Re: [Swprograms] thank you and program catchup

[Peter Bowen <peter.bowen@xxxxxxxxx>]

I agree with much of what Joe and John have said here. CBC Radio is
indeed much less listenable than it used to be.

I never did much like AIH. In my opinion, it was a waste. (Such a
waste!) After the flagship news programme, we are stuck with such
dross. Way too many interviews with political spin-masters, and those
who have some off-beat and excessively petty story to tell. As I said,
what a waste.

Sunday Morning is arguably the best of the lot on CBC R1. (I admit
that this is not saying much.) Michael Enright is a great interviewer,
and most of the items are worthwhile. But a few duds still slip in.
Nice to have a news programme that moves away from hard news, yet
still is fun to listen to.

Another good programme is TWTW. I especially like the min-docs
contained within it ("packages", British broadcasters would call them,
I think). It is an overlooked show, and much more interesting that The
World at Six, (That could be due to the fact that I have only a
passing interest in Canadian politics--TWTW has far fewer Canadian
stories that the World at Six).

The Current is a real disappointment. Anna-Maria is not a great
interviewer at all, and the stories are frequently not newsworthy or
interesting. Such a waste!

SLC is full of small-town stories which are of limited interest to
others. Part of the CBC's mandate, unfortunately, is to reflect Canada
to Canadians. And to do this, the producers often focus on
local/regional stuff. Thing is, most of this stuff is as boring as
watching grass grow. Ms. Rodgers is too much of an eager beaver for
Canada--puts me right off. What a waste!

The Roundup? Fluff, fluff, and more fluff. What a waste! (Yes, I know
that I keep repeating myself. Get the message?)

I console myself, however, by thinking of CBC Radio Overnight.

No, Joe, it's not you, it's the CBC.

73,
pb

On 5/6/05, jfiglio1@xxxxxxxxxxxx <jfiglio1@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> I think in general we can say that CBC Radio-produced current affairs
> programming is of a lesser quality and less daring and provocative
> than it once was.  I did read somewhere some time ago that the number
> of people working at the various current affairs programs like AIH,
> Sunday Edition, The Current and Sounds Like Canada is considerably
> reduced from the staffs that used to produce shows like Sunday
> Morning, Morningside and AIH.  This is due, of course, to budget cuts;
> but also to some rather damaging changes in programming philosophy
> after the retirements and passings of truly legendary figures (like
> Gzowski, Frum et al) that helped to shape and produce that great CBC
> radio renaissance of the 70s.  It also puts the lie to the statement
> that one can always do more with less.
> 
> To me, the Sunday Edition's precursor--Sunday Morning--was a stronger
> program and at its best when Ian Brown was the host.  IMHO, Enright
> had some problems fitting into the Sunday morning format initially
> (having been the voice of AIH for some time with its harder edged
> approach), but over time he and the program have sort of form fitted
> to one another to the point where I agree with Joe... he is one of the
> finest interviewers on radio today.  The Sunday Edition is not nearly
> as compelling a listen  as Sunday Morning was, but Enright has done a
> good job working with the resources he has.  It's a different program,
> but I like it all the same.  I just don't feel as bad about missing it
> as I did when I missed hearing Sunday Morning on a given week.
> 
> The daily morning programs now aren't even a shadow of what
> Morningside once was.  Anna Maria Tremonti is good, but the format of
> the The Current doesn't use her talents to their best effect IMHO.
> Shelagh Rogers would have seemed to be the natural heir apparent to
> Gzowski, given her long association with his show and her experience
> with its strengths; but these haven't been translated into Sounds Like
> Canada.  Rogers seems a fish out of water in SLC, which is probably
> more due to the rather fuzzy focus of the program and its more limited
> budget (viz Morningside) than it is to any shortcomings of her own.
> At least that's how I see it.
> 
> John Figliozzi
> Halfmoon, NY
> 
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Joseph Buch <joseph.buch@xxxxxxx>
> Date: Friday, May 6, 2005 8:47 am
> Subject: Re: [Swprograms] thank you and program catchup
> 
> > At 05:58 AM 05/06/2005, Richard Cuff wrote:
> >
> > >Joe, what makes AIH less compelling nowadays?
> >
> > I remember AIH as a really bold program which spared no expense to
> > bring live, spontaneous interviews with world leaders to the
> > CBC/RCI audience.  I even remember one day they called the Vatican
> > to get an interview with the pope.  The pope was not available but
> > you have to give them an "A" for cajones.
> >
> > I noted that about the time of the first CBC budget cuts I started
> > to lose interest in AIH.  When I first began posting advance
> > program info on CBC programs to this list, AIH topics to be
> > covered in the next day's program were included in the daily
> > hotsheet releases.  The omission of such advance detail happened
> > right after the cuts and I sense a cause and effect relationship
> > between the two events.  I get the impression AIH cannot predict
> > what they will cover tomorrow because they are not doing as in-
> > depth a job of  reporting so they need not make assignments as far
> > in advance. Thorough research and production is not required if
> > stories concentrate on shallow fluff.
> >
> > I also noted a shift at about this time in focus from world and
> > international issues to covering internal Canadian issues.  I
> > think that shift in emphasis occurred about the same time CBC
> > realized that most Canadians were not listening to CBC so, in
> > order to survive, CBC management decided to make their content
> > more relevant to their Canadian audience.  Having once lived in
> > Canada for three years, I am probably more interested in Canadian
> > topics than the average US listener, but I am not interested
> > enough to tune in regularly.
> >
> > Michael Enright is one of the best interviewers I have ever heard
> > on any radio service.  He is right up there with BBC's David Frost
> > and ABC-TV's Barbara Wawa in my opinion.  Michael Enright was
> > moved from AIH to the Sunday morning Sunday Edition graveyard when
> > Peter Gzowski (sp?) retired as I remember.  I still listen on
> > Sunday Mornings at least to the first hour of the Sunday Edition
> > show to hear Michael Enright's opening commentary and his listing
> > of what will be heard on that day's program.
> >
> > Neither Enright nor any contemporary CBC person can compare with
> > the delivery of a previous AIH host, Alan Maitland, who has now
> > been relegated to a Christmas Eve ritual reading of John
> > Forsythe's story of the RAF aviator lost in fog over the North Sea.
> >
> > Last but not least, when AIH is on the air at 1830 local, it is
> > competing with the evening network TV newscasts, Nightly Business
> > Report on PBS, and reruns of old Simpsons episodes.  The
> > rebroadcast on RCI is so poorly received recently since they
> > dropped the 49 meter band frequency that it is hard to listen to
> > even though it does not compete with other programs of interest at
> > that hour.  With no advance tease of what AIH will be covering on
> > any given evening, I just forget to tune in.  I should probably
> > record the show for later playback but I'm just not that motivated
> > anymore because I have gotten out of the AIH habit.
> >
> >
> > Joe Buch
> >
> >
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