The Rural Voice, 1981-10, Page 7Roy Maxwell
The product nits ueei& 'flirty -five -to -
forty minutes of agricultural news and
markets between noon and 1 p.m. There
are plans to expand that. perhaps to a full
hour. There are also plans that will enable
Maxwell and Giangrande to get away from
their desks more often, to cover events
and talk to people face-to-face. That's
always been the best way for a reporter to
pick up leads and nobody knows it better
than Maxwell.
Of the CBC's ten Radio Noons (from the
Maritimes to Vancouver). Toronto offers
the most story potential. simply because
so many agricultural and environmental
events occur there. The people tied to the
issues often aren't far away, though
getting through to them is not always
easy.
That brings us to job satisfactign as it
pertains to Roy Maxwell. "Cutting
through the Bureaucracy is rewarding."
says Maxwell, "whether it's my personal
achievement or the unit's achievement. I
'' r" ,;;:t a bun out of that."
Slashing red tape is definitely easier
when one uses a CBC knife. As Maxwell
puts it. "When 1 was at CKCO trying to
find somebody they would say, 'He's at a
meeting.' Now they get the guy out of the
meeting."
Too. says Maxwell, there's joy in being
able to understand the complexities of
agriculture (for example, marketing
boards) and being able to present them in
a clear and concise way. "It's fun to take
some of these things and talk about them
so that the listener can get something out
of it."
To that end Maxwell relies heavily on the
opinion of his wife of just a few months.
"Glynis (nee Murray) is not a farm person
but she tries to listen to the show every
day," says Maxwell. "If she can't
understand it then maybe it's not clear
enough. Many of the questions 1 ask
people are from Glynis. because if she
asks me and I don't know the answer then 1
figure it's time 1 find out."
Having a human barometer who is not
from the farm is important in concrete
Toronto, and it must be working because
Rogers, Maxwell, Giangrande and
company are second only to CERB in the
city's ratings game. A solid second.
"Rising food prices are the best thing
that ever happened to get urban people
interested in farm issues. They are now
pocketbook issues," says Maxwell.
"We're here to bridge the gap between
urban and rural communities. We're not a
lobby group for farmers, and we went to a
lot of work to establish that credibility.
"It's important that the listener knows
we're trying to be fair. We've got to give
the farm point of view but also the other
side. If there weren't two sides it wouldn't
be an issue. Hopefully, then, the listener
can decide who is right or wrong."
The future for Roy Maxwell? He can't
be sure, but he does say agriculture and
the media will always be in his cards. You
don't mess with a dream.
THE RURAL VOICE/OCTOBER 1981 PG. 5