One of CBC radio’s best offerings, a weekly documentary on the history of marketing and public relations, is not in the fall 2008 schedule. That’s right… The Age of Persuasion will go back into remission, falling into the down curve of the on-again-off-again nature of the show as accepted by the program’s cult following.

Fortunately, the back catalog from 2007 is being trickled out on the show’s website which goes to show you that in this topsy-turvy world of terrestrial radio and digital media, there are many opportunities for disappointment and excitement in The Age of Persuasion.

Yesterday I reported that Daniele Rossi (Stuttering is Cool), Melinda Mason (My Marilyn) and I will be on the Friday edition of CBC’s Sounds Like Canada.  Unfortunately, we’ve been rescheduled for Monday (June 23).

Daniele Rossi (Stuttering is Cool), Melinda Mason (My Marilyn) and I will be on the Friday edition of CBC’s Sounds Like Canada with current host Kathryn Gretsinger.  We’ll be talking about being independent producers of audio content and this weekend’s Podcasters Across Borders conference in Kingston, Ontario.

Turn your radios to CBC Radio 1 this Friday between 10:00am and 11:00am.

Nora Young and the production team of CBC Radio’s Spark have published this video which explains the origins and inner workings of their fantastic radio show — with only a bit of humour.

I recently subscribed to CBC’s Search Engine and I’m making my way through the back catalog of episodes so I admit this post may be ill timed. I’m Long Tailing.

Today I listened to the September 20th edition of Search Engine in which host Jesse Brown spoke to Stockwell Day about the Public Safety Commission’s consultation process for a law that would allow police access to individual personal and private information from Internet Service Providers with as little as an unwarranted phone call.

Minister Day’s responses to Jesse’s questions sounded and felt like a series of well rehearsed platitudes and deflections, largely aimed at the Liberal government that had started the process. Minister Day’s focus on blaming the previous government (which was his job as the opposition, by the way) reminded me of a project management joke.

A new PM (Project Manager for the purpose of the joke, not Prime Minister) took over a program. He showed up to find three envelopes and a note on his desk. The note was from the previous PM and read “You will probably run into problems. When you’re stuck for an answer, open envelope number one.”

The new PM put away the envelopes. After a few months, a major problem came up and he opened the first envelope.

“Blame your predecessor. When the next major problem occurs, open envelope number two.”

The PM went to his boss, explained the problem, blamed it on his predecessor, made some changes and carried on.

A few months later another problem arose that was worse than the first. He opened envelope number two.

“Reorganize. When the next major problem occurs, open envelope number three.”

The PM reorganized the project. That fixed the problem.

Eventually more problems surfaced and the PM opened envelope number three.

“Prepare three envelopes.”

Terry O’Reilly, host of the amazing CBC program, The Age of Persuation, announced on his blog a few days ago that season three of the show will hit the airwaves again beginning in January.

The CBC is reporting that Canadian Heritage Minister Bev Oda is committing $29 million to fund new media over the next two years (Oda pledges funding for new media at Banff TV fest). The fund is administered by Telefilm and it appears that most of the money will be for video-based projects, though there is a mention of audio projects.

The report quotes Oda as saying “The rate and speed in which Canadians are moving into the new era seems to be lagging behind those in some other countries”. I can’t help but think that a lot of this has to do with confusion and concerns relating to copyright and licensing, and a general misunderstanding among the business community over new media, its potential and low barriers to entry.

If Canada is to become competitive in new media, it will need to simplify copyright laws and licensing fees, and initiate a campaign to educate Canadian businesses and media organizations.

Hat tip: Michael Geist

The CBC’s Michael Bhardwaj has two things working against him as a Podcaster… the grassroots Podcast community sees him as being a part of a media machine, and the media machine of which he is a part has not yet translated his incredible talent into a position as an on-air host.

Michael shines as host of Ontario This Week, a weekly digest show of segments from the CBC’s Ottawa Morning, Ontario Today and All In A Day. At least, that’s the way it’s billed. Michael is pretty much a one-man production when it comes to Ontario This Week and he has done a lot to make the show his own. In January, he produced a few episodes that had nothing to do with the on-air programs he is charged with promoting, including one on new year’s resolutions and another in which he talked to an author at a local coffee shop — a showcase of Michael’s talents and the possibilities for CBC’s Podcasts.

Everyone who knows me knows that CBC radio’s Ottawa Morning and All In A Day have been my daily staples for several years. In fact, All In A Day served as inspiration for my own Electric Sky Podcast.

At the Montreal Podcast meetup this week, I publicly announced that 2006 was the year in which I abandoned my beloved radio shows. Both have undergone some radical changes in the last year, the most obvious are new hosts with styles that, even after many months, I have not been able to warm up to. This of course means that I have nearly wrapped up my love affair with terrestrial radio.

I remain a subscriber to several CBC Podcasts including The Digital Extra, Quirks and Quarks, Editor’s Choice, Ideas and Ontario This Week - a show that is hosted by the talented Michael Bhardwaj and features highlights of Ottawa Morning, Ontario Today and All In A Day.

Now, if CBC could Podcast Vinyl Cafe and O’Reilly and the Age of Persuasion…

The Ottawa City Journal published an article written by David May about me in today’s Urban Living section (page 13) — thanks, David! While he did a great job of receiving the flood of information that came at him (watch out when I’m excited about something), some of the information was confused in the final article.

Dave and I corresponded earlier this evening and he is aware of the errors. In the spirit of Web 2.0, I am publishing the corrections here.

• Podcasters Across Borders was the first large-scale Podcast conference in Canada, not the first-ever Podcast conference in North America. I haven’t done any research to determine if PAB was the first Podcast conference in Canada. (Given my recent series of posts on the topic, it’s ironic that I was misunderstood on the matter of ‘firsts’.)

• While I do organize Podcaster meetups in Ottawa, I haven’t done so on a monthly basis. (I know… slacker!)

• Andrea’s comment that there “wasn’t anything that I knew of that was an online community promoting children’s books” was specifically about Podcasting, not about the blogosphere or web in general.

A less-critical correction, and completely forgiveable confusion… the thirty-minute documentary that I produced from nine hours of audio (Making All In A Day) follows the production of a single edition of CBC’s All In A Day (Brent Bambury era). The Podcast of my appearance (and anxiety) as a guest of that same show was the subject of an earlier episode of Electric Sky (Soundseeing tour of my appearance on CBC radio). It was the latter that Tod Maffin promoted on his blog.

I believe that David has a plan to run regular features on Ottawa-area Podcasters. I’ll be sure to blog about it if I hear anything.