APRIL 8, 2008

       Have you watched the CBC in the last week? Have you watched the CBC in the last month?

       If you’re like the majority of people I asked, you’ve only recently watched the publicly funded television network because of curling tournaments.

       When I was in school and did an internship at the local station, my parents always criticized it because “it’s a waste of money” and made fun of the CBC because “nobody watches it” and “there’s nothing good on it.” But my how that opinion changes when curling is on.

       For years I defended the station saying it was good for national pride and Canadian heritage, considering the type of programming the network runs. Now I wonder why exactly we taxpayers have to dish out so much money to keep alive the government-run media outlet that nobody seems to know is there.

       Salaries of CBC staff are astronomical. It would take working three years at “regular” job to sometimes equal the pay of a CBC staffer. In school we were told, “If you can get a job at the CBC, you’re set,” meaning it’s cushy work and the money is great.

       Whose money is it anyway? Ours.

       Despite funding decreases and the lack of public interest, I wonder why we have things like CBC-TV, CBC Newsworld, CBC Country Canada, bold, documentary, CBC Radio One, CBC Radio Two, CBC Radio Three, Radio-Canada and so on.

       If the random sample of people I approached is any indication of the public’s interest in “our” network, there really isn’t a need to keep growing the CBC in the hopes of finding a true ticket the public would be interested in. From what I’ve been told, people only tune in to CBC programming for sports coverage.

       Maybe it’s time to sell off the network and slowly gear it to sports fanatics instead of the less- popular arts community. Strange that there hasn’t been a CBC all-sports channel but every other form of 24-hour programming nobody cares about.