Thoughts on the CBC hubbub, and other news

Perusing the latest coverage and opinionating surrounding the cuts at the CBC, including the controversial decision to shut down the CBC Radio Orchestra, a backlash to the backlash appears to be afoot. Specifically, some onlookers — even John Terauds, the classical music critic for the Toronto Star — are pointing out that there might actually be some sound reasons for nixing the orchestra. Terauds writes of the overall changes at CBC:

For many Radio 2 supporters, classical music is synonymous with the CBC’s mandate to “safeguard, enrich and strengthen the cultural, political, social and economic fabric of Canada.”

But that mandate also includes respecting the cultural diversity of the country. In Toronto, nearly half the population has no natural ethnic ties to Western culture.

A Los Angeles Times writer chimes in with a snarkier take and a headline that says it all: “Next thing you know, they’ll be dropping their radio ventriloquist acts too.” “…[T]ake a look at the protests that followed the announcement of the orchestra’s closing and you may ask what eon these people are living in,” writes Tim Cavanaugh.

Greg Sandow notes:

If the CBC finds that the expense of maintaining an orchestra just isn’t worth it, given (let’s say) the number of people who listen when the orchestra plays, who can blame them? They have a large operation to run, and can’t keep pouring resources into classical music if most of their listeners don’t pay attention.

Sandow draws comparisons to New York’s WNYC decision several years ago to cut back on classical music, and indeed, the CBC and classical broadcasters stateside must keep similar considerations in mind: a graying classical audience, greater demand for other types of programming, and growing competition from new media.

I feel underqualified to say much about the CBC affair, especially the orchestra bit — I know very little about the CBC, and even less about the business of running a radio orchestra, since to my knowledge no American public radio station (the subject I know best) has ever had one. But what strikes me about the anger aimed at the CBC is the recurring theme of national pride, and the importance attached to the nurturing of young Canadian musicians — certainly nothing to sniff at. If anything, perhaps that’s the lesson here for American classical broadcasters — how can radio stations work in their local music communities, and more ambitiously and coherently on a national scale, to engender a strong sense of pride in our artistic capital, and its potential to enrich our lives?

The role the CBC is being accused of abandoning is one that, in my view, U.S. public broadcasters have barely taken up. Following the commercial model, stations provide constant streams of music for their local audiences. But who aims to foment a sense of identity and pride grounded in this music, as the CBC apparently has been able to do?

I don’t mean to imply that stations are entirely to blame for this. Coverage suggests that Canada has a deeper history of entrusting its government, and subsequently government-funded broadcasters, to take responsibility for encouraging uniquely Canadian arts. Meanwhile, our leaders in the United States show almost no desire to take up similar duties, rarely deigning to pay even lip service to the importance of the arts in our lives. And public broadcasting is woefully underfunded, which makes it difficult for radio stations to take up the slack.

Amid the gloom and doom inspired by the CBC fracas, there are signs of hope elsewhere in the news. The Lubbock Avalanche-Journal reports on the 20th anniversary of KOHM, a public radio station licensed to Texas Tech University. The general manager recalls that the Corporation for Public Broadcasting once predicted the station wouldn’t last five years. Today it airs mostly classical music, including broadcasts of the Lubbock Symphony Orchestra.

Meanwhile, an AM classical station in Kansas City, Mo., has dropped an out-of-town music feed in favor of locally programmed playlists, reports the Kansas City Star. Some stations shy from airing much vocal music, but not KXTR. “Kansas City is a strong choral town, and it’s ridiculous not to have a classical station that reflects that,” says program director John Neas. Neas even hosts a morning show that includes “current-event interviews with musicians and arts leaders,” the paper reports.

And the Seattle Post-Intelligencer checks in on new programming strategies at KING-FM, the city’s commercial classical outlet, in a short article.