I am about to admit something that belies my claim to being only 27 years old. Â It’s not suddenly recalling where I was when Kennedy was shot or even Lennon, for that matter. Â I don’t suddenly remember Woodstock or the lunar landing, either. Â No, my admission is much less extreme than that. Â It is simply this: Â I listen to CBC every day.Virtually every morning, I turn onto 99.1 FM which is our ‘local’ CBC station. Â It’s actually out of Toronto so it’s primarily concerned with Toronto news and events. Â In speaking with people from other parts of the country, it turns out that all news is primarily concerned with Toronto or Ontario at least. Â I totally understand why the rest of the country has such hard feelings toward our province. Â We do have the most people and we do typically chose the government but I don’t see that as any particular reason for Toronto’s crime rates to be the lead story on the national broadcaster. Â I live about an hour from T.O. and I’m pretty sick of hearing their traffic.
The morning show is Metro Morning and is hosted by Andy Barrie. Â He replaced the extremely talented Peter Gzowski. Â I have only fairly dim recollections of Gzowski but I know that Mr. Barrie pales in comparison. Â I’m sure he’s a very nice man, he just comes off as a pretty poor broadcaster. Â It just seems as though he doesn’t really know what he’s talking about sometimes (a crime that, admittedly, I am guilty of virtually every time I open my mouth. Â My audience is just smaller). Â My favourite example of this was when he was pontificating about whether or not Quebecers are familiar with English music. Â He used the Arcade Fire as one of his examples. Â The Arcade Fire are based in Quebec and sing several songs in French.
I was, very briefly, a Canadian radio personality. Â I was interviewed for the weekly technology show, Spark. Â That link goes to the archive of the show I was on. Â They were running a feature on retro websites and how things used to be. Â I made a rules page for the Penny Arcade IRC and submitted it. Â Much to my surprise (and probably due to a total dearth of other options/submissions), they contacted me and asked if I wanted to be interviewed. Â It was very exciting and I got to hear myself on the radio.
As much as I’m not a fan of the Toronto-centricity of the news or some of the particular hosts (Kevin Sylvester springs to mind (occasional fill-in for the afternoon drive host) as does one of the sports guys (more reporting the scores, less editorializing about the Raptors)), I really appreciate that our government has made such a thing a priority. Â A quick survey of my music collection reveals a significant percentage of Canadian artists helped in at least some part by the CBC and the CRTC CanCon rules. Â I think it’s important to have a Canadian source available in the increasingly Americanized broadcast sphere. Â I’ve been exposed to so much culture that would otherwise be an unknown to me and I am very grateful for it.