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Category:: Music - Classical
Description:: **Please note that if you post spam or hate speech or ads of ANY kind in this group, you will be reported and banned from the group. The group wall and discussion boards are only for the discussion of CBC-related issues.**

OVER 15,000 MEMBERS!
CBC are you listening to your listeners? How about now??

Check out these wonderful videos from the May 24th rally in Toronto:
http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=896580E3BD032C4E

PLEASE INVITE EVERYONE YOU KNOW INTO THIS GROUP! We're building a movement to pressure CBC to change its course! Numbers are important since they are they only thing the bean-counters at CBC understand.

Check out our National Online Organizational Hub at:
http://StandOnGuardForCBC.ca
Visit this site!
Get Informed about the issues!
Join our list of supporters and sign the petitions! Contribute to the campaign!
Sign up for the newsletter!
Watch the rally videos on YouTube!
Download the letter-writing kit!
Join the nationwide efforts to reverse the changes happening at Radio 2 and to for Fight for a REAL presence for Classical Music on the airwaves in EVERY community.
Share with your friends!

You can email your contact details to Tanya Battaglia at savecbc@hotmail.com if you or your organization would like to keep up to date with future action.

2500 people turned out in 10 provinces on April 11th to protest the changes to Radio Two!

700 in Vancouver and 700 in Toronto showed up on May 24th to do likewise!!

___________________________________________

We CAN make a difference. We CAN save Radio Two. The "new Coke" sucks and we want the Classic one back!

We are the Facebook generation. The demographic group that these execs think they are playing to with all their changes. They MUST listen to us. In just about six months, over 16,400 people have joined this group denouncing their actions. We’re officially a movement!

To catch people up on the news: CBC has gutted their weekday schedule, relegating Classical programming to a ghetto slot between 10am and 3pm when most people are at work. Gone are Music & Company - Tom Allen's morning show, Here's to You - Catherine Belyea's (Formerly Shelley Solmes') all-request show, Studio Sparks - due to the venerable Eric Friesen's "retirement", and Disc Drive - Jurgen Gothe's popular drive-home show after almost 30 years. These changes come on the heels of last years round of cuts to vital programs such as Danielle Charbonneau's much-loved Music for Awhile; Larry Lake's new composer showcase Two New Hours; Symphony Hall - Canada's live orchestra recording showcase; The Singer and the Song - Catherine Belyea's excellent Classical vocal program; Northern Lights - the overnight Classical program beloved by Night Owls everywhere; The reformatting of In Performance- a primarily classical live performance show into the much-reviled Canada Live - a uniformly non-classical and completely unfocused hodge-podge of World music, soft pop, and sort-of Jazz; and the controversial replacement of veteran Howard Dyck from Sat Aft at the Opera and Choral concert after many years of great service.

They say that all of these changes are necessary so that Radio Two can fulfill its so-called mandate of reflecting all of the music in Canada. What they are really trying to do is be all things to all people, alienating their most devoted and dedicated fan base, wreaking havoc on the Canadian Classical music scene, and attracting almost no one in their place. They are wrong.

They say they will spend just as much on classical recordings and broadcasts as before. The next day the axe the CBC Radio Orchestra and reduce the operations of CBC Records to a standstill. They’re wrong.

They think we’ll be mollified listening to "popular and accessible" classics instead of challenging performances, and exciting new music. They're wrong.

They think that since nobody but retired old geezers listens to Classical music, that they can reduce the amount of weekday Classics programming from 12 hrs to 5hrs between 10am and 3pm so that nobody who works or goes to school for a living can tune in. Parents who want their kids to enjoy Classical music on the CBC are going to have to keep them inside on weekend afternoons in order to hear Classical music broadcasts. The CBC seems to not care that there will be no alternative to turn to for Classical music in pretty much every community except Toronto. They're wrong.

They say they've consulted with listeners and undertaken demographic studies that show them that what they are doing is what people want. They're wrong. And we're the proof.

Let's keep active in opposing these changes. The CBC execs keep trying to tell us that our efforts are in vain - perhaps because they're worried they are about to have a full-scale backlash on their hands. Perhaps they're right. Let's give them one! We're the people they are most afraid of. We're the people they are trying to cater to since they already know, a priori, that the older folks are against them. They thought we, the younger generation would support them. They were wrong. Young and old, we're all on Facebook, and we stand together for classical music. Whether a 12-year-old violinist in Vancouver or a 70-year-old retiree in PEI, we all value art on our public airwaves.

Write emails, send faxes and letters, leave angry voice mails to CBC execs and decision makers. Let's use our own contacts in the media to push this story into the mainstream! There's been productive talk in the discussion section about creative ways to protest the cuts including demonstrations at CBC Radio facilities, and even the possibility of a full-page ad in the national newspapers paid for by us, the listeners not some lobby group. They think we don't have the knowledge, the organization or the compunction to get our message out. They're wrong.

Sending an email letter? Send it to the following (details are below if you want to address each person personally)

Josée Verner, Minister of Canadian Heritage, Status of Women and Official Languages: Min_Verner@pch.gc.ca
Verner.J@parl.gc.ca

Ms. Judith LaRocque, Deputy Minister of Canadian Heritage: juditha_larocque@pch.gc.ca

Prime Minister Stephen Harper: Harper.S@parl.gc.ca

Your Member of Parliament: Click here to get contact info for all members of parliament: http://webinfo.parl.gc.ca/MembersOfParliament/MainMPsCompleteList.aspx?TimePeriod=Current&Language=E

CBC BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Board members are appointed by the Government of Canada and are announced by the Minister of Canadian Heritage. They are supposed to be the liaison between the public and CBC management

Mr. Tim Casgrain, Chair, CBC Board of Directors:
e-mail c/o kathleen.martine@cbc.ca

http://www.cbc.radio-canada.ca/about/directors/

Peter Herrndorf, National Arts Centre: pherrndo@nac-cna.ca

George Cooper (appointed in May 2008)
george.cooper@mcinnescooper.com

CBC MANAGEMENT
(most people get form letters in reply when they write to these people)

Hubert T. Lacroix, President and CEO, CBC: ht.lacroix@cbc.ca

Richard Stursberg, Head of CBC English Services:
richard.stursberg@cbc.ca
Stursberg is the person most responsible for the Changes to Radio Two

Mark Steinmetz, Director of Radio Music: mark.steinmetz@cbc.ca

Chris Boyce, Director of Program Development and, apparently, a Facebook user.
chris.boyce@cbc.ca

Denise Donlon, Executive Director for English Radio: denise.donlon@cbc.ca
Newly appointed director of CBC Radio - former excutive at Sony Music Canada and Much Music (if that indicates where her sympathies lie...) (read less)
**Please note that if you post spam or hate speech or ads of ANY kind in this group, you will be reported and banned from the group. The group wall and discussion boards are only for the discussion of CBC-related issues.**

OVER 15,000 MEMBERS!
CBC are you listening to your listeners? How about now??

Check out these wonderful videos from the May 24th rally in Toronto:
http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=896580E3BD032C4E

PLEASE INVITE EVERYONE YOU KNOW INTO THIS GROUP! We're building a... (read more)
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"My Radio 2 includes CLASSICAL...
All across Canada
Tuesday, September 2 at 6:00am
The Vancouver Rally - Taking i...
Vancouver, Canada
Saturday, May 24 at 1:00pm
The Toronto Rally, part deux.
Simcoe Park
Saturday, May 24 at 1:00pm
Save CBC Radio Orchestra!! - V...
The Chan Centre at the University o...
Sunday, April 20 at 2:00pm
Raise a Ruckus for Radio Two!
St. John's, Halifax, Toronto, Winni...
Friday, April 11 at 9:00am
Our Massive Email Campaign
Your Computer
Sunday, March 30 at 10:00pm
Flood the CBC site with comments.
The CBC's insider website blog http...
Monday, March 17 at 8:00am