03 Apr Cheapening the brand

CBC led its hourly radio newscasts this morning with a headline touting the release of the Apple iPad. Well, so did Contrarian; No complaint there. But it turns out the headline was only a teaser. Listeners had to wait ’til the last item in the newscast before hearing about Steve Jobs’s latest gift to early adopters. And before getting there, they had to sit through a one minute-40 second “news story” about a CBNC contest to pick Canada’s most hockey-crazed town.

The humiliating chore of filling, oh, 20 percent of the radio service’s flagship morning newscasts with this witless advertorial fell to Teddy Katz, a CBC newsman who specializes in sports reporting. Nothing personal against Katz, who is, I’m sure, a capable reporter, but this is really top-40 radio territory. Unworthy of a once solid news organization.