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| HOMEPAGE | GLOBE AND MAIL QUOTE | New Globe and Mail article mentions this website! | REPORT: MEETING BETWEEN CBC AND NEW MUSIC | CONTACTS AND LINKS |
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CBC Radio revamp aimed at offices BY GUY DIXON TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 2005 POSTED AT 3:41 AM EST FROM TUESDAY'S GLOBE AND MAIL Get ready to hear Madonna's new hit on CBC Radio One in the afternoons. Radio One is revamping its afternoon programming starting Monday with more pop music and news updates, and fewer long segments -- in short, less of what many might consider the traditional Radio One sound. "CBC Radio took a look at the whole afternoon period from 11 to 6 p.m.," said Jennifer McGuire, executive director of programming at CBC Radio. A study was undertaken for the first time in a long time, she noted, in order for CBC Radio to adapt to what it believes are listeners evolving afternoon habits. A call was then sent out via e-mail to CBC staff last spring to pitch ideas for a new anchor program to replace The Roundup, while local drive-time shows were also extended to reflect the longer rush hours in Toronto, Winnipeg and Vancouver. (Bill Richardson, a fixture on CBC Radio in the afternoon as the long-time host of The Roundup, moved last year to the short-lived weekend Radio One show Bunny Watson. Richardson still works at the CBC but doesn't currently have a show on the air.) Come Monday, the sweeping afternoon changes might seem like an attempt to target younger listeners with lighter, slice- of-life segments and fewer in-depth pieces. But that isn't the intention, McGuire said. It has more to do with the CBC Radio's belief that people busy at work or stuck in traffic prefer shorter, livelier fare. The new programming will kick off in the late morning, before local noon-hour shows, with host Jian Ghomeshi's The National Playlist, which will feature musicians, actors and politicians debating their favourite songs. Listeners will also be able to call in to kick songs off the continually evolving play list. CBC is billing it as an iPod play list debated nationally every weekday. Following local noon-hour shows across Canada, Radio One will then air perhaps the biggest change to its tried-and-true sound: Freestyle, the new prerush-hour show broadcast nationally from Vancouver. It will be co-hosted by Kelly Ryan, who is dramatically shifting gears from her previous investigative- reporting and news work for CBC Radio. She describes the new show as a much-needed break from years spent covering everything from the events of Sept. 11 to the Pickton murder investigation. Alongside her will be Cameron Phillips, an actor who has spent the past four years freelancing for the CBC. Producer Anna Bonokoski, who was with The Roundup, will continue on with Freestyle. With a mix of 60-per-cent music and 40-per-cent talk, the emphasis will be on water-cooler stories, those that people talk about, but which aren't considered hard news. "What we found is that people . . . need a recess from all that information that CBC Radio gives them in the morning and on their local noon shows," Ryan said. "For example, in our pilot [program]," Phillips said, "we spoke to a man who had gone to a soap-opera fantasy camp. We talked to a woman who was the silver medalist from the world rock-paper-scissors championship. This week, we talked to a man designing billboards for dogs: They are two feet high off the ground." Also, "we're playing lots of music. Music that doesn't normally make it on the CBC," such as Madonna, Elton John and Top 40, Ryan added. "This is the kind of show you can have on in the background at work, in the dentist office, moms at home. We're really hoping we can move into the work market, the office market, retail..." Next week, local afternoon drive-time shows in Toronto, Winnipeg and Vancouver will be expanded from 3 until 6 p.m., with Canada at Five becoming two national newscasts at 4 and 5 p.m. and renamed The World This Hour. All of these changes were originally due to be launched the day after Labour Day, during the critical radio ratings period. However, the nearly two-month-long lockout at the end of the summer pushed the launch to Nov. 7. |
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| HOMEPAGE | GLOBE AND MAIL QUOTE | New Globe and Mail article mentions this website! | REPORT: MEETING BETWEEN CBC AND NEW MUSIC | CONTACTS AND LINKS |
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