I have a small confession to make. I enjoy talk radio. When driving around in my car the stereo is pumping out the low-fidelity sounds of AM radio.

Where I live, CKNW is the major on-air forum for discussing news-related issues. Since Corus Entertainment added this station to its bulging portfolio of media stations, CKNW has been making some unfortunate changes: the ideological shift is on.

The first major warning flag was when popular talk show host, Rafe Mair was given a pink slip–apparently because it matched the colour of his political leanings. Then there are the short segments sprinkled throughout the day’s programming. One features local music industry manager Bruce Allen frothing at the mouth about his latest pet peeve. Topics I’ve heard include Allen’s complaints about a sports program for poor people and his hearty endorsement of Florida’s new shoot-first-ask-questions-later gun law.

Another one of these mini-segments gives economist and brother of Premier Gordon Campbell a chance to give his two cents. Recently Michael Campbell didn’t let common sense get in the way of his point when he triumphantly sang the praises of the free market and its ability to reduce the sales of SUVs.

Charles Adler’s daily show “Adler Online” does an excellent job of making me listen to more CBC. From what I can tell Adler’s show is aimed at people who enjoy meaningless yelling–which to my mind would be quite a small demographic. One thing is for sure, nobody would ever accuse Adler of being ambivalent; just don’t call in if you disagree with his ideology-informed opinions.

Even the news reported on CKNW is intended to shape your opinions. Just yesterday the “news to the bottom of the hour” reported that the federal NDP’s attempts to convince the government to curb the privatization of health services was flawed. Since when does an opinion discrediting the motives of a political party constitute news?

I guess I shouldn’t be too surprised to see these changes at CKNW. After all, this is just another example of media consolidation shifting the political leanings of television, radio and print news. This is a disturbing trend that is leading to a loss of diversity of viewpoints–a diversity that is necessary for the health of our society. It is all our interests that we encourage CKNW and other purveyors of news and opinion that diversity must be allowed to flourish.