A good face for radio

my latest adventure on local airwaves

I drove in from the county this morning to do a spot on CBC’s Windsor Morning, with host Amy Dodge, who’d invited me to talk about my mystery, The Book of Answers.

Amy was great to talk with. She was very encouraging, and asked good questions.

We are very fortunate in this end of Ontario to have a local CBC TV and Radio studio. I’ve heard it said the Windsor broadcast operation has survived the waves of cutbacks and budget shrinkages because the national broadcaster recognizes we need a last bastion of Canadian content. The CBC is a refuge from the overwhelming tidal force of American media that comes at us from the north (we are actually south of Detroit).

You can see from the map that this corner of Ontario is closer to America than to anything else. You can also see Metropolitan Detroit, with a population of almost 4.5 million, is huge compared to 340,000 in the Windsor area.

I’m a big fan of the CBC, and especially appreciate the Windsor operation, which works hard to cover local stories. This is vital these days, since our local newspaper, The Windsor Star has pitifully limited resources, and minimal editorial space devoted to our area. Much of what they print comes from other markets, pre-packaged by the parent corporation for publication in papers across the country.

CBC Windsor is keenly and immediately local. As I pulled in their parking lot this morning, I could smell smoke. When I got into the radio control room, they already had the story of a downtown fire.

Here is the video of my conversation with Amy Dodge.