The Globe and Mail
Ten days before he was fired, Jian Ghomeshi and his CBC Radio One show Q were on top of the world. They had travelled to Los Angeles for a live taping at the Broad Stage Theatre, featuring interviews with celebrities Zach Galifianakis, Martin Short, Sandra Oh, singer-songwriter Jenny Lewis and others. For Mr. Ghomeshi and his local hosts, Southern California Public Radio, the live show was supposed to be a high point after a year of building its presence in a city they saw as a rich potential source of both high-profile guests and listeners.
“I added [Q] maybe a year ago, and then invited them down to do a live show as a way to build audience and connect with the people who were enjoying it,” said Collin Campbell, the managing editor for broadcast at SCPR, which programs three stations.
But when CBC management removed Mr. Ghomeshi from his show last Sunday, SCPR was left in the dark, as listeners who heard the news on Twitter and Facebook began calling its stations to find out what was going on.
Mr. Campbell eventually heard from CBC executives, but he’s not the only one wondering how the CBC moves forward without the charismatic host in which it had invested so much of its energies and its hopes for the future. Mr. Ghomeshi’s show, which is heard on 180 U.S. public radio stations, as well as a handful of U.S. TV stations, was one of the few bright spots for a broadcaster beset in recent years by federal budget cuts, changing audience habits and attacks by partisan critics.
“It’s devastating, because Q was a big name, and it was a success story in a place where we have had very few success stories, and success stories are important right now,” said one long-time radio producer in the current-affairs department.
The show was not as big a success as is widely perceived: its average listenership in Canada was about 280,000 in September, and in the U.S. its average quarter-hour listenership last spring was only 137,000. Still, it was gaining international traction and bringing in revenue from license fees, prompting managers to see Q as one model for the future of CBC’s radio operations.
Still, while CBC’s television operations have been stalling, especially after the loss of rights to NHL games, radio has flourished.“Radio was the little jewel, right?” the producer added. “We’re doing wonderfully, we’re growing and putting out great stuff and the country was supportive of us – and then this happens? It just makes you feel sick, and people are wondering what they indirectly supported.”
On Monday, CBC staff worked feverishly to erase any trace of the host. After an oversized portrait of Mr. Ghomeshi in the Canadian Broadcast Centre in Toronto was whitewashed, his visage and name were removed from the Q website and social-media feeds. On Tuesday, when guest Lynn Cunningham appeared for an interview, a producer had difficulty bringing her a drink of water because all the show’s branded mugs had been removed from the studio.
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“A producer had difficulty bringing her a drink of water because all the show’s branded mugs had been removed from the studio”. The paragraph should have continued “The staffer later needed crisis counseling to come to grips with having to purchase their own mugs in the future”.
This SCTV skit from the 80’s is as relevant today as it ever was concerning what’s wrong with the CBC. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KW7XAsua5wc
Y’know.. given the state of the world these days, you gotta be glad that we live in a country that has so few real problems that we can get all bent outta shape about this.
Bent outtta shape? Wow. Not sure what country you come from airradio, perhaps a country where this sort of thing is condoned. I for one have totally changed my opinion about this guy.
Like many when this story broke just a week ago I showed my support for Ghomeshi. It turns out my support was premature.
airradio,
I think you might feel different if this scumbag smacked your sister or daughter in the head and then tried to sexually assault them.
Can we all just turn out the lights on this one? It’s getting far too much airtime. Let’s do a story when he is through his Court case. The we can put it to bed forever.