CBC Management Letter

Here's a sample of the CBC Management Letter sent to folks who protested the summer programming. 


Dear ....

Our Executive Vice President Heather Conway has asked me to respond to your email as I am the person directly responsible for CBC Radio and Audio.

Thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts on our CBC Radio programming, in particular this Summer's Radio One schedule. We genuinely appreciate receiving feedback as it helps to inform the decisions we make about our content.

Let me start by saying I'm sorry to hear that you are disappointed in CBC Radio but, rest assured, we spend the vast majority of our Radio budget on current affairs programming which includes The Current, As It Happens, Sunday Edition, Day6, Quirks, and Ideas. I'm proud to say it's been an award winning year.

We will continue to be there when it counts as we were this Summer with the B.C. wildfires. As you know, both our flagship journalistic show The Current, as well as our local teams, have provided outstanding on the ground coverage.

Our current affairs programming continues to cover subjects such as the tensions with North Korea, the influx of refugees, protests across this country, climate change, and the economy. That has not, and will not, change.

By way of background, and specifically to your concerns, the Summer schedule is in part about both experimentation and developing ideas, people, and programming. Every year for the past two decades, Summer has been a chance to explore new perspectives, voices and to try different approaches in storytelling. Simply put, a public broadcaster that does not innovate and try new things will not survive in these changing times.

While some of the Summer shows have not been to your taste, it has been a highly successful Summer season with audience increases of 15-percent on Radio One and 36 percent in streaming. More people are listening to CBC Radio content and in more ways.

As the public broadcaster, we offer a wide range of programming designed to appeal to multiple audiences and please know that ongoing, extensive research and careful consideration goes into every decision. We regularly engage in program reviews to determine how to improve our shows and whether to replace or renew.

Our Summer schedule is now winding down; the new Fall schedule begins after Labour Day and we will have more to say about that lineup in the coming days including the expansion of one of our top, yes intelligent, journalistic shows.

Thank you again for taking the time to express your views; your engagement with and passion for CBC Radio is important to me. I have shared your note with our programmers and your views along with other sources of input from audience members and staff will inform our ongoing conversations.

Take care, Susan