The CBC -What to do

[August1991]

In case anyone has not noticed, there is an ongoing debate among CBC-types about the CBC.

A web site (organized by internal CBC-types) recently posted this:

But a lot of these written responses ring true to anyone who has spent any time in any part of the Corp:

I, like many other CBC Radio people I talk to, have never been so discouraged and dispirited. My skills are being wasted, and the only challenge in my working life now is dealing with the incredibly increased stress level. I don’t see opportunities to do strong journalism. I feel I work for a corporation that no longer understands public broadcasting, that cares about ratings and revenue more than content, that no longer understands that CBC has done such amazing work in the past because smart people wanted to work here, could feel proud of the work they were able to do. That’s no longer true, and I am now planning my exit strategy, along with a lot of other smart people. I never thought I’d leave CBC, was proud to be a part of the best journalistic team in the country. I no longer feel that way.

The Tea Makers

or:

Cathy Perry and Jennifer McGuire are trying to make me feel guilty for telling people what’s going on. They’re also blaming their journalists for telling the truth. And they’re trying to make you feel guilty for reading it. They think we should keep these things in the family, you see. Keep them all behind closed doors.

But I’m not having any of it. And neither should you.

I’m stunned that the people running Canada’s public broadcaster would prefer to keep discussions concerning the public’s interest – not to mention money – locked away in a boardroom in Toronto. And who’s allowed to dial in? Me? You? Who decides who? Richard Stursberg, of course.

Link

If you think that Stephen Harper (and theoretical cuts to CBC funding) are responsible for this, you are seriously mistaken.

----

I happen to listen to the French and English radio service of the CBC. I occasionally watch both language services on TV. So, I guess I am counted in the dwindling number of their audience.

Well, not quite. The French language CBC (Radio-Canada) whether TV or radio is generally successful. (I'll stand corrected on statistics.) The dwindling audience is a phenomenon of English Canada. In fact, criticsm of the CBC is a feature of English Canada, not French Canada.

Some people should wonder why the French CBC is successful but the English CBC is not. I think it has to do with controversy or tension. The essential dividing line in Quebec is independance. As a federal institution, Radio-Canada is supposed to be neutral (even if all/most of its journalists/staff favour independance). IOW, Radio-Canada manages controversy. The English CBC does not. Leftists have been given free rein in the English CBC, and now it has become utterly bland.

This recent Frank Graves scandal is just another example of how the English language service of the CBC is increasingly removed from reality.

The following article -about a firing in local English CBC radio in Montreal- applies across Canada, both for TV and radio:

Back in the 20th century, when I was writing about Montreal radio, ratings were compiled by the Bureau of Broadcast measurement using a diary system. A representative sampling of Montrealers was mailed diaries in which people would record their day-by-day listening in 15-minute increments. The BBM would compile the numbers and extrapolate them to cover the total population of the city.

The system was not perfect. Some listeners would forget about the diaries for a while and rely on memory - "Oh I must have been listening to CJAD last Tuesday at 10 in the morning ... I always do." In rare cases, unscrupulous radio programmers obtained BBM diaries and filled them in to boost their own stations.

The system was what it was. Not perfect, but equally imperfect for all the radio stations in the market.

Then the world became digital.

In 2008, the ratings service began using PPMs, portable people meters. Sampling participants wear an electronic device the size of a pager. Radio broadcasts emit digital signals that the device picks up, records and transmits to the BBM. It is a passive system: the listener doesn't do anything but clip on or carry the PPM.

The meter records minute-by-minute listening, unlike the 15-minute time blocs of the diary stem. It works 24/7/365 - a constant stream of data, rather than eight-week survey periods recorded by hand in diaries - and it records the radio you're listening to everywhere, at home or on the move.

My radio industry source delved into PPM data and came up with three relevant ratings numbers for Nancy Wood's tenure on Daybreak. From Sept. 7 to Jan. 31, the average minute audience (AMA) was 12,800 listeners, the average daily audience was 53,000 listeners and Daybreak's share of Montreal English morning tuning was 12.4 per cent.

Andrew Carter's top-rated CJAD morning show has an AMA of 36,270 listeners. The average daily Carter show reaches 145,000 Montrealers, and CJAD's morning share is 34 per cent.

But Nancy Wood was not competing with Andrew Carter. CBC numbers have never approached CJAD's.

The relevant ratings comparison is to Mike Finnerty, who preceded Wood as host of Daybreak and left the show in June. For a 21-week rating period between Feb. 2 and June 28, Daybreak's average minute audience was 15,100, its daily audience was 61,000 and its share of listening was 14.4 per cent.

The decline in ratings was cited by CBC-Montreal radio brass when they told Wood her tenure as Daybreak host would end in June. And there's no denying the numbers are down.

Montreal Gazette

Or this:

Barbara Budd said she would never have dreamt of leaving CBC Radio One’s As It Happens. But people close to the CBC’s inner workings took the news this week of her departure as another indication of a strategic move within the broadcaster.

“I would never, never, ever walk away from a show that I still truly love. This is difficult for me,” Ms. Budd said. She paused, then said, “If there is something they see that they want in the program that requires other skills, then I understand that. But it doesn’t mean that I’m not sad to leave.”

G&M

So, I have a few suggestions, or solutions.

One, give/sell French CBC to the Quebec government and let it run the operation. (This would mean the end of French CBC coast-to-coast.) Privatize the English CBC.

Two, replace Michael Enright of the English CBC with Kate McMillan of Small Dead Animals. Replace Anna Maria Tremonti (at least on Friday mornings) with Mark Steyn.

I say this flippantly - I disagree with Steyn and McMillan on many things - but English CBC must become closer to the way many English Canadians think. There are many, many Canadians who never hear anyone on the CBC express their opinion.

French CBC manages this spectrum of voices better than the English CBC.

Edited April 28, 2010 by August1991

[Smallc]

CBC Radio does fine in English Canada (#1 and 2 in many markets). It's CBC TV that doesn't do that well, though there are some programs that pull respectable numbers.

[August1991]

CBC Radio does fine in English Canada (#1 and 2 in many markets). It's CBC TV that doesn't do that well, though there are some programs that pull respectable numbers.

Last time I checked, English CBC radio is third/fourth in most markets, gaining about 10-15%. (I'll stand corrected.) And CBC radio has no advertising. Edited April 28, 2010 by August1991

[Smallc]

Last time I checked, English CBC radio is third/fourth in most markets, gaining about 10-15%. (I'll stand corrected.)

http://www.chrisd.ca/blog/18066/2009-winnipeg-fall-radio-ratings/

http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/article/545060

http://blog.calsun.canoe.ca/sixinthecity/2008/11/28/talk_of_the_radio_ratings

http://www.straight.com/article-212742/cbc-radio-one-overtakes-cknw-vancouver-radio-ratings

Is that enough?

And CBC radio has no advertising.

And?

[Michael Hardner]

I disagree that they should hire old stogy right-wingers to counterbalance the old stogy left-wingers.

The programming needs to be de-politicized and just made more interesting and less preachy.

[August1991]

http://www.chrisd.ca/blog/18066/2009-winnipeg-fall-radio-ratings/

http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/article/545060

http://blog.calsun.canoe.ca/sixinthecity/2008/11/28/talk_of_the_radio_ratings

http://www.straight.com/article-212742/cbc-radio-one-overtakes-cknw-vancouver-radio-ratings

Is that enough?

According to those links, for example, Calgary and Toronto CBC radio had about 10% of the audience - in 2008. They were apparently first or second in their market then.

IOW, 90% of people pay a tax so that 10% of people can enjoy a benefit. This is a good definition of the State.

Moreover, these numbers come from 2008 while my link above specifically refers to a new way to register radio listeners (as if that matters to the CBC since they don't depend on advertising revenue.)

The numbers are falling, and that is the point of the links above.

----

Nevertheless, in your terms smallc, let me turn this back at you. Which 10% of the population listens to CBC radio? Is it a diverse section of urban English Canadians in Calgary or Toronto, or is it a specific, self-selected section?

In Quebec, both federalists and sovereignists listen to Radio-Canada, and often turn off the radio or TV in disgust.

In English Canada, there is no other side. The 10% is a self-selected group. And English CBC is boring and bland.

Edited April 28, 2010 by August1991

[Handsome Rob]

I disagree that they should hire old stogy right-wingers to counterbalance the old stogy left-wingers.

The programming needs to be de-politicized and just made more interesting and less preachy.

I think in the case of the CBC it's become cultural, and will be rather difficult to implement such change.

[M.Dancer]

And?

And it is paid for totally out of tax payer revenue.

[M.Dancer]

A more recent audit shows that CBC 1 is 3rd based on share....not too shabby...but as far as advertiser go, if they had advertisers....People spend more time listening to other stations which is important because their ad, being in rotation has a better chance of being heard more than once.

http://www.torontomike.com/2009/12/toronto_radio_ratings_-_radio.html

[Moonbox]

CBC Radio does fine in English Canada (#1 and 2 in many markets). It's CBC TV that doesn't do that well, though there are some programs that pull respectable numbers.

I'd love to see what sort of demographic CBC radio is pulling in. We're paying taxes to support the idealogy and entertainment of a select few. The CBC, in my opinion, is one of the most useless wastes of money I can think of.

[Smallc]

And it is paid for totally out of tax payer revenue.

Well, I would have assumed that was already evidently clear. And? A public broadcaster should be just that. I don't see why CBC TV should stay, but CBC radio in many ways is a different thing.

[M.Dancer]

Well, I would have assumed that was already evidently clear. And? A public broadcaster should be just that. I don't see why CBC TV should stay, but CBC radio in many ways is a different thing.

PBS is funded by the public Braodcast Corp (funded by washington) and by viewers like you....the BBC used to collect the licence fee that every household with a TV was forced to pay.

CBC radio should by a pay to listen service (cable or satelitte) or be forced to compete without public funding.

[Smallc]

PBS is funded by the public Braodcast Corp (funded by washington) and by viewers like you....the BBC used to collect the licence fee that every household with a TV was forced to pay.

And what about ABC Dancer?....and the UK still has TV licensing. Believe it or not, there are still many rural areas where CBC Radio is pretty much it. TV is different.

Edited April 29, 2010 by Smallc

[M.Dancer]

And what about ABC Dancer?....and the UK still has TV licensing. Believe it or not, there are still many rural areas where CBC Radio is pretty much it. TV is different.

ABC?

I thought that the UK had ended that horrific practise.

[Smallc]

ABC?

The Australian Broadcasting Corporation - funded with tax dollars.

I thought that the UK had ended that horrific practise.

Nope. I just looked. About $250 CDN per year for a colour TV.

I don't support CBC TV any longer...I don't even watch it, but I still see a need for CBC radio, especially in rural areas. It's the same as the post office in that regard.

[M.Dancer]

I don't even watch it, but I still see a need for CBC radio, especially in rural areas. It's the same as the post office in that regard.

Rural areas can't get Sirius?

[Smallc]

Rural areas can't get Sirius?

Well, that depends how far north you are. It starts to suck as you go further....also...other than CBC, RCI, and Radio-Canada, there isn't much Canadian about Sirius.

Edited April 29, 2010 by Smallc

[M.Dancer]

other than CBC, RCI, and Radio-Canada, there isn't much Canadian about Sirius.

That's irrelevnt.

[Smallc]

That's irrelevnt.

To you perhaps. I don't think it is, especially when we're talking about a time when we're promoting northern sovereignty. Canadian TV and Radio, believe it or not, are very important components of that.

[M.Dancer]

To you perhaps. I don't think it is, especially when we're talking about a time when we're promoting northern sovereignty. Canadian TV and Radio, believe it or not, are very important components of that.

gimme a break....if the northern resoidents want Toronto culturem let them pay for it out of their own pockets...

[Smallc]

gimme a break....if the northern resoidents want Toronto culturem let them pay for it out of their own pockets...

Again, just because something isn't important to you, it doesn't suddenly make it unimportant. CBC radio probably doesn't cost all that much anyway.

[Shwa]

To you perhaps. I don't think it is, especially when we're talking about a time when we're promoting northern sovereignty. Canadian TV and Radio, believe it or not, are very important components of that.

Very good point.

[M.Dancer]

Again, just because something isn't important to you, it doesn't suddenly make it unimportant. CBC radio probably doesn't cost all that much anyway.

A quich search doesn't show the radio components operation budget, but since there are no ads...we are on the hook for 100% of it. As it is, CBC/Radio Canada has us paying 1.1 billion dollars...and even then they are in the red to the tune of 171 million..

For 171 million you could give everyone north of 60 a satelitte receiver..

[Smallc]

So, get rid of CBC TV. It's probably at least half the cost.

[M.Dancer]

Again, just because something isn't important to you, it doesn't suddenly make it unimportant. CBC radio probably doesn't cost all that much anyway.

Of course it's important to me..please explain how Toronto Culture promotes northern sovereignty...