Recently the group Friends of Canadian Broadcasting floated speculation that the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation was considering eliminating CBC Radio 2 as an over-the-air entity and would take it online only. FoCB routinely makes dire predictions about the CBC that seem to rarely come true, however it is good to have a group dedicated to keeping Public Broadcasting healthy and available in Canada.
CBC Radio 2 is the public broadcaster’s arts, music, and entertainment channel, while CBC Radio 1 is the news, talk, and information channel with some entertainment thrown in for good measure. Radio 2 at one time was known as the “Classical Music” service but has recently diversified into more forms of music. We often listen to Radio 2 Drive in the afternoon as an alternative to the Assiniboine College station CJ106; host Rich Terfry presents a good mix of modern rock, pop, and singer-songwriter music with much attention given to Canadian content. Great Canadian content. So the elimination of Radio 2, at least in our house, would be considered a loss.
The idea that CBC would take Radio 2 off the air and go internet only did not make sense to me. If you are still doing the programming then you are still spending the bulk of the money to reach a smaller audience. Most of our listening of Radio 2 goes on in our car, when we are away from a reliable internet connection at a reasonable price. Take away the broadcast tower, you cut significantly into the audience. Sure, you are spending less overall, but spending more per listener.
That is not efficient. It would be the wrong approach.
What should be looked at is a more effective use of the broadcasting assets and of new technology. This means adding more choice, not taking it away. This also means that the CRTC has to hurry up and approve newer technology after approving the wrong one over a decade ago.
Years ago Canada had a plan to move to digital radio, with a technology known as DAB that was and is in wide use in much of the world. Digital Audio Broadcast was an attempt to move away from the current AM/FM analog services to something with better sound quality and better use of bandwidth. It never took off. The problem? We live next to the United States and they never adopted the same system. South of the border they have opted to stay on the AM and FM analog frequencies while employing a new digital signal on top of the existing station. This hybrid means that older radios still receive the station’s regular signal, while newer HD radios receive a higher quality digital signal which can also supply extra information and even multiplex for extra audio streams.
So, what does this mean for the future of the CBC and Radio 2. It means that they should keep their current broadcast assets, the towers and the frequencies, and do the necessary upgrades for HD Radio. On AM, this means that Radio 2 could “piggy-back” on the signal for Radio 1; AM tends to propagate further than FM so it would be my assumption that it could reach more people, assuming that the signal would still carry as far. (I am not a broadcast engineer, my apologies if I’m wrong). edit: multiplexing only available on FM as far as I can see. As far as the FM signals go, Radio 2 currently has its own frequency. If you multiplexed another stream onto it, that would mean that the current online-only service CBC Radio 3 could be moved onto a broadcast platform. Radio 3 is a mix of new rock, pop, hip-hop, and alt-country. It is CBC’s new music station, available online and on satellite radio. Why not offer it on a broadcast platform?
Yes, I know that this all costs money. However, it seems that the future of radio in North America is this Digital-Analog hybrid known as HD radio. Some experts point out that the system has problems, and I would tend to agree. It has one important thing going for it though, consumers. To introduce a new system, consumers want to know that they will not lose what they currently have. If I put a new radio in my car for the new technology, I want to know that I will still receive Radio 2, Radio 1, CJ106, BobFM, Star, NCI, FARM, and even CKLQ when and if I want to listen to them. I want more choice, not less.
And here is the wonderful thing about this move, it would possibly be good for choice across all stations. CBC Radio 1 could offer news and weather as a second stream all day long, a radio version of CBC News Network essentially. Bell could offer extra streams on its current stations. BOB’s second stream could be a rock station more akin to what CITI or Power97 are like in Winnipeg. Perhaps you could even call it KX96. The FARM could offer a classic country or oldies stream, as could CKLQ. Perhaps NCI could offer a stream aimed at Native youth. There are many possibilities here.
As our public broadcaster the CBC provides important services. They also can be the catalyst to making the Canadian radio industry have more choices, rather than less. It’s a better use of resources.
