Readers of our pages may have noticed that of late we have not been reviewing any CBC Records CDs. This is not our fault. It seems that our reviewer is no longer on the CBC Records distribution list even though she also reviews such CDs in the print media. Attempts to obtain the few classical CDs the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) still produces have failed. Our e-mails and even letters are not answered. So much for the old Ceeb, as the publicly-owned network is called. We know that the odd classical CDs are still produced because we can find them in the distribution catalog of an international record company. There they are advertised to US and overseas listeners. So, while we would love to review our own, so to speak, we are forced to rely on CDs from other sources. No matter that it is our tax dollars that keep the CBC alive. Who cares! Certainly not the Ceeb, whose representatives act just like most civil servants do in other government departments, namely very uncivilly.

There has been a big shift at the Ceeb that is in favor of a listenership of a youngish range. Classical music does not appear to belong to those listeners, yet when we go to live concerts and the opera, we notice that there are more and more young people in the audience. The Ceeb, it seems, has its demographics wrong, or it is so inured with the boomer generation that it hasn't noticed that there are other people in this world.

Once upon a time Canadian 'classical music' buffs relied on CBCTwo radio to provide them nationwide with their daily fix of the kind of music they liked. While there are commercial stations that offer a classical music menu, these are not available to everyone. Canada is simply too large. It needs a network such as the publicly owned CBC to send music to every corner of this vast nation.

The Ceeb (in Britain the BBC, its equivalent, is known as Auntie) had the mandate at one time to offer 'classical music' (classical encompasses a much larger field of music than the word implies) on CBCTwo radio, while CBCOne radio had a great many talk shows and a less eclectic music menu. Those days are gone. CBCOne is still the talk network, offers up its usual mundane music, and a few repeat programs of a classical nature, but CBCTwo is now a mishmash of classical and non-classical, often all on the same programs, during the daytime. In the evenings, hardly any classical is to be had. Programs like Canada Wide at 8:00 p.m. are as likely to feature folk music as classical. It seems, the Ceeb's powers-that-be, believe that folk music is of equal value as classical, and hence should appear on the same programs as classical. What's more, we now get more than a dash of ethnic music mixed in, and even rock now and then. It is all in an effort to attract a younger listenership—at least so we think.

For those of us, who cannot abide folk music of any kind, be it indigenous or ethnic (meaning folk music from other nations), this mix of music grates on the ear. It isn't that we want listeners to be deprived of their ethnic music, but surely there are other venues for this. While at one time Jurgen Gothe's DiscDrive was the only program on CBCTwo to feature a mixture of different types of music—with a few really good and unusual jokes mixed in—this concept has been transferred to almost every daytime program. And sadly, these days, Jurgen has very few jokes. He sounds rather sober, and his program just isn't what it used to be, so we seldom listen to him now after having been with him from the very beginning.

After six o'clock, CBCTwo gives us Jazz. Now, we do love Jazz—notice, we like to capitalize the word— but we find this kind of music is counterproductive during the ride home. It is bad enough to be caught in traffic, but to listen to music that arouses rather than soothes, seems a bad idea, and can lead only to an increase in the desire for road rage.

We have done a little checking among those we know and trust. Those people we have spoken to, who do not have to sit in latish rush-hour traffic, six o'clock also does not seem the right time for Jazz. Jazz is the kind of music you want when you sit down with a glass of brandy or the like after dinner. It fails totally as dinner music or pre-dinner entertainment because most people, who are at home, are at that point rushing around to get dinner on the table. The Ceeb has completely missed its mark there. Where, in the deuces did the Ceeb get the idea that 6:00 p.m. is a good time for Jazz? We are puzzled.

Once totally loyal to CBCTwo, we have now turned off this station as it has become an irritant rather than an inspiration. As we work here at our little company, we now listen over the internet to a wonderful radio station from England. And if we find that the connection at times is not so swift, we switch over to the USA's PBS radio network for our music. As for the local Toronto commercial classical station—we won't mention its call letters here—we have given up on it as well because its new owner(s) prefers commercials to music. Sorry, we are not entertained by commercials, nor inspired by them.

There was a time when we could boast of the fine music we could find on our radio stations in the Toronto area. Not anymore. We are slowly joining the European Union countries such as Italy, who have given up on classical music radio all together. Let us hope it will not come to that here, but we are certainly heading in that direction. For whatever reasons—be they to attract a younger demographic listenership, or to be politically correct (classical music is seen by some as being elitist, by others it is seen as pushing aside ethnic music)—our favorite music is no longer given the kind of value it deserves.

At one time we fought hard to ensure that the Ceeb got tax money to present programs, especially radio programs of value, but we now have turned from being friends of the network to being the opposite. CBC TV never had our attention. There has not been a program of value for a long time on the TV network, although we check now and then to make sure. On occasion we have been tempted to watch a late Friday night movie on CBC TV, but have now given up on that as well because the amount of commercial breaks ruins the flow of even the most mediocre film, let alone one of value. No thanks, CBC. We can do without your efforts.

What also annoys us personally is that like everyone else in this country, we pay taxes for a 24-hour cable news network program on the CBC called Newsworl, but we cannot see it. We are also deeply upset that the CBC has introduced three new speciality channels: 'Documentary Channel', 'Country Canada', and 'artv' to which we do not have access. Why? Because where we are situated, no one wants to serve us with cable, so we are unable to watch programs for which we pay heavy taxes. Hence, if anyone were to ask us about increasing subsidies to the CBC through taxes, we would unhesitatingly reply that we are all in favor of cutting subsidies to the corporation. We are not well served by it.

Just in case someone feels inclined to point out that there can be plenty of Internet classical music content to be had from the CBC, we are not interested in having our computers run at night to listen to classical music. We can use CDs, if need be, and they won't be from CBC Records, to be sure.