Gibbled

This morning on my way to work I got in a heated argument with an individual about the Hockey Night in Canada theme song dispute. This individual, a.k.a my mom, went on a rant yah that it is the second national anthem and how could they lose this national song to CTV. She felt that it was priceless and worth easily more than the alleged 3 million offered for it. She felt we were “screwing” the artist by not meeting his needs and 500$ a play was not enough either for such a genius piece of work. These are all legitimate arguments, I’ll grant her that but i think the big difference here is the cbc is publicly funded.  The cash cow of the cbc is hockey advertising dollars, hockey night in canada is not only a show that is deeply treasured by many canadians but indirectly provides revenue for many other cbc projects. 3 million dollars is a lot of money for a publicly funded station to spend on 1 minute of nostalgia.  How many years does this song have till it reaches the public domain anyways? What if this song suddenly became branded with some national tragedy and lost its values?  As to the argument that the cbc is “screwing” the artist, I feel that is completely false as well. CBC had been paying royalties to the artist and 500 for every game it is played does add up over a decade. Another thing to consider is that yes Canadians are passionate about Hockey but not all Canadians.  CBC as a public service must represent the desire of all Canadians and paying 3 million for something that many parts of the population won’t miss is also a bit flawed.  I embrace change and allowing the composition of a new song may open a world of opportunity for a new generation of artists. It may sound naive, but one of the problems in Canada is the artistic old guard.  The hockey night song is an example of a song that is yes recognizable but what’s to say a new song wouldn’t be.  [ sending me hate mail now!]