| I have always loved radio but CBC almost made me to tune out forever. I still prefer it to television and it runs a very close second to my computer as a primary source of entertainment and information. I love it for the music, the late-night talk, the oldies, university stations – it’s rooted in my younger sunny Sundays, when my dad would haul out a monstrous solid-state Zenith shortwave and spend the day trying to tune into Hilversum, the BBC, Radio Free America, Radio Cuba or whatever would bounce through the atmosphere and end up in our backyard.
My dad’s gone, but the big Zenith remains and its dial, until recently, had been split between our university station and CBC Radio One, although I occasionally strayed for a hockey game, Seattle’s 710 KIRO (available after midnight in most parts of our city), or even the local Neo-Con party talk channel (it’s important to keep up on the agenda of tomorrow’s totalitarian regime).
A recent accounting of my entertainment habits clearly shows that the radio, in some manner (streaming, tuned in or otherwise), is on in my home 12 hours a day.
So, it’s no surprise that the dawn of satellite radio in Canada, like Internet radio or podcasting, sincerely piqued my interest. I worried, though, that it might be as disappointing as Canadian Satellite TV. Would this new medium be freed from the terrestrial restraints of signal? I would no longer have to endure the poorly programmed, underwhelming entertainment of most local radio options, or be forced to hear another earnest, charming story about Cape Breton sheep herders?
I blame my decision to purchase a satellite tuner and its subsequent subscription solely on CBC Radio One. It was one of the last bastions of thought-provoking radio, but since Peter Gzowski passed, its national mornings have been in steady decline. This year it finally hit the toilet bowl with the grab for the youth market known as the "National Playlist" (or what I refer to as the Shitlist). I won’t even mention the daft but earnest Shelagh Rogers (who sounded so completely out of her league when interviewing Leonard Cohen recently that it was hard to believe the "Ceeb" couldn’t have assigned the interview to a capable Ryerson graduate).
I can’t believe there is nothing going on in the Canadian psyche other than the constant retro refitting and reshuffling of Canadian content into some vague notion of national identity. Sadly, it seems that it is only a matter of time until we lose Ideas or As it Happens as Saturdays have even been sent to the shitter with none other than Randy Bachman doing double duty as radio host and musical tastemaker.
I was on the verge of giving up altogether when something happened that changed the way I listen to radio forever. December 27 forever changed the way I listen to radio. I selected and purchased XM Satellite Radio (for no other reason than it promised so very little in terms of Canadian content). There would be no CBC simulcast, thus ensuring that no portion of my subscription would go to finance the already bloated mother corp, which has a stake in Sirius Canada.
After two hours of tuning in, I was turned on. It all came back to me – what I enjoyed most about music and radio, the way I remember it once being, with blocks of programming unfettered by shitty Canadiana that doesn’t fit. Finally, in my hands there was real selection and variety, and it came by the fistful. International news stories drifted over the airwaves, from BBC, National Public Radio and even CNN. There were interviews aplenty, with notable greats like Coretta Scott King, Tony Blair, Bill Clinton, Noam Chomsky, Branford Marsalis, Willie Nelson and Bloc Party. The audio world had opened up again and it was wonderful.
The long and the short – fast forward some two months, and I’m sold. Most importantly, I feel like I’m getting my money’s worth, 13 bucks for three comedy channels (one that even features all Canadian talent, and it isn’t just Wayne and Shuster or Lorne Elliot), 60 music channels and a classic radio drama channel.
Downsides are few and far between. Not unlike satellite TV, there is no local content. Advertising remains, especially on the specialty programming channels. Explicit language pervades the network, but the tuner can be programmed to exclude the offensive channels. It’s like radio the way it was meant to be. |
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