so long, Brave New Waves
This morning brings official word from the CBC that, after almost exactly 23 years changing the lives of teenagers in backwater towns everywhere, Brave New Waves on late night radio is no more. There were some ambiguous mumblings that the show will continue as a podcast, and on CBC's Sirius satellite channels, but no further details are forthcoming.update: follow the discussion as it evolves on the CBC blog here. Also: the official word, plus some critique here and here. Hand-wringing here.
This CP wire story began circulating yesterday and was picked up by many papers, confirming details from the CBC Radio 2 redevelopment procedure that began at least a year ago (the initial timeline had all of these changes taking place in September of 2006 - the new launch date is set for two months from now:, March 19, 2007).
Among the changes: Jazzbeat's Katie Malloch (who makes a mean Kazakhstan cocktail, btw) is moving to a daily format; her new show will be airing during the supper hour. Jian Ghomeshi will be hosting a daily arts magazine program. Matt Galloway, music critic and broadcaster whom I've long admired (and was motivated to write a fan letter about to CBC audience relations after his first fill-in) will be hosting a daily live music show in the early evening, replacing In Performance. Laurie Brown will be helming the late evening music time slot with a "new show of contemporary Canadian compositions, electronica and other subgenres." Hmm, sounds familiar, don't it?
And, as The Globe and Mail gleefully trumpets, Freestyle is dead. We breathe a collective sigh of relief. But Guy Dixon, where is your love for The Waves?
* * *
Since I filled in for the first hour of Brave New Waves for a few weeks last fall I've received dozens of inquiries about the future of the show, most asking frantically "where's Patti?!" I wasn't able to give a satisfactory answer because I was never really properly told what was happening, but I was well aware that the show's days were numbered. Early in 2006 contracts weren't renewed, staff departed, and Brave New Waves ceased broadcasting any new material. Its 'underground goodbye' occurred on May 27, 2006 (I listened from the southern edge of the Canadian shield, huddled between a fire and a beat-up portable radio. It was a heartbreaking tribute to late night radio obsessives, and concluded with a roll call of everyone who'd ever worked on the show).
After years of rumours of the show's demise (Mr. Zoilus had reported what he knew here and here) it wasn't the dignified, public, celebratory farewell that the show deserved. I only hope that now that it is official, the powers that be allow the show to say a proper, proud goodbye. It was our John Peel show. These things are important.
I am hugely grateful for the brief few weeks I spent on that ship, and I want to thank everyone who made it possible, and who wrote me such nice letters. I only wish that the experience had been less like being mostly already completely underwater.
posted by Spitz at 12:11 PM
14 Comments:
I shed a tear when they stopped broadcasting new shows, and I shed another now that it's official. I grew up with BNW and much of my musical knowledge and tastes developed from the show. I don't like when good things die. I hope, really hope, that this change turns out to be for the best.
WOW. While I can see why the Mothercorp wants to rearrange things, this is undoubtedly a big kick in the proverbial nuts for me. Probably the biggest ever, mainly because BNW was the only thing I have carried from childhood to adulthood. I've listened to it as a curious preteen, and as a working adult (on the night shift, natch). The influence it has on my life and musical choices is something that won't ever go away, and I'm so grateful for it. Thanks for giving us the details, Helen, and you did a nice job hosting.
I heard of some much crazy amazing strange and wonderful music through BNW, and I will sorely miss it. Driving home from any late weeknight, BNW was always the immediate and obvious choice to accompany me.
Was the last show recorded at all?
don't know what happened with that comment, but it doesn't make much sense.... you get the point tho.``
Sorry, I never got to hear you when you were on Brave New Waves. Did you happen to do any of the artist profiles? Just to fawn over Patti Schmidt for a moment, I thought there was nothing purer than to hear Patti speak during the artist profiles. That voice. I miss those most about Brave New Waves. I hope BNW continues in one form or another though, at the very least as a podcast.
I'm sure that last show (the May 27th one) is in the archives somewhere. We have a staticky cassette tape recording, which seems appropriate somehow ...
I've uploaded a recording of the May 27, 2006 BNW show here:
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=360EO9F0. It's a pretty low quality recording. I recorded it off the Windows Media live stream and then saved it in Ogg Vorbis format. You'll need something like Winamp to play it.
Thanks for the link!
Although my intrests usually lay towards the classical side of things, I'd often listen to Brave New Waves or Radio 3. Sometimes it seems as though the whole point of Radio 2 is to find a "target" audience and fail to cater to them, while alienating current listeners. And then something magically does well, like Radio 3's website, so they decide they'd better kill it.
It's quite depressing.
hey anonymous 2: I'm not down with the ogg vorbis (what player would I use on a mac?) though I do love the whole idea behind the format, and obviously just saying "ogg vorbis" totally rules. Is there any way you can ftp me a .wav? or provide mac-oriented pointers -- email me si tu peux.
Unfortunately I don't have the original recording in .wav format anymore. I could convert the ogg file to wav, but it would be 1.7 GB and wouldn't sound any better. Let me know if you really want to go this route. I don't use a Mac, but if you have OS X, I'd try using VLC to play ogg files. (I've used it for Windows and Linux.)
http://www.videolan.org/vlc/download-macosx.html
There's a couple of other alternatives for OS X listed here:
http://www.vorbis.com/setup_osx/
In my opinion BNW provided the blueprint for quality eclectic musical programming. Even the reruns are ahead of their time and will/would continue to be for years to come. BNW has taught me more about music and enriched and expanded my musical landscape more than any other program (on CBC or anywhere else for that matter), so much so that it even inspired me to become a volunteer radio programmer on CJSW in Calgary. The staggering variety and the consistently high standard of quality of the music heard on BNW is unmatched on any other music program I know of. Patti Schmidt’s commentary was always incredibly well researched, intelligent, informative, and interesting in contrast to the inflated egos, vapid gum-flapping and surmising of most other cbc popular music radio personalities. Her delivery was sharp, witty, efficient and oh so easy on the ears (what a great voice!)
For me, BNW was at the top of the 'outside music' food chain. It was the ultimate gatekeeper/filter and guide to the best in groundbreaking, new, truly original music from all over the world. I would wager that it was the best program of its’ type anywhere in the world. It provided a service to its’ listeners that is unique and irreplaceable. As a 23-year-old institution I’m sure that the BNW team headed by Schmidt amassed a wealth of contacts, experience, credibility and a reputation for excellence within the worldwide underground music community that will now be lost.
BNW should have been given a better time slot, not cancelled. The program exemplified what the CBC should be doing: delivering cutting edge world-class art and culture that isn't readily available to people across Canada, using the public airwaves (not via a commercial user-fee-based satellite radio service).
The way the program is being killed is demeaning, shameful and insulting to it's dedicated fan base. In the shadow of Schmidt’s BNW the dreck of the current 12-1am fill-in is painful to listen to and should not be called Brave New Waves. If Patti were dead I expect she would be rolling in her grave.
I cannot think of a more valuable music program provided by the CBC than Brave New Waves. What a huge loss.
ermm, I guess it shouldn't matter since I'm anonymous, but I ("anonymous 2") didn't write the previous comment. I actually think the new hosts have been doing a pretty good job...
I didn't take it personally - I found it kind of amusing. (On an entirely technical note, boys and girls, you can come out from under the cover of anonymity by clicking on 'other'. Don't try, do!)
and anonymous 3: even though you didn't like me on the radio, I really wholeheartedly agree with yr sentiments. I do agree that BNW proper ended with that last show in May, and it should have been called something else thereafter. For my part I tried to respect the spirit of the show, sans staff or adequate resources, because more than anything - more than the looming cancellation or the changes or my own g-damn career - I was worried about the audience. vrai.
As the poster of the lengthy anonymous post, I should apologize; I should have been more specific in my bashing of the “other cbc popular music radio personalities“ and current 12-1am hosts. I was referring to the radio 3 & R330 hosts and the current 12-1am host (Joshua Karpati?) I vaguely remember Bent Bambri’s BNW but now find his Go program unbearable most of the time. Way too much egotistic trendy of the-moment yelpy dancey white-bread indie rock and effort on the hosts’ part to be funny, cute, witty, etc. They just don’t have ‘it’ and listening to them and their lame musical selections is annoying and pales in comparison to the refinement and quality of Patti’s BNW. (In their defence, as an amateur broadcaster I certainly don’t have ‘it’ either, but at least I try to shut up and let the music play.)
I have not heard Helen’s segments but based on her writings here and what I have heard elsewhere (our ex-music director spoke highly of her) I am sure there was much less ego conveyed and the musical selections were better.
It has been said elsewhere that cancelling BNW is like cancelling John Peel. I couldn’t agree more.
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