The Point is a very good radio show, if you were producing it for your fellow broadcasting students at BCIT in Burnaby.
But on national radio it is an hour and a half of meaningless, dull chatter about things that are of no interest to anyone except the participants. Yet it’s performed by a younger generation that should know better.
Does anyone listen to this show?
Whether it’s Ameer hosting or Steve Burgess makes no difference at all.
A meet-up at Starbucks with your friends is more intellectually stimulating than the trivial jabber of this show, which seems to have been crow-barred into the schedule for no apparent reason.
Frequent guest Fiona Forbes is enlisted to bring her expertise to the discussion. What expertise is that you ask?
Being a girl.
Tech wit Jesse Brown is thrown a bone and allowed to speak, but even the host seems disinterested, and loathe with the intrusion.
They don’t even seem to be trying to gather an audience.
If this fake show disappeared tomorrow, no one would notice.
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This show is yet another that has been introduced further emphasizing the anti-intellectual trend that is developing in North American media. CBC was much better when it was ‘our little secret’ and was geeky cool in it’s own way. This new ‘fake cool’ is just sad and pathetic, like a 55 year old uncle, dressing up in goth clothes, pretending to be hip.
Sadly the show is yet another example of CBC dumbing down. I remember when CBC was a vital source of information and intelligent discussion. In managements quest for better ratings they came upon the idea that what the public wants is fluffy – bread and circus stories and entertainment. How sad.
I think they’re hoping to work out a syndication deal for this show with Fox NewsChannel on Sirius.
today’s show was the limit. I do not wish to hear about the tragic death of children discussed in such a trivial forum.
Meanwhile, on BBC Radio 4…
@Allan “By coincidence, The Point, The Hour, Q and Urban Rush are all the same show.
And Urban Rush is actually the most entertaining of them all. “
And Urban Rush is entirely television. Q is televised on CBC B(old) and you can watch in horror as Jian Ghomeshi mugs for the camera. The Hour is all TV, and trying to be speeded up for youth. The Pointless is FreeStyle again, until Mr. Haleem breaks away and does something better. Does he want to be Lister Sinclair? Can anybody?
Yes. Fiona can be fun to be with in person.
I helped out on Urban Rush a few years back; was even a runner-up in naming the show.
One lesson that has become clear recently is that TV people don’t usually translate into compelling RADIO people.
George, for example, when left to his own resources on radio is even duller and far weaker than he appears to be in TV.
Ameer also improves when he’s on screen. Cool and calm. But radio demands a compelling voice, or resorting to shouting everything for effect.
By coincidence, The Point, The Hour, Q and Urban Rush are all the same show.
And Urban Rush is actually the most entertaining of them all.
You can’t just will content into being, it has to be made. That requires paying the makers – experts in that area, professionals. CBC isn’t willing or able to do that.
Rather than hire a plumber they choose to have their friends over to talk about plumbing. It’s cheaper than actually doing anything about it, “Do you know what plumbers charge? And it can’t be that complicated.” Eventually, of course, the leak destroys the entire structure.
They aren’t seriously attempting to make a good show, it’s just filling up air.
No, Fiona Forbes is a lightly well-known Vancouver Cable TV host. Her wikipedia says “is currently host, writer and producer of the entertainment talk show Urban Rush”
Such do-everything is typical for zero budget cable community shows.
This is FreeStyle all over again. They seem to think that this is what this time is for.
Was Gabereau better?
If you go back, you can find that it was Bob Kerr’s spot locally in CBU Vancouver.
It is a disaster and why hasn’t Denise Donlon declared a stop to all these and brought back real radio.
I do think that Aamer Haleem has more than what he has shown on air. He was a good bingo caller on City TV in the olden days, and did an adequate stint in Hong Kong. Maybe he can replace Jian! (someone get him off the mornings, please!!!)
They seem to find one local, one elsewhere who are pleased to be picking up a couple of hundred for chatter without any preparation.
Was the show supposed to be something else and it turned into this? Did Aamer Haleem know what he was getting into. (Did newser Kelly Ryan and Cam Phillips know when they started doing Freestyle?)