"When I Get There I Tend To Live There": Home and Community in Radio Cyberspace on CBC Radio 3

Abstract

TheRadioHead, long-time member, user, blog participant and listener of CBC Radio 3 (R3) describes the music service as “a place where I will find the nurturing that I need” (TheRadioHead June 2010). This “place” can be found on the website http://radio3.cbc.ca and is further located through daily live webcasts (that are also broadcast on satellite radio), weekly podcasts, music streams and on-demand tracks from thousands of Canadian artists. Through the blogs that accompany the live webcasts, R3 users interact with one another and create what they experience as “community” and “family.” This thesis uses R3 as a case study for examining the ways in which radio and cyberspace intersect, especially in the context of a “networked public” (boyd 2011) where relationships and fandom are solidified and yet also “distributed” (Baym 2007). In order to argue for a conception of radio online that is distinct from other music services online, I put forward the concept of “radio cyberspace.” In the case of R3, this necessitates an awareness of the role of the CBC in Canada, an acknowledgement of the goals of public media, and an analysis of how radio is perceived and used. While the relationship building of sites such as R3 appear to meet the goals of public media, the commercial affiliations of social network sites puts into question how these relationships enter into the realm of marketability and privatization.