I am far from alone in my past critisizm of some of Richard Stursbergs decisions as the CBC's VP for English Television. However, today's announcement that the Board of Directors has approved "“the formal integration of CBC Radio and CBC Television, which is effective immediately. The integrated services, including CBC.ca, will be led by Richard Stursberg, Executive Vice-President, English Services.” Changes the equation somewhat. (At the very least it fully explains the quick departure of Jane Chalmers.)Hopefully we will see a CBC Television that is more like CBC Radio. In any case, now Stursberg is rid of Chalmers, and Tony Burnham and Slawko Klymkiw, Sue Gardner and many others. He has seized control of all of the CBC's English Language services the phrase "Be careful what you wish for..." suddenly springs to mind.
From today forward the fate and performance of the CBC belongs to Stursberg alone. He will no longer be able to blame subordinates, or his predecessors or managers of other departments. It is all his and the success or failure of CBC Television, CBC Radio 1, 2 and 3, and CBC.ca or the success or failure of any part of any of those services belongs to him. He has no competition left and most of the high level decision makers under him are his own picks so anything and everything that happens on English CBC (on any platform) from today forward falls squarely between the margins of Richard Stursberg's resume. Even the appointment of Montreal businessman Hubert Lacroix as the new President of the corp will scarcely make a difference one way or the other.
It does not make me more optimistic about where things are going but it certainly makes the math alot easier.
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