CBC Montreal Is Messing Things Up: Why I Hardly Ever Listen to Radio One Any More

First it was the gutting of programing on Radio Two, and now for reasons that are unclear to me, the Radio One programing in Montreal has reached new lows.

The Montreal service lost one of its most valuable and interesting hosts nearly two years ago when Anne Lagacé Dowson of Radio Noon took a leap into politics for the NDP. As soon as she announced her candidacy she was put on leave, and then essentially forced to resign after the election in December 2008. At the moment she hosts a show on commercial radio on Saturday afternoons: having her is a coup for the station, and a boost to CJAD's listener numbers.

Her replacement on Radio Noon was Sue Smith, who is operating in an hour time slot, whereas Anne had two hours. Smith doesn't bring as much depth to the show as Dowson but I frequently listened because some interesting topics were touched on. Home Run has old political hand Bernard St. Laurent as host, and he knows something about everything which makes the show worth listening too.

Lately though, it seems that the local CBC radio bosses have tossed everything up in the air. St. Laurent is on Radio Noon this week, Smith is on Home Run, and Jeanette Kelly, a quite good arts reporter,is hosting on the morning show, Daybreak. This last program has been without a regular host for months, and is simply not worth listening too ever, and Kelly, who knows the music, arts, literary and theatre scenes extremely well, seems to have been given no support at all for a show that should set the tone for the listening day.

Where is Kelly Rice, the classical music guy? Why did Home Run spend valuable resources to send Sonali Karnak to Pittsburgh and Philadelphia to report on the hockey series? Who is running the show? Just what is the game plan?

Don't know. In the meantime, I listen more and more frequently to Radio Canada programing where, so far at least, intelligence can be found.