Trevor Chow-Fraser

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  Trevor 3:19 on 8 December 2009 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: CBC Radio 3   

  2010 Olympics on cbcr3 

  Earlier today on Lana Gay’s CBC Radio 3 show, Lanarama, she asked listeners to send in their picks of indie rock songs to play at the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver and Whistler, British Columbia.

  I was disappointed to hear Radio 3 using the Olympics in such an uncritical way. So I wrote Lana a little post along with a song suggestion apropos to my post. Of the fifty or so posts on the blog, not one discussed the Olympics as such, so I didn’t expect much discussion to follow.

  I was delighted, however, to hear Lana read my letter on air! Yes, I did threaten to stop listening, and in the future I think I will change the channel if Radio 3 covers the Olympics in a similar manner. But today, I was a bit curious to see if she would respond. So, thanks Lana! I appreciate you giving me a voice on the air, and I respect your mixed feelings over the Olympics.

  I only realised when Shad’s ‘Compromise’ started to play that I had actually meant to request ‘Exile’. On the album, the two tracks run together so perfectly that it’s hard to separate the two. The former song’s chorus goes a little something like: “In this life, we just can’t compromise; In this fight, we can’t just compromise … there’s too many ways to compromise, so stand strong, we just can’t compromise.”

  But I actually like Exile better: “Though I empathize with ’em, and sympathize with ’em, I don’t enterprise with ’em, or synchronize with ’em, … we don’t want no ties with ’em … we won’t let ’em ostracize, we won’t compromise with ’em, we won’t victimize with ’em, commit genocide with ’em, spit their lies with ’em or objectify women…” and so on.

  Hey Lana,

  I love your show and cbcr3, so this is nothing against you guys. But it really upsets me to hear you guys basically just promoting the 2010 Olympics. I know that people are excited about sports and you know, I play hockey, I think winter is great for outdoors fun. But the Olympics is something completely different.

  It’s really just an excuse to develop new highways, new mega-projects, new condos. It’s an excuse to sweep disadvantaged people out of prime locations, and an excuse to crack down on civil iiberties. I lived in Beijing in 2007, and it happened exactly as I’m describing. From what I hear it’s happening in Vancouver too.

  With so many problems in Canada’s relationship with First Nations unresolved, I think it is fundamentally wrong to go ahead with the expropriation and mega-development of Whistler. It’s First Nations land and they need to be involved in the decision of how that land is used and respected.

  So it makes me sad, but I think I’ll have to stop listening to the show for today. And I won’t be able to listen to any future Olympics shindigs on Radio 3.

  But I will suggest a song, one of my favourites from an inspirational and thoughtful rabble rouser: Shad’s “Compromise”

  A la prochaine,

  Trevor

  

   

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  Trevor 19:18 on 6 October 2009 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: CBC Radio 3   

  Spotlight on CBC Radio 3 

  In the Fall of 2007 I took a class on the Canadian Broadcasting System. It was taught by Gregory Taylor, a McGill Doctoral candidate studying under Marc Raboy. The class was basically a defense of public broadcasting, and it certainly taught me a lot about the contemporary media landscape. Unfortunately, the internet is considered narrow-casting, despite the emergence of online television and extremely popular podcasts from the BBC, CBC and NPR. So we were not able to pursue some lines of thought as far as they could go. In any case, I loved the class.

  For my research project, I took the opportunity to study one of my favourite things in the whole world, CBC Radio 3. The research was so much fun! I got to dig through the archives of insidethecbc.com and trawled the internet for posts on Brave New Waves (and its hosts Patti Schmidt and Brent Bambury) and Nightlines (David Wisdom). In 2006, Anu Sahota, an MA student at Simon Fraser, wrote a dissertation on CBC Radio 3 which was very instructive. Even government documents dealing with media are (appropriately) stylish and well written. Everyone should check out Our Cultural Sovereignty, an incredibly readable report by the House of Commons’ Heritage Commitee.

  I even got to speak on the phone with Steve Pratt, CBC Radio 3’s Director! I emailed them with a few questions, and he volunteered to do a phone interview instead. He gave up a half hour or so, which I think was very accomodating.

  Although I did little primary research, I thought I would post the finished paper in case anyone with a similar love of CBC Radio 3 would like to check it out. The paper criticises CBC Radio 3’s move away from broader cultural journalism embodied by the R3 Magazine, and the lack of musical representation commensurate to the demands of the the Broadcasting Act. Specifically, I’m talking about 3.d.iii:

  [The Canadian broadcasting system should] serve the needs and interests, and reflect the circumstances and aspirations, of Canadian men, women and children, including equal rights, the linguistic duality and multicultural and multiracial nature of Canadian society and the special place of aboriginal peoples within that society

  As Canada’s public broadcaster, I believe that the CBC must do its best to embody the demands of the Broadcasting Act. When I wrote the paper, Steve Pratt was speaking about the website redesign. This morning, almost two years later the new website has finally been released! CBC Radio 3 remains as awesome as ever. But by and large, they have not yet taken the steps I think are required to be a premier public broadcaster in the digital age.

  Read my paper on CBC Radio 3 (PDF)

  Anu is discussing. Toggle Comments

   
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    Anu 23:13 on 3 February 2010 Permalink | Reply

    Hello! I just came across this – thanks for using my work! I’m so glad it is not gathering dust. Feel free to contact me if you require additional research sources!