CKNW Editorial
for July 17, 2000

We’re in the summer doldrums. Both the Commons and the Legislature are closed for vacation. Except for ongoing frays like strikes and near strikes there is very little for a political commentator to work with. But there is a very big story which really hasn’t been talked of much … that’s because nothing has happened. It’s the takeover of CKNW by Shaw Cable.

I say this is a big story because CKNW has, since the sixties certainly and for many right back to 1944 been part of the lives of many lower mainland residents. It has a loyalty which is truly unbelievable in an era where AM stations have been swamped by, mostly, rock stations on FM. And as Shaw takes over – and I must tell you that I haven’t met much less discussed things with anyone from that organization – it must carefully evaluate what it has. Because this market is unique, so far as I can tell, in Canada, perhaps North America and maybe the world. The audience is, to use a term from my generation, hip. There is, of course, an appetite for dollar a holler – you know what I mean … policeman takes bribe … lets throw the Chinese criminals into the sea … judges are all crooks … that sort of stuff. And there is a market for gentle discussion. But there is also a huge market – and I think this is something about which I know something – for careful and very thoughtful analysis of serious issues. And this is the market that I think Corus … for that’s the name of the Shaw Cable company … must carefully analyze. And it must analyze it because apart from CKNW there is no other place this audience can participate in discussion of the big issues that surround them. I watch television when I’m working out and can tell you what you already know – with 73 cable channels there is nothing … zero … to watch of any interest to someone who wants to get some real insight into what’s going on. There’s precious little in prime time and probably the only time there is something of value is on Sunday morning when most people are hungover, at church, or both.

I don’t know whether Corus understands this – I have to assume that they do or they wouldn’t have bought us out.

Now what I am saying and will say has nothing to do with my own career path. I have two years to run on my contract and while it is my hope to go on beyond that I will have no complaint if Corus has other plans.

What CKNW needs, and has been missing for several years, is leadership. It was a catastrophic move we made to the high rent district downtown and while that can’t be reversed it can be ameliorated by Corus using the space more economically. But it’s people that need the leadership and this has simply not been there and the morale has shown it. It hasn’t shown too much on air because the station has been lucky to have seasoned pros – independent people not on staff but under contract - holding down all the spots ... but that's going to change and CKNW, if it’s to retain it’s place in the community, must adapt.

Because CKNW has flown so high for so many years it’s practiced leadership by adjournment. It’s had the luxury of putting off problems on the near certainty that they will go away. But that day is over. CKNW has been successful because of two things – the on air sound has been so good, and for the most part, change has been slow. CKNW has sensed that despite what their phone calls and letters told them, listeners who demanded people’s heads on a platter still listened. Over my 15 years here I’ve been amazed that how bad programming has survived ratings periods and how management has been proved right when they did nothing until they simply had to. I don’t think that’s the case any more. While our audience is loyal it expects that NW will aim high and never insult their intelligence. They want entertainment but they demand respect. It’s a different world out there in radio-land.

Here’s the rub. For the on air quality of shows to survive, management has to give the host his or her head (more about her in a moment) yet it must also take a strong hand in determining what it is that the listeners want and providing both the tools and the leadership to see they get it. I’ve been fortunate to have two program directors in the last 15 years, Doug Rutherford and Tom Plasteras, who have known how to accept the huge ego trip married to fear of failure that is endemic to all who do public performances while gently nudging shows into breaking new ground.

But the winds of change are in the air. The broadcast team is aging and while there is always the place for experience there must be new blood too. There is no minor league team … no one in the bull pen. And, we badly need more women on air.

It’s been true in the past that the biggest opposition to women on air has been women listeners. Why this was so I don’t know but that certainly is no longer true of the "non-elderly" women in our audience. It’s not just the feminine movement stuff … the station just doesn’t sound right. It’s now clearly missing something that in the past was dealt with by having a woman for an hour here, spelling off there. And it isn’t a woman for women’s issues that’s wanted – that’s been the error of the past … it’s simply that a radio station needs to reflect the community it serves and this one, so good at that in the past, no longer does so. Men can do women’s issues just as women can do men’s issues. That’s not the problem – that reflects thinking that’s 25 years out of date. We need women because the entire audience, men and women, know that there is something important missing in our programming.

My final thought for Corus, then, is this. Bring us the leadership we so badly need. When we on-air people deal with management at our level we must know they speak for the very top. This means that for management to have our confidence we must know them and trust them.

What I’ve said is hardly sounding the death knell for CKNW … quite the opposite. We should be on the threshold of our greatest years. But Corus must understand that our listeners don’t expect us to compete well with our opposition … they expect our opposition to try, in vain, to compete with us. And that is the very essence of what I’m saying today. It is a very intelligent, well read, thoughtful society out there and it wants intelligent, well read, thoughtful programs. If nothing else, this program has demonstrated that with the Charlottetown Accord and the Kemano Completion Project and other lesser issues. That sort of programming is not easy to provide and it’s damn difficult to replace when that time comes. If it were easy, everyone would be doing it.

For me, I’m looking forward to the next two years with the greatest of confidence and the sense that it could well be the best of my career. And it will be if Corus, building on a magnificent record going back 56 years, can build upon that record, with deliberate speed and considerable reflection … with the wisdom to know what is not broke and doesn’t need fixing and to know what is broke and how to make it better.