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Monday, May 24, 2004

Good use of the internet

Howdy!

There's this program on CBC Radio One called The Arts Today and as it is broadcast at ten o'clock in the evening, I find it difficult to fit into my schedule. They regularly talk with people like AA Bronson, Rodney Graham, Jaap Brakke (a curator with the Drents Museum in the Netherlands) Maxwell Bates, and Dominique Blain which means I'd really like to hear it.

Now, the CBC website apparently has archiving capabilities, and there is a link from "The Arts Today" web page which states (in its entirety) "Listen to the latest program." Sounds cool, right? I should be able to listen to the shows when I have time and/or am awake. Unfortunately, when you click on the link it then states "The audio file which you have requested is not available online. We regret that we are no longer able to provide this audio file and apologize for any inconvenience it may cause." Ok, you're thinking this is just me being cranky. Well, you might be right, but I figure that the CBC should be able to figure out how this thing called the internet works.

The only reason I bring it up, is that I also listen to a radio station from Jersey City, New Jersey, called WFMU. They have a program called "The Speakeasy with Dorian." It is similar to "The Arts Today" in that Dorian talks with people like Alexis Rockman, Chuck Close, James Rosenquist, and Malcolm Daniel, Curator of photographs at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. WFMU has an annual budget of under $1 million, or by my guess less than 2% of the CBC's budget for English radio. However WFMU somehow has been able to archive all the Speakeasy shows and they archive them about two hours after the show has been broadcast.

How is it that a tiny radio station in Podunk can accomplish what the CBC can't?

The Alexis Rockman show
The Chuck Close show
The James Rosenquist show
The Marshall Arisman show
The Malcolm Daniel show
The Matthew Barney show

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