Jian Ghomeshi departure gives CBC Radio a chance to revamp cultural programming on Q

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      Expect the media furor over besieged former CBC broadcaster Jian Ghomeshi to continue for a while.

      It has all the ingredients of a story for the Internet era: sex, violence, celebrity, and a $55-million lawsuit against the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. 

      Two women—author Reva Seth and actor Lucy DeCoutere—have publicly stated that Ghomeshi was physically abusive and that this wasn't consensual. Ghomeshi, on the other hand, has claimed that anyone who makes claims like this is lying.

      But there's another side to this story that hasn't received nearly as much attention.

      This concerns the focus of Q, which is the cultural-affairs CBC Radio program that Ghomeshi cofounded in 2007.

      The show was clearly designed to attract maximum ratings even though CBC Radio doesn't carry advertisements.

      This was abundantly clear to anyone who read The Tower of Babble: Sins, Secrets and Successes Inside the CBC (Douglas & McIntyre, 2012), which was written by the public broadcaster's former head of English-language services, Richard Stursberg.

      "We liked the idea of moving Q into the [Shelagh] Rogers/[Peter] Gzowski slot, not only because it was an excellent show but also because the move would signal a shift in direction for the network," Stursberg stated in his book. "It would indicate that we were pursuing a more urban and more contemporary feel, along with a younger demographic."

      According to The Tower of Babble, Ghomeshi urged Stursberg to give him the prized morning slot, telling the CBC mandarin, "Put me in. We'll move the numbers."

      Stursberg then asked Ghomeshi if he thought he could beat Gzowski and Rogers.

      "Yes. Guaranteed," Ghomeshi replied.

      Stursberg described Ghomeshi as "so clever, so charming and so driven".

      However, the program that Ghomeshi created could never be described as a pillar of Canadian culture.

      Since going on the air, Q has featured an endless number of interviews with American entertainers and journalists, with the occasional commentator from the Guardian or other British outlets sprinkled in from time to time.

      That's not surprising if the goal has been to get onto American public-radio stations and build an audience south of the Canadian border.

      I've been astonished that CBC Radio's most ballyhooed cultural-affairs radio show has so little Canadian content. 

      The network papered over this by having Ghomeshi host the popular Canada Reads series, which featured books by Canadian authors.

      This way, he could wave the flag and have something to point to if anyone complained that there was too much Roger Ebert and Billy Bob Thornton and not nearly enough Bard on the Beach.

      But anyone who listened closely to Ghomeshi on Q would discern that there was very little content about arts and culture out of Vancouver, in particular, unless it involved something spectacular, like the collapse of the Vancouver Playhouse Theatre Company.

      Sure, Vancouverites who are famous in the United States, such as Michael Bublé and Sarah McLachlan, appeared on the show, as did musician Dan Mangan. But as a listener, it seemed to me that there were 20 American or British guests before I would hear a single person from British Columbia on Q.

      In 2012, I had a chance to interview Chris Boyce, CBC's executive director of radio and audio. At the time, I told him that I don't hear much Vancouver content on Q. (A notable exception was when Stephen Quinn was guest host and he featured Ryan Guldemond of Mother Mother.)

      “I don’t think where a show is based is necessarily indicative how well it covers the country," Boyce replied.

      It was a politically safe response, but Boyce must have known that Ghomeshi's pursuit of ratings meant fewer Canadian artists ever appeared on Q.

      Now, Boyce finds himself at the centre of Ghomeshi's allegations of betrayal in his $55-million lawsuit against the CBC.

      In the meantime, Q has scheduled a singer from Canada's Maritimes, Jenn Grant, on tomorrow's show.

      That's a sign of progress. For the sake of Canadian culture, let's hope Q's producers pay more attention to what's happening in our country now that they're free of Ghomeshi's hard-driving desire for "numbers".

      After all, this is the CBC.

      Comments

      14 Comments

      Mark Murphy

      Oct 30, 2014 at 10:27pm

      Two words: Ivan Fecan. He outbid commercial Canadian broadcasters for the rights to 'Dallas' by paying over a million per episode. They couldn't compete. He set the CBC on its course. Maybe this very sad event is a chance to repair that.

      HellSlayerAndy

      Oct 31, 2014 at 1:44pm

      So...the CBC shouldn't talk to foreigners and 'legacy media' should be used simply as a promotional platform for a handful of artists?
      More CanCon?
      More 1982ish?
      Use a pristine FM to BROADCAST 250 year old German composers, while the 'content' is picketfenced on a crummy AM signal for how many decades?

      Ya...sure...I don't like the CBC much either, Chuck

      googledit

      Oct 31, 2014 at 1:45pm

      I'm not defending Ghomeshi by any means, or the lack of Canadian content, but if the Canadians are listening to "Canadian content" to bring up the numbers, you can't really blame a journalist whose entire livelihood depends on how many people listen to him, for trying to stay relevant...you should be criticizing the Canadian public for lack of support for their own home grown artists.

      bobo

      Oct 31, 2014 at 2:10pm

      Why the fascination with whether the CBC content is Canadian or whatever????? Why not just expect good content? Paranoia?? Googledit says you should be criticizing the Canadian public, but I suspect most of the Canadian public doesn't care about the origin of the content, they just want good content - Canadian or otherwise. If we limit ourselves to just Canadian content, then we are missing out on a lot of good stuff. And we show ourselves to be prejudiced.

      Sherelee

      Oct 31, 2014 at 3:58pm

      I agree with bobo. I love CBC radio and believe in the "Canada Lives Here" tagline. But Canada exists in a big, interesting world. It doesn't take away from our experience of being Canadian (or the mandate of the CBC) if we listen to people and think about issues that don't reside here. The perspective of Q was always Canadian even if the content came from somewhere else. Would we expect The National to only cover Canadian news? C'mon people, we don't need to be so insecure!

      miranda

      Oct 31, 2014 at 8:27pm

      There is one thing bothering me about this and it's obviously related to the instant information age we live in....but I believe two of the women have gone to the police. All the newspapers are flooding the internet with article after article of he said, she said, ex-producer said. Can this not be dealt with by the police, not "rag" mags? The CBC has been sued (o.k. he's a union employee and can't sue). Still when you are named in a Statement of Claim I think you should keep your mouth shut.

      cosmicsync

      Nov 1, 2014 at 8:33am

      Has he made any public comment since the police announced their investigation miranda? I am not aware of anything after his Facebook post last Sunday, but I could be wrong. Have I missed something?

      pwlg

      Nov 1, 2014 at 9:40am

      Thanks Charlie for shifting the emphasis to CBC's morning cultural programming. Now if only we could shift the way CBC news touts Harper's PR. It's time to look into the life of the Ottawa shooter to look for cause and whether there's justification for yet more war.

      Read Glenn Greenwald's piece in the Intercept on Canada's 13 year War.

      https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2014/10/22/canada-proclaiming-war-12-...

      pwlg

      Nov 1, 2014 at 9:45am

      The trouble with the focus on other commentary other than Canadian is we don't get to hear how good our own comments are or our own music is. I don't mean the usual handful of cronies on the National etc, but many brilliant voices who have been silenced by the mainstream media including the public broadcaster to lazy to search for other intelligent voices.

      I don't think Charlie was writing that there should be no other music or commentary than Canadian but the show was getting more and more focused on a US audience.

      Canadian Tax Payer

      Nov 1, 2014 at 2:03pm

      Let's get rid of CBC on all fronts
      ...period