Freyburg

Jane Chalmers, the head of CBC Radio, has resigned after five years on the job, citing a “major midlife redesign.” Every time the CBC revamps, which it inevitably will with this development, I get worried. Mothercorp always decides they need to target the youth market, make a bunch of shows no-one wants to listen to, and then repeats the process a year later. There are notable exceptions…Search Engine and Spark, both new shows, are pretty decent, and the CBC seems to have finally figured out that CBC Radio 3 does a fine job of appealing to a certain set of youth (the ones that like good music and hate Nickelback) and have left it to do its thing.

Plus, I listen to CBC almost exclusively via podcasts (along with, quite frankly, most of my media consumption.) So as long as they don’t screw up their online offerings, I’ll be happy. Meantime, keep up with all the goings-on at CBC at Inside the CBC, the official Mothercorp blog.

Fort McMurray is a boom town built on a vast sea of oil, and the number one reason Alberta is the prime driver of the Canadian economy. It’s also a violent, anything goes place, full of rig pigs, pickup trucks and people out to make many fast bucks. The Guardian sent their environmental reporter to the Mac to see just how much stress the rapid growth and rampant industry is putting on people and the environment.