Elegy for a Star: If Solomon, why not Lang and Mansbridge?
Evan Solomon was fired because he broke a rule in CBC’s journalistic practices handbook that prohibits corporation staff from using their positions to gain a private benefit. Solomon’s violation of this rule was not only obvious, it was egregious: he connected an art dealer with the rich and powerful he’d come to know through his job, and collected ten percent on every sale that resulted from the introduction. It earned him hundreds of thousands of dollars, until the arrangement ended badly over, of course, money. Neither the exact meaning of this “no benefit” rule, nor its exact...
Read MoreAre broadcasters on the web “unfair” competition for newspapers?
Bob Cox’s editorial on the CBC’s new strategic plan is a welcome contribution to the dialogue concerning the future of public broadcasting in this country. (Mr. Cox is Publisher of the Winnipeg Free Press and Chair of the Canadian Newspaper Association.) It raises issues that have been the subject of debate in Europe for some time, and which need to be resolved if the inevitable restructuring of the CBC is to have the support of the country’s newspapers. Some context will, I hope, further clarify the issues. When the BBC was took to the airwaves in 1922 as the world’s first national...
Read MoreA brief history of advertising on CBC: why CRTC’s decision to allow commercials on Radio 2 is “crazy.”
On Tuesday, May 28, 2013, the Canada’s broadcast regulator, the CRTC, made an historic blunder in granting permission to the CBC to accept advertising on its twin music radio networks, Radio 2 and Éspace Musique. Since its creation amidst the misery of the Great Depression, the CBC has been burdened in its role of public service broadcaster by having to earn its keep partly through commercial sponsorship of its programs. That may seem merely normal to those who’ve grown up in North America’s overwhelmingly commercial media environment. But in the rest of the world, public broadcasters...
Read MoreWade Rowland Interview on CBC As It Happens about CRTC decision to allow ads on CBC Radio One
Tonight, more on CBC Radio ads – Wade Rowland, author of “Saving the CBC: Balancing Profit & Public Service” Intvu@7:05pm — As It Happens (@cbcasithappens) May 29, 2013 Here’s the online audio of the...
Read More“Crazy” CRTC Decision Allows Advertising on CBC Radio 2, Éspace Musique
© 2013 by Wade Rowland In a decision that Commission Vice-chairman Tom Pentefountas calls “crazy,” the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) has decided by majority vote to allow the CBC to introduce advertising on its Radio 2 and Éspace Musique radio networks. The decision was part of the regulator’s approval of the CBC’s application for a five year renewal of its broadcast license, released Tuesday. While the CBC had asked for permission to eventually carry nine minutes of advertising per hour, the CRTC decision limits the network to four minutes per...
Read MoreAbout Wade Rowland
Ranked among Canada’s leading literary journalists, Wade Davies Rowland has written more than a dozen books on subjects ranging from television journalism, organized crime, and international environmental law to his current concerns, which include communications technology, the philosophy of science, and technology and human values. Full author bio.