Classical music to get close trim Tuesday on CBC Radio 2 by Nicholas Read
Source : National Post
September 1, 2008
For thousands of Canadian classical music lovers, Tuesday may be a day to turn off their radios.
That's when CBC Radio 2 is set to introduce programming emphasizing pop, blues and jazz in place of Bach, Brahms and Beethoven. Classical music will be confined to only five hours in the middle of the day, which means if you work or attend school and enjoy Schubert or Shostakovich, you'd better buy a CD.
Executive director of programming Chris Boyce said earlier this month that he wants to make CBC's FM signal "as interesting and adventurous as what you have on your iPod."
But observers of demographic trends and the music scene say by doing that, Radio 2 risks forsaking what has been up to now a faithful core audience. They say it could end up jettisoning older listeners still reliant on radio for music for harder-to-grab younger ones for whom music radio is increasingly irrelevant.
Andrew Ramlo, a co-director of Vancouver's Urban Futures Institute, who is in his mid-30s, put it this way: "We have been brought up on the Internet, and that's taught us we can get any music content we want and we don't have to listen to anyone else's mix. We can self-select what we want to listen to. The older generation who grew up with radio is more inclined to listen to it. So from a purely number perspective, they (the CBC) may be alienating the greatest group they have."
CBC head of media relations Jeff Keay recognizes that too, but says the risk is calculated. "Yes, there may be some older listeners who would be less comfortable going to the alternative delivery platform, but there are an enormous number very comfortable doing that," he said. "On the other side of it, younger people, familiar with iPods and streaming -- there are still large numbers of them that do listen to over-the-air radio."
Meaning if older listeners want to listen to classical music at any time other than midday, they will have to tap the same technological wells younger listeners do. Keay says the CBC is aware that many people are upset by the changes, but it believes there are as many or more looking forward to them, and he invites those upset about the changes to at least give them a chance.
Try telling that to B.C. composer John Oliver. For him, a refocused Radio 2 is much more than an inconvenience; it's the end of a vital Canadian resource.
"Nothing really replaces Radio 2 because Radio 2 used to have a budget to record Canadian musicians, playing Canadian and other music. These Canadian musicians have invested their lives developing a profession, and what Radio 2 is doing is undermining that profession. People who are used to Radio 2 programming are not going to find it anywhere else."
© National Post
That's when CBC Radio 2 is set to introduce programming emphasizing pop, blues and jazz in place of Bach, Brahms and Beethoven. Classical music will be confined to only five hours in the middle of the day, which means if you work or attend school and enjoy Schubert or Shostakovich, you'd better buy a CD.
Executive director of programming Chris Boyce said earlier this month that he wants to make CBC's FM signal "as interesting and adventurous as what you have on your iPod."
But observers of demographic trends and the music scene say by doing that, Radio 2 risks forsaking what has been up to now a faithful core audience. They say it could end up jettisoning older listeners still reliant on radio for music for harder-to-grab younger ones for whom music radio is increasingly irrelevant.
Andrew Ramlo, a co-director of Vancouver's Urban Futures Institute, who is in his mid-30s, put it this way: "We have been brought up on the Internet, and that's taught us we can get any music content we want and we don't have to listen to anyone else's mix. We can self-select what we want to listen to. The older generation who grew up with radio is more inclined to listen to it. So from a purely number perspective, they (the CBC) may be alienating the greatest group they have."
CBC head of media relations Jeff Keay recognizes that too, but says the risk is calculated. "Yes, there may be some older listeners who would be less comfortable going to the alternative delivery platform, but there are an enormous number very comfortable doing that," he said. "On the other side of it, younger people, familiar with iPods and streaming -- there are still large numbers of them that do listen to over-the-air radio."
Meaning if older listeners want to listen to classical music at any time other than midday, they will have to tap the same technological wells younger listeners do. Keay says the CBC is aware that many people are upset by the changes, but it believes there are as many or more looking forward to them, and he invites those upset about the changes to at least give them a chance.
Try telling that to B.C. composer John Oliver. For him, a refocused Radio 2 is much more than an inconvenience; it's the end of a vital Canadian resource.
"Nothing really replaces Radio 2 because Radio 2 used to have a budget to record Canadian musicians, playing Canadian and other music. These Canadian musicians have invested their lives developing a profession, and what Radio 2 is doing is undermining that profession. People who are used to Radio 2 programming are not going to find it anywhere else."
© National Post
