Love for the CBC from the LA Times

In what I judge to be an interesting assignment by editors at the Los Angeles Times, I read Marcia Adair’s article on the unifying effect that the CBC, Canada’s national broadcaster, has on the country’s civic identity. The story is partly pegged to the fact that “in a delicious twist, it seems that the broadest possible audience includes the United States, with more than 100 American public radio stations broadcasting CBC Radio programs,” many through Public Radio International (PRI). The shout-outs include a mention of ‘Q’ with Jian Gomeshi, whose refreshing interviews are a daily cultural tonic, and the indie music station, CBC Radio 3, one of the boldest radio experiments anywhere, whose continually evolving website is home to “27,408 artists, with 127,555 tracks.” For my part, I love all three CBC radio networks because compared with virtually all U.S. news and cultural outlets, including the New York Times and NPR, there is experimentation and little snark or cynicism. As Gomeshi puts it at the end of the story, “Listeners outside of our borders are experiencing the reality of what Canada is, rather than the stereotypes that exist about us. And by what Canada is, I mean a very diverse, largely urban, relatively sophisticated and quite progressive-thinking country.”