A brief comment from Niagara At Large publisher Doug Draper
Seventy-five years ago this November 2, switches where flipped and the first voices from public broadcasters went crackling across the Canadian airwaves from coast to coast.
CBC Radio was born as a voice all of us scattered across the expansive landscape of this country could tune in to and discover all those things that bind us together (and sometimes have us quarrelling with one another) as a country.
Through all of its 75 years, CBC has had its share of supporters and detractors. There have and will probably always be those among us who feel that the government has no business using our money to support a broadcasting network. Yet I defy anyone to deny the immeasurable role CBC Radio has played in engaging us, whether we live in Ontario, Nova Scotia, British Columbia or the Northwest Territories, in events and issues of foremost interest and concern to Canadians. Just tune in to CBC Radio’s ‘Cross Country Checkup’ at 4 p.m. on a Sunday afternoon, where you can hear the views of fellow citizens living thousands of miles away from you on every conceivable issue from the long-gun registry to Canada’s role in the recent military actions in the skies over Libya, and it is like attending a national town hall. Whether the program is ‘As It Happens’, ‘The Current’, ‘Sunday Morning’ with Michael Enright, ‘Q’ with Jian Ghomeshi, we get a diverse cross section of news, commentary, culture and entertainment with a Canadian twist to it, which is no small feat on a continent dominated by American media.
So turn your dial to 99.1 FM and join in wishing CBC Radio a happy 75th birthday. May it live on forever!
(Niagara At Large welcomes you to share your views on this post below.)
Niagara At Large 
Radio2 (94.1fm) and Radio3 (online) are easily the best sources for Canadian music currently available. While other stations continue to fulfill their Can-Con quotas by repeatedly playing the same songs and artists, various Radio2 programs (Morning, Shift, Drive, and Live) feature the works of lesser-known and rising Canadian musicians and commentary by hosts who are informed and genuinely enthusiastic about the culture produced within our borders. Radio2 and Radio3, a free online music database, provide valuable exposure for Canadian artists, particularly those signed to independent or smaller labels, to a national audience and expand beyond their regional popularity. I would never have known about dozens of my favorite musicians had it not been for these venues.
CBC Radio is just another example of why Canadians need to express their support for the CBC and prevent its demise at the hands of a government who is obviously willing to further facilitate this country’s cultural-colonization. If our government can justify investing in imperial wars and bailouts for internationally-owned corporations, it can certainly scrape together a few extra dollars to promote the cultural efforts of its own citizens. I realize its a crazy idea, but why don’t we try using Canadians’ tax dollars to support Canadian people.
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Long live the CBC
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Quebecor and it’s CEO Paladeau are basically Rupert Murdock clones whose ideals in my opinion leave much to be desired in the USA, England as well as in Canada.
Recently it was reported in our local Quebecor daily written by Paladeau himself that he has been summoned by the Conservative agenda makers in Ottawa to give his views on why CBC should no longer be a PB Station and be subject to the will and ownership of the Corporate medium. In other words he wants to own the airways.. Once we lose the right to freedom of the press we will have lost our birthright and that is scary….
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Having lived in isolated places in Canada — the western Arctic, Northern Ontario, western Quebec — I can attest to the great service that CBC Radio provides. You give examples of the national programming, but the local and regional programs are even more outstanding, especially when one is out in the bush where no private company would dare to establish a broadcast outlet. I still get a shiver when I hear the national time signal.
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