Canada Lives Here

Poor, beleaguered CBC.  In today's "tough economic climate" our federally funded public broadcasting company is beset by their own financial woes.  Seems the Feds wouldn't provide bridge financing to the CBC and so recently, they've had to do some serious cutting in order to get their massive budget under control.  So, they looked at their programming on both TV and the radio and started slashing.  Good for them, they didn't close any stations, but some of my favourite programming has been affected and I'm going to miss what I soon won't have access to.

So, to help me transition away from those programs I'm going to miss, I thought I'd celebrate some of my favourite things about the CBC.  

1)  It's always been there.  It has been a constant on the Canadian airwaves since the early 1930s when it expanded from providing just radio signals for CN Railway to actually broadcasting programmed content from radio stations for anyone to hear.  

2)  It provides a voice of calm in an otherwise chaotic medium.  No one screams at you from the CBC to be the 5th caller for anything.  The radio hosts and news readers all speak in a soothing, calm manner that actually makes you want to listen to them.

3)  On the TV front - dare I say more than Alex Trebek?  Jeopardy is one of my favourite programs and I like the fact it's an American program hosted by a Canadian who got his start in television on the CBC.   Despite the big debate of having American content played on the Canadian Broadcast Company, Jeopardy made the cut and I'm glad.  Otherwise how else would I know some of the inane things I do?

4)  Back to radio - Sunday afternoon would not be Sunday afternoon without the likes of Dave, Morley, Stephanie, Sam & Arthur (the dog) and other characters that make up the stories of the Vinyl Cafe.  Hosted by Stuart McLean, formerly of Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, the Vinyl Cafe is a weekly installment of folksy tales and undiscovered Canadian voices - be they musicians, singers, poets or just average people who write into the show.  Stuart McLean takes his show on the road throughout the year and broadcasts from points east, west, way north and south.  Last September we were in the audience in Georgetown, PEI when Stuart McLean broadcast from the island.

5)  Local programming.  Although it is a national media outlet, the CBC still offers some great regional programming.  Living in PEI that means afternoons on "Main Street" learning all about island traditions and history from a collection of characters that make up this island.  Where else but on a show like this would you have a little old lady talking about what life was like 100 years ago on the farm on PEI?  

6)  National programming.  I must say, one of the programs I will dearly miss is the afternoon show called "The Point".  Broadcast each afternoon at 3pm AST from Vancouver has kept me connected to the goings on of my favourite city in all of Canada.  Unfortunately, I must have been one of the few listeners "The Point" had because it did not make the cut in this last round.  Too bad - I hope they find something else for Ameer Haleem to do at the CBC.

7)  Sheilagh Rogers - she's been around the CBC for many years, having started as a weather girl in Ottawa on the local CBC tv station.  But I came to know her as the host of "Sounds like Canada" a nationally broadcast show offering stories of the people of Canada, be they in the Miramichi or in the Yukon or places in between.  No one can laugh like Sheilagh Rogers.  "Sounds Like Canada" has been gone for a few months now, but I was happy to discover Sheilagh alive and well, still broadcasting on Saturday afternoons, facilitating lively interviews on the subject of books.

8)  "Late Nights on Air" - okay, this is actually a book with the CBC station in Yellowknife as the central character - a story of the people that make up the landscape of Yellowknife and those that man the airwaves to keep listeners in those far reaches informed.  I loved this book almost as much as my CBC!

9)  News - having lived abroad and listened to biased broadcasting for years, it was really refreshing to come home to Canada and a much more global and neutral perspective on the news.  

10)  "Canada Lives Here."  It's a tag line dreamed up by some clever marketers.  But to me, it really says it all - Canada Lives Here.  Full Stop.