This I Believe

If you have been following this blog until this point you will have seen that the primary point that I'm trying to make is that CBC Radio management did not consult the public prior to making the programming changes implemented on March 19, 2007 and has not provided adequate means for the listening audience to comment on these programming changes in an open, public forum.

I believe it is the duty of CBC Radio management to consult the listening audience prior to making any changes in the programming for two reasons: (1) the listening audience are the owners of CBC Radio (see clause 3.(1)(a) of the Broadcasting Act, 1991) and (2) it is just a good business practice to make sure that the product you are offering to your customers is one that they will want to consume. Organizations in competitive markets ignore this second point at their peril. CBC Radio apparently believes it can afford to make mistakes such as this without consequence.

I believe it is the duty of CBC Radio management to provide a forum for the listening audience to comment on these programming changes in a forum where other listeners can view the comments and where CBC Radio management can respond to the comments made by listeners. I believe it is the duty of CBC Radio management to provide this forum since the listening audience are the shareholders - not just stakeholders - in CBC Radio. True, there is the "Official" CBC Radio blog site, but as you may notice from the site, comments on the recent schedule changes have been closed on this site since April 10 and there are no responses from CBC Radio management.

I believe CBC Radio Two should have it's own blog site, with a link to it on the main page of the CBC Radio Two site, where listeners can comment on these programming changes with no time limit imposed on the period for making comments. I believe it is also the duty of CBC Radio management - who are employed by the shareholders, the taxpayers of Canada, to run the corporation - to respond to these comments.

A secondary point that I make is that I believe CBC Radio management has, quite simply, made a mistake in the programming that they are offering to the CBC Radio listening audience. I have focused on the cancellation of classical music programs during the evening since it is the classical music programs ("Music for Awhile", "In Performance") that I appreciated. Others, it appears, are equally unhappy about the cancellation of "Brave New Waves", "After Hours", "Northern Lights" and "Two New Hours". See the comments concerning the cancellation of these programs on the "Official" CBC blog site.

I believe CBC Radio management has therefore failed its listening audience in several important respects:

- it did not adequately consult the listening audience prior to making these changes

- having made these changes, it has not provided a public forum where the listening audience can submit feedback, for all listeners to view

- in failing to properly gauge the interests of the listening audience it has failed to provide programming that will be of interest to its shareholders, the taxpayers of Canada

This is what I believe.