Internet radio (II)

Australia seems to have a public radio system that puts Canada's to shame, despite Australia's considerably smaller population (about 20 million vs. 30 million). Particularly good is the "Radio National" network. This has, for example, several different programs about science, and several about religion and ethics, compared with CBC's single entry in each of these categories. (CBC's science show, the last time I checked a couple of years ago, also had a style that suggests the producers think that science could be of possible interest only to adolescents.) Canada seems to have fallen below the critical mass for intelligent national radio: even those people who prefer radio to TV now have to turn to TV, because that is where everyone who wants an audience wants to be. In fact, where I live, the best broadcast radio available at a given time is not infrequently the audio track from the current affairs programming on local private TV, which can be picked up at the bottom of the FM band.

I found these two Radio National programs particularly interesting:

• The Philosopher's Zone
• The Spirit of Things

See also: Internet Radio (I).