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June 2, 2019 4:29 pm  #1


Radio One Airs Eye Rolling Interview With CBC Pres. Catherine Tait

I guess when you interview the boss, you can't exactly expect overly challenging questions. And I didn't hear many from the ever-pompous Michael Enright this weekend when CBC Radio 1's "Sunday Edition" sat down with CBC President Catherine Tait. 

In a 39-minute piece, Tait claimed Canadians were getting good value for their money, openly wondered why Rogers, Bell and Corus didn't cooperate with them to make even better programs(!), complained that the money they get from taxpayers isn't as much as other public broadcasters around the world, defended commercials on CBC TV and digital as helping to pay for additional programming in small towns, and insisted that while the CBC is trying to "build social cohesion," they "also have an obligation to run a business."

My face hurt with all the eye rolling I was doing as this fluffy Q&A went on and on and on, wondering what other broadcasting/digital "business" gets hundreds of millions of dollars of taxpayer money to subsidize their efforts. 

No, I'm not a fan of the CBC and I've never made a secret of that. It's easy to do well in the radio ratings when you have other people's money allowing you to hire 4-10 producers to work on an hour long show with no commercials, something no private radio station could possibly hope to match.

Anyway, if you can bear the self-righteous bleating, you can listen to what your tax dollars paid for this Sunday morning here.

 

June 2, 2019 6:00 pm  #2


Re: Radio One Airs Eye Rolling Interview With CBC Pres. Catherine Tait

Even now the Corpse lives up to its name.

 

June 2, 2019 7:37 pm  #3


Re: Radio One Airs Eye Rolling Interview With CBC Pres. Catherine Tait

I'm with you Chief. CBC Radio current events programming is an abomination.  The Sunday Edition is a particulaly haughty example, existing only to congregate soft-headed lefties and fortify their mutual biases. A flagrant abuse of the money taken from Canadians for government activity.

 

June 3, 2019 1:53 pm  #4


Re: Radio One Airs Eye Rolling Interview With CBC Pres. Catherine Tait

67GreenRambler wrote:

I'm with you Chief. CBC Radio current events programming is an abomination. The Sunday Edition is a particulaly haughty example, existing only to congregate soft-headed lefties and fortify their mutual biases. A flagrant abuse of the money taken from Canadians for government activity.

A little history:

The Sunday Edition started out life as just that -  the Sunday edition of a program called This Morning.

This Morning (which detractors liked to call "The Smorning" because that is how it sounded when the announcers read it) took the place of both the weekday 9-12 show Morningside and Sunday 9-12 show Sunday Morning following the retirement of Peter Gzowski. At the time the CBC promoted the move as a cost saving by eliminating a whole show and creating a leaner meaner team. The idea was not popular of course with the people who worked on those shows, particularly those who did not land comfortably on the new one. It was jointly hosted by veteran Michael Enright, who moved over from As It Happens, and a young and fresh-faced Avril Benoît, who had previously worked at CJAD in Montréal, and was fraught with problems right from the get-go.

Depending on whom you believe, Benoît's relative inexperience and/or the the rest of the crew and/or co-host Enright's impatience with her quickly led to a divisive environment, and before long she was shuffled off to host the drive home show Here and Now. The show hobbled along as one for a few years, eventually with Sheilagh Rogers doing the weekdays and Enright anchored to Sunday - essentially returning to the two-show format from before. And then they made it official and ditched the name This Morning and brought in The Current and Sounds Like Canada (which has since ceded its slot to Q) for the M-F slot, and gave Sunday to Enright where he is parked to this day.

So the cost-cutting measure of creating one big show evolved into the three shows we have now. And with Anna-Maria Tremonti set to jump off The Current this month, the future is unclear, but do not expect a reduction in the number of people beavering away at the Broadcast Centre.

If you ever run in to Michael Enright swanning around the food court at the Metro Centre, resplendent in his rumpled suit and bow tie, be sure to look down and admire his choice in matching footwear: Crocs.