CBC Music
CBC Music is a non-commercial Canadian FM radio network operated by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. It began by primarily concentrating on classical and jazz music. In 2007 and 2008, the network transitioned towards a new "adult music" format with a variety of genres, reducing classical to six hours in middays. In 2009, Radio 2 averaged 2.1 million listeners weekly; it was the second-largest radio network in Canada.
History
Launch
The CBC's FM network was launched in 1946, but was strictly a simulcast of the AM radio network until 1960. In that year, distinct programming on the FM network began. It was discontinued in 1962, but resumed again in 1964.In November 1971, the CBC filed license applications for new English-language FM stations in St. John's, Halifax, and Calgary; and in French in Quebec City, Ottawa, and Chicoutimi. It told the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission that it intended to start a second "more extended and more leisurely" program service on its FM stations, tentatively to be called "Radio Two".
On November 3, 1975, the FM network was renamed CBC Stereo; this was to distinguish it from the AM network, known as CBC Radio.
In the early 1990s, the CBC began offering selected programs on the Internet, most notably CBC Stereo's RealTime. In September 1996, the corporation formally launched live audio streaming of both CBC Radio and CBC Stereo.
Since the 1980s, many of the AM CBC Radio stations moved to FM due to the limitations of AM broadcasting; as such, in 1997 the CBC renamed the networks CBC Radio One and CBC Radio Two. There are only a few CBC Radio stations still operating on the AM band in Canada, primarily in the West.
For much of its history, its programming focused on arts and culture, and primarily consisted of programs devoted to opera, classical music, jazz and theatre. Some programming devoted to Canadian pop and indie rock music was also aired, via the Saturday night CBC Radio 3 simulcast and predecessors such as RadioSonic, Night Lines, and the late-night programme Brave New Waves.
2007 format change
In 2006, speculation arose that Radio Two programming would undergo a format and name change, similar to that which its French counterpart Espace musique undertook in 2004; however, no plans were announced until January 2007. These changes, which took effect March 19, resulted in a tighter focus on music – still primarily classical but also including jazz, world music, and live music of all types. The length and frequency of newscasts, which had essentially duplicated those heard on Radio One, was reduced dramatically. The 2007 revamp also resulted in a subtle name change from Radio Two to Radio 2.In March 2008, the CBC announced plans to complete the transformation of Radio 2, significantly altering its daytime programming lineup. These plans resulted in the "New Radio 2", starting September 2, 2008. In essence, the morning and afternoon drive programs, which had focused almost exclusively on classical music, were replaced with new shows featuring a wider range of genres. The goal, according to the CBC, was to increase exposure of musicians and genres, other than classical and jazz, which received little airtime on private radio.
Concomitantly, four web radio streams – all-classical, jazz, singer-songwriter, and "Canadian composer" – were introduced.
On June 10, the CBC announced that hosts associated with the new programming would include Julie Nesrallah, Molly Johnson and Rich Terfry.
Reception
There was a vocal, negative response to these changes from a variety of sources connected with the community ranging from Facebook to blogs to newspaper columnists. National protests were also held at CBC facilities across the country. However, the move drew support from other corners of the cultural community, noting in many cases the low ratings of the existing service. Among the supporters were several critically acclaimed artists who would benefit from the changes.While critics, particularly Globe and Mail columnist Russell Smith, raised the spectre of the network airing mainstream pop artists such as Nelly Furtado and The Black Eyed Peas, the network's popular music component consists almost exclusively of artists who would be classified as adult album alternative, folk, world music or singer-songwriter pop – and very few of whom receive any airplay whatsoever on commercial radio. For instance, on one representative day in 2009, Radio 2 Morning's "pop" playlist included Feist, John Mayer, Blue Rodeo, Sloan, Neil Young, Whiskeytown, Spirit of the West, Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings, Joni Mitchell, Matthew Barber, Eleni Mandell, Skydiggers, Billy Bragg, Jeremy Fisher, Jim Bryson, The Be Good Tanyas, The Duhks, Sarah Slean, Stephen Fearing, Melissa McClelland, Cowboy Junkies, Howie Beck and the Band.
On May 2, 2008, the president of the CBC and the director of programming attended a meeting of the Parliamentary Standing Committee for Canadian Heritage. There appeared to be opposition to the movement away from classical music on Radio 2 from MPs of all three main parties represented on the committee. Committee members Bill Siksay and Ed Fast were particularly opposed to the programming changes. The committee voted unanimously to hold further hearings specifically on the CBC Radio 2 changes in September 2008.
Despite the controversy, the format change was successful for the network, which maintained a consistent overall audience while lowering the average age of its listenership from 65 to 52 in January 2010.
2010s
On February 6, 2018, the CBC announced that Radio 2 would be rebranded as CBC Music, aligning with the branding of the corporation's music website and digital audio service.2020s
During the COVID-19 pandemic in Canada, the service temporarily shifted to a playlist of exclusively Canadian music, to help support Canadian musicians impacted by the cancellations of their concert tours.Distribution
The network is not as widely available across Canada as Radio One. While Radio One is available in most communities across Canada regardless of size and primary language, CBC Music for the most part is available only in larger cities. Only 14 transmitters across Canada are licensed as originating stations within the network, compared to over 30 for Radio One, although some additional cities are also served by rebroadcasters of one of the originating stations. The service is provided in some form to virtually all of Canada's major cities and all provincial capitals. CBC Music also has a more consistent national schedule than Radio One; currently the originating stations produce only limited regional programming, such as weather updates. In the past these stations would also air local news summaries or a daily calendar of local arts and culture events; this was dropped in 2007. CBH-FM in Halifax produces an additional regional music program for the Atlantic Canada region, due to a scheduling hole caused by the time zone difference.In some smaller communities, especially in rural northern British Columbia, community groups have been licensed to rebroadcast a CBC Music station on a local low-power radio transmitter. These transmitters are owned by the community group rather than the network; the station so not have any original programming at all.
On satellite, the network's programming can also be heard on Bell Satellite TV and Shaw Direct. Unlike Radio One and Radio 3, CBC Music is not carried by SiriusXM Satellite Radio; the CRTC requires that a "Canadian" channel must carry 85% Canadian musical content, a requirement that has not been imposed on the terrestrial network. Even so, a handful of programs that did meet this criterion, such as Deep Roots, have aired on Radio One's Sirius XM feed ; for a period in the mid-2010s, CBC Music also programmed a separate service for SiriusXM, CBC Music Sonica, which was devoted exclusively to Canadian music. This channel was later discontinued.
CBC Music is also available via the internet in webradio and podcast form. Between October 2013 and September 2016, access to the network's domestic internet streams was blocked for listeners outside Canada. The CBC stated that they were not allowed to broadcast advertising outside of Canada. Two ad-free streams – Eastern International and Pacific International – were made available for international users. On these streams, commercials were replaced with CBC promos and other filler content. After the CRTC ordered the CBC to stop broadcasting ads on the network in 2016, international users have regained access to all five domestic streams.
Stations
Only stations which are licensed as "originating stations" within the network are listed here. Some stations also have rebroadcasters in smaller outlying markets; these are listed in each station's separate article.Former affiliates
- Kentville, Nova Scotia - CKWM-FM - disaffiliated in 1988.
- London, Ontario - CFPL-FM - disaffiliated in 1972.
- Red Deer, Alberta - CKRD-FM - disaffiliated in 1981.
Website
The service was launched shortly after the CBC reached a music licensing deal with the Audio-Video Licensing Agency in January 2012. The site was one of the first large-scale ventures into online broadcasting to be available in Canada since the launch of Iceberg Radio in 1997; at the time of CBC Music's launch, popular international ventures such as Pandora or Spotify remained unavailable to Canadian consumers.
A similar site, IciMusique.ca, is also offered by CBC Music's French-language counterpart Ici Musique.
Shortly after the service's launch, Stingray Digital filed a complaint with the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission, alleging that the CBC's access to government funding gave it an unfair competitive advantage over private for-profit services. Noting that the CBC pays the same copyright royalties to SOCAN as the competing services and that it places a much greater emphasis on Canadian content than the commercial services, the CRTC dismissed the complaint in August 2012.
In December 2013, the site also launched the first issue of CBC Music Magazine, an e-magazine distributed in both iOS and Android formats. The magazine is no longer published.
With the rebranding of Radio 2 in 2018, the website is considered to be part of the radio network's operations rather than a distinct division of the CBC, although the individual genre streams and Radio 3 are still provided. The CBC Music streaming platform was replaced by CBC Listen in 2019.