But it wasn’t just the humorous anecdotes about Allen’s personal life (which included updates on his hockey team) or injections of obscure facts on even more obscure composers that endeared me to the program. I credit Tom Allen for making music so much fun, it energized my son into studying it more intensely, all the way from elementary school and into college. Many years ago, my son and I devised a game to play in the car while listening to the program on the way to school. “Guess the Composer” started out as an exercise in getting him used to different styles of classical music. In the beginning, I was better, but by the end of his middle school years, my son bested me more times than I care to acknowledge.
Of course, there was other noteworthy programming to enjoy. CBC Radio 2 played a steady stream of outstanding classical music, all day long, switching to jazz in the evenings. Sure, on the new CBC Radio 2, there are still spots here and there for classical offerings if you can stomach the rest of the line up, or you can still stream all classical selections from the internet, but I find doing so is unwieldy. The witty color commentary of Tom Allen's morning show is gone, and besides that, how do you make do in the car?
CBC has finally made good its promise (threat) to showcase popular Canadian artists, and infuse more jazz and international music into their programming. While that music has its place, unfortunately, it’s not the kind of music that CBC is known for.
From Allen’s blog, it appears that a good majority of his listeners aren’t happy either. While a few claim to like the new format, some have declared that they are jumping ship to satellite radio, or (gasp!) turning to US stations for classical streaming. Instead of waking up to CBC, listeners vow to wake up to CDs. Reactions range from sadness, depression, dislike, disappointment, and outrage.
Article comments
1 - Brian aka Guppusmaximus
Yea.. That does suck. I can totally relate! This happened to me here in Boston when 96.9 went from an awesome Jazz station that played some killer Modern Jazz (aka Mall Jazz) to a rambling Talk station. Granted,I do like a couple shows but I don't listen to that station as much as I used to. Actually, I hardly listen to it at all. The old 96.9 used to also report on upcoming concerts, new cds & play those artists music especially the non mainstream stuff.
Though I do agree that there we are lucky to have as many alternatives as we do nowadays, to lose a talented DJ that had such entertaining qualities is a shame. I felt the same way when Howard Stern went to Satellite. XM or Sirius(for me) doesn't have enough to make me want to pay for the service & new equipment. Same with HD Radio...
I now get my Modern Jazz for free from the internet @ Sky.FM & Verizon FIOS(2 channels).
2 - Unimpressed and smarter than you
Changing the station's format to showcase music that wasn't so boring and irrelevant was the best decision the program directors at CBC ever made.
The new lineup is an effort to attract a younger audience, just like opera houses and ballet companies are choosing to do world wide. If they hadn't done this in a few years the only people who would be listening would be corpses. P.S. It's working.
Oh, and Stephen Harper had nothing to do with the changes, you ignoramus, he's too busy trying to make our country suck like yours by cutting all the arts funding to have any time for CBC's lineup.
I don't know which is worse, Americans who think everything is their business or people who just won't branch out beyond classical.
It's pathetic.
I know your immediate response is to my pointing out what a moron you are is "don't you have anything better to do than blah, blah, blah...?" and the answer is yes, yes I do, but your whiny complaints when I landed on this page accidentally were simply too out of line (to be judging a station that ISN'T EVEN FOR YOU) to ignore passively.
So, stuff it.