Don't know why, but I have never been much of a CBC Radio One listener. I will check out Cross Country Check Up if the topic interests me.  And I must admit, it is a nice change from the yappy and not always very interesting material on Newstalk 1010 and AM 640.  Once in a while I also check out As It Happens.  

Radio One seems to be from another era of appointment listening.  Programs that you enjoy and make a point of listening to every week.  I do remember when Pierre Trudeau passed away,  As It Happens was excellent.  People just calling in and talking about when and where they met the PM.  Simple but really interesting radio.  I wonder if they did something similar with Brian Mulroney. 

To their credit Radio One seems popular almost everywhere.  Here in K/W they advertise that they have the number one morning show in Waterloo Region and I know they were doing the same thing in London not long ago. 

The one complaint that I would have about Radio One is that they sometimes go into too much detail on subjects that really aren't important or could be covered in half the time.  Nice that Cross Country Check Up usually has a couple of topics for the two hours rather than just one. And they have the "Ask Me Anything" segment too.   

Radio One really isn't all things Canadian, they do cover a lot of international stories that never see the light of day on commercial radio.  Both Newstalk 1010 and AM 640 are too Toronto centred on everything, and too much opinion in my view.  Their ratings reflect this.  You can only listen to Jerry Agar rail on about Olivia Chow so many times before you bore the audience to death.  Even a Toronto audience. 

Ten or more producers on a show?  Not likely, since many producers and techs at CBC often work on more than one show.  If a program is national and daily like As It Happens, yes you are going to have various producers, sort of like television. That show is unique since they start working on it in the morning and continue right through to 8pm, even with live reports during the program depending on the story or breaking news.

CBC/Radio Canada like every other broadcaster has been consolidating and does not employ the numbers that they had in the 80's.  Right now they employ about 6,500 full time.  Adding up temporary, part time and contractual employees the number is about 7,700.  Bell Media as of July 2025 had a bit over 6,200 employees.  All this from Google's Ai if you are interested in the source.  

RadioActive wrote:

While I like Under The Influence, the rest of their line-up leaves me cold.

 
RA, you might enjoy “We Regret to Inform You” with Sydney O’Reilly, Terry’s daughter. It currently airs Wednesday at 11:30am and Sundays at 7pm. Similar in format to “Under the Influence” and deals with people finding success against many odds and rejection.