Big changes going on at CBC

Going through a weekend like the one when post hurricane Noel stomped across the Maritimes was made certainly easier by having CBC Radio hand out the latest weather information live. The radio dial is the first thing I turn to in the morning, starting out with Information Morning and switching over to Tom Allen on Radio 2. As winter closes in up to date weather is valuable, but I also appreciate the personal touch of the CBC crew, especially Stan Carew's eclectic weekend approach.

So my attention was caught by the e-mail from the watchdog group Friends of Canadian Broadcasting expressing concern about the appointment of Montreal media lawyer Hubert Lacroix to replace Robert Rabinovitch as head of the CBC. Admittedly, Lacroix does have a bit of broadcast experience, having worked for Radio-Canada as a commentator for basketball during the Olympic Games in 1984, 1988 and 1996.

Primarily, media watchers expressed reservations about the way the new president was selected. "(Lacroix) appears to have a very slender connection with actually running a broadcasting organization, but that doesn't make the appointment any worse than the appointments of his immediate predecessors," said Ian Morrison of the Friends.

Essentially Morrison said the major concern is that Lacroix was Prime Minister Stephen Harper's personally selected appointee, as Rabinovitch had been Jean Chrétien's man. The process, he argued, goes against a 2003 recommendation of the House of Commons standing committee on Canadian heritage. “It should be the board of directors that hires and fires the president - not the prime minister,” he said. “The public requires the public broadcaster to be independent from political influence.”

The public broadcasting mandate is to provide quality programming that is compelling and relevant and, of course, Canadians will argue about just how to come up with big audiences and large revenues. “This is not a job that I'm going to do by myself,” Lacroix said after the announcement. "This is all about the team. It's not about one person."

Interestingly Elections Canada records indicate Lacroix donated $1,000 to Daniel Fournier, the 2006 Conservative candidate in the Montreal riding of Outremont. “If you're named by a certain party do you have an obligation to the party?” Morrison asked. “The CBC president should be above party politics like the BBC president and most other public broadcasting networks in the world. “I honestly cannot see a big private network like CTV hiring somebody without TV production or marketing experience,” Morrison added. “It just wouldn't be done. CBC needs to be completely competitive these days.” And as one CBC veteran producer of Lacroix “he’s an enigma.”

At the same time in a surprise move, Jane Chalmers, the head of CBC English radio, who championed the public

broadcaster's re-emphasis on regional and local news, announced she is retiring after five years.

A major force in Canadian radio, Chalmers said she left for personal reasons. However, as she was widely credited

by industry insiders as being a major force backing local programming, we’ll be watching and listening and praying the CBC mandate stays in effect.