CBC Radio 2 94.1 FM

I avoid, or let’s say, can’t stand the pop-​rock and news banter they have forced on us. I will listen to Tempo, but the oft repeated classical play list and breathy banter of the hostess puts it strictly in the background. Tempo is followed by Tom Allen at 1 PM, and we get one good hour of intelligent classical programming, like a combo of Goth and Kerr in the old days, before he sneaks in some light pop music and sets the stage for 8 hours of pop-​rock with inane stale news comments.
So, there is one good hour of classical programming, and a fairly interesting night line up of jazz and Signal until midnight. The rest of the programming is expensively produced drivel with declining ratings. Too bad we have to pay for it.
edit April 4 2015. CBC 2 has improved their Saturday and Sunday offerings, with Pietro, Kathryn Duncan, and others, so I am upgrading from 1* to 3*. I hear that their ratings have tanked since the pop/​rock formula came in. They could possibly regain their stature if they dropped commercialized pop format with stupid news comments that are stale by the time they get to air.

FULLY enjoy listening to this station especially waking up the mornings before 9am or near after work on Drive.
They play such an eclectic type of music that include classic rock, pop, indie bands and not just Canadian stuff. I do find that sometime the tunes boarder into country twang, and also there is a lot of repeats, but overall I like it.
When classical at 9am pops up I know I’m late for work.

I’m a huge fan of their Monday to Friday drive to work and back to work shows. I love new and old Canadian rock/​indie music so I was overjoyed to find that they play a ton of bands and singer-​songwriter types from Canada and all over the world. They also play a pretty eclectic mix of old funk, classic rock, retro 80s and other stuff, which is majorly expanding my musical IQ.
Unlike a certain other radio station that has been playing the same 500 songs on repeat for the past 15 years, heavy rotation at this station means playing a song once in the morning and once in the afternoon for about a month or so. Then it’s on to the next new song.
Bonus: they play tracks from the whole album, not just the singles.
I don’t actually listen to any of the other shows (I prefer to listen to CBC radio 1 than their classical shows) so I can’t speak to how good they are. Frankly, I love that the station has such a great range in music they play, so that someday when I get over the trauma of childhood piano lessons, I will have a good station in which to enjoy classical music.

Being of the classical/​jazz bent myself, I was distressed to learn of the recent «transformation» of Radio 2. Listening to it the other day, I’m not impressed. It sounds like cosmopolitan middle-​of-​the-​road music, still catering to boomers. They had Earth, Wind, and Fire Songs on two separate programs, for instance, and the DJ went on and on about them («Well, I like ‘em, but if you don’t, indulge me for three and a half minutes…»).
Another time, I happened to catch The Vinyl Café, and it featured some monotonous prattle about the wonders of Quebec City. It’s not the sort of thing you want to help get you through navigating the mall parking lot on a Saturday morning, I can tell you.