Thursday, August 27, 2009

CBC Toronto: voice of the ghetto?

Walt listens to CBC Radio. For readers outside of Canada, CBC is the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (sometimes referred to as the Canadian Broadcorping Castration), the government-owned public broadcaster. CBC's Radio One has a number of excellent news and current affairs programs -- As It Happens, The House, The Current -- some of which are picked up by NPR or models for NPR programs.

Since the CBC network stretches over six time zones, from coast to coast to coast -- A mari usque ad mare and all that -- it naturally has local programming suitable to the differing needs of audiences in Toronto and "the regions".

The top programs on Toronto's "flagship station" are Metro Morning (the wake-up show) and Here and Now (the drive-home show). Both programs feature affable hosts, friendly on-air personalities and lots of news and chatter.

In recent years, though, in the CBC's eternal quest to be all things to all people, they've started to include bits of "music" in what used to be an all-talk format. And since CBC Toronto panders shamelessly to its "vizmin" audience (both of them), the so-called "music" is mostly what I would call "ghetto pop". If it's not black African, then it's black American, or African-American (the ultimate oxymoron). Every now and then, for a change, we get some salsa or other Latin-American sounds.

Walt is sick, sore and tired of it! If we must have music (why?), then how about some music for the rest of us? How about some chansons canadiennes? Or down-east fiddling? Or country? Or, if we must "sing with many voices", how about some μπουζούκι? Or a polka or Гопак? Or a tarantella or a Bollywood number or something in Chinese? Anything but this endless stream of "ghetto music" -- another oxymoron!

Memo to Susan Marjetti, Regional Director of CBC Radio: You have listeners outside Toronto's black and Latino ghettos! "Multiculturalism" includes our cultures too!

Susan Marjetti's phone number is 416-205-5791. To send her an e-mail, follow the link on this page.

No comments:

Post a Comment