Some Thoughts on the CBC Kerfuffle

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Authormarty72x72 A few years ago I did a recording session in the big studio at the CBC in Vancouver. The folks there were extremely proud of their in-house orchestra, the only broadcast orchestra left in North America. The studio is gigantic, maybe three times the size of NPR’s Studio 4A. In fact, the entire facility is spectacular, and in many ways, spectacularly underutilized.

What will happen to the studio now that they won’t need it anymore for the orchestra? Will they keep it a studio and invite other orchestras in to perform? Who would pay for that? Or will they make it into offices? It’s too big for rock bands.

There are support groups popping up on Facebook, trying to save the CBC Radio Orchestra. There’s an online petition you can sign at this site, where you can also find out the details about demonstrations to be held all over Canada tomorrow (Friday, April 11th).

It makes me sad that the orchestra is going away. I hate to see musicians put out of work. Having to depend on the government for funding is a recipe for failure, as American orchestras discovered decades ago.

What makes me really sad, though, is the CBC’s willingness to kill fresh, live radio content that you can’t get anywhere else in the world. Canadian composers will have to find other orchestras to perform their music. And Canadian classical artists coming in to play live? fuhgeddaboutit. CBC Radio 2 is replacing much of their classical music with other genres of music.

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Thoughts on the CBC hubbub, and other news

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Authormike72x72_3 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.

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MTT Files wins a Peabody

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We’d be remiss if we didn’t note that among the Peabody Award winners announced yesterday was The MTT Files. The eight-show series was produced by American Public Media and the San Francisco Symphony and featured Michael Tilson Thomas, the symphony’s music director. Congratulations to all involved!

WETA and the spirit of on-air fundraising

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Authormike72x72_3 Tuesday I paid a visit to Dan DeVany, vice president and general manager of Classical WETA 90.9 FM, the all-classical station in the nation’s capital. We talked about WETA’s quick journey over the past three years from a dual-format news/classical station to an all-news station and finally to the music outlet it is today — a move that has brought it to a new level of success. It was a great discussion, and I’ll share the highlights with you soon.

But I did want to share something in particular right away. Dan brought to my attention a blog post by Robert Paterson, a consultant who has been helping public radio and TV stations adjust to the new realities of the media world. In fact, “New Realities” was the name of an ambitious strategic planning exercise that involved all of public radio, led by Rob and his crew a few years back. Take a look at Rob’s blog and you’ll see that he is the ultimate big-picture thinker. I often find his observations provocative and inspiring.

In this post Rob drew on a conversation with Dan about on-air fundraising around classical music. Dan told me and Rob that WETA’s first fund drive after going all-classical early last year was a smashing success. But in the fall they encountered a dauntingly slow start, forcing them to take a fresh look at how they were trying to connect with their listeners. As Rob describes it:

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