Radio: Claringbull’s Bull

It is well known that Canadian Broadcasting Corp. is a stickler for propriety. Last week, according to Variety, while health groups were still fuming over a recent CBC ban of a talk on venereal disease and prostitution, CBC also turned its attention to grammatical good taste and theatrical demeanor. To the 34 stations of the CBC network an official named Dick Claringbull sent an encyclical discouraging some practices which “offend CBC standards of dignity and restraint.” No longer, for instance, should Canadian announcers refer to singers as silver, golden, or velvet-voiced; no longer should they use such hard-worked adjectives as magnificent, superb or famous; to be shunned are Hollywoodisms like genius, glamor. Particularly frowned on are cabaret-style, applause-seeking effusions like: “Thank YOU, Dick Claringbull!”