This Week’s Podcast: Three Chairs for CBC

CBC made a big mistake by overselling their news makeover Monday and are they paying for it this week. All the outrage on the Internet, you’d think Mansbridge had lied about hiding a kid in a balloon.
Everybody seems convinced CBC News stands for nothing now that Mansbridge won’t sit down (especially the Legion of Decency’s always readable Jim Henshaw, who feels CBC has basically stopped covering the news after Monday’s zippy premiere).
The trouble started with all those pricey, full page, coast-to-coast ads proclaiming the dawn of a new news era. D’oh! It was like the Leafs promising a playoff team at the start of the season and then losing seven in a row. They both set themselves up for a big fall.
Naturally, Scott Thompson wanted to pick at that in this week’s CHML News Radio podcast. We both agree that it could have been worse, that there have been no CNN-style hologram gimmicks on the new news set–yet.
We also talk about my chat with Bill Maher who was in Toronto last week to help mark the first anniversary of HBO Canada. And then–prompted by the passing of Soupy Sales–there’s way too much talk about Commander Tom, Rocketship 7 and all those crazy Buffalo-based kiddie shows I sat glued to as a child. I even spill the beans about a current prime time series headliner who is the real life son of Rocketship 7 and Dialing for Dollars host Dave Thomas (above, with Promo the Robot and the gang). You’ll feel like a bone head when you find out who it is. You can listen in here, but for gawdssakes, don’t stand and listen, sit down!