Georgia Straight
for November 1994, Article 5

For as long as I can remember, the "Mother Corporation", the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, has been a favourite whipping boy of all but the chattering classes.

I well recall the days of the licence fee which had to be paid by every radio owner, set by set, for the sustenance of the CBC who, in those days, even decided what, if any, licenses would be given out to competitors. The license inspector's presence in the neighbourhood would be known through that mysterious tom-tom that heralds such unhappy events and people would scurry about hiding extra radios in order to avoid whatever duty they attracted. That you had a radio was betrayed by the aerial on the roof necessary to pick up Seattle stations so that the kids could listen to "Terry and the Pirates" and adults could tune in that marvellous string of Sunday afternoon/evening fare including Jack Benny, Fred Allen, Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy and the show that no one wants to remember these days, the parody of what we used to call negroes, called Amos 'n Andy. The trick was to hide all the rest - and no one thought it was cheating at all.

The reason for the CBC was, evidently, to preserve our culture and foster national unity by making a stage available for Canadians to perform on.

Though Canadians of talent have graced its airwaves, how much the CBC encouraged Canadian as opposed to Toronto talent is an open question.

What is also an open question - though I argue that the answer is obvious - is what relevance has the CBC in today's Canada?

We spend about $1.1 billion dollars on the CBC which long ago, on the TV side, abandoned it's reluctance to accept advertising, perhaps the main good thing about it. For this we receive a national radio network in French and English, ditto TV. I say it's money down the drain even in good times, much less in today's debt drenched economy.

It is argued that we need the CBC for national unity. My God, if the Mother Corp. is to be judged on that standard the better argument is to abolish it before we get into any more trouble. The fact is, of course, that the Quebec side of the Corporation, Radio Canada, is notoriously separatist. During my political days, I watched, and with my schoolboy French listened, to Rene Levesque mesmerize Radio-Canada with his visions of the Quebec nation. I have watched Radio-Canada prowl my studios during the Referendum Campaign eagerly seeking the sound bite which would prove British Columbians to be the racists they wanted to believe we were.

The real argument against the CBC is, however, that it is as outdated as the buggy whip became with the advent of the automobile.

In the very near future, more than 500 TV channels will be easily available to the average home. 500 of them! No matter how it tries, and it isn't noted for trying too hard, the CBC can't hope to compete for viewers' attention in that celestial madhouse of signals, flying at the speed of light into the homes of the nation. There is simply no way.

But it's not just the other TV channels which compete for our attention. The funny machine upon which I am typing, oops, keying these words gives me software options for entertainment which are seemingly endless. My encyclopedia software sings to me, plays for me, informs me and even lets me hear Churchill's speeches if I want. I can watch no end of entertainment when I pause from my labours without even leaving my Computer. And, of course, there are CDs and Videotapes by the gazillion.

But, it is said, what about those poor people in the Arctic wastes who would be cut off from the world without the CBC?

Well, what about them? They get an even greater variety of TV than the rest of us and are ever bit as well armed with software, CDs and videos.

But, we hear, the CBC is the glue that binds Canada together.

God help this poor nation if that is true! Surely not even Keith Spicer, that wildly successful collector of federal sugarcoated mandates, would seriously contend that the CBC has much of a track record in that department.

But what about those wonderful radio programs we have all come to love so well? Surely they are worth preserving.

Not at $1.1 billion a year, they ain't. As one who earns his living in commercial radio and lives and dies by ratings I can tell you that the CBC cannot justify it's keep based upon the listenership it has. Besides, why should I pay for someone else's notion of what is good for them - and us?

But the argument is not really whether or not the CBC does some good things. Clearly it does. It's a cost/benefit analysis we are on about here. How can a government, going about $50 billion a year in the goo, justify over a billion going into a radio and TV network of ever diminishing appeal in an ever expanding market?

And we haven't seen anything yet! With the software programs available now and in the near future, the computer will be right alongside the radio and TV set as an entertainment source.

I'm sure it was a sad day for our great grandparents when the noisy, speedy and smelly motor car took over from faithful old dobbin whose trademarks along the road were a small price to pay for his low cost efforts. But, despite all its attractions, the poor horse was replaced.

It will happen with the CBC too - it is already clinically dead. It only remains to be seen how long Canadians are prepared to pay for expensive life support systems.