Robert Rabinovitch says he is humbled by the strong positive reaction to his recent appointment as head cheese of the cbc.

‘It’ll be the high watermark of people liking me – it’s only downhill from here on,’ he jests, two days after the pmo made the announcement on Oct. 18.

In all seriousness, Rabinovitch, a former deputy minister of communications and assistant secretary to the cabinet for priorities and planning, has a tough challenge ahead of him as he takes the helm of the public broadcaster at this time of uncertainty.

In the wake of $400 million in budget cuts, the cbc awaits response from the crtc on its licence renewal conditions, while it is in the process of trying to break into the specialty channel universe – giving the impression that the Corp.’s identity is more confused than ever.

Meanwhile, the process by which a cbc head is appointed has been under heated debate, especially after Rabinovitch won the position over candidates with more direct experience, and chairperson Guylaine Saucier reportedly voiced a preference for stand-in president Jim McCoubrey.

Nonetheless, Rabinovitch says he’s excited to take on the challenge and will enter the cbc on Nov. 15 with an open mind, ready to execute ‘a collaborative style’ in his leadership.

‘The primary purpose of the cbc is programming,’ he says. ‘Everything else is delivery systems – getting the signal to the people – and I’m not convinced that the sole way to do it is to own a series of broadcasting outlets. I realize it gives extra windows and, therefore, you can amortize the cost, but I think there may be other ways of doing it in partnership with the private sector. For example, cbc and tsn have struck a deal to jointly cover the Olympics.

‘I don’t want to deflect from the primary responsibility,’ he continues, ‘which I think is the making of quality programs, but we should look carefully at what it is we do and what areas we should not be in.’

If the cbc can achieve original, quality programming and produce new channels, that would be ideal, he says, but Rabinovitch believes that ‘most of the stuff you see on the specialties are rebroads, repeats….Little is new and if it weren’t for the cbc producing quality, new material, I think they would have a shoddy product.’

As for his lack of direct experience with public broadcasting, Rabinovitch says, ‘it will work against me in that I’m not a programmer, but that’s not my job anyway. My job is to create an environment.’