Posts Tagged ‘Yglesias’

I Have a Counterfactual to Something Yglesias Said

In passing along some thoughts on the now in theatres film Pirate Radio, Matt Yglesias makes the following observation:

It also comes [...] with a strong libertarian, anti-statist message. And of course it’s quite true that a public agency getting involved in the arts is likely to tend toward propagation of the status quo rather than toward innovation. The German government does a lot of subsidizing of opera, and by most accounts [...] they do a very good job of mounting good performances of the classic works. But boosting innovation, the way an illegal offshore radio broadcaster like the one depicted in the movie could, is not the forte of a state broadcaster.

CBC Radio 3 Bucky Awards 2009If you’ve ever spent anytime on Matt’s blog then you probably already know that he’s a self-admitted Canadaphile. Part of his love for Canada extends from our waves of beautiful, bold, lush (insert positive adjectives here ad infinitum) Indie music. At the end of the day he posts a tab dump along with a link to some music; I’ve seen more than a fair share of Canadian Indie darlings linked to from there. Heck, yesterday’s post linked to the song “Black Rice” by Calgary, Alberta’s own WOMEN along with a favourable comparison to the Beatles. Other bands getting big name blogger love in the past include The Most Serene Republic, Metric, Tegan & Sara and The Arcade Fire.

Those bands bring me to my point: all of them have been huge beneficiaries of Canada’s socialist broadcaster, the venerable Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, or the Ceeb to those who love it.  Everyone of these groups has received exposure on CBC’s terrestrial broadcasts but owe a much larger debt to Radio3.  If you find yourself asking “What’s Radio3?” you should get thyself to a nunnery their homepage.  In short they are ‘a Canadian Independent Music Superstation’ that is available through their webpage and on Sirius Satellite Radio channel 86.  Aside from the hosted radio stream that is available you can listen to a genre stream such as Rock, Hip Hop or Electronica.  Additionally, you can listen to any of the 80000+ tracks in their library by over 19000 bands on demand.  Throw in some great podcasts (this one is a tribute to synthesizers, linked to  by Matt in the past as well) along with a nationwide, searchable and filterable concert calendar and you have one of the most inclusive, innovative music communities going.  All of it funded by the innovation suffocating guvmint.


Related Posts
Related Websites
Progressive Bloggers