Some friends would ask if hell was freezing over if I were to agree with Neil Godbout, let alone go one step further.
CBC Radio and radio broadcasting as a whole is going the way of the video tape and the eight-track.
It's a tough go for private broadcasters to make a go of it, hence since the early '90s most private broadcasters (usually family-owned) were eaten up by the larger players. Few survived the feeding frenzy by Corus, Rogers, Bell and Jim Pattison in the West.
In radio broadcasting today very few properties have the lights (live broadcasters) on after 6 p.m. and weekends. Even here in our city, I'm pretty sure all stations are dark after 6 p.m. It all comes down to money and how expensive it is to run broadcast properties.
So the argument is that should the CBC maintain local content (OK) and is it worth every penny of my tax dollar (No!)?
I listen to CBC for news; sometimes also if someone I know is on a show or if I'm driving around this vast country and it's the only game in town (if there's no satellite radio in the car).
I feel, like the train and airline business, it's time to get out of the broadcast business. It was apparent that this needed to happen last year when Rogers spent $5.2 billion for 12 years for the rights to broadcast NHL Hockey. Let's be realistic, Hockey Night in Canada was a staple on CBC, it's a moneymaker.
If you can no longer hang onto your bread and butter, your time has come.
Some may say we need the CBC, the CBC is Canada. I'm alright with that, but turn CBC TV into a public broadcaster in the model of PBS and CBC Radio into the NPR model. NPR is a privately- and publicly-funded non-profit membership media organization that serves as a national syndicator to a network of 900 public radio stations in the United States.
Young people do not listen to the radio or watch TV, they live in a digital world, they receive all the entertainment they require off a device, not a TV or radio. If you search you can find great data on the drop of TV and radio. Young people today require just snippets of information, they seem not to have the time to sit down and enjoy the moment!
Too many bleeding hearts for me - this is a business decision and CBC, as storied as it is, needs to find its way to the dumpster or change from a government-run business model to public broadcaster.
It's time has come and in time, our time, we will see radio broadcasting as we lived it, disappear.
T. Kevin Beatty, Prince George
