CBC radio 1 IS good

Recently, with all the discussion about the validity of even having a public broadcaster, many people have been saying that CBC radio 1 isn't even good. I'm not going to pretend that I'm an expert on the subject, but I would like to think that I have a certain handle on what's good and what's not.

First off, there's nothing like CBC Radio 1. Here in Ottawa we have a pretty large amount of choice when it comes to music playing radio stations. That's not the case, however, for talk radio. We do have talking between songs, but how often is that talking really of substance? How often is the talking over enthusiastic banter fill in the gap between over-repeated songs? Radio 1 is the only choice for us fans of a good conversation.

Adding to this programme's strength in communication, there is no other choice than CBC when it comes to smart content. I have learnt so much about simple things at home, my community, culture, what's going on in the city, about my province, about my country, about the world at large and more just by lending my ears. I get so interested that some mornings, I end up rushing out the door to catch the bus because I got too absorbed by their content.

It doesn't stop there either. I've heard people complain about the call in shows.  Simply said, the main argument is that the call in shows have a lot of lame people talking over the phone ranting and being irrelevant. I disagree. The people calling, I find are often very interesting and almost always have something good to add to the conversation. But most importantly, they strengthen the bonds between us. A lot of us don't get to hear from people from a different social group than our own, and so we lose good perspective. If ever anything, we should have more call in shows.

There's no replacement for radio 1. The argument saying that a private broadcasting would corrupt the content is strong but in this FIRST BLOG ENTRY, I simply tempt to defend the content we already have against those who would undervalue it's greatness.