I remember an announcement on CBC Radio’s Metro Morning sometime over a year ago. Back then Kirstine Stewart, CBC’s Executive Vice-President of English Services, announced that the corporation would be rolling out local radio programming, beginning with Kitchener-Waterloo. At that time my wife and I lived in a rented apartment in Kitchener and we were thrilled. As avid CBC Radio listeners we were excited about the prospect of getting a local CBC station. No more traffic out of Toronto and news updates that had little impact on our daily lives here in southwestern Ontario.

Today, the creation of a local station came one step closer to becoming a reality, but it’s a bit of a bitter one.

About a year later, my wife and I have bought a house and are now living a mere five minute walk from the Grand River in beautiful Cambridge. We love it here. But we’re disappointed with today’s announcement: that a new CBC station for Kitchener-Waterloo won’t include Cambridge or the townships.

Disappointed because if we were to take a breezy five minute drive we would be in Kitchener. Disappointed because we share a bus service, a mutually-accessible library system, a government, and two rivers. Disappointed because we’re all part of the same region and many of us identify as such. Disappointed because the University of Waterloo, arguably the hub for our region’s intelligentsia, now has affiliated campuses in both Cambridge and Stratford.

With transit initiatives bringing the whole region closer together, one has to wonder why a new CBC station would service only Kitchener-Waterloo.

But there is still time for a rethink. With a station launch proposed for the fall of 2012 there is plenty of opportunity for those outside of the official coverage area to have a say. I suggest getting in touch with Kirstine Stewart, Executive Vice-President of English Services or Susan Marjetti, the managing director of CBC’s Toronto and Ontario regions. I will be doing the same!

Susan Marjetti
Telephone: (416) 205-5791
Susan.Marjetti@cbc.ca

Kirstine Stewart
Kirstine.Stewart@cbc.ca

Don’t get me wrong, a local CBC station is great news for Kitchener-Waterloo but it could be greater! Those of us who feel a little left out in the cold need to have our say, so speak up! An expansion of the station’s mandate to the whole of Waterloo Region only makes sense.

While cleaning out the basement today, I listened through a three-part series on CBC Radio’s Ideas called Dogs Themselves.

It tackles the way we’ve perceived dogs in the past and how we perceive them today; myths and confusions about dogs; and all kinds of anecdotal as well as scientific advice on training and getting along with dogs.

The series is very interesting and I’d recommend it to anyone who owns a dog or is looking at adopting one into their family.

Link: Dogs Themselves

Part 2 of my new series, Things I Swear By. If you have things that you swear by, I’d love to hear about them whether it’s something that you use, something that you do, somewhere you go, etc. etc. Drop me an e-mail and let me know about it. I’d enjoy featuring some of the things that my readers swear by as well.

CBC Radio One

I can’t remember precisely when I began listening to CBC Radio 1 but it must’ve been sometime in late high school or early university. I was actually first turned on to talk radio through NewsTalk 1010, a Toronto station, on the AM dial. A certain show host named Michael Coren won my heart with his dry sense of humour, his love for politics and his tendency towards controversy. I became a frequent listener for a while. From AM I jumped to FM and discovered our commercial-free national broadcast radio CBC Radio One. I have lived there ever since.

I’m not a big radio guy, in the traditional sense. When I say I live at CBC Radio 1 I mean that the presets in our car are set only to Radio 1—the 4 different frequencies that we find ourselves using as we travel around. I only listen to Radio 1. No other stations. I’m not big into regular radio stations because I don’t care for the music or the material, and all the commercials can be nauseating. CBC Radio 1 is commercial-free, worthwhile and interesting.

While there are a few shows that I don’t much care for on the CBC, most of its programming is engaging and entertaining. From our national science show Quirks & Quarks, to Stuart Maclean’s Vinyl Cafe, or Metro Morning as I’m driving to work. It’s good stuff, good radio, and it’s such a joy to listen to. There is always an interesting interview or story or song and it’s informative. CBC Radio’s journalistic consistency is something that it’s been praised and award for again and again. It’s reliable news and information and shows like The Current and As it Happens go behind and beneath the headlines to dig deeper—something that we’re in desperate need of.

What’s more, CBC Radio is on the cutting edge of new technology. They were among the first stations to be available online, to have podcast feeds, and now to have an iPhone/iPod Touch application enabling listening through WiFi or anywhere if you’ve got a data plan. I think it’s safe to say that among wonderful gems of Canadian media, our national radio broadcaster is certainly among the top. At least, it’s something that I swear by.

Well, this week’s Sunday Round-Up was supposed to be coming to you from south of the border but snow, on that end, has kept us in Canada instead on this Family Day weekend. So, we get to watch Canadian coverage of the Vancouver Winter Olympics and mourn the fact that it’s CTV covering it this year instead of our national broadcaster, CBC. That alone is worth a few words, I think.

Television

Way back in 2005, CBC lost in a bidding war to a broadcasting conglomerate featuring CTV, Rogers and Bell. They were short cash, primarily because of the NHL lock-out that year, which also saw CBC end popular TV shows like JPod. It was a bad year for the CBC, with the loss of revenue from showing hockey matches it couldn’t afford an expensive Olympic bid. So instead, we’re stuck watching it on CTV which, as long as you watch during Olympic Primetime with CBC’s Brian Williams, you’re OK. If, however, you happen to turn on the Olympics during any other time of the day, you’re in for a real treat.

It’s clear that the majority of CTV’s Olympic hosts lack class, taste and are wholly uninteresting. Yesterday’s morning coverage jumped the shark from the moment it began. Case and point: the female anchor soundly muffled up some foreign competitor’s name and excused herself by saying, “Or however you say it.” Tee hee, cute. The male anchor, as if to dig himself deeper into a hole of shame found it necessary to mention the slam poet, from the Opening Ceremonies, and his neck beard every time he could manage it. Even bringing the conversation back to it when it had accidentally strayed. What a winner.

But I think the thing that bothers me the most so far about CTV’s tasteless coverage of the games is the bit we saw yesterday morning in which a man-on-the-street goes around during the Opening Ceremonies, trying to find spectators who are drunk and having a good time. “How many pints have you had so far?” he asks a group of rowdy, obviously drunk Brits. And this is the Olympics that I encouraged all of my students to watch, brilliant.

Film

Although most of this week’s TV viewing will be taken up by the Olympics, I suspect, we have got our hands on a couple more of this year’s Oscar picks for Best Picture and might have a chance to watch them soon. We’ve seen The Hurt Locker, and the next two lined up are Precious and District 9. I’ve heard relatively nothing about Precious, and mixed reviews for District 9. I’m interested in District 9 mostly for it’s South African connection—Maria and I have both been.

What I’m most excited about is Friday’s release of Shutter Island. Hopefully by this time next week we’ve seen it, and can give you a mini-review in the round-up.

Anyway, that’s it for now. Maria’s come to report that CTV’s Olympic Morning has featured a gripping round-up of last night’s parties and a quest to spot George Clooney. Riveting, I must go watch.

An incredible clip from the CBC archives featuring a young Lloyd Robertson interviewing a “street surfer” or “skurfer” in 1965.