “Promo Guy” who reads those insipid ads for CBC programming in place of actual advertising.
Speaking of smarmy and insipid, where do I go to complain about the new Sunday night decision to bump Tim Tam and his jazz show by an hour to make way for the guy who yaps and tries to sing for 50 agonizing minutes?
Very Vapid.
I’m in Cambridge and I agree that this ‘totally toronto’ tagline is both arrogant and annoying. I find the traffic reporting to be ok as they give a good overview of the major highways each morning. However, it is time for the CBC to either offer a separate toronto station that focusses on Toronto city or start running programming that recognizes the entire listening area. Why does the CBC broadcast the the daily money whining of Mr. Miller (Toronto’s mayor) while completely ignoring the issues raised by mayors in Barrie, Hamilton, Kingston, Guelph, Kitchener, etc?
This “totally Toronto” thing is like Chinese water torture – starts off as a mild irritant – then eventually drives you insane. It was the same with Promo Girl. Enough already!!!!!
Why does anyone think a tagline is necessary? Do you sincerely think that new listeners will be attracted in greater numbers than loyal listeners are repelled?
What is a “tagline” meant to do, anyway? I suggest its a part of speech in Orwellian New-speak (or advertising) that is designed to suptly infer a collective understanding or acceptance of some concept or value without conscious thought. The CBC’s use these youth-slang terms “so….” and “totally….” especially rub me the wrong way….as they usually signify something negative or at best hyperbolic. Consider “so gay” meaning stupid, or lame( a disservice to homosexuals); or “totally awesome” meaning anything from OK to stupendous….nevermind turning Newfoundland and Labrador or Toronto or the other “listening areas” into adjectives. Please, CBC, give us a break! ( without taglines)
Whenever I hear the “so Montreal” tagline about to come onto the radio, I leap up and turn off the radio and then turn the radio back on when the tagline’s over.
Why is the corp so obsessed with “branding” (and, ugh, “rebranding”)?
I see a lot of branding efforts but not a lot of improved programming.
Well! Is it just my imagination, or has CBC Montreal stopped using that horrible “So Montreal” tagline?
Hooray!
The totally Toronto is insulting to all the other listeners that "still pay" for the station but live outside of Toronto.
Hamilton seems to be part of the GTA only when it suits someone else’s purpose, like not getting a break on Ontario funding uploads, not having decent media coverage, while many of those Toronto listeners actually live in Hamilton because it is "more affordable".
If the CBC is Canada’s radio, then it either needs to "regionalize" or be for all of Ontario.
Luckily, the Montreal CBC stations have stopped using the yucky "so Montreal" tagline. But I recently saw a billboard by the highway that still had that tagline on it…