For years, I was one of "CBC Stereo's" biggest fans in the US - even tho' I lived far from its coverage areas at the time. Used to visit my parents in Toledo and record the Windsor station at night on cassette and take them back to California to listen. Never found anything that didn't grab me - with top notch announcers and compelling music. Even the really wierd stuff at 3am. And Nightlines -- oh, how I miss it and David Wisdom. Even Max Ferguson on Saturday mornings was fun and make sense.
Now I live where the Radio 2 signal comes in better than most of my local FMs, in clear stereo (albeit at a low volume) and I still can't listen for ten seconds. The mix of classical crossover music with the standard fare that worked on Disc Drive and elsewhere before the "old folks" were all fired seems to be a lost art with the people who are now running things. The new Radio 2 sounds to me like a random sort of format featuring irritating beats and music mixes that sit as well as chocolate covered pickles in your stomach. The music and talk seems shallow and unnecessary. And the DJs (they're really not personalities or announcers, just DJs, in my opinion) seem to be particularly annoying, cloying, smug and boring - and, no kidding, everytime I happen to listen now, any reference to a classical work they might still be announcing seems to include a reference to a movie soundtrack or cartoon where the young DJ first heard it. Guess someone thinks we're all dunces. Or took the "This Hour Has 22 Minutes" spoofs a little too seriously.
I think I'm still going through post-traumatic depression from it, actually.
I, too, have been a decision maker at local stations and changed programming, which disappointed loyal fans to music shows that ratings showed drew away more people than it attracted. I, too, have experimented with "eclectic" music formats, which included and excluded classical music and other "artsy" fare in the mix. But what I hear on Radio 2 is just such a let down from the depth of what the service used to be that I wonder who it really does appeal to. I don't think you can call it "AAA" alternative music. It's not "lounge" or "new jazz" or even fine arts with an edge, since so little seems to have lyrics that get my attention or instrumentation or the magic that makes a listener want to hear more.
I can also get a weaker signal from Espace Musique where I live (so it doesn't come in on every radio in the house), and while I wish they'd forego the uptempo and rock-alt selections they've been getting into lately, they do seem to have an idea of how to sequence more of the eclecticism they program. Just would like more classical and downtempo music in the evening past 9pm (seems to drift away from classical after 9pm on the west coast, unless that's changed lately again.) The French still have a sensitivity that the Radio 2 folks need to learn.
Otherwise, as an educated person with a discerning palate for music, Radio 2 comes across to me now as the aural equivalent of carnival food - cotton candy, corn dogs, and deep fried candy bars. Sure, there's an audience for that somewhere. Isn't that what the commericial stations are already doing anyway? By contrast, a year ago and earlier, Radio 2 came across as satisfying as a good bouillabaise stew, with warm sourdough, a perfectly paired wine, and often included a dessert that you will long remember. Not any more.
I'm hungry for radio with depth and a flair for presentation, and no longer getting it from anyone on my dial anymore. Including the CBC. And that, to me, is a crying shame.
