Revolutionary Moderation

Random radio notes



--- Radio note number one: I was criticised at length by our dear friend Brock! On the attack! for not rushing to the defense of radio station CHOI in Montreal. CHOI will not be getting their broadcast licence renewed, because the morning man wants to euthanize psychiatric patients and thinks African students at Laval are the children of dictators, or something along those lines. I didn't look into it too deeply.



Long story short, Brock! On the attack! thinks I should be standing up for freedom of expression, because doesn't the left stand up for freedom of expression?



Well, I tend to be more libertarian than most of my left-leaning friends, and certainly don't want to silence this fellow. But, to paraphrase what I said in Brock!'s comments, giving the guy a right to speak doesn't mean we have to renew his licence to put 20,000 watts of broadcast amplification behind ideas that more appropriately belong scrawled in three different colours of ink on lined pages and hand-delivered to the city desk of the local paper. Or, the modern equavalent - those sorts of ideas belong in a blog.



--- Radio note number two: CBC has become famous for comedy that really isn't funny. Too many years of the Royal Canadian Air Farce (now there's something to euthanize) and the Mercer-less 22 minutes on television has injured the repuation. As for radio, it's been a disappointing decade for the Saturday morning comedy slot. I won't bore you with a litany, but the slot managed to make even the witty and reflective Thomas King seem preachy and tiresome.



One show in my memory has succeeded brilliantly in that same time slot: The Great Eastern - Newfoundland's Cultural Magazine. So imagine how thrilled I was to discover that the host, Paul Moth, has returned to the airwaves to bring us Sunny Days and Nights as a summer replacement. It deserves a careful listening - feel encouraged to give it one. And hey, CBC? This deserves to live beyond the scheduled end date of August 31.



--- Radio note number three: Here's a new-to-me blog watching the media: radio weisblog. Marc Weisblott has set up links to all variety of fantastic resourses, and his overviews of media issues can save you all sorts of tiresome reading and watching and listening. I'll be keeping an eye. Review the media coverage of the CHOI decision along with Marc: it's worth your time, if such issues interest you.



--- Bonus multimedia note: via radio weisblog, I see that pogge takes the crap out of the various right-wing columnists claiming the CRTC prefers al jazeera over Fox News. If they'd said it about me, they'd be right, but that's not what the CRTC has said at all. And look at that - one of the right-wing columnists is Calgary's very own Ezra Levant, to whom pogge offers up a nice big cup. Not to worry, pogge - Ezra has a standing bottomless cup waiting for him right here at RevMod.