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Please settle your dispute. I can't live without you.
There's a substantial cult of radioheads here in Baja Canada that is probably more devastated by the strike at CBC than most Canadians are. I understand that the Ceeb is held in something less that total esteem by my friends north of the border. That's because you're spoiled. The US has nothing that compares with it.
National Public Radio? It is to laugh. NPR lost its edge years ago when government funding was slashed by the Reagan administration. Now, it has to depend on corporate underwriting for its existence. He who pays the piper calls the tune. Corporate underwriting announcements on NPR have become indistinguishable from commercials. Here in Jesusland, we've been aurally lobotomized by the canned formats of monolithic Clear Channel on one hand and the insane rantings of Rush Limbaugh and his wannabes on the other.
Only college radio stations and some new low-power FM licensees offer any variety. That's fine if you happen to live within range of their wimpy transmitters.
Danielle, I love you
My radio has been locked for years on CBC Radio Two. There is no station on this side of the border that offers anything like it. There's a classical station in Seattle, but they don't play jazz. There's a jazz station in Tacoma, but they don't play world music.
Radio Two not only offers me all of that, but I get a lot of news that goes unreported by the solipsistic US press.
Yes, Vinyl Café is a blatant ripoff of A Prairie Home Companion. It's so well done, however, that even Garrison Keillor probably listens. The character who does the CD reviews on Sound Advice is insufferably pretentious. That's about all I can find to complain about.
Shelley Solmes delightful presence on Here's To You is indicative of the Ceeb's popularity south of the border. Requests from listeners in the US are played nearly every day. Jurgen Gothe's Disc Drive is a merry pastiche of music from many genres that is a staple of my afternoon listening. Would that Jurgen were as visible a Canadian icon as Don Cherry. Danielle Charbonneau of Music for a While has the sexiest voice in the known universe. I'd listen to her if she played Christian hip-hop.
Lockouts happen
As a long-time fan of Radio Two, I know that labour disputes have happened before. I've read enough about both sides of the situation to know I don't need to write about the issues involved. But please, please settle this strike for the sake of listeners in the US.
The classical elevator music we're listening to right now is wearing thin. God knows, those of us here in Bushywood need all the help we can get in clinging to our sanity.
Birch Bay writer and occasional Tyee contributor Christopher Key continues to try to immigrate to Canada. ![[Tyee]](http://thetyee.cachefly.net/ui/img/ico_fishie.png){kind=small}
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darcy.mcgee
7 years ago
Comments on "An American's Plea to the CBC"
Funny. I'm pretty diggin' NPR right now, and often. Admittedly I mostly like KCRW World News, as opposed to the other local affiliates.
But yes the CBC rocks, and I'm hoping they'll be back on air soon - this does seem to be a great divide here though.
I LOVE the CD reviews on Sound Advice though.
mayaw
7 years ago
Actually, the labour dispute at CBC is a lockout situation.
hrynyshyn
7 years ago
Christopher Key's dissatisfaction with NPR puzzles me. As a life-long CBC listener who recently moved to the US, I do miss some aspects of CBC radio, but NPR more than fills the void. There are so many worthy programs that one could spend 15 hours a day with them. Maybe 20 years ago, CBC was superior, but I have reluctantly concluded that the tables have turned. The one missing ingredient down here is decent local coverage. Few, if any, NPR affiliates devote significant resources to local news.
Ron Erwin
7 years ago
Have you ever tried to get Fox news from Shaw Cable ? Yes it's possible but actually nearly impossible.
I suggest Shaw replaces the feed for CBC with FOX until they sort out their labour dispute.
CM Tara
7 years ago
You're funny Ron - you can't possibly be serious, so I take it this is an attempt at humour.
nemesis
7 years ago
Billions of taxpayers dollars a year and lots of patronage appointments for an archaic institution that 6% of Canadians watch or listen to. Keep 'em locked out as long as possible. Who needs 'em besides Paul Martin and the chattering classes?
yarrow
7 years ago
Who needs them? Well obviously Bush did when he wanted to sell his war on Iraq and the CBC staff got into debating pros and cons of murdering Iraqi children in order to protect the "free" world from imaginary WMDs. And of course the US, France and Canada needed CBC to justify their kidnapping of Aristide and the chaos they plunged Haiti into. I think corporate elites including Martin and Bush need CBC to propagandize, and of course Harper depends on them to get out his loony messages. CBC is better than most media, but that isn't saying much.
nemesis
7 years ago
So the CBC is too right-wing for you eh Yarrow? What a great website this is. Very educational.
ursus
7 years ago
tara he is not trying to be funny, he is an american probably on gordo's payroll as a pr type, judging by his posts spelling and pro american rhetoric. The CBC has changed under paul martin!
Ron Erwin
7 years ago
Ursus; I am not a political operative, just a regular Canadian. Sorry to dissapoint you.
Eddy Haskel
7 years ago
Hey Ron...I'd rather watch the Star Trek Channel than Fox. At least we would see something more realistic with Spock and Bones bickering at each other as they ruin yet another world with thier non-interference policy.
Colin
7 years ago
This is what I find funny, most of the right wingers I know, consider CBC a bunch of Babbling, feel goody, closet communists sleeping with their Liberals bosses and trying to compete with Pravada for unbalanced reporting.
Meanwhile the farther left seems to think that it is part of the Bush & Co. evil plot to take over the world (insert evil laughter here)
I mainly listen to CBC when driving up North, a few good pieces interspersed with large amounts a drivel.
ursus
7 years ago
yea right and I got a bridge, real cheap, great deal.
Colin
7 years ago
Great my cousin needs a bridge, do you deliver?
granthams
7 years ago
I watched a CFL game on CBC Saturday. It was pretty weird with only the crowd noise and the stadium PA but I enjoyed the game just the same. I miss CBC Radio 1 first thing in the morning and Ian and Glo on the tube at 6pm. If the lockout persists perhaps there will be no Hockey Night in Canada for another season, wouldn't that be something.
dangrice.com
7 years ago
Yeah and CBC Radio 3 podcasts, will we ever see you episode 14...