On June 19th one of my favourite podcasts, CBC’s Search Engine, announced they were being taken off the air. I was so upset I started a Facebook group, Saving CBC’s Search Engine, which managed to attract over 800 other unhappy fans of the show.
Search Engine tackles some of the most important issues facing Canadians in the Digital Age. Their motto was “We predict the present”.
A handful of people from the Facebook group were very active posting to the discussion board: Kempton Lam, a management consultant, documentary filmmaker and blogger, was supportive, devoted and miltant in his embrace of the cause. Dil Hildebrand created the “Free Jesse” graphic. A number of high profile bloggers posted links to the group, including Michael Geist of Fair Copyright for Canada, and Cory Doctorow of Boing Boing.
All these people, and many more, contributed to making the group what it was.
In spite of our best efforts, Search Engine will not be returning as a radio show. But the podcast and blog will go on. In fact, the podcast resumes today (Monday Sept. 15). What’s more, I was invited to sit down with Jesse Brown, the host of the show, and Chris Boyce, the Executive Director of Programming (Radio), to discuss the cancellation and perhaps bring some clarification to how the podcast will operate going forward. And this discussion will be on the podcast.
Fair warning: my college radio course was a long time ago. (I remember dodging dinosaurs on the way to class.) I don’t know how well this will come out. (Yes, I’m a little nervous.) But I am a media whore, and it wouldn’t have been a good idea to stand between me and that microphone.
Enjoy the podcast. The podcast feed, in case you want to subscribe, is here.
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