Steel White Table

This is my response to Jody’s post about the CBC Radio show WireTap. (This post has been slightly edited since its original post-date.)

I’ve turned on my radio a few times while that show was on. (My radio is always tuned to the CBC, so inevitably I hear every new show on the CBC.) I’ve never been able to stay tuned in to WireTap because it feels completely contrived and scripted. I know some people say it’s good, but I can’t get past how unspontaneous it sounds. Like most of the new shows on the CBC these days, it seems pretentious. The show might have its moments like the one you described, but I’ve yet to tune in to such a moment.

The CBC in its attempt to attract a younger audience seems to focus more on “personality” now than content. The absolute worst offender is Freestyle, which is so annoying and stupid I want to smash the radio when it’s on. I used to listen to shows like Go with Brent Bambury for entertainment once in a while, but he’s become just another hip personality who may be very good at being clever (he is good as that he does), but it doesn’t hold water for me anymore.

Giving cool, hip guys like Jian Ghomeshi the hosting job for Sounds Like Canada over the summer is another example of the CBC pushing personalities on us. He’s half-tolerable compared to the hosts of Freestyle, but it still feels like the CBC is forcing “coolness” upon its listeners with guys like this. Jian even referred to the show as “SLC” — how cool is that? (Update, April 2007: He now has a show called “Q.” Seems appropriate.)

While reading an article in a local arts newspaper last week, I realized after the first paragraph I was pretty close to not reading the newspaper anymore. The first paragraph was so full of clever writing that it did nothing except show off to the readers how witty the writer was. It took him another paragraph of clever b.s. to actually move on to the topic of the article, by which time I’d just about said to hell with it because he hadn’t actually informed me of anything yet.

That clever, hip writing style seems to be more important to this newspaper than actual content. But that seems to be the norm these days, and the CBC may be just another sheep following the herd. It’s a culture of cleverness, but if you examine it carelfully, it’s just stupid. It’s not much better than Entertainment Tonight.

I still listen to programs like As It Happens, which is one of the few shows on the CBC these days that knows how to be entertaining and informative. But if the CBC continues to focus mostly on sarcasm and wit — also known as “personality,” which is also know as “freestyling” — I can imagine more than a few listeners like myself tuning out most of the time. I’ll still listen to the CBC News because, next to the BBC, it’s the best reporting on the planet.

But I really wish the CBC would get their act together. And soon.

Check out Friends of Canadian Broadcasting to read some arguments by people who, unlike me, actually have the time to back up their opinions with facts.

Update (April 2007): Thanks be to Jesus they’ve canceled “Freestyle.”

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Tags: cbc, cbc radio, wiretap

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