Peticanoe

I am about to admit something that belies my claim to being only 27 years old.  It’s not suddenly recalling where I was when Kennedy was shot or even Lennon, for that matter.  I don’t suddenly remember Woodstock or the lunar landing, either.  No, my admission is much less extreme than that.  It is simply this:  I listen to CBC every day.Virtually every morning, I turn onto 99.1 FM which is our ‘local’ CBC station.  It’s actually out of Toronto so it’s primarily concerned with Toronto news and events.  In speaking with people from other parts of the country, it turns out that all news is primarily concerned with Toronto or Ontario at least.  I totally understand why the rest of the country has such hard feelings toward our province.  We do have the most people and we do typically chose the government but I don’t see that as any particular reason for Toronto’s crime rates to be the lead story on the national broadcaster.  I live about an hour from T.O. and I’m pretty sick of hearing their traffic.

The morning show is Metro Morning and is hosted by Andy Barrie.  He replaced the extremely talented Peter Gzowski.  I have only fairly dim recollections of Gzowski but I know that Mr. Barrie pales in comparison.  I’m sure he’s a very nice man, he just comes off as a pretty poor broadcaster.  It just seems as though he doesn’t really know what he’s talking about sometimes (a crime that, admittedly, I am guilty of virtually every time I open my mouth.  My audience is just smaller).  My favourite example of this was when he was pontificating about whether or not Quebecers are familiar with English music.  He used the Arcade Fire as one of his examples.   The Arcade Fire are based in Quebec and sing several songs in French.

I was, very briefly, a Canadian radio personality.  I was interviewed for the weekly technology show, Spark.  That link goes to the archive of the show I was on.  They were running a feature on retro websites and how things used to be.  I made a rules page for the Penny Arcade IRC and submitted it.  Much to my surprise (and probably due to a total dearth of other options/submissions), they contacted me and asked if I wanted to be interviewed.  It was very exciting and I got to hear myself on the radio.

As much as I’m not a fan of the Toronto-centricity of the news or some of the particular hosts (Kevin Sylvester springs to mind (occasional fill-in for the afternoon drive host) as does one of the sports guys (more reporting the scores, less editorializing about the Raptors)), I really appreciate that our government has made such a thing a priority.  A quick survey of my music collection reveals a significant percentage of Canadian artists helped in at least some part by the CBC and the CRTC CanCon rules.  I think it’s important to have a Canadian source available in the increasingly Americanized broadcast sphere.  I’ve been exposed to so much culture that would otherwise be an unknown to me and I am very grateful for it.

or it’ll move right through me