Identity is a precious commodity, particularly in the media world where an authentic, exciting presence is of paramount importance. Over the past three years, the CBC has committed itself to a transformation plan that consciously redefines the broadcaster to the Canadian public. A team consisting of, on the English broadcast side, top management figures Slawko Klymkiw, the executive director of network programming; Harold Redekopp, English television’s executive vice-president; and Alex Frame, the executive VP of radio; along with key program directors Deborah Bernstein, Nancy Lee, Tony Burman and a select few others formulated a new plan for the national public broadcaster.

They all knew that the CBC had hit on hard times in the 1990s. Two hundred million dollars had been axed from the yearly federal allocation between 1992 and 1998 and many veteran CBCers had departed from the organization. Private broadcasters and media critics joined federal MPs in attacking the CBC. ‘The esprit de corps had been battered by the big-budget cuts and the kind of rough house it had to go through politically,’ acknowledges broadcaster and historian Knowlton Nash.

Redekopp admits that when he took on his position in January 1999, ‘there was a lot of discussion in Cabinet that while CBC Radio was great, television was a sick child.’ There was talk that the television service should be abandoned, that only Newsworld should be kept alive. Metaphorically rolling up his sleeves, Redekopp realized that ‘we had to go back to our roots. To survive, we had to define public broadcasting again.’

With the full support of Robert Rabinovitch, who was appointed president of the CBC in November 1999, Redekopp assembled a team that attacked the public’s perception that the network had lost its purpose. In a bold statement, Redekopp cut back on 20% of the CBC’s commercial inventory because ‘when you’re not doing programming, you look like everybody else.’

Core values needed to be emphasized. Historically, Canada’s public broadcaster had been noted for its children’s programming, arts specials, sports coverage and news and current affairs shows. Reaffirming those strengths became part of the transformation plan.

The CBC had never abandoned its commitment to programming for children. Transformation meant that those hours became, to use a Redekopp phrase, ‘a safe haven.’ The blocks in the morning and afternoon schedules devoted to kids were increased by 33% and became commercial-free. Hosting, one of the ways that the transformation plan intends to differentiate the CBC from other broadcasters, became a key element in the network’s block of youth-oriented shows. Though none of these initiatives was unique, they indicate a continued involvement with Canadian youth.

Arts programming had dropped off as a core activity. It had once played a distinctive part in the broadcaster’s national and international reputation. Coverage of the National Ballet and the Stratford Festival, staple items in the CBC’s inventory for decades, had dropped off the schedule. With the creation of Opening Night, a two-hour, commercial-free performing arts showcase on Thursday nights, the CBC instantly transformed back into its former glory as a major cultural venue.

Sports has remained a key activity in the CBC’s schedule since the ’50s. For many families, watching Hockey Night in Canada on Saturday evenings has achieved the status of a ritual. Transformation emphasizes that history but adds more amateur sports to the mix. News and current affairs, also an ongoing CBC strength, has seen its programming supplemented through the addition of Canada Now, the supper-hour West Coast program, and a reformatting of the flagship late-night news show, The National.

In a unique scheduling innovation, transformation called for themed, hosted primetime programming. Sundays and Mondays are now reserved for dramas; Tuesdays and Wednesdays contain documentaries and factual, investigative pieces; Thursday is reserved for the performing arts; Friday is now comedy night while Saturday, as usual, is still formatted for sports fans.

Through all of these moves, the CBC remains resolutely Canadian in content. While 90% of its primetime content is indigenous, such competitors as CTV and Global broadcast less than 25% Canadian fare between 7 p.m. and 11 p.m. The CBC wants to be, more than ever, the national public broadcaster.

What does Redekopp expect to achieve with transformation? ‘The measure of our success will be: if the CBC isn’t around, what have you lost? I translate that into political terms. I’m looking to arrive at a point where no federal political party would dare to put privatization as part of their platform because the constituency would not accept it.’ Or as Rabinovitch puts it, ‘Who do you go to when there’s something important? [We want people to say] we go to the CBC.’