Re: [Swprograms] thank you and program catchup

[Joseph Buch <joseph.buch@xxxxxxx>]

At 05:58 AM 05/06/2005, Richard Cuff wrote:

>Joe, what makes AIH less compelling nowadays?

I remember AIH as a really bold program which spared no expense to bring live, spontaneous interviews with world leaders to the CBC/RCI audience.  I even remember one day they called the Vatican to get an interview with the pope.  The pope was not available but you have to give them an "A" for cajones.  

I noted that about the time of the first CBC budget cuts I started to lose interest in AIH.  When I first began posting advance program info on CBC programs to this list, AIH topics to be covered in the next day's program were included in the daily hotsheet releases.  The omission of such advance detail happened right after the cuts and I sense a cause and effect relationship between the two events.  I get the impression AIH cannot predict what they will cover tomorrow because they are not doing as in-depth a job of  reporting so they need not make assignments as far in advance. Thorough research and production is not required if stories concentrate on shallow fluff.  

I also noted a shift at about this time in focus from world and international issues to covering internal Canadian issues.  I think that shift in emphasis occurred about the same time CBC realized that most Canadians were not listening to CBC so, in order to survive, CBC management decided to make their content more relevant to their Canadian audience.  Having once lived in Canada for three years, I am probably more interested in Canadian topics than the average US listener, but I am not interested enough to tune in regularly.  

Michael Enright is one of the best interviewers I have ever heard on any radio service.  He is right up there with BBC's David Frost and ABC-TV's Barbara Wawa in my opinion.  Michael Enright was moved from AIH to the Sunday morning Sunday Edition graveyard when Peter Gzowski (sp?) retired as I remember.  I still listen on Sunday Mornings at least to the first hour of the Sunday Edition show to hear Michael Enright's opening commentary and his listing of what will be heard on that day's program.  

Neither Enright nor any contemporary CBC person can compare with the delivery of a previous AIH host, Alan Maitland, who has now been relegated to a Christmas Eve ritual reading of John Forsythe's story of the RAF aviator lost in fog over the North Sea.

Last but not least, when AIH is on the air at 1830 local, it is competing with the evening network TV newscasts, Nightly Business Report on PBS, and reruns of old Simpsons episodes.  The rebroadcast on RCI is so poorly received recently since they dropped the 49 meter band frequency that it is hard to listen to even though it does not compete with other programs of interest at that hour.  With no advance tease of what AIH will be covering on any given evening, I just forget to tune in.  I should probably record the show for later playback but I'm just not that motivated anymore because I have gotten out of the AIH habit.


Joe Buch


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